3D-printed 4740cuft Covered Hopper

The Pullman-Standard PS-2CD 4750 three-bay covered hopper first started appearing in 1972, and the company continued to build them until 1981, for a total of over 54,000 units. They measured 60'. They are mainly used for hauling grain.

Ben Trousdale created the design for this hopper in a 3D CAD program.

image © Ben Trousdale; used by permission

Ben printed the parts, much like one would buy a kit of such a model (if one was available).

Here's one of them fully assembled.

Of course, the beauty of this approach is that once you have the design for the parts, and the printer to print those parts, you can have as many as you want.

This is Bill Lane's first, all-3D-printed car. He decorated it as a Conrail class H56A three-bay covered hopper, which hailed from Penn Central during the mergers that formed Conrail. The Pullman Standard 4750 hopper was designed in CAD by Ben Trousdale. Ben estimates he spent about 2,000 hours designing, printing, test-fitting, and back to designing again. Bill was able to get an early "final" print, which arrives as a kit. After assembly and then painting the model, Bill needed to find prototype information about the lettering of the car. This proved to be a challenge as so few photos of the real car exist, and those that do, didn't have legible lettering. He eventually bought an Intermountain HO-scale model, and composed the lettering from it, which he then commissioned Circus City to design and print for him. Everything except for the trucks and couplers are 3D-printed. While most of these projects have to be labors-of-love to bring to fruition, it does show that with today's technology an S-scale freight car can be produced that is likely never to be produced by any of the major manufacturers. You can read more details about Bill's adventure and a number of intermediate photos on his personal web site.