Emettman wrote:Peco do do live frogs on their "mainline" version of OO9, but their more compact
( PECO SL-E497 Code 80 Medium Radius 'Y' Point ') might be the best option in a smaller space.I've seem those 3D printed loco kits and wondered if they were worth getting? Seems a cheap option
Mine, now over 2 years old needed some scraping/polishing to get surfaces properly smooth, but quality appears to be changing rapidly.
While there are expensive and highly detailed kits, some of the bodies seem remarkably inexpensive, at least to me.
Especially some of the OO9 railcars?
Chris
Hi Chris, just to clarify, the Peco OO9 set track points are 9" and dead frog. The Crazy Track points are all live frog, 12" for LH and RH and 18" for the Y. The Mainline points are 18" and all live frog. (All new stock, you can find older 9" live frog points from the '80s, and dead frog 12" ones from earlier times. Buy New or if secondhand check carefully before purchase!).
3D printing has come on in leaps and bounds over the past few years, the earlier stuff from Shapeways and others needed a lot of work to smooth off but was relatively cheap - Shapeways has currently - WSF (white, strong and flexible) as it says it's white and strong but detail is not so good but it's cheap(ish). Then we got FUD which was a lot smoother (just needs a clean up) and just recently XUD (slightly better), however both of them are very delicate and with detailed models you have to be careful and both cost a lot more. For me it's a no brainer, I use FUD or XUD as the stuff I model are real trains so I need the detail those two give.
Trouble with ordering from Ebay is that the cheaper stuff is likely to be WSF, hence I suggested going direct to Shapeways so you can choose the finish yourself.
Forgot to mention this manufacturer as well, Mountain may want to take a look as he does O-16.5 as well!
http://www.cwrailways.com/009-ng.html