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….....................--- 1950's White COE Fuel Truck ---

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You can find all the files to 3D print these on my thingiverse.come account ( HERE ).

While looking for a vehicle that I could put on the deck on top of one of my 3D printed switch machines I came across pictures of different White trucks in the 1950's.

I liked the tanker above that was shown in a now defunct Craig's List add.

I couldn't actually find any measurements online for these trucks so just kind of guessed at them. With a rought idea of what I wanted and having never tried designing a 3D truck to print before I forged ahead and pulled up Fushion 360 on the computer.

Not great but for a first attempt I'm happy. The couple printed examples above look a little rough but they are really blown up a lot larger than real life in the picture.

Just looking at them from 12 inches or so they aren't really too bad and I think after a little sanding/filing and paint they will pass my inspection.

I just guessed at a lot of the measurements and with no real pictures from the back just added features that I liked, the only one that it has to please. It is printed in three parts, the cab, the rear tank and the wheels/tires. They will need to be glued together. I have some small locator holes on the backside of the cab and the front of the tank. They could be drilled out for something like part of a round toothpick that could be used to locate the two parts during gluing. Not sure that will actually be needed though. I'll glue these after painting and hopefully get some more pictures up then.

If you have a 3D printer or access to one you can get the printer files on my thingiverse.com account ( HERE ).

The truck can be printed as a stand alone object for your layout and I'll work on getting a version that will mount on a deck that goes on top of the 3D printed switch machine.

============ Improved Version ===========

If you want to print this out and go to my account on thingiverse.com you won't find the version above anymore. You will find this version which I think is an improvement over what is above. To download those files go ( HERE ).

Next I went on and designed one with a more realistic wider tanker part and added a little more detail to it with a top fill fitting.

Keep in mind that these pictures are a lot larger than the actual printed truck. You can see the lines where the FDM printer layed down the plastic above but in real life from about 12 inches or further away they aren't visible. This is with an Ender 3 Pro that I'm using. The results might be different with another printer.

Also the pictures you see here are of the model straight out of the printer and the model hasn't been cut, filed or sanded at this point, which I would do to some point before painting.

If you want really fine detail you might want to look at a resin printer. Look at the pros and cons of both. For my use at this point I chose a FDM printer and have been happy with it. Who knows at some point I might look at a resin printer but for now I'm very happy with the quality of the Ender.

I didn't have a rear view of a White fuel truck to work with so just kind of freelanced that along with the top and side views. I've seen some resin models that do have some really fine details in these areas. For me this is good enough. I'll sand and file a little and call it good and paint it.

White used the same cab on a number of different trucks that were designed for different applications and I'll probably design some other back-halves to use with the same cab over time meanwhile here is a shorter version of the one above that you can printout now.

Above you can see the two versions together. These are pretty much how they come out of the Ender 3 Pro printer so some cleanup is still necessary.

On the next page you will find where I've adapated one of these to glue to a deck that can be used on top of the switch machine I've designed. You then push the truck back and forth to throw the turnout and slide switch from one position to another.

You can find all the files to 3D print these on my thingiverse.come account ( HERE ).

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