Custom 9V tracks

[Ashi Valkoinen]

Hello coaster,

I dont know how this site ships to Hungary, but if they do, after next month salary I'll order couple of these PF track pieces.

Can you tell me anything about processing these lovely and useful stuff with metal parts on the top? Do you have even a test piece, or you didn't experimented with metalic rails?

[Q3671]

yesterday i received ship confirmation.

today i received curve pieces, nice.

here some foto's

front and back side

some decoration on one piece

R56 and R72 curve, black.

the studs are good, the connection is a bit lose.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Q3671

[M_slug357]

yesterday i received ship confirmation.

today i received curve pieces, nice.

It's nice that you got some delivered.

But tell us/ show us how they actually look??

[coaster]

Can you tell me anything about processing these lovely and useful stuff with metal parts on the top? Do you have even a test piece, or you didn't experimented with metalic rails?

Oh, I'm definitely working on the metal rails, too. Here is an as-close-to-production-as-possible 1/2 length straight that's been painted and plated:

Unfortunately, these require a different base from the PF version, and right now I have to machine the rails myself, so it wouldn't do anyone any good for me to upload them to Shapeways yet. Per legoman's request, I'm looking into adding a version that uses standard HO rails, but I haven't had a chance to really dig into that yet.

yesterday i received ship confirmation.

today i received curve pieces, nice.

R56 and R72 curve, black.

the studs are good, the connection is a bit lose.

Thanks! I've tweaked the studs several times to get it as best as I can with the printing, but I've left the connection on size. I can tighten that up a bit and will update the models on Shapeways.

[Ashi Valkoinen]

Oh, I'm definitely working on the metal rails, too. Here is an as-close-to-production-as-possible 1/2 length straight that's been painted and plated:

Unfortunately, these require a different base from the PF version, and right now I have to machine the rails myself, so it wouldn't do anyone any good for me to upload them to Shapeways yet. Per legoman's request, I'm looking into adding a version that uses standard HO rails, but I haven't had a chance to really dig into that yet.

It is sad for me to here they are far away, but maybe I can put the metallic upper part on the 3D-printed plastic part for myself, if I could order the plastic part for the metallic version.

H0 won't fit for you, the standard rail height are 2.1 and 2.5 mm, and LEGO tracks rails height is 2 plates (6,4 mm), LEGO train wheels get stuck on H0-height rails. I looked around and found PECO "0" flexible rail for "LGB" will fit the best. However, not a cheap rail.

[legoman666]

It is sad for me to here they are far away, but maybe I can put the metallic upper part on the 3D-printed plastic part for myself, if I could order the plastic part for the metallic version.

H0 won't fit for you, the standard rail height are 2.1 and 2.5 mm, and LEGO tracks rails height is 2 plates (6,4 mm), LEGO train wheels get stuck on H0-height rails. I looked around and found PECO "0" flexible rail for "LGB" will fit the best. However, not a cheap rail.

We mean using the rail upside down so the wide base is on top.

[coaster]

PF models updated for a tighter fit track-to-track. Should be a bit better now.

[JamesP]

Remember 9V picks up from the inside of the track, not the top, unlike every other railway system out there... (well, almost, there is underslung 500vdc used on some subway systems...but that's full sized).

James

[coaster]

Kickstarter announcement coming soon! Stay tuned!

[Capparezza]

Kickstarter announcement coming soon! Stay tuned!

Yay! Just for the PF tracks or metal rails as well? I'm definitely interested in the metal tracks. Is there any progress on these?

Edited September 14, 2016 by Capparezza

[Blastem]

What an impressive Job of design is here, and close to a solution!!!

I designed last year a R104 track version which have been tested in some events (LegoWorld 2015, ALEbricks, and LEGO fan Weekend 2016).

My Tracks are a 3Dprinted simplified version of LEGO with sticky metal tape on top. It works fine, and we finally could see our real-scale trains running on a circuit!

Here are some photos (Courtesy of Jolugoma):

JLGM_20160611IMG_1280 by José Luis González, en Flickr

JLGM_20160610IMG_1037 by José Luis González, en Flickr

JLGM_20160611_MG_8544 by José Luis González, en Flickr

Trains by HoMa, Aitoruco and MTRkustoms

Edit: Some videos of the R104 circuit (by MTRkustoms) :

I want to test the final version of my R104 tracks this year in LEGOworld Utrecht, so then upload to Thingiverse for printing. Also, they are parametric, but we only have tried R104 because It's the size we need.

Happy to see this project evolving ^^

Edited September 14, 2016 by Blastem

[codefox421]

Kickstarter announcement coming soon! Stay tuned!

Exciting news! Can't wait!

It's a bit late in the game, but with your demonstration of breaking the R324(?) crossover into A,B,C/D have you considered something similar for the R104? Maybe just two parts A (has the points) and B/C (has the frog/double-cross), so that the end piece, B, can simply be swapped out for a double crossover piece, C?

R56 and R72 curve, black.

the studs are good, the connection is a bit lose.

Connection looseness is probably a result of the polishing that Shapeways performs (sometimes, at random) on Black Strong & Flexible prints. I highly recommend only printing in White Strong & Flexible; I have never had mechanical tolerance issues with it.

Also, you can dye White prints with Rit dye, so probably can achieve grey: http://makezine.com/...your-3d-prints/

[Aaron]

Acrylic paint seemed to work really well for the black R328 I got, though it's a bit dark. I found cheap acrylic paint at WalMart that closely matches dark bluish gray, so I'll try to paint this white R328 piece as soon as I have a day off. I'm terrible at taking pictures, but I guess I'll do my best since I promised a review.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Aaron

[coaster]

Yay! Just for the PF tracks or metal rails as well? I'm definitely interested in the metal tracks. Is there any progress on these?

Everything covered in the Kickstarter will be available in both PF and 9V.

Exciting news! Can't wait!

It's a bit late in the game, but with your demonstration of breaking the R324(?) crossover into A,B,C/D have you considered something similar for the R104? Maybe just two parts A (has the points) and B/C (has the frog/double-cross), so that the end piece, B, can simply be swapped out for a double crossover piece, C?

It could be done, but we don't really gain anything from it. Tooling is still the killer, so while they are smaller and thus easier to make, we'd be going from 3 molds (left, right, double) to 5. An R200 switch would likely be 2 pieces in this way though.

Acrylic paint seemed to work really well for the black R328 I got, though it's a bit dark. I found cheap acrylic paint at WalMart that closely matches dark bluish gray, so I'll try to paint this white R328 piece as soon as I have a day off. I'm terrible at taking pictures, but I guess I'll do my best since I promised a review.

Look forward to it, Aaron! I'm pretty terrible at taking pictures as well, so don't feel too bad.

[Phoxtane]

Acrylic paint seemed to work really well for the black R328 I got, though it's a bit dark. I found cheap acrylic paint at WalMart that closely matches dark bluish gray, so I'll try to paint this white R328 piece as soon as I have a day off. I'm terrible at taking pictures, but I guess I'll do my best since I promised a review.

I'd be worried about the adhesion of the paint to the 3D printed plastic over time, as well as the tiny added thickness that a layer of paint gets you (messes with tolerances even more than 3D printing currently does). Be sure to update us in a few months as the parts are handled so we can see how well it holds up with pieces connected/disconnected to them!

I like the idea of the dyeing method mentioned above, since that's putting the color INTO the material rather than ON it - and for my setup, it would mean that I could connect tiles and various other pieces to the track (and the track to other pieces) without getting paint ground onto the surfaces, or having parts stuck together because of the paint's thickness.

[coaster]

I'm just going to leave this here...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bricktracks/additional-track-geometries-for-lego-trains

 

[Capparezza]

Yeeehaaa!!!! This looks very promising. I'd love to have some of those quarter and half length pieces... trying to figure out how without a credit card

[legoman666]

Pledged. Where mah switches at :)

[supertruper1988]

Supported!

[Jeffinslaw]

Just registered to let you know I have also backed this project. Hope it is funded! What about switches? Will those be coming at a later date?

 

Thanks, Jeffinslaw

[Aaron]

I'm definitely going to back this. If I have one suggestion to throw out though, it's with future molds. I love the R328 stuff you designed, and I'll continue to buy more and experiment with it despite the high cost. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that it's kind of a niche thing that very few people would buy, and might not be able to justify the cost of a mold. 

I was just thinking that since you plan to make R200 curves later on, there may be a demand for companion radii to that, such as R216, since many of the large clubs such as PennLUG and the Texas Brick Railroad run grand curves with similar radii. I've been out of touch with this stuff lately and I don't know if an easier method for grand curve assembly is used now, but I'd imagine it would make a lot of lives easier if they could just snap them all together like regular track instead of having to attach 2x2 plates to hold them together and hope that they don't pop apart. I think PennLUG might even have 3 grand curves now, so maybe instead of making the R328 curve and switch molds, you could do the 3 curve radii that they use. From what I recall I think the grand curve design and radii is pretty standard across different clubs, but again, I haven't interacted with any clubs in years so I could be wrong. 

Despite the steep costs, I'm willing to stick with shapeways for the larger more obscure stuff since I personally feel the needs of others outweigh mine, but I guess a poll would be your best bet at the later stage of this. I'm just incredibly thankful for what you've done so far, and by no means do I want to pressure you in any way to do something that may end up being burdensome, nor would I feel unsatisfied no matter which course this takes. Even R104 stuff is like a dream come true.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Aaron

[coaster]

Hi everyone, and thanks for the support so far!

Andrew, your switches are coming soon!  In and of themselves, they aren't enough to make this endeavor viable.  However, if we can establish the basic straights and curves, those will do the heavy lifting.  Additionally, if there are any bugs in the process, best to get them sorted out on simple pieces rather than something as complex as a switch. 

Aaron, the prospect of expanded curves is still open-ended.  You are not alone, however, in expressing interest in the R328s.  There does seem to be a good amount of interest in the R200s for sure, but what other sizes could still be determined.  The good news for you though is if the R200s happen we can make other sizes happen as well without too much additional cost.  R328s may have lower demand, but would require a lot of pieces to complete a curve, so we could add it in as a family member of the R200 tooling, only adding somewhere around $5-7k to the tool.  So, long story short, it's not automatically out of the question.

Anywho, if this does indeed get funded, I'll post a poll and let the community set the priority of future developments.  But let's get there first.

[Ashi Valkoinen]

Hi coaster,

I made my pledge in price of $40. Unfortunately there were no options for different radius 9V full loops to pledge for, and $750 is over my monthly salary. Hope this small contribution counts as well and I hope in a year I can order my long radius tracks from you!

Good luck with the projekt!

[coaster]

Hi Ashi,

I can add pledge levels at any time.  I was trying to keep it simple and not bog everyone down with 30 options.  But I appreciate the support for sure - every little bit helps.