Wheel holders for displaying trains

[Phoxtane]

Whenever I put train cars on display in my room, they tend to roll away unless I put them at a funky angle, since the shelves aren't level. I designed a set of holders that the Lego train wheel piece sits on so they don't run away:

The nice render above is sized for bogies with two studs between the wheel pieces - I designed up holders for single wheel bogies, and holders for bogies from zero to two studs between the wheels as seen below:

These should help keep my trains from rolling away. I'll have to do them in gray the next time I have gray loaded into the printer.

[zephyr1934]

Interesting stands.

[Duq]

Wouldn't it be easier to just put something under the axle to lift the wheels a little off the floor/shelf?

[Tcm0]

Or to put them on track and connect the track and the wheels with a lego piece.

[dr_spock]

Nice idea.  Add some free rolling wheels to the stands and you could have a train engine stationary testing/tuning rig. 

 

[M_slug357]

((I'd say the easiest solution would've been to level out your shelf spaces))

[Phoxtane]

On 1/2/2018 at 2:20 AM, Duq said:

Wouldn't it be easier to just put something under the axle to lift the wheels a little off the floor/shelf?

 

On 1/2/2018 at 5:48 AM, Tcm0 said:

Or to put them on track and connect the track and the wheels with a lego piece.

Doing this means I don't have to use actual track, which is always in short supply. In addition, this design doesn't require me to find an attachment point under the train car, since it traps the wheels and prevents the car from moving that way. It's certainly not the easiest way to do this, but since I have the CAD skills and a 3D printer I thought it would be fun to work on.

I'll probably rework the shape to look a bit more like a Lego track piece anyway; I started with the profile shape of a Lego track piece, and worked from there to get the wheel traps on the inside of the rails.

 

17 hours ago, M_slug357 said:

((I'd say the easiest solution would've been to level out your shelf spaces))

I think the even easier solution would have been glue, but nobody's happy when you try to use that...

My 'shelves' are more like the tops of plastic drawer units and bookcases - things that you can't really level anyway.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very nice, vey useful

[bobbybats]

I like it! Do you have an STL file of the models? 

[Phoxtane]

On 1/3/2018 at 1:25 PM, bobbybats said:

I like it! Do you have an STL file of the models? 

Yes, but I want to bundle them all up together before I put them online. I want to get a triple-axle version, as well as ones for the PF and 9V train motors. I'll also want to print them out and test that they work properly!