I really like the look of these 60' offset double plug door boxcars, and have wanted these for some time.
On June 25, 2012, I received my first ever 3D printing order, from a company called Shapeways. I had seen examples of their product at MakerFaire, and was impressed enough to try them (also, I didn't find a lot of other options).
After tinkering with my 3D Sketchup model, I submitted the form to them. The trickiest thing was making sure that the object was printable, that is, not too thin for the material.
At first review, the Shapeways output was a bit disappointing. The surface texture, which I knew wouldn't be like smooth styrene, was actually rougher than I thought. I did try to bond onto the plastic a small piece of styrene (thinking ahead to gluing on door tracks, locking bars, etc. as well as gluing the veneer of the walls to the styrene box, ends, floor, etc.) and the bond seemed to work with Testor's plastic solvent; next I'll try the acrylic weld from the plastic store.
