Skating Away

[john_sommer]

Hi All-

So it's been sometime since I posted here, but I just finished up a quick 3-D printer project that turned out pretty nice so I wanted to share.

At meets I always find myself fighting gravity. Specifically the tendency of equipment to want to roll downhill. Murphy's law dictates that whenever you want to park the train, it will always be on a hill leading to a few frantic moments desperately searching for a rock or stick to chock the wheels with. This is never a good situation.

And as luck would have it, I just so happened to pickup a build-it-yourself-but-good-luck-reading-the-non-native-English-speaking-instructions 3-D printer freshly imported from China. After a few months of arguing with the darn thing, I FINALLY got it running decently, and have been searching for meaningful models to print. (There are only so many bottle openers one person can use at a time).

So while pondering the former predicament, it struck me, why not draw up a Car Skate. it would be a functional tool and a fun little printing project.

I guesstimated some dimensions, and about 20 minutes later, voila!, the model was drawn up, sliced, and the g-code for printing six of them was inconveniencing billions of electrons while my printer spat out some PLA. Like Austin Powers, I too like to live dangerously.

Tonight I took a trip to the New Jersey Live Steamers to see how they work, and I was not disappointed. For a small plastic skate, one of them will hold the train on a decent hill, and two or three will hold the train on the ramp to the steaming bays as you can see in the photos.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the results of this project and I am printing another set as we speak. These things are just too useful to not have one floating on nearly every car in the fleet. Now I don't have to frantically search for that "Goldilocks" rock or stick.

Enjoy!

[FLSTEAM]

Nice, I like it........

JB

[amadlinger]

Looks great, and works great too!

[Mike Walsh]

Now scale it down to 1"... I could use a few sets.

[john_sommer]

Mike-

I can try to draw that up and prototype it next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

[McNown]

Who built the tank car? Looks like a Rio Grande Assocites car?

Jeff

[amadlinger]

That would be me, completely from scratch.

See: http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... =8&t=99705

[ccvstmr]

...thought that tank car looked familiar. Still looks as good as the day it was "presented" on this board...however many years back that was. However, don't understand why all the skates? They stick out being painted yellow. Didn't think that ramp track was so steep that so many skates would be needed to hold a string of cars. OR...was that just for show? Carl B.

[john_sommer]

Quick answer.. Two probably would have done it, but three made it stop quicker seeing as that ramp is an oily, greasy mess. And those cars are not exactly light either, the Ann Arbor box car is completely stuffed with coal.

I always use at least two or three on any sort of grade; it's piece of mind more than anything. The last thing I want is a string of cars rolling downhill from the siding on the mainline and meeting the front end of a Hudson charging up the hill. That is my least favorite thing to do.

[chooch]

John Sommer,
Just to let you know you might have some long established competition for --Skates, de-re railers and such

http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/forsal ... /index.htm

Chooch

[john_sommer]

Yes, I'm quite aware many others make similar products and offer them for sale.

The gentleman who runs that shop makes some very nice castings and products indeed.

I am not a supplier to the hobby and I have no intention of offering them publicly. The fun for me was making them.

[kenrinc]

However, don't understand why all the skates? They stick out being painted yellow. Didn't think that ramp track was so steep that so many skates would be needed to hold a string of cars. OR...was that just for show? Carl B.

IMHO you couldn't have enough; more the better. The fact that their yellow is advantageous. For those who have used c-clamps for this task, I've not seen one person yet who hasn't forgotten to remove them before trying to move out.

Like it John

Ken-