Summary

This design is a fully modular railroad track with track bed and some railroad embarkment. Total length is 172mm which gives you a nice display for European locomotives.

There are four different catenary supports available for this design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1593251

It is designed to be a showcase stand for your rolling material but feel free to remix it to support conducting rails.

Print Settings

Printer:

Dremel Idea Builder

                                            <p class="detail-setting rafts"><strong>Rafts: </strong>                     <div><p>No</p></div></p>                                                                                <p class="detail-setting supports"><strong>Supports: </strong>                     <div><p>No</p></div></p>                                                                                <p class="detail-setting resolution"><strong>Resolution: </strong>                     <div><p>0.15mm</p></div></p>                                                                                <p class="detail-setting infill"><strong>Infill: </strong>                     <div><p>10% rectangular</p></div></p>                                                        <br>                        <p class="detail-setting notes"><strong>Notes: </strong>                    </p><div><p>Layer heigth: 0.15mm;<br>Initial layer: 0.25mm;<br>Nozzle: 0.4mm;<br>Wall strength: 3;<br>Speed: 80mm/s;<br>Material: PLA, 3dk.berlin aluminium silver metallic, 3dk.berlin bronze, Dremel green transparent;<br>Temperature: 220°C</p></div>

Post-Printing

How to fit the catenary supports...

            <div><p>First decide which type of mast you will use, there are two variants. One type is fixed vertically in the embarkment, the other is fixed below the track bed.<br>Then use an appropriate tool to cut away the material which is covering the hole or slot you will be using.</p></div>

How I Designed This

Rail shape

            <div><p>The rail uses Code 70 dimensions (more exactly, it is designed as Profile 18 rail according to NEM 120). Since Code 70 cannot be printed properly with a 0.4mm nozzle, the rail does not feature the slim waist in the middle. This waist is present in the included design file, if you would like to remix. So the rail resembles ARNOLD or Hornby tracks and can be sliced and printed robustly this way.</p></div>                <p class="detail-title"><strong>Track, track bed and embarkment design</strong></p>            <div><p>Again, this follows the dimensions given in NEM standards, in this case NEM 110 and 122.</p><p>The sleepers are sized like standard wooden sleepers, the real-life distance was around 60cm which is normally used for concrete sleepers, according to wikipedia. <em>Update:</em> actually, 60cm would be the grid for the sleepers, not the distance between them. So this design ends up having a 96cm grid for the sleepers in real life, not suitable for high speed or high load traffic. However, it makes the rails look smaller.</p><p>The rail fixtures have been estimated from photos and optimized for slicing and printing.</p><p>The gravel of the track bed is sized to be printable with a 0.4mm nozzle in one line. It is therefore not to scale.</p></div>

N scale Code 70 track 172mm length with modular bed and dam