N Scale AAR 70 ton four bay hopper car

thingiverse

This is an N scale US 70 ton AAR hopper car. These were made from the 1920's forward and were found in service on many class 1 railroads through the 1970's. This car was designed to be a runner. It has been designed to use a pair of Micro-trains trucks with short extension couplers such as plain bearing 003 02 021 (1000) or roller bearing Barber trucks with short extension computers 003 02 0421 (1035). I have printed with car with a Ender 3 PLA printer and operated several copies of this car. I usually weight it to NMRA standards (0.9oz) with a coal load to cover the weights (usually BB's). I print the car bottom up without any support. There is a 1.5 mm hole for a brake wheel. Brake wheels are available from a number of sources. The car is designed with foot stirrups. These are very fragile and break off easily. 1mm stirrup holes are in the design if you wish to break them off and install metal versions. The structure of the car will support a body mounted coupler if desired, but I have not tested this version. Post printing, I usually do some print clean up, followed by one or two coats of grey primer, often auto-primer+filler. This fills up some of the print lines. This is usually followed by gloss paint. Decals for these cars are available from several vendors for several roads. A final over coat of dull clear coat and installation of the trucks will result in a car that runs well and looks good at a good price.