Interesting stuff

Dave:

As a modeler in 1:48 there are many things that I would love to see designed and printed. My latest desire is to see components for a tall steel viaduct (think Micro Engineering) in On30. Each web column could be printed in rather economical terms and the number of lifts would be up to the purchaser. Certainly there would need to be cross braces, etc but the towers were made up in sections so this along with the associated deck girders would appeal to me a great deal. 

I would be happy to pay for the prototype, assemble and paint it to allow you to promote this to others - if there is interest. 

Neil Erickson

Do you have links to

Do you have links to pictures showing what you are thinking about?

Dave Yale

I googled Tall Steel Viaduct

I have not seen anything like this available for On30. The bridge ties would have to be wood since there is no source for flex track with bridge tie size and spacing in this scale/gage either. 

Neil Erickson, Hawaii

can you make something like this

http://hointerchange-seaboardcoast.blogspot.com/2012/09/auto-frame-89-flat-cars.html

There used to be some made for shorter flat cars and Gons, but the are hard to find on eBay.

Steven

Tall steel viaducts?

The HO Microengineering viaducts are perfect for On30 (or On2 1/2 or Oe). I built a set for my Austrian based Oe layout years ago and they fit in exactly. I just hand laid the track on the bridge with the correct sized ties and Voila an O scale narrow gauge bridge.

Remember a narrow gauge bridge would be much lighter than a Standard Gauge of equivalent size therefore a HO SG version would be close to a O NG type!

Auto frames

What scale? 

Re: Tall steel Viaducts

@Graeme - I still think the Micro Engineering trestle in HO looks way too like for my taste to represent an On?. I would love to see a picture of your installation though. Your work is always an inspiration. 

Plastistruct makes components that I feel would work for a mainline narrow gauge line but there are no hobby shops within 2,000 miles of me to choose the right products - if I could afford to do it this way at any rate. 

I see Shapeways, or other 3d printing, as the most economical way to create the needed parts for an accurate model with 30', 40' - 80' girder spans and laced girders to scale. Hawaii still uses a lot of these old railroad bridges widened to accommodate highways and are still impressive from below or from the air (model rail pov!). 

The bents should have 24" wide flanges. 12" would feel wholly improbable to me when the towers were over 200' tall. I know the Colorado pin connected trestles used light framing but were reported to sway in the wind! A 5 tier viaduct in O scale would be 36" high. That's what I'm after  

Neil

Here is an idea

HO scale. Post office boxes, which I know are offered by a few vendors. But here's the kicker for people who are really attentive to detail, particularly for transition to current era. That is "Relay Boxes" which are larger than the common deposit box.

http://thepositivepage.com/2012/06/13/relay-mail-boxes-us-postal-history-found-on-a-walk-in-town/

A third installment in the postal box set might be the smaller pole mounted boxes such as is shown in the bottom photo of the above link.

I'm pretty sure mailboxes,

I'm pretty sure mailboxes, both the corner public boxes and smaller private roadside delivery boxes are already available in HO and N on Shapeways.

Auto frames

I model modern HO scale, but why not HO and N both, Use the same general scale size and shape.

Steven

Utility Items

Hi Dave,

Gas meters, electric meters, pole mounted transformers and fuse boxes.

They're small, commonly seen and seldom modeled.

Gas and Electric Meters

I already have Gas and Eclectic Meters in HO Scale- https://www.shapeways.com/model/1318537/gas-meters-x10-and-electric-meters-x12-ho-scale.html.

Pole transformers are a good idea.  And I assume you mean the outside fuse boxes- I'll have to take a look at that.

Dave Yale

Mail Boxes

Another idea to look at- I wonder if I can find one local to get good measurements.

Store shelves

Interior details for store fronts would be appreciated, too.  Things like display shelving, counter, cash register, candy display (although that might be getting a bit too small), front window display shelves.  Simple every day things.  You've got a lot of home furnishings and chairs, now expand into retail furnishings and you'd have a tonne of stuff to offer for those of us who like doing interior detail.  I will definitely be buying a number of your parts once I figure out what I'm going to need, but if you added retail detail, I'd buy up a bunch of that, too.

Store shelves and interiors

The neat thing about Shapeways is the option to print at different scales. Interiors for little offices are available from $9 - $14 each but when you have a large building such as the station Michael Rose is building then the number becomes prohibitively expensive. A shallow box that hints at an interior would be great in this case. 

There must be some other ideas - remember the old color slide in the window? How could a Shapeways box be designed to simply provide a box with a slot for the slide and a place to drop in an LED?

Neil Erickson 

Store interiors

I have had a few people ask about store interiors, and my restaurant interior items sell pretty well.  I have some half done and will have to move them back towards the top of the list.

Dave Yale

Auto Frames

There is someone on shapeways that already offers autoframes, but they are fairly expensive.  I know the gentleman and expect most of the price is the cost of production. 

There are two material I use for the most part- FUD which is high detail, and SWF which is lower, but costs a lot less.  I wonder if the less expensive material would work- it's got a slightly porous, grainy texture.

Dave Yale