3d Printing A South Australian Brill 75

[Alan B]

Hi All
I've been teaching 3D CAD at the local technical college here in Murray Bridge for 14 years or so and have now "retired" and have been watching the threads on 3D printed locos with much interest, so I thought I would share one of my projects.
I am building an SAR Brill maximum capacity 75, these rail-cars were used across the SAR particularly on small branch lines.
I am using 3D printing as it is quick and accurate and produces a highly detailed finish. I have also been using the process for about 4 years. Here are some pictures of progress so far and one of the prototype. The parts I had to split the side into 5 parts to print
The body walls assembled

Printing one of the roof sections I use the 3D UP Plus 2 for most of my high detail stuff
.
The prototype

Alan

 

[Moonraker]

As Alan knows, I have already built one of these, but in my case the shorter, 3' 6" gauge Brill 55 in G Scale. Mine is a hybrid. The body is a polycarbonate box with styrene sheet glued on. Most of the components are 3D printed including the bogie sides, the radiator, fuel tank, battery box, seats, window frames and buffer beam. Fitted with 14.4 volts of AA batteries under the floor, radio control and (naturally) a MyLocoSound soundcard.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Alan gets on 3D printing that cow catcher....I bought mine from GRS.
Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound

 

[spoz]

Very nice Alan, I've seen Peter's and admired it. His description above makes it sound as if it's a bit crude; actually it's anything but and is to my mind a very good representation. I'm very much looking forward to updates on your progress! I've always loved the Brills in all their incarnations - Rail cars with real character.

I'm tempted by 3D printing, but given my virtual total incompetence in CAD - I've had a package for years and never got beyond crude 2D track diagrams - I'm not convinced the investment would be worth it.

Steve

 

[Tropic Blunder1]

Hi Alan what scale are you printing this in?

 

[Alan B]

Hi All
The scale is 1:32 which suits the SA broad gauge. I've progressed a little further and have the body together, printed the chassis and the rear bogie. Now its down to the real challenge which I think will be harder than the cow catcher, designing and building a mechanism to suit the power bogie I have wheels a motor and some odd gears so lets see what I can make of them!!
The body assembled the filler in the roof is at the joins the side were printed in 5 parts and joined on the rivet lines which should disappear when painted.
the rear bogie detail came out quite well
On the rails minus power bigie the chassis

 

[Moonraker]

Nice bogies. The rivets came out well.

Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound

 

[fridge]

Very nice Alan, I've seen Peter's and admired it. His description above makes it sound as if it's a bit crude; actually it's anything but and is to my mind a very good representation. I'm very much looking forward to updates on your progress! I've always loved the Brills in all their incarnations - Rail cars with real character.

I'm tempted by 3D printing, but given my virtual total incompetence in CAD - I've had a package for years and never got beyond crude 2D track diagrams - I'm not convinced the investment would be worth it.

Steve

For anyone unsure about investing in 3D software packages could I suggest 123dapp? This is a free download which I have used in its various forms for a few years now? Being free, it's not entirely free from glitches but it costs nothing and will get your mind thinking in shapes rather than lines, a bit like those old intelligence tests of my long-past youth.

 

[Tropic Blunder1]

Oh ok it looks very nice!!! let me know if I can ever tempt you to do one in 1:24 for us narrow gaugers!

 

[Moonraker]

In South Australia, the Brill railcars ran on both 5'3" and 3'6" tracks with (obviously) different bogies. Alan has chosen to model the longer Brill 75 in 5'3" format and has therefore used 1:32 Gauge 1. My shorter Brill 55 is modelled in 1:22.5 G Scale in the narrow gauge format where 3'6" scales close to 45mm. I actually started building mine as a Brill 75 but found it was too long to go around a curved viaduct on my railway.

Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound

 

[dunnyrail]

As Alan knows, I have already built one of these, but in my case the shorter, 3' 6" gauge Brill 55 in G Scale. Mine is a hybrid. The body is a polycarbonate box with styrene sheet glued on. Most of the components are 3D printed including the bogie sides, the radiator, fuel tank, battery box, seats, window frames and buffer beam. Fitted with 14.4 volts of AA batteries under the floor, radio control and (naturally) a MyLocoSound soundcard.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Alan gets on 3D printing that cow catcher....I bought mine from GRS.
Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound

Peter,
Any link to a YouTube vid of the Brill please? Would love to see and hear it in action.
JonD

 

[Alan B]

Hi All
Hope you all had a great Christmas, I spent most of the day playing trains with the grand kids however with the big day done its back to work on the Brill. Ive designed and built a drive bogie using a motor gearbox kit from I.P. engineering which only drives on one axle however when tested it had no problem driving up a 2% grade with a worn out 9 volt battery, the gear ratio is 30:1 so it pulls quite well.
The Brill body sitting in the paint shop this is the drive bogie which is 3D printed

This is the SAR 800 class loco I am also working on at the moment,

 

[Alan B]

Hi All
I have a few progress photos fresh out of the paint shop also the cow catcher is progressing well.

 

[SARRX207]

hi there Alan im interested in doing a 620 class is there any way you could point me in to direction of plans

 

[Alan B]

Hi There Its been a while since i posted on this thread Ive been rather busy building models for others But in the next couple of weeks i should be able to get back building some of my own.
I have been printing another Brill railcar the one known as the milk bar due to the style of the interior seating. at this stage it just printed parts but should come together over the next couple of weeks.


Below are a couple of pictures of the interior of the "milk bar" version of the Brill

 

[Rhinochugger]

Mmmm ... smart

 

[SARRX207]

hi Alan would you be able to make a 520 in g gauge on comission?

 

[Moonraker]

That would be worth seeing. But what radius curves would it go around?

Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound

 

[SARRX207]

hi all in need of help with scratch building a sar f class chasis in 1/32nd scale as soon i will have the body 3d printed

 

[daveyb]

looking good,,, 3d is going to really help keep the hobby active in the future

 

[Moonraker]

hi all in need of help with scratch building a sar f class chasis in 1/32nd scale as soon i will have the body 3d printed

I would look at buying a Bachmann "James the Red Engine" and modifying its chassis and wheel sets to suit. I haven't checked but the wheel diameters look about right.

Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound