35-Gauge Train Coal Car

cults3d

The coal car is the first of the 35mm-gauge train system trains, intended to be connected to the YT01 locomotive, which is soon to be motorized (I have a working prototype of the chassis, but I am still printing and trimming the exterior parts to fit the new mechanisms). Since this is intended to be a driving model, the cable connectors have no cables. Instead, strings will be glued on, with small rings on the other side (ring not included yet), to connect to the adjacent car‘s connectors. Also, the coupling is missing the tightening screw mechanism, which is intended to be replaced with small rubber bands, or maybe a snap-on part which I still have to develop and test. I will release the locomotive-side version of this coupling with the motorized locomotive. When building the model, take care to make the distanco of the wheels on the axle smaller than the maximum the track will allow, or otherwise the car will derail in the 500-radius turns. The easiest way to do that is simply to not glue the wheels to the axles at all. Bring them as close to each other as possible, testing them on a track, so that you can still safely avoid slipping of the wheels from the rail onto the inner side of the track, i.e. sleepers. It's fairly easy once you get the hang of it. I could have prevented these issues altogether, had I made the wheels slightly wider and the rim more sloped, but I wanted to keep realistic proportions, which of course normally would only ever be used on tracks with much higher turn radiuses. But shortening the distance between the wheel works reliably, if done with precision. You can watch a video of the coal car here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u-1gmN5Xb4