3D Projects for Railroad Modellers

I was talking to a man who is into railroad modelling and he was telling me how he makes his buildings out of wood and other things. This got me to thinking about how I could apply 3D printing to the supply of buildings etc for the railroad modelling enthusiast. These people are always on the lookout for trackside buildings with an air of reality. So I thought that it would be worth investigating printing unique buildings using CAD and photographs of real buildings.

Try searching out some unique buildings in your area and taking photographs of each elevation. Make some measurements to get an idea of the dimensions of the building. Then jump into your CAD program and, using the photographs, create 2D drawings of each elevation on the X and Y axes.

Since there are two common scales used by modelers: N Scale, which is about 1:144 and HO scale which is about 1:72 you can use your CAD program to alter the 2D drawings to suit the desired scale. To create the stl file you will need to print, extend the 2D drawing along the Z axis to 3mm (1/8") for a suitable thickness. This is pretty easy for the sides of the building, but creating the roof could take some work. However, that wouldn't be impossible.

I bet there's a big market amongst railroad modelers for custom kits of the buildings that actually exist along the sections of railway they are reproducing in miniature.

Old Man Emu

Wow, I must say that is an excellent idea. Not a railroad modeller myself, but I have a buddy that is. I know how obsessed they can get, and how interesting 3D Printed buildings could be. I'll definitely talk to my buddy and see what he thinks about something like this.

There are kits available for these trackside buildings. They are printed on cardboard with all the architectural details on them.

As a trial, get hold of one of these and produce a 3D printed version. Doing it this way will prove the concept.

OME

Very Very interesting. I don't see why someone into Train building wouldn't be interested in this. However, I'm not exactly a model train expert.
M

What has your buddy said about this idea?

OME