Earlier this week I received a 3D printed loco body from Shapeways. It’s a Kerr Stuart loco body designed for a 0-4-0 Fleischmann 7000 Chassis by A2-Rail.

It’s the first 3D printed object I’ve ordered from Shapeways and I am very pleased with the result. Printed in ‘Frosted Ultra Detail’ it is a clean, crisp print, with slight surface texture as you can see it the photo.

My first job was to see how well it fitted my Fleischmann Lok7 N gauge loco chassis.

Well, the nice people at A2 rail did say a bit of modification was needed!

I removed the N gauge couplings and cut off the buffers. To allow the loco body to slide over the metal motor mounting I had to remove a small piece of the body from each side of the inside rear of the cab. Now, the body slid easily onto the chassis but was sitting rather too high. I removed two pieces of plastic from the chassis to allow the front of the body to slot into the space this created.

A little more work was required to smooth the rough edges and everything fitted into place very well. I added a rectangle of plastic card at the front of the chassis to support the pistons. I cut the screw mounting from the original metal body, filed it to shape and glued it into the  3D printed body. This allowed me to attach the chassis to the body using the original mounting screw. Finally, I added a couple of small pieces of lead to the inside of the body at the very front of the loco.

I’m pleased with the final look of the loco. It would have been nice to lower the body slightly but the front of the cab is resting on the motor mountings and so this isn’t possible. It runs well and I will test it more thoroughly before deciding whether to add more weight. Next jobs are to fit the couplings, prepare some handrails and smooth the body for painting.