If brass is for low-volume production, I speculate that 3D printing is for even lower quantities. I always thought that 3-D printing or rapid prototyping is for as the name suggests – prototypes not for making the same piece over & over. It is suitable for small, unique detail parts like a railroad-specific antenna or pilots for converting few 3-rail locomotives to 2-rail. Since the material is deposited in layers from a thin wire, along a single line or curve at a time, it could take a long time to make just 1 car. At that speed the car could end up costing as much as the brass models if not more. Even using commercial 3-D printing services like the ones I used for past work projects for scaled prototype automotive components, on the same size range as these cars, it was over 4 – 6 hours quoted time / part.
Another concern is the length of these cars. The actual Gunderson 3-car prototype is almost 204’ long. The approximate length of each car in O-Scale would be over 16” long. Are there many hobby 3-D printers able to print models of this size?
These are just my opnion,
Thanks,
Naveen Rajan
Maybe a few answers for you on 3D printing. Entire trolley body shells including interior partitions in O scale are now being printed and are available through Shapeways. So the issues of size and time are probably not all that serious and also then not a hobby printer exercise.
Costs for these trolley shells are ~$200.
These shells are also probably considerably more complex, involve more material, and are time costing than the cars being discussed here.
