Domes, HOn3, and the Hickory Creek behind 765

First, the South Park Cooke domes...3D printed in O scale:
 
Note that the ball on top of the sand dome is missing. I failed to survive a 7' fall onto a hard surface. Second, the HOn3 items:
 
Carter Bros Truck. It has clearance issues with the large HOn3 flanges. I also need to revise the width in between the journal boxes as it was too tight.
 
Litchfield, DSP&P "Type A" trucks with frame extensions/truck mounted brake beams. Again, I need to increase the clearance in between the journals for the axles. I'll have to print another pair so that I can mount them under a BTS HOn3 boxcar I have.
 
The gorgeous Waycar running gear...I guess I need to build a car to go with these now...

The above are HOn3 version of items I've successfully printed in On3.  The On3 version of the waycar running gear is available through Shapeways:
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/oahurailway
The rest will follow in time...hopefully soon...

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765 pulled her first Wabash Cannonball in more than 20 years yesterday. The train consisted of the 765, an auxiliary tender, the tool car, 5 Norfolk Southern coaches, 6 Mid-America Car leasing cars, two superdomes, a NYC lounge, and the Hickory Creek. 17 cars total and NO diesels. The route was the Wabash main from New Haven, IN (Ft. Wayne) to Lafyette, IN. It was 120 miles each way.  Norfolk Southern is simply a fantastic company.  Every NS employee I had the privilege of speaking with was in good spirits.  They've been working hard to create an excellent work culture and the fruits of this are clear.  This sort of thing could not happen without such a wonderful host railroad.
 
The kids were more excited about the Purdue "train" than the 765 during the layover. This was probably because they've seen 765 many times, but never seen the Purdue "train". The Hickory Creek was the highlight. Her and her sister, Sandy Creek, were the feature tail cars on the 1948 20th Century Limited...the most prestigious car on any train in America. They held this post until the demise of the train in 1967. Afterwards, they went to the Barnum & Bailey Ringling Bros Circus trains. Sandy Creek went on to the American Orient Express and is now in private ownership. Hickory Creek has been fully restored and is available for both charters and for special accommodation on its original route behind Amtrak trains. On October 26, 2013, this 65 year old car with more than 7,000,000 miles, made its first trip behind a steam locomotive.
 
The wife and kids were also on the train

They enjoyed exploring prior to boarding the passengers (they boarded with me). My daughter took her afternoon nap in Bedroom A.
 
We failed to get photos of me with the car except prior to boarding the passengers (I was busy for much of the trip). This is me with the kids on the red couch at the back of the car...the best seat in the best streamlined passenger car in the entire country or world.

3D printing parts

I really love researching and creating accurate details, but fabricating trucks from scratch is slow work. Especially when I add all of the little bolts, washers, nuts, etc. Similarly, I don't really enjoy using my lathe all that much, so I've sought out a solution. Over a year ago, I began learning Autodesk 123D with the intention of helping the Hawaiian Railway Society document the remains of their termite infested Oahu Railway coach. Alas, my aging computer just doesn't have enough umph. I finally gave up on the software at Thanksgiving (granted, we'd done the whole sell home, buy home, move thing...so it wasn't continuous time). I decided to revisit Google (now Trimble) Sketchup which I first tried a few years ago...before I saw the potential of 3D printing. While I had fun trying to build a South Park boxcar at that time, I decided that 1:48th scale was more my thing. Revisiting it, I'm must say that V-scale is more fun since 3D printing models has become viable. After a month of honing my skills, I started my first object to print: a 30-ton Oahu Railway truck. As I type this, I have two pairs of trucks on order with Shapeways.com. I plan on trying out a few of their materials to find the optimum choice for On3 trucks. Here's what the two major components look like: I've also been working on domes for Oahu Railway engines in On3 and 1:20.3 domes/details for my kids' D&RG Montezuma. If the process works well enough, I'll potentially have the pleasure of having a few of my favorite trucks printed: Barney & Smith ng passenger trucks (DSP&P #3-5), Pullman's 6'wb ng trucks (sleepers), and those gorgeous 4'wb Billmeyer and Smalls/J&S passenger trucks used on the early M&SV, EBT, and D&RG passenger cars. Many components are transferable from one model to another, such as brake beams & shoes, journal boxes, springs, etc. I made a point to save each component of the OR&L trucks as a separate file so that I can reuse them. Similarly, with the ALCO sand domes used on a few different OR&L locomotives, I'll cut out the bottom to fit the boilers of each locomotive design.