Model Railroading > Atlas 3D Printed Details are in.....

I got the Atlas 3D printed parts in a couple days ago and finally had time to photograph them. The photos on the website really don't do them justice, and even my photos really don't show how amazing these parts are. Keep in mind these are just tiny little details. The Propane tank is only about the size of a knuckle on a Kadee coupler. I think this will open a whole new era of previously hard to make details. Just look at the propane tank complete with the open handle and valve fittings! The printing lines made for a quasi wood grain in the case of the pallets. Go see these parts for yourselves!

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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The propane tanks and the fire plugs are great, but I can never understand why modelers buy plastic pallets. It is so easy and more realistic to make them from wood.
Bill Pyper
Salem, Oregon
 

wjpyper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The propane tanks and the fire plugs are great,
> but I can never understand why modelers buy
> plastic pallets. It is so easy and more realistic
> to make them from wood.
> Bill Pyper
> Salem, Oregon
>

If you're modeling in HO or N "real" wood pallets are usually too big.
Remember, in real life you're dealing with 1 x 4's and 2 x 4's here. 

wjpyper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... I can never understand why modelers buy
> plastic pallets. It is so easy and more realistic
> to make them from wood...


Words of a true modeler, from an ever-increasing bygone era...

Making your own scale pallets... kinda like reminding the younger generations what the world was like before fast food delivery, smart phones, or the internet, or what airline flying was like before 9/11...

Mr. MRL - you mean people seriously just walked right onto the plane?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/19 12:42 by MrMRL.

 I can never understand why modelers buy
> > plastic pallets. It is so easy and more
> realistic to make them from wood...
>
>
> Words of a true modeler, from an ever-increasing
> bygone era...
>
> Making your own scale pallets... kinda like
> reminding the younger generations what the world
> was like before fast food delivery, smart phones,
> or the internet, or what airline flying was like
> before 9/11...
>
> Mr. MRL - you mean people seriously just walked
> right onto the plane?

You're right. When I was a kid in the late 40s and early 50s, plastic was considered cheap. I made model airplanes from wood and my Lionel trains were metal.
Bill Pyper
 

I to am from the old school after buying some RTR stuff I am back to building my own and find it a very rewarding experience it is not how much you have but how much you enjoy your hobby and what you expect out of the hobby.

wjpyper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The propane tanks and the fire plugs are great,
> but I can never understand why modelers buy
> plastic pallets. It is so easy and more realistic
> to make them from wood.


Where are you finding 1x6" scale strip wood that actually looks like 1x6". All of a strip wood I've ever seen looks to be too thick to be 1". Even many of the plastic pallets look too thick!

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

RE: Pallets and therefore slightly OT

The "standard" wooden pallet (aka GMA Pallet aka warehouse pallet) in the USA is 48" x 40" x ~6".  This is the size specified by the Grocery Manufacturers Association.  It consists of deckboards (nominal 1x4s and 1x6s) and stringers (nominal 2x4s or 2x6s).  The pallets are designed for entry by forklifts and can be entered from either the front or back. This would be a two-way pallet,  If the pallet needs to be entered from any side, it would be a four-way pallet and the stringers would need cutouts for the forks of the lift truck. All the excruciating details are available on-line should one wish to look.  If you want to scratchbuild your pallets, look up National Wood Pallet and Crate Association and have at it. Good luck.  As for me -- I will take the easy road and purchase RTR pallets!

Bruce
Columbia MO



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/19 15:08 by BCutter.

BCutter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RE: Pallets and therefore slightly OT
>
> The "standard" wooden pallet (aka GMA Pallet aka
> warehouse pallet) in the USA is 48" x 40" x ~6".
>  This is the size specified by the Grocery
> Manufacturers Association.  It consists of
> deckboards (nominal 1x4s and 1x6s) and stringers
> (nominal 2x4s or 2x6s).  The pallets are designed
> for entry by forklifts and can be entered from
> either the front or back. This would be a two-way
> pallet,  If the pallet needs to be entered from
> any side, it would be a four-way pallet and the
> stringers would need cutouts for the forks of the
> lift truck. All the excruciating details are
> available on-line should one wish to look.  If
> you want to scratchbuild your pallets, look up
> National Wood Pallet and Crate Association and
> have at it. Good luck.  As for me -- I will take
> the easy road and purchase RTR pallets!
>
> Bruce
> Columbia MO

If you want to drive yourself nuts, Evergreen has HO scale 1x4, 1x6, 2x4 and 2x6 in styrene. Makes some jigs and go crazy!

BCutter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RE: Pallets and therefore slightly OT
>
> ... The pallets are designed
> for entry by forklifts and can be entered from
> either the front or back. This would be a two-way
> pallet,  If the pallet needs to be entered from
> any side, it would be a four-way pallet and the
> stringers would need cutouts for the forks of the
> lift ...

So can four-way pallets still be considered reversible? Or are there structural compromises taking place here...

Mr. MRL - way too interested in pallets at the moment...

The 3D plastic pallets you show are fourway pallets. The one in the middle is upside down. But you can see the slots for the forks.

Valleyman

On this, I agree. 

I am "retired", and my current hobby outlet is to "prototype model" frieght cars. Build from undec, paint, decal, weather. I average one a month. At my current rate, I will never finish my collection, and I am only 42. 



4thDistrict Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe becasuse we have other, more important
> things we can spend our time on??? Did it ever
> occur to you that not everyone has unlimited time
> to do everything. I have a large, double deck
> layout in a 30 X 50 room to finish - and I also
> have a paying day job I must spend much of my time
> doing. If I spent all my free time scratchbuilding
> every little detail instead of purchasing some of
> the more mundane items already finished, I would
> never get the layout built so that I could
> actually run trains. Sure, having a few square
> feet super detailed with scratchbuilt details
> would be nice. But then I couldn't work on track
> laying, wiring, fine tuning rolling stock and
> locomotives, etc. Some of us prefer to run our
> trains, not just look at them.  
>
> Your way of modeling is not everyone's most
> efficient way. Now do you "understand"? 
>
> wjpyper Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The propane tanks and the fire plugs are great,
> > but I can never understand why modelers buy
> > plastic pallets. It is so easy and more
> realistic
> > to make them from wood.
> > Bill Pyper
> > Salem, Oregon
> >  

Given an "average" work week for me is over 80 hours - RTR items have been a huge blessing for me.  With a locomotive fleet now of over 500 units, and a 61 x 28 layout to build, and over 2000 pieces of rolling stock available to run with another 600 in boxes (kits)...I don;t know what I'd have done to create the 2019 PC were it not for RTR items. 

I am a fairly capable modeler but the real joy for me comes from running the railroad and building ALL of it - not just small-detail rolling stock and scenery items. I am a ship designer by trade and even in the vessels I design " modular,unitized" machinery items get the nod over shipyard-generated machinery gorupings. Why? ...because shipyard manhours are expensive....and it is all about manhours where cost is concerned. If I can specify a "unitized" piece of machinery (the perfect examply being EMD's accessory-rack-equipped diesel engines vs the typical Europen  "loose accessories" approach), I will go the for EMD every time. 

The same holds true for my hobby....my time for the hobby is not very great at this point in my career, and so anything that saves me time is welcomed and purchased. That being said, the quality of the object is of even greater importance...saving manhours cannot be the ONLY criteria....but form something like pallets, and fire plugs? ---I'm in. 

I also create my own 3D-printed parts when I need something no one makes.  I can 3-d model most things in a fration of the time it takes me to build something from scratch in plastic....so in reality, I OFTEN "model" things from scratch. The fact that a 3D printer delivers it to me does not diminish even one iota, the "scratchbuilding" effort it took to 3D model that item on a computer first. My 3D modeling effort is every bit an accoimplishment as someone's efforts in wood or styrene. 

Bob


4thDistrict Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe becasuse we have other, more important
> things we can spend our time on??? Did it ever
> occur to you that not everyone has unlimited time
> to do everything. I have a large, double deck
> layout in a 30 X 50 room to finish - and I also
> have a paying day job I must spend much of my time
> doing. If I spent all my free time scratchbuilding
> every little detail instead of purchasing some of
> the more mundane items already finished, I would
> never get the layout built so that I could
> actually run trains. Sure, having a few square
> feet super detailed with scratchbuilt details
> would be nice. But then I couldn't work on track
> laying, wiring, fine tuning rolling stock and
> locomotives, etc. Some of us prefer to run our
> trains, not just look at them.  
>
> Your way of modeling is not everyone's most
> efficient way. Now do you "understand"? 
>
> wjpyper Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The propane tanks and the fire plugs are great,
> > but I can never understand why modelers buy
> > plastic pallets. It is so easy and more
> realistic
> > to make them from wood.
> > Bill Pyper
> > Salem, Oregon
> >  

As with all other technologies we enjoy today i expect 3d printing to continuosly improve. The grain may be a bit coarse to some (not sure how i feel about these parts, but i haven't seen them in person) but at some point i expect this to be mainstream and Atlas clearly isn't waiting for this "fad" to pass.

It's a hobby at the end of the day, some of us take things more serious than others in different respects but some just take it way too personal sadly. 

BCutter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RE: Pallets and therefore slightly OT
>
> The "standard" wooden pallet (aka GMA Pallet aka
> warehouse pallet) in the USA is 48" x 40" x ~6".
>  This is the size specified by the Grocery
> Manufacturers Association.  It consists of
> deckboards (nominal 1x4s and 1x6s) and stringers
> (nominal 2x4s or 2x6s).  The pallets are designed
> for entry by forklifts and can be entered from
> either the front or back. This would be a two-way
> pallet,  If the pallet needs to be entered from
> any side, it would be a four-way pallet and the
> stringers would need cutouts for the forks of the
> lift truck. All the excruciating details are
> available on-line should one wish to look.  If
> you want to scratchbuild your pallets, look up
> National Wood Pallet and Crate Association and
> have at it. Good luck.  As for me -- I will take
> the easy road and purchase RTR pallets!
>
> Bruce
> Columbia MO

Bruce is correct on the wood pallet dimensions for the grocery industry. If you are modeling in relation to the automotive industry, however, the preferred standard dimensions are 45" x 48". This is the preferred footprint of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). There are other footprints in use, including some highly customized ones, to fit the part dimensions in the densities required. But a 45x48 pallet is the de facto standard in the U.S., Canada and Mexico The footprint perfectly cubes out a 53-foot highway trailer or intermodal container. Being in the packaging industry and focused mainly on the automotive sector, I deal with this daily.

Such pallets are today almost always molded plastic, with a solid or latticed deck, quite different in appearance from a wood pallet. This is stated with no disrespect to my friend Bruce, and his forest products background -- wood pallets are still very common in grocery and general warehousing operations. But they are increasingly uncommon in the automotive sector, which has huge bulk packaged parts and components logistics flows. Some automotive components manufacturers even have a stated goal of removing entirely all wood pallets from their logistics chain for safety reasons (no hazards from broken pallets, no nails), and for environmental reasons.

I have not seen a modeled plastic pallet in any scale. Maybe they are out there, and I have just missed them. They are perfectly suited to 3D printing. If a contemporary automotive components manufacturing or vehicle assembly plant is on your pike as an industry, stacks of them outside a warehouse or dock area would be an appropriate detail. When components flows slow due to temporary shutdowns or reduced production rates (or tight warehouse space when things are humming), the empties can be stacked and stored outdoors. Indeed, they are commonly made with drain holes in pocket features to drain moisture from temporary outdoor storage, or from washing that is done periodically to clean off oils and other material that may have accumulated. The steel racks used for larger components such as large stampings or assemblies also often have custom-molded plastic trays in them which hold the parts in place. Again, not a scenery detail that I have seen on the market, but again one which would be well-suited to 3D printing if you have an automotive manufacturing facility on your model railroad.

MC
Muskegon, Michigan



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/19 11:42 by ironmtn.