H0 underframe for Ohio Interurban freight trailers

The underframe is prepared for Kadee trucks and self made radial couplers. The bogie and coupler supports are printed with the frame. Screw holes are pre positioned. Queen posts and truss rod supports are printed also, the four rods must be added made from brass wire, holes are in place as rod anchors.

Unfortunately, I made a small error in the drawing and the bogie pedestal on the right (under the truck) is missing its rounded center piece. This time, I added it in styrene. The new version would be improved.

A 10x12 brake cylinder is positioned near the center. According to Charlie Pitts, a cylinder with an auxiliar reservoir would be more suitable. I will add this part also in the updated version.

Once the last improvements made, this underframe could be used for any version of 38' Ohio boxcars with arched roofs or railraod roofs.

Resin prints needs some cleanup

The small dots (circled red) are 3D printing residues

Resin printing produces a ready assembled body made of complex forms.

If you make abstraction of the time spent to draw the 3D file - this can take entire days or weeks - the printed shell out of the shipping box is immediatly superdetailed. But it is not ready to paint or to roll.

The resin printing process leaves remnants like this small "dots" who may look sometimes as rivets, but in fact they are not. The shell needs some cleanup before painting. For this, you need a cutting knife, fine sandpaper and a fiber glass brush. The dots are easy to cut, you must only take care not to cut away details.

Resin Print of Ohio Electric Box Car

Quicker than expected i.materialise shipped the resin print of the Ohio Electric Freight Trailer. Here is the car directly out of the shipping box, disposed on Kadee trucks.  The "kit" is split in two  parts, the carbody and the underframe with bogie pedestals and a brake cylinder.

The car parts

Left : With End doors. On the right : without

Evi M. made the quality check

CERA freight trailer diagram

CERA interurban box car

Facing a freight boom on their interurban railways in the mid-20ies, Master Mechanics of leading midwestern companies designed a standardized box car.

This car is still known as the CERA trailer, named after the Central Electric Railway Association. Even standardized, this car was built in several variants. Here is the drawing of the two basic versions, with square ends or rounded ends.

Download pdf-file (scale 1:72)

C&LE wooden freight motor

C&LE freight motor, rendering of a future H0 resin print model

Motive power is needed, work is in progress.

Ohio Electric boxcar is going 3D

Ohio Electric Interurban Freight Trailer, H0 scale

 Preparation is under way to make the 3D file "water proof" for resin printing.

The "kit" will be composed of two parts, the body and a floor ready for Kadee trucks and home build radial couplers. Some basic underbody parts as the brake cylinder are modeled.

The parts marked fluo green in the second image must be added, same as brake wheel and handlers.

New in my library : Trolley Talk

TROLLEY TALK was edited by Birdella Wagner, wife of Richard Wagner and his Wagner Car Co., a manufacturer of high-quality streetcar models and parts. 


The magazine is an incredible gold mine of rare photos and diagrams and it testifies the high level of traction model making on from the 50s.


I now own the following Volumes:


 II - issues 21-40 (1959-62)
III - issues 41 - 60 (1962-66)
IV - issues 61 - 80 (1966-70
 V - issues 81 - 100 (1970-73)
VI - issues 101 - 120 (1974-77)
VII- issues 121 - 140 (1977-80)

Unterbody parts for Interurban cars

3D drawings of resistor bank and brake cylinder scaled for H0 resin printing

Interurban motor or trailer cars has numerous unterbody parts to be reproduced at an appropriate scale for H0 models. Historic car diagrams often not help, because the carbody builder generally ommited the electrical and pneumatical parts in their drawings.

Also, the old traction model pioneers like Fritz Hardendorf were not always so exact when drawing underbody parts. Looking after your old Suydam models is not helping too : resistor banks of Sudam models are clearly oversized, as an example

So you need to search other sources. The Council of Tramway Museums of Australasia has probably the best technical online library http://www.cotma.net.au/library/ in the folder "Westinghouse" or "General Electric" you can find some rare pearls.