Parametric Railway Tracks

thingiverse

The rails I've designed for my [models](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3106584) have predominantly been wooden, allowing me to create longer lengths than would be feasible with my 3D printer. On a couple of occasions, however, I've created and 3D printed short rail sections for displaying the models I've given to others. While wooden rails are suitable, especially in animation where long runs are necessary and fine detail isn't crucial, they fall short when it comes to display purposes, as 3D printed rails offer greater detail. This realization prompted me to develop a parametric track model that could easily be used for matching my own models as well as other standard scales such as the [OS-Railway system](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2146361) or garden railway scale. I suspect it may be challenging to achieve a good print quality at smaller scales like HO, but the parametric design will still work effectively even at that scale. You can find a more detailed explanation of this project on my [website](http://techmonkeybusiness.com/parametric-railway-tracks.html). **The General Parameters** * ```RailHt``` = Height of the Rail * ```TrakGage``` = Track Gauge. This is the distance between the inside edges of the rail head, not the distance between rail centerlines. For The Opensource Railway, this is 32mm. For my [narrow gauge models](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2690349), it's 36mm, and for my [1:24 railcar chassis models](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3184578), it's 60mm. * ```SlprLn``` = Sleeper length * ```SlprHt``` = Sleeper height * ```SlprWd``` is the width of the sleepers * ```NoSlprs``` is the number of sleepers in the section of rail to be produced **Straight Track Parameters** * ```TrakLength``` = Track length. This includes the connecting lugs. **End Types and Options** ```TrkTyp``` = Type of track end style * Setting ```TrkTyp``` = 1 will select the option where the track join is between the sleepers. * Setting ```TrkTyp``` = 2 will select track type 2 where the join is down the center of one of the sleepers. This is especially useful if you opt not to print sleepers. ```SleepersYN``` is a flag for having sleepers or not. Setting this to “1” will generate a model complete with sleepers, while setting it to anything else will produce a model that doesn’t include sleepers but includes the sleeper attachment pad details. **Other Parametric Track Models in this series are:** * Standard Curve Track https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400642 * OS-Railway Straight Track https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400784 * OS-Railway Curved Track https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400779 **Note:** The images shown here are for a sleeper-less print. The sleepers used were ice-block sticks. If you've used the parametric tool to produce some rails without sleepers, you may want to look at the [Parametric Track Setting Tool](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3429026).