Javelin O gauge Black 5 (part the first)

Hello,

As my first post to my new blog I thought I'd better introduce myself.
I've been Railway Modelling some 60 years. It all started with a Hornby Clockwork set.
Over the years I've done OO/EM/P4, N and OOn, and a very brief adventure in O.
I've modelled GWR, LMS, MR (only because I was living in W. Midlands at the time), FS Italia, and Zillertahlbahn NG.
Marriage and 2 daughters were a major interruption. After many years, circumstances changed (divorce) and a few flurries in railways followed, but earning a living was always in the way, along with extensive travel to South America (Colombia).
Retirement finally allowed me to catch up on what had been happening in the RM scene in the intervening years.
DCC was the major revelation.
Having joined my local MR club in Inverness, I was convinced that  DCC++ and JMRI was the way to go. Great, cheap and easy (!).

Where does the 3D printing come into it?
I've always worked with computers on a hardware level and economic 3D printing (FDM) was becoming available.There was a competition online some 5 years ago to win a Hictop 3d printer. I WON IT.

Well, I thought, what can I model? Having spent so much time in Bogotá, Colombia, I had been intrigued by the Tourist train (Ferrocarril Turístico de la Sabana). Looking into the strange history of Colombian railways (a future article) I thought why not model Colombian railways?

All Colombian railways were 914mm gauge, most of the stock was American (locos were mainly Baldwin, diesels GE) and some European.

3' 0" (914mm) gauge equates to 12mm in 4mm/ft scale, 10.5mm if working in HOn3, and 9mm working in 3mm/ft scale.

A 3D model of a 4mm/ft (1:76) GE UB10B Loco was designed and 3D printed as a set of parts.

Layout restrictions mean that now I am working to a scale of 1:100 (3mm/ft scale, 9mm gauge).
The aforementioned GE UB10B was rescaled and printed. Success.

And now most of my time is spent with repairing other peoples' locos and other stuff such as occasional sub-titling work for Italian TV.. Damn, I'm busier now in retirement than I ever was when working for a living.

One day I'll build that Colombian layout!