3D Printed P2 locomotive

[Albergman]

Just found this forum after searching for news about the new build P2's. Seems that the Doncaster one never got off the ground while the A1 Trust is making genuine progress.

I'm an old fella (84) who grew up in Scotland (but now in Canada) in the 40's and actually saw the P2's on occasion and travelled behind many an LNER express A3 and A4. In my twilight years I took up scratch building of many model racing cars from my youth then moved on to sailboats and most recently steam engines. I've finished a Flying Scotsman (A3), Union of South Africa (A4) and lastly a "never was" P2 which I named Robert the Bruce. The first two were entirely hand crafted (no kit or purchased parts) but the P2 I mostly 3D printed from my own drawings I made with Fusion 360 software. I had planned to print every part of the P2 but in the end I reverted to hand-making all of the motion. These engines are not to any known scale as they are just ornaments that I enjoy looking at.

 

[Cowley]

Just found this forum after searching for news about the new build P2's. Seems that the Doncaster one never got off the ground while the A1 Trust is making genuine progress.

I'm an old fella (84) who grew up in Scotland (but now in Canada) in the 40's and actually saw the P2's on occasion and travelled behind many an LNER express A3 and A4. In my twilight years I took up scratch building of many model racing cars from my youth then moved on to sailboats and most recently steam engines. I've finished a Flying Scotsman (A3), Union of South Africa (A4) and lastly a "never was" P2 which I named Robert the Bruce. The first two were entirely hand crafted (no kit or purchased parts) but the P2 I mostly 3D printed from my own drawings I made with Fusion 360 software. I had planned to print every part of the P2 but in the end I reverted to hand-making all of the motion. These engines are not to any known scale as they are just ornaments that I enjoy looking at.

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Welcome to the forum @Albergman.

I must say that those look absolutely wonderful. I wish I had even half of the skills to make something like that and you’ve obviously used lots of different techniques to achieve the end results.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you have a background in engineering?

 

[Intercity110]

I’m really impressed. Are they just body-shells or do they run?

 

[Albergman]

Welcome to the forum @Albergman.

I must say that those look absolutely wonderful. I wish I had even half of the skills to make something like that and you’ve obviously used lots of different techniques to achieve the end results.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you have a background in engineering?

Thanks gents. Glad you like them. I used to be in what is now called IT ... 30 years ago so no, not an engineering background. I enjoy learning new software and taught myself (with lots of help from YouTube) how to use Fusion 360. I'd never really shaped a model till a few years after I retired so that's a new skill. Never too late I guess.

And no again, none of these are runners. Just sit on their tracks on a few shelves where the Memsahib permits.

 

[Cowley]

Thanks gents. Glad you like them. I used to be in what is now called IT ... 30 years ago so no, not an engineering background. I enjoy learning new software and taught myself (with lots of help from YouTube) how to use Fusion 360. I'd never really shaped a model till a few years after I retired so that's a new skill. Never too late I guess.

And no again, none of these are runners. Just sit on their tracks on a few shelves where the Memsahib permits.

Amazing stuff. So just to get an idea of what we’re looking at (and obviously they’re not made to a particular scale), what sort of size are they?

 

[Peter C]

Just found this forum after searching for news about the new build P2's. Seems that the Doncaster one never got off the ground while the A1 Trust is making genuine progress.

I'm an old fella (84) who grew up in Scotland (but now in Canada) in the 40's and actually saw the P2's on occasion and travelled behind many an LNER express A3 and A4. In my twilight years I took up scratch building of many model racing cars from my youth then moved on to sailboats and most recently steam engines. I've finished a Flying Scotsman (A3), Union of South Africa (A4) and lastly a "never was" P2 which I named Robert the Bruce. The first two were entirely hand crafted (no kit or purchased parts) but the P2 I mostly 3D printed from my own drawings I made with Fusion 360 software. I had planned to print every part of the P2 but in the end I reverted to hand-making all of the motion. These engines are not to any known scale as they are just ornaments that I enjoy looking at.

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Wow! Those are absolutely amazing @Albergman. That P2 is particularly impressive - the black livery really suits it. Even though it feels odd to see an A4-esque bodyshell with eight driving wheels, it looks brilliant.

 

[Albergman]

I’m really impressed. Are they just body-shells or do they run?

Wow! Those are absolutely amazing @Albergman. That P2 is particularly impressive - the black livery really suits it. Even though it feels odd to see an A4-esque bodyshell with eight driving wheels, it looks brilliant.

What size are they? About 24" long buffer-to-buffer but the P2 is a couple more. They are all done to an identical scale based on the known diameter of their driving wheels ... that was about the only dimension I knew about all three.



As for the P2 having the A4-style nose and Walschaerts valve gear there was one engine "Earl Marischal" which appeared (at different times) with both an A3 and an A4 nose! I enjoy making and fitting all that complex motion by hand and I didn't care for the Lentz motion. Since my model never really existed I was free to choose the combination I liked best ... the A4 nose and Walschaerts motion.

 

[Cowley]

I’ve always really liked the A4 nose on the conventional boiler. To my eyes it looks a bit like an arrow somehow. Especially with the eight coupled wheels.

 

[Albergman]

I’ve always really liked the A4 nose on the conventional boiler.

Yes, I do too! Strange that they chose not to extend the A4 cladding all the way to the cab. Nevertheless they were handsome engines in all their forms. I was a wee lad (7 or 8?) when I spotted Cock o the North sitting on a siding at Dundee and was puzzled as to why it wasn't in my Ian Allen's book under A4's. Little did I know that it was a P2.

 

[Cowley]

Yes, I do too! Strange that they chose not to extend the A4 cladding all the way to the cab. Nevertheless they were handsome engines in all their forms. I was a wee lad (7 or 8?) when I spotted Cock o the North sitting on a siding at Dundee and was puzzled as to why it wasn't in my Ian Allen's book under A4's. Little did I know that it was a P2.

That’s an incredible thing to have seen. There can’t be many people around with that one underlined in a book.

 

[Cowley]

Thread reopened for @oldtrainguy to update.

 

[oldtrainguy]

Thanks to who-ever for opening this again. I mainly wanted to add my admiration for this project and his other locos ... wonderful modelling. I am thinking of getting a 3D printer and wondered which kind was used to print the P2. Was it resin or filament? Are the plans for it going to be available to others and if so how can I get them. Will it be possible to scale them down to HO scale as these models definitely look bigger than HO. Lastly I'd be interested to know how all the metal parts were made if possible. You must have quite a machine shop!
'
OTG

 

[Albergman]

Hi oldtrainguy and thanks for the kind words. The P2 was printed on a BiQu filament printer. It did as good a job as think you can expect from filament but for fine details resin seems the way to go. I gave mine to my son when I finished the project as I'd rather just hand make parts than squirt them out. Just me.

The metal parts are pretty much entirely hand made and usually hack-sawed from a piece of aluminum that I saved from somewhere. Lots of filing to get down to size then smoothing and polishing. I used to collect tiny bolts and nuts from things I'd take apart ... old cameras, printers etc and they were used to bolt everything together. More recently I bought a variety pack of tiny bolts and nuts made for repairing glasses and they are very nice. Here's a close-up of some of the motion for one of the locos (don't remember which one).



As for the plans I drew for the P2 they are available in STL format to anyone free of charge so just let me know if you'd like them. You might want to learn a bit about Fusion 360 if you'd ever want to re-draw/change/improve any of my parts but if not they could all be scaled to any desired size in the slicer program. Don't know how much you know about all this but we can chat more if you like.

I have build stories on Britmodeller site for all 3 locomotives and my racing cars, Vincent motorcycle and my boats. These build logs might help explain how I make parts and fit things. The Scotsman is here and Union of South Africa here, the P2 is here and you can see many of the parts
that I've drawn ... for example. I did draw all of the motion and I printed the parts but decided after all to re-make them in proper metal.



Good luck with your project.

Frank