Garden Railway Forum

Ever since Trevor posted about his model of Tan-y-Bwlch water tower, several years ago, and then put his drawings into the Print Files section, I've had it in mind to build one for myself and I have looked at doing it a couple of times. The sticking point for me was that I don't have the 'stone' stencils that Trevor used for the stone tower and I didn't particularly want to buy any and the thought of creating all that stonework and printing it was equally daunting. However, a couple weeks ago I decided to bite the bullet and actually try.

I started with Trevor's flat blank panels for the stone work base but after importing the stl's in SketchUp, I modified the corners to a plain chamfer rather than his stepped joints because printing those and cleaning them up would be a pain. So I drew a slab of the correct plan dimensions and 4mm thick and then I drew horizontal guide lines at 6.5mm vertical spacing on one face.
Using the "freehand " drawing tool in SketchUp, I simply drew roughly equal shaped and sized 2D stones, in between the guide lines, taking care to get headers and stretchers at opposite ends of each row.
I then grouped this, duplicated the whole thing and placed the two units side by side. The LH one of the pair was then 'ungrouped' and the end stones on the RH side of it were adjusted to match the LH stones on the other unit. The grouped unit was then transferred to the other side and the LH side of the 'ungrouped' unit was again adjusted to match. Finally the ungrouped unit was re-grouped and the other unit discarded completely. The point of all this was to be able to print 4 identical units and the stonework continue round the corners and match.

The next step was to randomly pull up a selection of stones using the SU push-pull tool.
Then I selected the area between the stone faces ( the original flat slab face) and pushed that down 1mm, again using the push-pulltool, and I had a 3D stone wall face.
To complete the box I drew up a stepped top and bottom plate with stone indentations around the edges. The step fitting inside the box and giving something to hold everything square as it sets. These are identical since the bottom one will be more or less buried when out in the garden.

Once glued, I used some "Stonelux" Cotswold paint with fine sand mixed in to give a rough finish and then washed it with Citadel "Agrax Earthshade" to give a random effect.



Trevor has said that his model is based on the early version of the water tank. Not being a specific Ffestiniog modeller, I have only random pictures of the line and no good pictures of the water tank at any period. Looking online several pictures crop up showing the modern tank with pressed steel sides and twin discharge pipes, and there are a few which show partial side views of earlier tanks but with little detail. Now, in his stl zip file, Trevor has a water level gauge but no indication as to where it goes, and there is no detail of the discharge pipe, Oh, and shouldn't there be a ladder? Trevor does make mention of a supply feed pipe and one of the pictures that I found shows a pipe hooked over the back LH side of the tank, so far so good, but that picture also shows a vertical row of rivets on the tank side, not far from the back edge of the tank, which are not on Trevor's drawings. http://www.hall-royd-junction.co.uk/Rai ... _1966.html
So with the lack of any further information, I used Trevor's tank sides and printed them, intending to work out some details subsequently.

As always happens, no sooner had I printed the sides, glued them together and sprayed them black, when I found a superb picture showing the station side of the tank. The water gauge, a small bore pipe and a ladder are all perfectly clear, as is the mechanism that sits on top of the tank edge to support the float for the gauge. I'm not clear what that small pipe is, I think it is too low on the tank to be a fill pipe, but there is a "Gentlemen" sign on that wall on another photo, so I wonder if it is actually a supply pipe to the Gents facilities? Anyway, a few minutes later I found another picture which shows the discharge pipe on the tank front. Although not so clear, it shows enough to be able to guess at things.
The tank side picture is an Alamy one covered in their copyright watermarks, so I probably shouldn't copy it on here, but the URL is https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2MAEHAY/ffest ... MAEHAY.jpg.
Similarly the other picture is a postcard on Ebay, and the link is https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/5u4AAOSw ... -l1600.jpg.
The only thing is that these two tanks appear to be different, the rivetting and supports are different between the two, but both predate the current modern tank. Because I'm not actually building a Ffestiniog station, it doesn't matter enough to me to redraw and reprint the tank at this point, so I'm going to fit these details to the tank I've already built based on Trevors design.

The two elements look great.
Really smooth finish on the tank sides.

Rik

That stone base is really impressive!
Did it take less time to draw, than it would to have scribed the stonework into foamboard, I wonder?

I keep looking at water tanks (and other railway buildings) but then think it will be better to get some track down first.


Phil.P

The stone work is terrific — the paint finish is really effective (and I shall have to copy it)

ge_rik wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:05 am
Really smooth finish on the tank sides.

Resin printed flat on the plate.

Phil.P wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 10:35 am That stone base is really impressive!
Did it take less time to draw, than it would to have scribed the stonework into foamboard, I wonder?

Thanks.
Very much quicker. The beauty of a drawing is that it can be altered and adjusted and any glitches corrected, before doing anything irrevocable. Then having drawn the one side it can simply be replicated rather than having to scribe all four sides individually.

BertieB wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 10:47 am The stone work is terrific — the paint finish is really effective (and I shall have to copy it)

Thanks. You are welcome to copy it, of course.

Based on the Alamy photo which I mentioned in Part 1, I have redrawn the water gauge. If I had realised where it goes before printing the tank sides, it could have all been done as one piece, but no matter.

The Alamy photo shows an arrangement of brackets and pulleys for the gauge wire, supported off the top of the tank, so I've drawn and printed that as best I can. It may be a bit delicate for the garden, but we shall see! There is also a ladder, presumably to gain access to the gauge mechanism as well as just general access. I wasn't sure how well this would print, but I've been pleasantly surprised. I should say that I'm using the Sunlu Water Washable ABS-Like resin for the whole thing and it's flexibility was a great asset when getting something as flimsy as a long ladder, off the build plate.

The ladder is fixed to the tank side partway up it but no other fixings/supports that I can see, so I drew and printed a thin plate with sockets for the bottom of the ladder to fix it to the tower base, which won't really be visible when all finished.
The final part to be created is the discharge valve and bag connection. The Ebay postcard that I referred to in Part 1 seems to suggest that it sticks straight out from the tank side with an operating lever at the top and a canvas bag attached to the front, so thats what I've drawn up from guesstimated dimensions. However, it appears that the two photos show different tanks so the valve may not be the same on both.


This is what I am aiming at!

Philip

That is brilliant!

Trevor

Cheers Trevor. Just building on your original hard work.

That's looking very good indeed! The stonework looks excellent.

I'll be watching the detail go on with interest. It might even inspire me to have a go - after 35 years of garden railway-ing my poor locos STILL can't get a drink...

Andrew wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 5:28 pm ...after 35 years of garden railway-ing my poor locos STILL can't get a drink...

Yup, Mine have the same problem and the crews are getting bolshy about having to pee in the tanks to keep the pressure up!

The tank is now glued to the stone base and all the bits are now printed and when some 3mm rod arrives tomorrow that, I think, is the last item I need.

OK chaps, 2 questions... somebody must know the answers (I hope).

One of Trevor's photo's of his water tower model shows a filler pipe running up the tower and curving over the tank top, on the opposite side to the water level gauge.
So:
Qu 1 - was there would/there have been an on/off isolating control valve at about, say, 4ft above ground level on the feed pipe?
Qu 2 - how was the filling controlled? Was it simply manual? Which would have been awkward with the level gauge on the other side of the building, or was it automatic with some sort of float valve in the tank itself, and if so, anyone know what they looked like?

I very much doubt it would have been more than a manually operated gate valve?

Open to the elements, with a risk of freezing, and the potential risk of flooding the area, I don't think it would have used a float-controlled valve.

Phil.P

Things have slowed down over the last week or so, mainly due to domestic reasons and partly because I was unhappy with a couple of things and redid them, but this is where I am, atm.
The discharge valve on the LH face, still needs the bag attaching.
The ladder and water pipe attachment ( whatever it is for) are as per the Alamy picture that I mentioned before.
The water fill pipe with the hooked top end is basically as per Trevor's model photo because I haven't found a picture showing it, myself. Although I take Phil's points about the potential issues with a float valve in the tank, it still seems a likely option to me but I'm leaving it out for now, it should be fairly easy to retro fit as and when info come to light. In the meantime, there has to be an isolating valve of some sort somewhere, so I've put a notional handwheel andvalve 'lump' on the riser. The complete length of this pipe is longer than I can get on the printer bed, even diagonally so had to do it in two parts. There is a hole in the top end of the valve to allow the longer pipe to slide inside. I wasn't sure how it would print but both bits were perfect at the first attempt.

Superb print quality there, I'm amazed!

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 1:43 pm Superb print quality there, I'm amazed!

Agreed!

Rik

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 1:43 pm Superb print quality there, I'm amazed!

Thanks Peter and Rik.


TBH, so was I!!

I really am 'sold' on this Sunlu "ABS-like WaterWashable" resin. It's a bit more expensive but prints flawlessly, is obviously capable of fine detail, is much less brittle than standard resin and saves all the cost and smell of IPA, so worth every penny as far as I am concerned.

Very nice!

OK, its finished -I think, because I'm never really sure when I've got to the end of any project.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with it. You may have noticed that along the way the tank colour has changed from black to grey!
A couple of details are guesswork, I've already talked about the filler control, but as well as that I've guessed that there has to be a float of some sort to control the level indicater gauge. Apart from that, everything is as per Trevor's stl's and the photo's I found.
Everything is resin printed, apart from the water ( a sheet of acrylic ) and the wire for the level gauge!

What a wonderful finish on your amazing structure, you have every right to feel pleased with it.
The water effect is most convincing too!
Top marks scored.

Brilliant model. I am dead jealous. Look forward to seeing in place with a loco alongside taking a drink