Mill Creek Stone Arch Model Railroad Bridge
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A cut stone faced, segmented arch concrete railroad bridge in Dexter Michigan over the Mill Creek, for a model railroad.
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Model information
- Source
- Printables
- Category
- Vehicles & Machines
- License
- Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial — NoDerivatives
This bridge is similar to the Dexter Railroad bridge shown here:
https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=other/dexter/
and is located just east of that bridge. It is a segmented arch stone bridge over Mill Creek in Dexter. As can be seen in the photos the prototype bridge has been reinforced and a bike trail installed under it. The bridge is modeled in HO scale.
Creating the texture of cut stone was a challenge. Ultimately I settled on “procedural texture”, which means generating the texture using a program, which means it is not the exact texture of the prototype, but is a simulation. In this case the program was a combination of python and openscad. The resulting models should have adequate detail if printed with 0.4 or even better 0.25 mm nozzle and a small layer height. The 3mf file includes one side of the bridge itself, a separate model for the parapet on which a handrail should be mounted, and a retaining wall. The opposite side of the bridge and the remaining retaining walls can be created using the mirror feature in PrusaSlicer. I have included all of the files that I used to develop the model, but they are not particularly user friendly. The texture is in the various “cut” files, which are modules that create a negative volume of the associated shape. My plan is to use these to make bridge abutments, piers and tunnel portals that use similar cut stones. I have seen these on the old Maryland Western RR and older buildings, in addition to the Michigan Central bridges.
I printed samples of the different parts of the bridge, but have not printed the whole bridge. If anyone does print this, please post photos of your make and provide feedback on how it looks. I did find that it prints best with the texture on the side of the print, and the parts are arranged this way on the print bed in the 3mf file.