My Gunderson Maxi-III Project

Very nice! Keep up the great work and please post your progress. Thanks!

Agreed, keep us posted. As a 90s era intermodal modeler, this is a car I would certainly like to have.

RM

@Rich Montague posted:

Agreed, keep us posted. As a 90s era intermodal modeler, this is a car I would certainly like to have.

RM

FYI: This model is being built almost exclusively against CSX well cars from that time period.

Here is the common end stirrup up close and personal for those who are/were interested.  Yes, those are hexagonal 0.5 inch nuts and bolts.  Don't get to excited though; there are no threads on them.  This one piece locks in dimensions on many of the common end components.  As far as I know, I'm the only person who has attempted to actually model the stirrup.  All models I have acquired treat the stirrup as part of the ladder.  As I see it, the stirrup is the most complicated piece on the whole well car.

Anthony

The common end is finished.  It took 1 hour and 11 minutes to render this thing for clean display and output.  Unfortunately, I received the 2-manifold warning...which was expected.  So, before this thing hits the printer, pieces will have to be overlapped accordingly.

Now to the A/B end.

Anthony

Outstanding! Keep the great work going here. Nice job!

@Jeff78rr posted:

Outstanding! Keep the great work going here. Nice job!

Let's see if I finish the A/B end with my sanity intact.

I've run into an issue regarding what I believe is some type of compressor next to the A/B tank.  This is what I've been able to come up with thus far:

Does anyone know where I might be able to find better photos or even a diagram of this item?  @Jeff78rr, I know you've worked on these things before.  Do you have any additional info that might come in handy?

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

You're going to have to give us something more to work with.  A photo would go a long way.  That being said, if what you are asking about has several air lines going to and from, including to the air reservoir, then I would be inclined to think you are talking about the control valve.  Does it look like the following?

(My photo)

If so, than it will probably be either a Westinghouse (now Wabtec) ABDX valve, or a New York Air Brake DB-60.  At least, that's what I typically find on modern cars.  Wabtec technical information, meaning drawings, is almost impossible to find online.  NYAB though has a very comprehensive list of technical documents available on their website, and this includes cad drawings of many of their brake system components.  This link should take you to the some examples of DB-60 control valve drawings.

I can't think of what else it might be, but if the item in question is not the control valve, then a photo would be really helpful, if not an absolute necessity.

Jim

@big train (Jim) - It looks like the component on the right.  Unfortunately I can't post excerpts from none of these photos on here.  However, I can post links to the best of the crop here or email them to you.  I believe the S Scale America 48' Gunderson has it right, so I might try to rent one of those from someone on the forum.

1rst generation Maxi-iii: CSX Gunderson Maxi-III (My preference)

2nd (or subsequent) generation Maxi-iii with possibly replaced "control valve": Southern Pacific Gunderson Maxi-III

There is also the "thing" on the C & E units which I have a fairly decent assessment of and will post what I have in the near future.

Anthony

Of course, being at the end of this project (pun intended), I was motivated enough to "learn" how to create a measurement grid (3D plane mapped to 2D) for an A end photo yielding incredible numeric results.  Should have done this earlier.

Based on the photo of the CSX car in your first link, the control valve is to the right of the air reservoir.  I would reference the documents on the NYAB site for dimensions and details.

I'm not sure which cad program you are using, but in many programs you can attach or import the drawing, scale it to proper size, and use it as an underlay to trace or reference.  There is also the possibility that you could extract a dwg file from the document pdf, but that only works if the drawings in the pdf are in vector format, and you would need a program like Adobe Illustrator to do the workflow.  Even then, the entities are still only 2d.  You still have to build the 3d model.

Hope that helps!  I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Jim

@big train posted:

Based on the photo of the CSX car in your first link, the control valve is to the right of the air reservoir.  I would reference the documents on the NYAB site for dimensions and details.

I'm not sure which cad program you are using, but in many programs you can attach or import the drawing, scale it to proper size, and use it as an underlay to trace or reference.  There is also the possibility that you could extract a dwg file from the document pdf, but that only works if the drawings in the pdf are in vector format, and you would need a program like Adobe Illustrator to do the workflow.  Even then, the entities are still only 2d.  You still have to build the 3d model.

Hope that helps!  I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Jim

Jim - I use Illustrator to ultimately get the measurements of various details from the photos.  I then take these values and use them to programmatically assemble the component in OpenSCAD.  I'm finishing up the A/B end now.  I'll still need to do the wheel tower thing.  These control valves will be the last thing I do before I start the inter car couplers and truck components.  There will be some fix-up needed.  I know there is an incorrect width present on the inner side wall.  Of course, a lot of this would only be things I would notice or be aware of.

Anthony

Some very strange details in the ends of these well cars.  I'm sure there is a reason or reasons for the design, but I have to wonder.

The "Tank Reservoir" coming together nicely...

Just when you thought I couldn't add more detail to this model, I found that I could add random rotation to the hex bolts.  So now, no two iterations of the well car will have the hex bolts in the same rotational alignment.

The AB End is nearing completion.  This will probably be my jumping off point to test and develop a print methodology.

A final flight check for the object and then I can shift toward the printing process...