My Latest Project - Cowling for El Capitan Dorm Car

Hi All,

I thought I would share the latest project I just completed.  I modeled and printed a new cowling for my Dorm Car on my 1957 El Capitan.

Background:

The 1957 El Capitan was a beautiful consist consisting of:

Here is a video of my consist before I started this project:

I was able to get all Lionel for the consist including the Dorm Car which was only available in a 4 car set.

The prototype Dorm Car had a cowling that basically changed the car roof from normal up to the Hi-Level Car roof line.

Here is what it looked like in its Amtrak livery:

I had decided in the past to make one out of styrene, which worked pretty well which you can see in the video above.

But since I got a 3D printer and got much better at modeling, I decided to create a more prototypical version.

Here is the original:

You can see that the lines are not very good and that it is too high leading into the Hi-Level Step-up Car (which I changed from just upper door to simulate a lower door).

So I modeled the cowling using better measurements (in mm).  I printed the first version forgetting to put the curve on the front.  Then I fixed it and modeled the new version.  Here is a picture of the model as well as the three side by side:

Here is how it looked on the Dorm Car:

Because I didn't feel like trying to model the holes on the bottom to fit over the Car detail, I just used a soldering iron to melt the plastic to create the reliefs (it doesn't look nice, but it works fine):

Next, it was time to figure out how to make it ribbed like the prototype.  I ended up using HO Scale roofing to do this:

Before I received it, I painted the cowling with Silver Leaf model spray paint:

Then I applied the roofing.  It was hard to line the ribs up, but I think it is ok (and when the train is running, you won't notice):

So it is now complete and I put it on the car:

I'm really happy how this turned out. 

I am working on getting the model loaded in the repository so anyone can print it.  Again, the cowling is designed for the Lionel 18" passenger cars due to the roof slope.  I can probably make one with an MTH roof line if it is needed.