When you do not know where you're going, get there, and as soon as possible

Traction Terminal Waiting Room, front view (click to enlarge)

For years ago, I worked on 3D drawings of the Indianapolis Traction Terminal. This left to some results like this and this, but all this work remained essentially unfinished. In recent times, there was a long gap, as I turned to draw Interurban cars, and finally started to make 3D prints of Interurban cars in H0.

Traction Terminal Waiting Room, rear view with hollow structures

But when you are able print H0 scale carbodies, you must be able to print H0 buildings?


In real life, things are not so easy:  I unfolded my old 3D data files and stated that all the work must be done again a second time. Those 3D drawings are not "printable", because I ignored this technique and the requirements.

Some details must be simplified, as the minimum detail offset for 3D printers is 0.3mm, and minimum wall thickness is 1 mm. This is nearly invisible, but otherwise your 3D file is not usable. And more important : 3D printing remains expensive, and you pay the volume, not the details. This means that I had to throw away all the plain pillars and walls and replace them by sophisticated hollow structures, with as less wall thickness as possible.

As a test object, I redraw the Market Street Elevation of the Traction Terminal waiting room. This is only a small part of the entire structure, but it contains many elements that could be reused by "copy and past" for the Terminal Building. If this works, the dream of a self made "plastic kit" of the Traction Terminal could become reality. Obviously, 3D printing technique will be applicable only for building, not for the shed. The train shed could be produced with laser cut styrene parts, but this is another story...

Fortunately, when you do a work twice,  the second time it is often quickly done. So now the Market Street Elevation is nearly "ready to print". I must just add doors and make some minor corrections. You may have noticed that the eagle is missing. Actually, I am not yet experienced enough to modelize the stone eagles in 3D. This will be a project for this winter.