In this week’s post I have another 3D printed part to share with you.  This time it’s a set of specially shaped bricks for a OO Scale signal box.

The Somerset & Dorset Railway’s terminus station at Bournemouth West had its own signal box, as most stations did.  Sadly the station and signal box are no longer there but a group from the local area are recreating the terminus in OO Scale.  I have already 3D printed an unusual chimney cap for the station building for them, which you can read about here.

The signal box was constructed with a brick base and wooden top which is common for the UK.  However, just to be different, this one had a brick castellated feature around its lower windows.  In the image below, captured from a video taken from a passing train,  you can just make out the feature.

This has proven a very difficult building to find images for, so below is a photo of Carterhouse Junction signal box, take on the 5th April 1988 by Harry Gardner.  It has a similar detail around the bricked up windows.

Luckily a fellow modeller, Frank, has painstakingly gathered enough information to 3D model the signal box and below are some screen shots from his 3D model.

Using measurements from Frank’s computer model the group will scratch build the signal box.  But although Frank’s model has provided them with the information needed to do the scratch build it’s not a suitable file for 3D printing, and to make their lives a bit easier they have asked me to 3D print the brick feature.  As you can see in the image above the bottom feature consists of two sloping sets of bricks.  The top feature has one sloping brick and one alternate brick rotated by 90 degrees to form the brick castellations.

This was a fairly easy geometric shape to draw for 3D printing and as you can see below the two parts will come in strips, each measuring 51mm in length.  Each brick, for 00 Scale, is 1mm wide so this can be 3D printed in Shapeways’ White Strong & Flexible material.

The WS&F will be ideal because the slightly grainy texture will help it look like brick, and this material also absorbs paints, leaving a matt finish, which again helps it to look like brick.

As with everything else I’ve ordered recently, these are still being printed but they are due to be shipped this week. So hopefully I’ll have them shortly and will be able to share them with you in next week’s post, along with the other parts.