Want a little rocket for your pocket?

Using one of the Toronto Public Library’s publicly accessible 3D printers, a North York father has created a scaled TTC subway car that can ride on most any simple wooden train set.

But he's not selling them. Instead, he's uploaded the design online so anyone can go the library and make their own.

“I always played with wooden trains as a kid,” Richard Audette says with a laugh. “So of course, after my two girls were born, I went out and got them a set.”

Audette says he wanted to create a toy representative of our city.

“It’s the train we ride,” he says. “So I thought I’d design one.”

The model, of the recently decommissioned H6 subway car, took Audette 20 hours to design and build.

The H6 subway car debuted in 1986 — and who can forget it? With retro woodgrain paneling, shocking orange doors, manspread-all-you-want solo seats, and mustard-coloured vinyl seat coverings that stuck to exposed summer skin, the Thunder Bay-built H6 screeched its way down Toronto’s tracks for nearly 30 years. The H6 took its final ride in June 2014. The cars have since been scrapped.

Audette, a business analyst by day, says he’s a newbie to the world of 3D designing and printing. He designed the model by tracing schematic diagrams with CAD software. It then took three two-hour sessions to print on one of the Toronto Reference Library’s 3D printers.

“The people at the library were always there to help,” he says. “They make something really accessible that otherwise wouldn’t be.”

3D printers lay down successive layers of building materials, such as plastic, to create three dimensional objects. They have been used to make everything from cellphone cases to prosthetic skulls, to usable firearms.

Audette’s final product was painted and assembled with glue. He even printed small TTC decals, as well as “Finch” and “Downsview” signs, for its exterior.

“It’s more than just building a toy for my kids,” he says. “It’s building a toy for everyone’s kids.”

Although he still hasn’t let his girls play with the subway car, Audette already knows what his next 3D printing project will be.

“My girls love this show that has unicorns with wings, but none of their toy unicorns have wings,” he says, showing off a prototype: one of his daughter’s toys with twin cardboard crescents pasted to its back.

“It’s really neat to just think that you can conceive something and then it becomes reality.”

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If you want to make your own H6 subway car, you can download Audette’s plans for free at Thingiverse.com. 3D printers can be reserved at the Toronto Reference Library and the Toronto Public Library’s Fort York Branch. You’ll need to take a short certification course before being allowed to use the printers. There’s a two-hour limit on each job.

The H6 subway car at a glance

built by: Can-Car Rail

manufactured in: Thunder Bay, ON

# ordered by the TTC: 126

unit price: $1,147,500

first delivered: 1986

years in service: 1987 - 2014

# of seats: 76

max speed: 88.5 km/h

last ride: June 20, 2014