Table of Contents
X31 Balsa Model Project
Victorian Railways (Australia) X31 diesel locomotive. Mainly balsa, with some 3D printed parts.
Click image for larger view
The model is at 1:20 scale, approximately 980 mm long. Construction began in 2015, but the project got shelved many times. Covid lockdowns provided time to finish the model… almost!
Background
24 X-Class mainline diesel locomotives were manufactured in Australia by Clyde Engineering under licence from General Motors EMD (ElectroMotive Division.) In 2015 EMD was sold by GM to Progress Rail, a subsidiary of Caterpillar, and renamed Electro Motive Diesel.
The X series locos were delivered to Victorian Railways in three batches between 1966 and 1976. Series one (model G16C) X31 to X36 and series two (model G26C) X37 to X44, were manufactured in Clyde’s Granville NSW plant; the third series (also G26C models) X45 – X54 were made at Clyde’s Rosewater plant in South Australia.
Clyde’s Builder’s Plate on the X31
Inspiration and source material
The X31 commenced service with Victorian Railways on 16th August 1966 and was withdrawn from service in 2009. In january 2010 the X31 was transferred to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, where it was restored and has since been regularly hired out to commercial rail operators. A visit to an SRHC open day provided the opportunity to take lots of photos of the X31. In addition, web-sourced photographic and diagram resources were used.
X-31 at Seymour Railway Heritage Centre open day, 22 October 2015
Clyde engineering diagram of X31 – X36
Initial balsa construction
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Diagrams were printed at actual model size at 1:20 scale and served as templates for sizing and cutting the balsa sheets.
Bogies
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Balsa sides cut with a Dremel mounted on pine blocks. Wheels were 50mm diameter furniture coasters!
3D printed bogie update
The bogies for the X-Class model are essentially the same for my S-Class model, which featured 3D printed bogies.
Check the S-Class page and scroll down to ‘Bogies’
3D printed parts
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Designed in Lightwave3D,
Couplers
These couplers are static only; they don’t actually work
Roof fans
Brake cylinders and brake assembly
Non-moving, static only
Brake cylinders glued with hot glue gun. 3D-printed ladder. Railing is leftover sprue from model aeroplane kits.
Hand brake
Sanders
Staff exchanger
Cab interior 3D
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I modeled all the cab interior fitting in Lightwave3D, specifically for printing on a 3D printer
STL 3D Print files
Download my 3D printed part .stl files here.
(43Mb zip file containing the stl files.)
Some stl files may contain non-manifold errors (not ‘watertight’),
so may require fixing before slicing! I used the free online tool
Formware Free Online STL Repair
Painting
Dulux Royal blue (spray can) and yellow One Shot signwriter’s paint
Louvre door artwork drawn in Adobe illustrator,
printed on colour laserprinter
