January 13, 2013

3D Printing For Model Railroading

Locos

A British company is planning to develop 3D printing to produce short run scale locomotives that otherwise would not be available:

When people discuss the “next industrial revolution”, there’s a legitimate focus on the wild possibilities offered by 3D printing. But, in some cases, that’s only half the story: the flipside is 3D scanning, and an excellent demonstration of the interplay between these two emerging technologies can be found in the recent activities of some British model train enthusiasts.

The hobbyists have established a startup called The Flexiscale Company, which launched a Kickstarter project on Monday that aims to fund the production of model kits for several old and very obscure locomotives, the Ffestiniog Englands.

Full blog post is here.