And the digital models can be downloaded using the links below:
Think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Hoodwinked, and maybe some Spy vs Spy and you have an idea of what I have in mind for this model. When I look at some of the pictures of mine trolleys on the web, this looks nothing like them, but that’s OK. The original model was something I designed for a game asset when I was playing around with the Unreal Game Engine.
The overall dimensions are 65mm wide x 70mm tall x 140mm long. The track gauge is about 38mm. The wheels have reasonably wide flanges and so can ride on rails up to about 40mm between rail centrelines.
The box on top was made from iceblock sticks stuck together with PVA glue. There is nothing special about this. The iceblock sticks were painted with a sepia coloured brown acrylic house paint without undercoat. This allowed the paint to penetrate the wood nicely and give an aged stained look. I have not included an STL for this part seeing as it is so simple to construct anyway.
Things you will need in addition to the printed bits;
- 3 x 4mm rods of some sort for the axles. These are cut to 55mm long. I used dowel.
- Popsicle sticks. The dimensions for the “planks” are provided here as a suggestion and are based on the standard popsicle stick size available here which are 10mm wide x 2mm thick x 113mm long.
* 13 x 100mm long planks.
* 10 x 40mm planks.
* 8 x 50mm planks.
* 2 x 58mm planks.
* 4 x 15mm planks. - Small screw to hold on the control lever if you are using it.
- 1.5mm rod for the control lever.
- Some electrical tape or duct tape to made the handle on the control lever.
- Glue. I use an epoxy glue, buy anything without too much flexibility will work.
In the photo of the model shown above, the channel sections used in the buffers were cardboard. This meant that I ended up with a slightly dinged up look to it, which suited the look I was after. The original digital model and all STLs include these channel sections as you can see in the rendered view and exploded views below.
Rendered view of the mine trolley model in Blender.
Exploded view of the mine trolley model to show the various parts.
View of the mine trolley model without the top “crate”.
When you print this you will end up with a handful of small components. Some assembly is required!
Here is a guide to what goes with what.
Step 1 - Assembling the “Motor spine”
Step 2 - Fitting the wheels
When you cut the axles and mount the wheels, make sure the wheels are pushed on about 4.5mm from the ends of axles.
Step 3 - Adding support frame
Step 4 - Adding the brakes
Step 5 - Assembling the undercarriage
Step 6 - Assembling the buffers
Step 7 - Putting it together
Downloading the Models
There are several models available. They include the Blender model and the STLs for the components. I have also made available an .obj format version of the assembled model for people not using Blender.
You can download the models from various sources:
Thingiverse
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2396349
Youmagine:
https://www.youmagine.com/designs/mine-trolley-for-stop-motion
And from this website:
Enjoy
BTW. There is now a Go-Motion version of this (not that it works as well as I had hoped). you can find out about this here: Go-Motion Mine Trolley
Also if you are looking for tracks to display your mine trolley on, then have a look at these parametric track models. You will just need to set the track gauge to 36mm and sleeper length to 58mm to be compatible with this model.
This design by Hamish Trolove is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.