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North Woodbury NJ 8-23-25
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North Woodbury NJ 10-4-25
This train is usually 1 mile long of gondolas only.
This was a photo from a Facebook group photographer unknown.
The
former Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Line (PRSL) mainline is at the end of my
street running today as Conrail Shared Assets (CSAO) which is still alive and
very active. Nothing is newly painted as Conrail. The locos are a mix of
Norfolk Southern and CSX. There is a train running north or south about every 6
hours as well as the other branches from Camden south which I think is
significant given it is just South Jersey.
In
2013 there was a new 1 mile long siding built that starts near the end of my
street. When completed there was a constant cycle of mile long unit tank trains
of Bakken crude oil for the refinery 2 miles away.
That faded after a few years but was quickly replaced with gondola trains. In
2017 the Port Of Paulsboro opened offloading steel slabs from Russia into unit
gondola trains going to Ohio. The cars eventually became all new from Norfolk
Southern.
In
2024 I noticed this one brand new gondola I thought was different and
interesting with a very large centersill. There were large blocks of these
shiny month old cars right near my house. I was firmly in my “modern” modeling
mode and thought it would be great to have THAT car in S. Something
truly NEW in S Scale at a time when nothing NEW
in S was happening. 212599 was built 11-24.
3D Printing is BACK
In
August 2024 I got back into 3D printing after not having a working printer for
about 8 years. It was great to be able to make my parts again but I have always
wanted to make new rolling stock of things that do not already exist in S. That
became possible in July 2025 with the purchase of new LARGE 3D printers.
Printers this large did not exist back then but now are great quality and
reasonably affordable. I have Anycubic M5s, M5S Pro, (not shown) M7 MAX, and M7
Pro. The M7 MAX build area is about 12” x 6” x 12”. Lots of S will fit in there
meaning I can print complete cars. No piecing them together. GAME ON. The unit
at right is a Phrozen Mega resin curing cabinet. This will be a totally new
direction of my modeling skills and projects by being able to make cars and
locos.
I
found out this was a Greenbrier car. I emailed to see if they would send me
drawings but they did not reply. It was not my intention to make this car
first. I had 4 cars here in HO and O Scale to measure and reverse engineer into
S Scale cars. My mood struck me and great weather on August 23, 2025 I was off
to measure a gondola very conveniently placed where I could drive right up to
it. There were 8 trips and 6 hours total in getting the info needed. I did the
measuring completely by myself. This is measuring the length with my 100 foot
tape measure. I taped it to the car as I went along.
Small Details Matter
These
are just some of the many detail photos I took. I would measure an area and
design it in Solidworks right away.
There
are 2 brake cylinders. The large one is for brake application. The small bore cylinder is a slack adjuster.
Added
9-3-25
Some
Progress
My project pages usually show “progress” photos. For this car being designed in Solidworks that is not really
possible. I was designing and printing the latest version almost every
night. There are more details to come but the basic body is done. I originally
designed this as having some separate parts like ladders to glue on after the
print. But they have done pretty well in my test prints attached printing all
as 1 piece. That really surprised me. I want to try printing everything at once
including stirrup steps when it is done.
I am having some issues with the cars warping after curing I have
to figure out.
This is the most complete car to date. I added some of my brass
parts. The warping is obvious here.
The
Trash Can Of Shame
Added
9-18-25
In spite of getting “experience” not every print turns out well.
I was experimenting with removing some of the mass supports that get created in
using Auto Supports. It did not always work. Also, this car uses a significant
amount of resin in the supports and raft. That is all waste.
I am mostly done designing at this point. I have to see what it
looks like following the Ajax brake chain under the car. I did not originally
get any photos of that. I made the walls thicker. They were .030 when I
started. I made them .050. That has helped with stopping most of the warping.
My cars are completely designed and “built” in the USA. It is
unfortunate that Greenbrier chose to have the real cars assembled in Mexico.
When I first posted to some Facebook groups I was making this car I exchanged
private messages with someone that was laid off in Chelahis Washington because
of the move to Mexico. Booooo!!!
These 2 cars were featured in my YouTube here. I dare say that
given how new the real car is, I am the first person in the world to have and run
this car in ANY scale. I will have decals from Circus City soon. I plan on
making a slab steel unit train. My current limiting factor is my supply of
roller bearing trucks. I am working on that now.
Added
10-19-25
There was one more detail I wanted to add that I did not
previously take detail photos of or sketch. It took a few weeks for another
train to be staged on the Woodbury siding. I got the photos and sketches on
10-5-25. Once I added it to the car it was so small it is barely noticeable.
But I will have something to attach the chain to down from the Ajax.
Roller
Bearing Trucks
As mentioned above my supply of spare S Helper Service roller
bearing trucks is not endless. You don’t see them for sale often anymore. There
are other really nice 3D printed roller bearing trucks available. I have had a
stash (2+ pounds!) of NWSL wheels bought at an auction 6 years ago. I have not
used any of them yet. They are 33” wheels not what probably are
40”of the real car but 33” wheels are good enough for me. So the
thoughts of having a car I MADE running on trucks I made really appealed to me.
So I designed my own roller bearing truck.
I started by accurately measuring an Atlas O Scale truck.
Reducing 25% is really easy. When reduced it was really close to S Scale. I
cross cobbled with a S Helper Service bolster. It was
not my original intention to make it sprung or have
nylon axle bushings. I was going to make a 1 piece truck that was not
sprung. Printing accurate axle holes
with conical ends to match the pointed axle ends was just not going to happen.
3D printing is good but is not THAT good yet. So I tried “Tichy 3059 nylon
truck bearings”. I also used NWSL 1412 springs. Both parts improved my design
100% over what I was going to make. The thoughts of a truck actually wearing
out while running are all gone now. My M7 Pro printer is my highest resolution.
The finish is just amazing. I am very happy with the results. I now have an
endless supply of roller bearing trucks!
My next big problem I have to solve is the body warping into a
swayback shape even after getting painted as seen above. That effect is fine
for an older abused gondola but these cars are almost new. I want them to be in
good condition.
Dead
Almost New Printer
Just as I was getting close to the final body design my 3 month
old Anycubic M7 Max printer died. That annoyed me to no end. I fought with
Anycubic for a week trying to get a new printer sent. I also called eBay for a
courtesy replacement since I have been a VERY ACTIVE user for over 25 years. eBay was NO help. The
ONLY offer being made was for Anycubic to send a new LCD screen or truly
nothing else. I never heard of that before – ever. I was being forced to fix my
own 3 month old printer. No return and replace – fix it yourself. That is just
what happened.
Since the printer was already emptied I tried a different resin –
Anycubic ABS Like Pro that is not supposed to warp. I
was using Anycubic ABS Like V2. They are different! The first test print was
pretty good. It absolutely is stiffer.
Added
11-9-25
I
fixed my printer and got it to print with the ABS Like
Pro resin that has not warped – yet. I don’t think it will. I have had cars printed
for over a week. They are still perfectly straight. I thought finally I can finish
some cars so I started decaling one. Only then did I notice I put the main air
tank and brake valve in the wrong place. I have printed about 25 of these so
far and never noticed that before. They should have been closer to the slack
adjuster. At this point with well over 100 hours in the designing I can’t let
that go. I fixed that and other very minor
issues. I THINK I have the absolute final design. There are probably about 30
versions of it by now. As soon as I get some revised decals I can start completing
cars. Matt at Circus City Decals is awesome to work with you get exactly what you
want.
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