Parametric Railway Tracks - Curve

thingiverse

I have made rails for my models that are generally wooden, allowing me to create longer lengths than would be possible with my 3D printer. However, I have occasionally designed and printed short rail lengths for displaying the models I've given to others. Wooden rails are suitable for animation where long runs are necessary and fine detail isn't required. But for display, 3D printed rails excel due to their greater detail. This prompted me to develop a parametric track model that could easily match my own models as well as standard scales like the OS-Railway system or garden railway scale. I suspect it may be challenging getting a good print for smaller scales like HO, but the parametric nature will still work at that scale. You can find more information about this project on my website. **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 centrelines. For The Opensource Railway, this is 32mm. For my narrow gauge models, it's 36mm, and for my 1:24 railcar chassis models, 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 **Curved Track Parameters** * CurveRad = Radius of railway centreline * CurveSegAng = The angle of the track segment being produced. You will need to choose this to suit your printer bed size. **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 centre 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. 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 Straight Track https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400628 * OS-Railway Straight Track https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400784 * OS-Railway Curved Track https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400779 If you have used the parametric tool to produce some rails without sleepers, you may want to look at the Parametric Track Setting Tool.