A very very simple toy train set extension.

[FabLab Wageningen]

I reckon there are not very many owners of a Masudaya 'Panel World' toy train set here, but still...

I am an unashamed railway fan and a friend from Japan gave me a trainset for Christmas. It consists of eight puzzle -style pieces one can arrange at will to form a track set. The train - very crudely done - runs in a slot, powered by a battery. I realised the potential to add pieces of my own - so I did.

I designed the piece (double length) in LibreCAD before entering it into VCarve Pro. The outside is a simple full-depth profile cut, the slots a 2 mm. deep profile cut. For ease of work I used a 4 mm. tool along the centerline of the slot. Platform, canopy and station sign are laser-cut.

It's hardly Great Art or even breathtakingly complicated, but was a nice side project. And the train runs effortlesly.

Marcel.

[4DThinker]

While I'm not a collector of anything, or an identifiable fan of trains (or planes or cars or submarines...) I do appreciate creative uses for the CNC. Never seen a similar toy before but I like the simplicity and fact that you can make our own parts to add to the set. As for art, a little V-Carving might be an original was to add some detail, or photo carving, or... If you can find related art on the web you could print it out and spray stick it to your parts. Even a little 3D contour sculpting to areas outside the tracks to add interest to "your" parts.

Thanks for posting!
4D

[FabLab Wageningen]

thanks, 4D,

Probably I will do some extra detailing, but for now my next project is making switches. Masudaya does not make them so I really have to start from scratch here. Nice challenge - ultimately getting them automated with a servo motor.

And now I suddenly realise that, while not too many persons have 'my' type of Masudaya train set, probably a number of you will indeed have children or grandchildren with a Brio wooden train set... The idea would work the same: geometry is known and relatively simple and you can make all kinds of non-standard tracks.

Marcel.

[ken.gentry]

One of my daughter's favorite toys was a "train" set like this that had a battery powered ladybug as the locomotive. We played with this for *hours*. She would carry the ladybug around, have dinner with the ladybug, etc. She was 2 or 3 years old. Now's she's almost 23!

Such a simple and inexpensive toy that gave tons of enjoyment.

[TomWS]

Fun project. Now that you have the pattern for the basic puzzle piece it would be easy add all kind of track to your layout!.

However, if I recall correctly, Ueno Station was a bit bigger than the one in your layout

[FabLab Wageningen]

However, if I recall correctly, Ueno Station was a bit bigger than the one in your layout

Correct,

I humbly admit not making the station to scale. I've been there too, and from what I remember, the complete station in scale would not even fit in my living room.

Marcel.