Every body keeps talking about how great 3D printing is and how manufacturers can just print out certain models and not have to make molds any more. Well I have seen a lot of printed plastic and the technology is a long way off of being a viable manufacturing option for model trains. Below is a close up image of the surface of a printed model and you can see the surface would need extensive finishing in order to be model quality. Now some of the very high end printers can get a pretty nice surface but they still need finishing and the detail just wont be there. Not to mention that in order to be a viable production option a company would need quite a few printers running non stop and it takes a long time to print each one.
I pulled this image off the interweb but it is a very good example of how 3D printed items look
