Sometimes our community’s creations end up taking on a life all their own after printing. Shapeways designer/Z scale legend Stony Smith’s Railroad Snow Plow is slightly narrower than a penny, and yet, he challenged a fellow Z Central Station community member to power it. That is, to power the rotary blade that, in full scale, would serve to displace large quantities of snow on treacherous mountainous tracks.
Here’s the model as initially printed:
And, here’s the amazing response to Stony’s challenge, from Z Central Station member David Wolf:
David started by removing the rotary blade and drilling out the center of the wall behind the blade to install a bearing that would let the blade spin. That’s when things got tricky. The tiny gear motor, which spins the rotary blade, didn’t quite line up with the plow shaft. So, David modified the gear box and fashioned a connector between the motor and the rotary shaft with surgical tubing. Brilliant!
Before and after modification:
But, of course, David didn’t stop there. The plow also needed lights and windows. So, he used two SMD LEDs for the cab and head lights and cut clear plastic bits for the windows.
Then, all that was left was to fit the decoder in place and wire it all up:
And the rest is stuff of Z scale legend:
Read David’s full post at trainboard.com, and let us know if you’re working on any cool model train projects you’d like us to feature!