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Every now and then this hobby of model railways throws up a pleasant surprise. one such was a delivery the other days from Holland. inside the package from shapeways, inside a drawstring black cloth printed bag (Nice touch!), was a 3D printed GE-Ingersoll Rand boxcab diesel switcher. From a design by Walt-SouthernNscale it is an exquisite representation of the early loco purchased by the New Jersey Central which still survives today in preservation. there are some layer lines visible but the amount of detail is self evident It is designed to fit the Rokuhan shorty chassis. I found that the locating lugs on the chassis, if used in the holes in the body ends, meant it sat far too high. so a simple mod was done to drop the height down. There is loads of room in the body to fit a decoder or lighting board. The extra weight certainly aids performance I don't have the heart to paint it yet it looks so good. I'm going to run it as it is at this year's shows to show everybody how much 3D printing has come on How-to video here cheers Kev

Following on from the 3D printed GE 70 tonners I completed last year the next designs to fit the Rokuhan Shorty chassis were two different boxcab diesel shunters both designed by Stonysmith on Shapeways. The first one was an American loco very similar to the Central New Jersey GE-Ingersol Rand loco now preserved at the Baltimore and Ohio museum and like the 70 tonners is designed to drop straight onto the Shorty chassis There is no detail below solebar level and the windors are not open The other contender is the rare British Thompson Houston Boxcab that was built for the huge Ford car plant at Dagenham in the U.K. Amazingly one survives to this day on the Kent and East Sussex railway. This has the windows open which looks a ;lot better In the video I show how to finish these locos and also include some photos of the prototypes including a really rare bit of footage of the Ford one working at the plant in 1952. I decided not to do the actual Ford livery, choosing instead a mid green as it will mainly be working the Republic steel layout. Seen here just needing the flush glazing The CNJ was also left anonymous but was painted in the Pullman green used in its early days on the railroad The trucks need another coat of black as the grey is showing through