Train Coal Car

Coal served the steam engine as its primary fuel before oil became the preferred energy source. Steam engines had a tender car carrying the dusty stuff along with water, but the engines also towed long trains of coal from the mines to electric power plants and steel mills for years and years. Coal still moves by rail, though deisel engines do the hauling today.

This design tries slanted car sides and ends as the "new" exploration. They are made from relatively simple polygons extruded to 2mm thickness, long ones for the two sides and shorter ones for the car's ends. Extruded polygon triangles form the side supports.

module contend(){
linear_extrude(2)
    polygon( points=[[0,0],[40,0],[60,50],[-20,50]], paths=[[0,3,2,1,0]],convexity=10);
}
module contside(){
linear_extrude(2)
    polygon( points=[[0,0],[carlen-20,0],[carlen,50],[-20,50]], paths=[[0,3,2,1,0]],convexity=10);    
}
module support(){
    linear_extrude(5)
    polygon( points=[[0,0],[15,0],[20,45]], paths=[[0,2,1,0]],convexity=10);
    }

Version00 (for me, the first try is always called version zero) of a project almost always uses hard-coded sizes for parts. Later versions are typically the stage at which I make use of variables to allow resizing the project easily. This car is still at an early stage of development. Perhaps I will eventually think more naturally about variables and will use them from the very beginning. This time, the basic version doesn't need tweaking for my needs, so here it is, as-is.

REMINDER: This car is designed to be attached to the flatcar project. This project's code produces only the coal carrying container. For a complete train car, you will also need to print a flatcar.

Available Files:

SCAD files for study/modification and STL files for quick prints