North Woodbury NJ 8-23-25

North Woodbury NJ 10-4-25

This train is usually 1 mile long of gondolas only.

This was a photo from a Facebook group photographer unknown.

The former Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Line (PRSL) mainline is at the end of my street running today as Conrail Shared Assets (CSAO) which is still alive and very active. Nothing is newly painted as Conrail. The locos are a mix of Norfolk Southern and CSX. There is a train running north or south about every 6 hours as well as the other branches from Camden south which I think is significant given it is just South Jersey.

In 2013 there was a new 1 mile long siding built that starts near the end of my street. When completed there was a constant cycle of mile long unit tank trains of Bakken crude oil for the refinery 2 miles away. That faded after a few years but was quickly replaced with gondola trains. In 2017 the Port Of Paulsboro opened offloading steel slabs from Russia into unit gondola trains going to Ohio. The cars eventually became all new from Norfolk Southern.

In 2024 I noticed this one brand new gondola I thought was different and interesting with a very large centersill. There were large blocks of these shiny month old cars right near my house. I was firmly in my “modern” modeling mode and thought it would be great to have THAT car in S. Something truly NEW in S Scale at a time when nothing NEW in S was happening. 212599 was built 11-24.

3D Printing is BACK

In August 2024 I got back into 3D printing after not having a working printer for about 8 years. It was great to be able to make my parts again but I have always wanted to make new rolling stock of things that do not already exist in S. That became possible in July 2025 with the purchase of new LARGE 3D printers. Printers this large did not exist back then but now are great quality and reasonably affordable. I have Anycubic M5s, M5S Pro, (not shown) M7 MAX, and M7 Pro. The M7 MAX build area is about 12” x 6” x 12”. Lots of S will fit in there meaning I can print complete cars. No piecing them together. GAME ON. The unit at right is a Phrozen Mega resin curing cabinet. This will be a totally new direction of my modeling skills and projects by being able to make cars and locos.

I found out this was a Greenbrier car. I emailed to see if they would send me drawings but they did not reply. It was not my intention to make this car first. I had 4 cars here in HO and O Scale to measure and reverse engineer into S Scale cars. My mood struck me and great weather on August 23, 2025 I was off to measure a gondola very conveniently placed where I could drive right up to it. There were 8 trips and 6 hours total in getting the info needed. I did the measuring completely by myself. This is measuring the length with my 100 foot tape measure. I taped it to the car as I went along.

Small Details Matter

These are just some of the many detail photos I took. I would measure an area and design it in Solidworks right away.

There are 2 brake cylinders. The large one is for brake application. The small bore cylinder is a slack adjuster.

Added 9-3-25

Some Progress

My project pages usually show “progress” photos. For this car being designed in Solidworks that is not really possible. I was designing and printing the latest version almost every night. There are more details to come but the basic body is done. I originally designed this as having some separate parts like ladders to glue on after the print. But they have done pretty well in my test prints attached printing all as 1 piece. That really surprised me. I want to try printing everything at once including stirrup steps when it is done.

I am having some issues with the cars warping after curing I have to figure out.

This is the most complete car to date. I added some of my brass parts. The warping is obvious here.

The Trash Can Of Shame

Added 9-18-25

In spite of getting “experience” not every print turns out well. I was experimenting with removing some of the mass supports that get created in using Auto Supports. It did not always work. Also, this car uses a significant amount of resin in the supports and raft. That is all waste.

I am mostly done designing at this point. I have to see what it looks like following the Ajax brake chain under the car. I did not originally get any photos of that. I made the walls thicker. They were .030 when I started. I made them .050. That has helped with stopping most of the warping.

My cars are completely designed and “built” in the USA. It is unfortunate that Greenbrier chose to have the real cars assembled in Mexico. When I first posted to some Facebook groups I was making this car I exchanged private messages with someone that was laid off in Chelahis Washington because of the move to Mexico. Booooo!!!

These 2 cars were featured in my YouTube here. I dare say that given how new the real car is, I am the first person in the world to have and run this car in ANY scale. I will have decals from Circus City soon. I plan on making a slab steel unit train. My current limiting factor is my supply of roller bearing trucks. I am working on that now.

Added 10-19-25

There was one more detail I wanted to add that I did not previously take detail photos of or sketch. It took a few weeks for another train to be staged on the Woodbury siding. I got the photos and sketches on 10-5-25. Once I added it to the car it was so small it is barely noticeable. But I will have something to attach the chain to down from the Ajax.

Roller Bearing Trucks

As mentioned above my supply of spare S Helper Service roller bearing trucks is not endless. You don’t see them for sale often anymore. There are other really nice 3D printed roller bearing trucks available. I have had a stash (2+ pounds!) of NWSL wheels bought at an auction 6 years ago. I have not used any of them yet. They are 33” wheels not what probably are 40”of the real car but 33” wheels are good enough for me. So the thoughts of having a car I MADE running on trucks I made really appealed to me. So I designed my own roller bearing truck.

I started by accurately measuring an Atlas O Scale truck. Reducing 25% is really easy. When reduced it was really close to S Scale. I cross cobbled with a S Helper Service bolster. It was not my original intention to make it sprung or have nylon axle bushings. I was going to make a 1 piece truck that was not sprung. Printing accurate axle holes with conical ends to match the pointed axle ends was just not going to happen. 3D printing is good but is not THAT good yet. So I tried “Tichy 3059 nylon truck bearings”. I also used NWSL 1412 springs. Both parts improved my design 100% over what I was going to make. The thoughts of a truck actually wearing out while running are all gone now. My M7 Pro printer is my highest resolution. The finish is just amazing. I am very happy with the results. I now have an endless supply of roller bearing trucks!

My next big problem I have to solve is the body warping into a swayback shape even after getting painted as seen above. That effect is fine for an older abused gondola but these are almost new. I want them to be in good condition.

Dead Almost New Printer

Just as I was getting close to the final body design my 3 month old Anycubic M7 Max printer died. That annoyed me to no end. I fought with Anycubic for a week trying to get a new printer sent. I also called eBay for a courtesy replacement since I have been a VERY ACTIVE user for over 25 years. eBay was NO help. The ONLY offer being made was for Anycubic to send a new LCD screen. I never heard of that before – ever. I was being forced to fix my own 3 month old printer. No return and replace – fix it yourself. That is just what happened.

Since the printer was already emptied I tried a different resin – Anycubic ABS Like Pro that is not supposed to warp. I was using Anycubic ABS Like V2. They are different! The first test print was pretty good. It absolutely is stiffer.

Revised 10-19-25

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