Hi guys,
My first actual forum post here so if this should be in "Amusement rides & other construction" I'll be happy to know.
Anyways, the SS K'nex coaster system is totally amazing. For building model coasters at a decent scale I really don't know of anything better. It's super flexible, relatively cheap on second hand websites and with some creativity you can create very realistic looking supports and track shapes. I recently built Ascension and I am super happy with some of the element shapes and support structure in that coaster.
But there is one thing that always bugged me, the trains.
They are ugly, too orange and really not to scale if you compare them to the track itself. They also lose speed too fast due to the cheap plastic wheels without any bearings.
So, since I am now temporarily living in a place where I don't have space for a big model, I'd figure it would be nice to try build a train that's actually decent. Inspired by Johny's bearing axles and his amazing Magnum XL300 train (OMG that thing is gorgeous), I've ordered some 3d printed frame parts, but I want to build the meat of the train up with K'nex, since I think I'll really like the way that will look, and it would be easily customisable.
The past days I've built some seat prototypes, so far I'm really liking how this is shaping up so I thought it would be nice to share them and start a topic for the train itself, here they are . At this point the middle version has my preference.
I expect to start work on assembling the running carriage and figuring out how to mount the seats after this weekend, but no promises on updates here, I'll only do so if I'm happy with what I can show and I am fully expecting some iterations on the 3D printed parts. And who knows, maybe the entire idea fails and you won't hear a thing about it in the future . I definitely have some concerns on the weight of it all amongst others.
Have a good one and happy building.