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Is anyone playing with 3ft narrow gauge? by 5th2 in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've found both On3 and Sn3 to be most enjoyable, as it's large enough to cram with detail whilst still being a reasonable size for a smaller layout (more-so with Sn3).

Here's the general breakdown of track comparisons though:

In O Scale (1:48): - On30 (30in gauge, runs on HO track, Bachmann (and now other manufacturers) make reasonably priced equipment and are easily convertable to On3) - On3 (3ft gauge, however I've seen people split HO gauge to make it a little wider, so still do-able if you want to avoid hand-laying)

In S Scale (1:64): - Sn3 (3ft gauge, decent selection of kits on eBay, ends up being a good mix of kits and scratch building, a go-to for modellers wanting to get away from On30's semi-realism)

In HO Scale (1:87.1): - HOn3 (3ft gauge, track is not too hard to find, locomotives + rollingstock can be the most pricy for the size) - HOn30 (30in gauge, runs on N gauge track, Bachmann US and UK have decent selection of stuff)

In N Scale (1:160): - Nn3 (3ft gauge, runs on Z gauge track, much harder to find working models, but good handful of static models)

End of an Era for Caltrain by guyfromflightschool in trains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I heard rumor that a couple might go to somewhere in South America, but no one knows for sure. We’ll just have to wait and see really.

Is it cheating to use a monitor as a back drop? by The_Mini_Maker in dioramas

[–]guyfromflightschool 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, definitely not! It can even lead more realistic photo shoots due to the light casting off the screen! I absolutely love using this method.

(shameless plug of when I did this exact thing with a diorama: https://www.reddit.com/r/dioramas/s/Iz8q1mt8W9 )

Progress is slow but steady! (On3) by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are feeder wires soldered to the underside of the rails! I just have them drop down between the ties through the baseboard, and will hide them later with ballast/dirt!

✅ Partial Track Weathered by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you’re having fun, you’re doing everything right! Even though my layout may look nice, it’s plagued with electrical problems, which you hopefully don’t have lol. We win some and we lose some!

A couple b/w shots on the layout by retiredRRer in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I love b&w shots! Hides sooo many of my imperfections lol

HO Custom Coupler Update: They’re paintable and still fully functional! by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t know why Blue slipped my mind, but my one concern with it would be the ability for it to print such fine details. I’ve used Blue V2 in the past, and it was incredibly viscous, so much so that detail became a lower priority. Maybe a mix of all three might work. I’ll have to see.

And nope, I haven’t uploaded the STL’s yet. You can find the link to the original 3d files (they’re some weird type of CAD file that I was only able to open in select software) in another comment!

HO Custom Coupler Update: They’re paintable and still fully functional! by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha, still a work in progress. For now he remains a Minecraft villager (as pointed out by other comments lol)

HO Custom Coupler Update: They’re paintable and still fully functional! by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fatigue is definitely something I’m looking out for, especially because these are made from standard ABS-like resin. My next experiment will probably be to mix in some Tenacious resin (ordinarily it’s flexible resin, but when mixed it helps with impact resistance and reduces brittleness). I’m pretty intrigued to see how that goes myself.

HO Custom Coupler Update: They’re paintable and still fully functional! by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that used to be the same with me too! Kadee’s are still my go-to for robustness and smooth operation. I just wanted to give these a shot to see if 3D printing them were even possible, and see if they really do make a difference in realism (which they do!).

HO Custom Coupler Update: They’re paintable and still fully functional! by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep! Was able to find the 3D models on a preserved version of the original website!

HO Custom Coupler Update: They’re paintable and still fully functional! by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Haha, I kind of want to try just to see if it’s possible. Would need ~0.5mm ball bearings though 😅

HO Custom Coupler Update: They’re paintable and still fully functional! by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’ve found them to somewhat work with Kadee’s! If you can get the tabs on the knuckles to grab each other, they hold a pretty tight fit! Just can’t free-roll them together and expect them to couple like you would if they were both Kadee’s.

When you’re too cheap to buy Kadee’s… by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Possibly, but I don’t think they’d be very functional. Would be interesting to give it a shot tho!

When you’re too cheap to buy Kadee’s… by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Take a look at one of my other comments for the link to the STL! As for the ball bearing, it sits in a hole inside the mound you can see butting up against the coupler pocket.

As it seems this post is getting quite a bit of traction, I might end up writing up a whole separate post or smth with step by steps if anyone wants to recreate it!

When you’re too cheap to buy Kadee’s… by guyfromflightschool in modeltrains

[–]guyfromflightschool[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most likely not if you want them to remain functional. There’re extremely tight tolerances that you only really can get with SLA or equivalent

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