You’re too harsh on yourself Sam, your first 3d printed locomotive should be loved because he just shows you how important it is to find a place to start so you can begin your journey of making your own locomotives. I haven’t started 3d printing entire locomotives yet, but I’ll give it my best over here in the states.
You should always be proud of the first one as that's the one that started you on the path of learning! Be fun to see you go back and do a Mark II of the early ones 😊
The first model is fab Sam. Captures aura of some hard working industrial monster from the 1800's that was battered and dirty and lived a short life of bodged repairs and oily tea. Absolutely love it.😊
your locos are incredible Sam! I love how you can see your confidence improve through each successive model! Definitely would say 552 is my favourite! If you're looking for suggestions for future locomotives, why not try (if it's possible) an era 1 loco.. You have The Rocket, but what about the other locos from the Rainhill Trials? how about Sans Pareil or novelty? heck even the cycloped! Would definitely be a challenge!
hi sam. at last a catwalk of sams unique models starting from your first build upto your present build. you should always be proud of your first model because that led to your present day models well done
Sam every journey starts with the first step and is the learning curve to better things. To get your head around what you have to achieve in order to make 3D printed models is a minefield but with perseverance you have achieved the goals you aspire too. Well done and yes you inspire others in this great hobby.
The gresleys rocket fan idea was done before for james may's great train race attempt two, however it went horribly wrong as the engine, was not fitted with brakes, and then after rerailing it they tested its speed and it derailed at such a high speed it ripped itself to bits, though gresleys rocket has a much smaller fan so it is superior in that sence, so its not top heavy, if only it had a coupling haha As you can tell, gresleys rocket is my favourite, love a wacky idea
I can see there’s real potential for progress. With the pace of technology the quality will continue to improve in the years ahead... many more will all be making our own models. Who needs Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol and the likes?
It's really amazing how far your 3D printed projects have come. I remember when you teased the prototype as an idea you were working on before you knew it was possible to make a fully 3D printed loco, I never imagined it would turn into multiple proper models! I think my favorite is either the Manning Wardle L Class or Old Coppernob personally, but they're all fantastic- even the prototype 4-4-0!
The prototype looks good I mean even real locomotive designers have designs that failed you got to start somewhere and it's a heck of alot better than I could do
I would quite like to see you make a Lancashire & Yorkshire Class 23. A ready to tun model has never been made, whilst it has a large saddle tank and inside cylinders, so I imagine it would be quite easy to make and add weight to make it pull better The Class 23 were rebuilt from Class 25s. They literally removed the tender and added a saddle tank and bunker, so if you wanted to you could modify that into a Class 25
I have an idea, for a 3D print. "Uncle Fredrickson's Tender Tank". An 0-6-0 Saddle Tank with it's coal bunkers between the tank and cab, an open cab with 2 rotating gates at the back so it can be used as a shunter, or a tender engine (Gates flush with the back of the loco for shunting, and flush with the sides of the cab for tender). It would have one of those HO/OO scale couplings, but is also equipped with a tender coupling underneath.
I've been designing and 3D printing a garden scale tank engine over the course of this year, and have found the big strength of 3D printing is being able to easily iterate on parts that weren't quite right the first or second time. Rather than sanding, I've had best results splitting up parts so smooth flat sides can be printed flat, and enabling ironing in the slicer. It makes the print take longer but can dramatically reduce post-processing.
I think that both Coppernob and the 552 look great! My preferred one is the 552, mainly because of the smart livery. I'd be more than happy to have a loco similar to these in my collection. I genuinely believe that they can compete with professionally made ones of the post 2000 era. And they very definitely look better than my two locos from cheap Märklin starter sets from around 1980. So now, I'm just waiting until Sam's trains trains starts mass production. Edit: what I meant of course was Sam's trains' trains, the trains from the Sam's trains RU-vid channel 😉
Hello Sam, have you heard of the GWR Garratts? They were 2 proposed designs that never came to fruition. One is a 2-8-0+0-8-2 (using 28XX chassis), the other is a 4-6-0+0-6-4 (using Hall chassis). With both chassis being readily available in RTR, you can combine 3D printing (for the body etc.) with RTR to create these 2 very unique models.
Impressively designed, engineered and produced RUNNING train engines. The painting is also near professional quality. Thanks for sharing these really nice train engines.
Last summer on the first of fifteen days of BritRailPass took an early ride to York entered the National looked at my left and at a distance the first I catched was the Gladstone so I yelled to myself Sam's Trains!
And I just designed and printed 2 HO flat cars. Then I watched the two videos with your engines in them, which is an inspiration to try to do the same. Take pride in that first engine you made. The first is always a prototype, and one you learn from. Love them all as you showed them, and I think I want to do it as well. I did the flat car, because I like flat cars, and it was a good start to try to make something that worked the first time. It also cost me about $20 less to print it then buy one, but paint is not my strong point. I like you masking you did on the handles, and I might try that. Feel pride for what you did, and let your chest swell. Job well done on something you can't buy.
There are actually 3 L class engines in preservation, 2 are at the Middleton railway being sir Berkeley and Mathew Murray with Winston Churchill at Birmingham
You are amazing at what you do and I'd love to do what you have done someday! I'd love to see you try and pull off designing something like the L&YR 29 experimental Mogul, the 5AT, or the 'Q1 Pacific' someday!
Got an idea for you Sam: a Midland Railway 115 class, also known as a Midland Spinner. It’s another NRM loco that I don’t think is professionally manufactured. Maybe when it’s back on display you should take a look.
Sam, all the models are beautiful, including the first one. Your progress have been astonishing. Can I request you to please make a 3D printed running model of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) steam engines?
We've followed all of your 3D builds Sam and once you had it going with the Gladstone they all have cracked us up. Admittedly, the Furness #3 still is our favourite as well but the 552 is coming in very close. Especially its blue colour and all the details are spectacular. 3D Printing generally has reached a point where factory standard locos and rolling stock have become attainable as we have seen on another channel. Tonnes of online sellers of 3D files for modellers are available now for just a few dollars per download, or even for free. E.g., we wanted to have catenary but Märklin's own are extremely overly expensive. We downloaded the necessary prototypical 3D files and had them printed for just a fraction of the price. It is time that manufacturers should be getting very worried perhaps... Cheerio.
So glad you made this video, as it gives us a great look at your progress over time. Your first loco was already something more than most people could build on their own, but my goodness have you improved! Awesome work, Sam!
1950's scifi themed, something from the buster crabbe era buck rodgers or flash gorden, it would be nice to have a couple of rocket ships running round.
They look amazing. It would be a great to get them professionally printed on industrial printers and painted by specialists to see what can be done with your designs.
Hey Sam. I wanted to say that the concept locomotive isn't hideous at all. We all gotta start somewhere and I remember building my first proper model kit it went bad quite quickly and the fact that it runs so nicely is quite an amazing achievement. The Manning Wardle as well. That looks very cute and amazing. You upped your game with every locomotive, the big one being Gladstone. That was a big milestone with the lining I remember and how it has more power/torque than some professional manufacturers locos show your talent and your craftsmanship. My favorite is probably Old Copperknob as I've seen her this April in the NRM. Still almost looks brand new even 170 years later. Your model does so too. The Bachmann Lafayette of yours reminds me of it a little bit with the large firebox. 552 also looks amazing. Very eye catching in that GER ultramarine blue. For suggestions for future models I always wanted to see someone do the GER A55 Decapod, the large ten wheeled tank engine which was absolutely massive. I think that would have enough space for a five pole motor and good weights to make it as powerful as the real thing. Generally, obscure prototype locos or the LMS Fury that would be cool as well. Great video Sam 👍
Seeing these 3-D printed locos is really starting to motivate me to make my own custom models whenever I decide to get back into HO/OO gauge engines again. As for potential suggestions, I might have some unique locos. I’ve actually done some research and as far as I know, no major manufacturers ever produced any of these locos here. -The Haydock Foundry Well Tank Engine (0-6-0) -KUR ED1 Class (2-6-2) -GER A55 Class Decapod (0-10-0) -BR 11001 Diesel (0-6-0)
Amazing Journey Sam. The Great Eastern Livery looks great. Some challenging ideas for future projects. Great Western Broad Gauge Iron Duke 4-4-2, This will mean 3D printing Brunel style bulk road track with longitudinal sleepers and cross ties with maybe normal rail clipped in. A big challenge but how great would a broad gauge train be !
Ive been looking at 3d printing diesels and electrics, my First project Im going to do is the Class 599 Tyne and Wear Metrocars once I get my Ender 3 Neo. Good thing is with Electric and Diesel locos is that most bogies are either available as spares or able to be easily modified from spares
The cab interior of your first engine looks like a really surprised face, Sam. Don't knock yourself over this - it's a brilliant proof of concept, and well done for creating it from scratch.
That first loco, put an O guage figure on the tender and it becomes a miniature railway loco. I'd live to see a diesel loco, or even one of the early LMS electrics.
Courage mon brave! You've taken me right back to covering my school boy bedroom in white plaster dust and my first few (failed) attempts with the Linka OOscale model building moulds. The branch line to mainline success is chossed - up with missteps, shall we say. Ee bah gum lad wilt tha juss luke ow far tharve come in a few short months! I'm going to dig out the Linka sets now and see if it was my impatience or if I'm simply crap at it.
Haha Sam don’t let anyone in the blackcountry know you said they were in brum, you’ll never hear the end of it 😂 I was sceptical in the extreme about the coupling rods but I’ve followed your lead in doing an 0-4-0 as a freelance saddle tank but did it outside frame outside cranks using class 08 wheel sets as practise for a GWR 4-4-0 3521 class, and yeah, works! Before that I’d only modified donor chassis to suit 3D printed bodies (changed wheel sizes, cut and shut) or done a loco chassis but with old tender drive units, but you inspired me to do something 100%, well except the gears; the wheel set already had a drive axle and I hand a screw for the motor so…
Think about your journey, Sam. Look how far you've improved in just 2 years!! And in another 2 ? Your skills will improve and the 3D printers also. Pat yourself n the back. 👍👌
It's great to see how far you have come from the first one to GER 552. also, for some reason. i want Sam to build a white metal kit now. don't know why tho
If you're looking to do a larger engine then GWR no 111 'The Great Bear' would be neat. It uses the same diameter wheels as a Castle so they would be easy to get. Either that or a GWR 'River' class, an elegant early 2-4-0 design, would look great running alongside your City or Dean Goods engines.
Really impressive modeling skills. This video really highlights the whole point of 3D printing: making things you simply cannot buy. I think the main negative is that you can see layer lines in several of your models. Some of that is extrusion issues, but mostly it's an unavoidable limit of FDM printers. Someday you might consider getting a resin printer. They're a pain for a variety of reasons (fumes, the care you need to take with residual resin before washing), but they're really, really good at fine detail. Even the cheapest ones. They also tend to have small build volumes, but I think the models you're printing are well within those limits. It's only the late, really large articulated locomotives that would be too big for most resin printers.
Very nice work. You’ve come a long way, but be proud of all your locos and rolling stock. They may not be as realistic or perfect as you desire but this is oo gauge after all. And from Gladstone on, it’s hard to be critical, you did very well on them. Gotta say old copperknob is my favorite. So unique. Keep it up Sam. Your videos are loved by me and my family.
I like the Gresleys rocket and its amazing design, i like the custom locomotives too (make a Steam Turbine custom with the Turbine propeller on the Front of the Locomotive (make sure it has 4 tenders 2 for sound and 2 for motors) give it paint jobs too different colours of your own design
