When I created a platform subway lift this was the next practical design to design. I also may need this in the near future for my local model club where we are building a new layout. This design is a mix of different real life footbridges, the idea was to create a design that was easy to print on a resin or filament printer and will also be fairly robust on people’s layouts.
This is a design that has lots of variations and items within the design. This modular design is made up of Steps, Lifts, Bridge Deck and interchange sections. The design has been designed as modular so it can be used on stations with multiple platforms. The bridge decks come in multiple lengths and are labelled with length, these come in 100mm, 120mm, 140mm, 160mm, 180mm and 200mm lengths. I have also done a support section for placement between tracks that can support two deck sections together.
With model railways there is always a compromise and this is a fairly compact design to help it fit most model railways. This items has been designed for 1/76 scale railway but can be used for other railway scales.
The lift tower is approximately 32mm wide, 38mm long and 120mm tall.The staircase is approximately 32mm wide, 100mm long and 80mm highThe bridge deck is a 32mm wide and 25mm high in various lengths.The interchange section between lift tower, steps and bridge decks is approximately 32mm square.
The bridge section has been designed to be 55mm above the platform and is approximately 67mm above the tracks (UK platform specification is that the platform surface should be 914mm above the top of the track which equals 12mm)
designed at OO gauge, 1/76.2 scale but can easily be scaled for other gauges.for HO gauge print at 87%, 1/87 Scale,for O gauge UK at 175%, 1/43.5 Scale,for O gauge International print at 158%, 1/48 Scale,for N gauge print at 51.49%, 1/148 Scale, (Caution: I have not printed this model in N gauge so I can’t guarantee its printability)
All items are design to be printed in the correct orientation with minimal supports for a FDM printer, items have been designed to minimise supports needed.
The examples in the pictures were printed on an AnyCubic Proton 3D Resin printer and a Bambu Labs A1 FDM Printer. I do recommend a more modern FDM printers over models that came out pre 2021 as the print quality will be better.As normal with my designs, there is a balance between accuracy and printability, hopefully not affecting the look of the model too much. This design was especially difficult to get a balance between accuracy and printability.
For FDM printing I used a 0.4mm nozzle and a layer height of 0.08mm using PLA+ filament.For Resin I printed with a layer height of 0.04mm using Water Washable Resin
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