Model Railroad Boxcar

A box car scaled to O Gauge (about 10 inches (250mm) long).

The space between planks led to some difficulties painting, hence the kind of weird inner shape of the boxcar body. It took a lot of tweaking to get a good print with the old wood filament I had, so I used the body_test_print model to help.

I wanted to try to make a train car for under the Christmas tree as a gift. I decided a worn looking, wooden box car would be a good first rail car as any imperfections in the design, print, and paint would just add to the worn, aged look. I got the measurements off an old O-Gauge boxcar made by Lionel, so it should fit whatever tracks you put it on.

You'll need to print:

1x base,

1x boxcar_roof

1x boxcar_body

2x boxcar_door

I used trucks available on Amazon: Die Cast Sprung Trucks 2-Pack. I would imagine most similar replacement trucks should work too.

For paint, I used: BADGER Modelflex Railroad Airbrush Paint-Weathering Colors.

Print Settings

Rafts:

Yes

Supports:

Notes:

You'll probably need rafts for most of the parts, since the long pieces are extra susceptible to warping.

All parts should print with their flat faces facing down. Because it's so long, I had to print the parts diagonally across the build plate.

Post-Printing

To put it all together, I'd recommend:

1. Check the fit of the boxcar_body and the base. It's a pretty tight fit. I trimmed down one of the ends of the base so it'd be a bit easier to fit on without breaking anything. Depending on your print settings/material, you may not need to trim it.
2. Also try fitting the boxcar_roof onto the boxcar_body. Trim up the pegs a little if needed so the roof fits fine and sits completely flat on top of the body.
3. Attach the trucks to the base. The trucks I purchased came with screws that does an okay-enough job at keeping them attached. You could probably find and use some better screws if needed.
4. Attach the boxcar_body to the base. The wide tabs on the two long side of the boxcar body should go inside of the openings for the doors.
5. Slot each boxcar_door into the rail on the boxcar_body. The slot should be tight enough that the doors mostly stay in place unless you try to move them.
6. Put the boxcar_roof on top and make sure it all fits. Hold the roof down in the center and try opening and closing the doors to make sure they still move.
7. If it looks good, glue the roof on. I added the extra rim along the top of the boxcar_body so there's plenty of room for glue.
8. Paint as you wish.

Category: Hobby