I've come to conclusion that in the very limited free time I have nowadays, I haven't been utilizing my lunch hour at work to the fullest efficiency for modeling projects. Other colleagues have done the same and it hadn't occurred to me that I could have a whole project completed in 60 minute increments. How many increments is unknown, but that's part of the fun as long as there's no deadline!

For maximum eccentricity, I've decided to begin work on a miniature railroad that will circle above my desk. For the prototype I've picked a train I've been itching to model for probably 6 years, mostly for it's obscurity and mid century streamlined look:

The Viewliner

"The fastest miniature train in the world!"

Photo: Gorillasdontblog

I'm taking a different route to modeling than usual for hobby time and tying in my knowledge of rapid prototyping to build the train quickly, since the cars are repetitive and are too fragile in scale to be done with resin castings. Modeling the train digitally will also allow me to play with the scale and sizing along the way. The ultimate end product will also be something that can be reproduced easily; should I want a second train, I can have one produced in a fraction of the time of the first one. I'm also considering throwing it on Shapeways so others can have their own trains, in potentially other scales.

Scale is the most difficult thing to work with when it comes to modeling Disney trains. Not only are the scales funky, finding the proper powered chassis very difficult to find. The mine train model proved that with the tender powered trains. Finding a drive chassis that could fit all the requirements of functioning as well as work aesthetically is no easy task. The same goes for the Viewliner.

In recent years, I've moved away from "train scales" such as HO, O, N, etc. and have been using ratios more along 1:100, 1:50, and 1:25. The math is much easier to handle! For replicating Disney scales, I try to start from the ground up and have the track gauge set the scale so it's less confusing. I knew I wanted to have the layout curves fit under 18" in diameter, so that kept me in the N Gauge area for track. With N gauge, the Viewliner's 30" track puts me around 1:85. Pretty close to HO scale or rather HOn30. The issue lies with the Viewliner's size. In "Disney Scale" the Viewliner is considered "one half of full size", which makes it smaller than the Disneyland Railroad-- an already difficult railroad to model accurately in small scale. You can see how small it is here:




Knowing that the locomotive is 18' 4" long, that makes a miniature version (of just the locomotive) only 2.5" long! It will indeed be tiny, but accurate in scale if I want something functional to buzz around my desk at lunch. I searched the internet looking at various N scale locomotives that had the right truck and wheel spacing as well as the smallest mechanism possible. I was originally going to use a Kato F7 locomotive chassis, since the wheel spacing proportions is absolutely perfect. However, in scale, it's much too large overall for 1:85 and I would have to bump the scale up to 1:50 and have a narrow gauge rendition version. The larger scale would also force me to space the cars out so they could make the curves. Not desirable since I'm such a stickler for making everything perfect.

I ended up with a Bachmann N scale 44 ton switcher as the best candidate. I was hesitant to use a Bachmann model due to their typical poor performance, but this tiny loco changed my stance on that and smoothly glided up and down my test track. Unfortunately, the wheels are a little but too far apart, but the trucks are the right proportional spacing. To compensate, I ended up bumping the scale up to 1:70-- an odd scale, but the proportions are the closest. I will also have to adjust the skirt panels around the trucks to accommodate the wheel spacing on each truck.

With the track now .1" smaller due to a larger scale, the truck spacing, the locomotive cab filled with drive mechanism, and people figures mostly likely going to be HO figures, I'd say those are the least amount of allowable compromises for having a fully functioning Viewliner as accurate as possible--which will be very small in size. If anything, it will only bug me more than anyone else looking at the model so it's not a big deal, should anyone really notice those things that closely.

With the scale established, finally some modeling time! At least digitally! All of the surface modeling that will be used to rapid prototype the parts is being done in Rhino.

Since this is a "lunch hour project" my timing can still be sporadic based on other things in the works. Posts to follow won't be as formal as this one, since this is more of an introduction to catch up on what's been done. But I will throw an update on here as things progress. Stay tuned!


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