The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

[StuartJ]

Very impressive!

[ge_rik]

Very impressive!

Absolutely!! You certainly don't do things by halves, Trevor.

Rik

[Red Star]

Just catching up with the progress here - it's going to be quite a run for trains once the terminus is complete.

[Trevor Thompson]

Very impressive!

Absolutely!! You certainly don't do things by halves, Trevor.

Rik

I suppose you are correct. In my own defence I would say that much of it is driven by the railway I am trying to model. The Festiniog seems to have had quite a complex signalling setup for a single line narrow gauge railway. In the same way the station buildings are large, and the passing places huge. so even trying to gain the feel of the railway leads me on!

Trevor

[Trevor Thompson]

Progress on the railway itself is a bit slow - the weather is either wet or cold (or both) at the moment. So the track in the bottom terminus is relaid - but needs ballasting, and the spacer for the top terminus is still being dig out. The digging is progressing - just slowly!

However the station building for the top terminus (Dinas) is progressing. The roof trusses and the front half of the roof are printed and fitted:

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So far it has all of the sections have fitted together well, the only issue being that the overall length of the roof is less than the overall length of the building itself by about 6mm. So a bit of a fiddle section will have to be created to fill the gap.

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The 4 of the 5 sections of the rear half of the roof are printed.

The drawings are developing as well, as I am getting ready to print the station building next:

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I will post an update when the roof is finished with all of its vents and ridge tiles fitted.

Trevor

[philipy]

Impressive as always Trevor. Looking forward to the next update.

[Trevor Thompson]

Progress is being made on a number of fronts including digging out the bank behind the greenhouse:

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So that is the track bed for the whole of the terminal station in place, and the retaining wall well under way. That is a total length of 19 feet from the tunnel mouth, which I think is enough for the track plan I showed earlier. Now the view around the back of the greenhouse:

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The pile of soil is what I have removed to create the second half of the track bed. To the right of the soil shows the path behind the greenhouse and the area (between the soil and the path) where a pair of slate sidings are to go. When the concrete has cured I will remove the shuttering and reassemble it for the siding trackbed, and dig out the area where it is to fit. At least there is a lot less soil so remove here to take a narrow strip of concrete and a retaining wall. The pile of soil will then be flattened and used to fill in behind the retaining wall behind the greenhouse. That will leave a raised level platform for Dinah to have compost bins.

And of course the buildings for the terminus progress"

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That is the walls of the station building printed and assembled, and the roof finished over the engine shed with its rather imposing chimneys.

Signals have taken a bit of a back seat at the moment as the weather has been suitable for working outside.

Trevor

[Old Man Aaron]

Forging ahead, fantastic.

[Trevor Thompson]

Thanks Aaron.

More progress due to a run of fine weather ( well relatively fine for the time of year). Firstly further progress on the retaining wall and trackbed:

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The retaining wall is complete as far as the bend at the far end, and the track bed for the siding is in place. I am now working on the corner, where the track bed has still to be created and the retaining wall added into the corner.

A bit of a setback with the terminus building - my new printer (3 months old) packed up. The manufacturer wasn't very helpful, but at least Amazon were prepared to return it for a refund. Having learnt that the circuit board in the extruder (bit of a daft place to put electronics (in my opinion) was only expected to last 3 months, I decided to replace it with something different. So now we are moving the building forward again.

I have tried a new way of making the roof of these buildings.

I had been making each half of the roof as a solid 5mm thick "sheet", in sections so that they can be glued together and then fitted onto the building. One on the front, and one on the back. The slates were fitted onto the top of the sheet in the CAD package, individually into rows and then as rows superimposed onto the sheet. In other words the printed sections had the slates printed into them. The disadvantage is that the joints are difficult to hide - and the roof is the bit you actually look down at. Furthermore these sections are difficult to print in ABS - which tends to come unstuck at the corners.

So the new idea is to follow full size practice. Add trusses to the building to form the shape of the roof, add a set of batons over the trusses to secure rows of slates onto. The only difference is that I have added a lip to the top of the batons - so that the the top of the slates rests against it - to help keep things in line. I designed the batons as a complete unit to be printed in two halves, to maintain a constant overlap on the slates. So the trusses, and the batons in place:

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And with two rows of slates glued on:

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So a significant saving in filament and a better finish, without too much extra effort. That will also have an impact on the next building in the row, the station masters house which has a more complex roof.

Trevor

[Peter Butler]

A far better way of making the roof look convincing, and with savings of material too a win-win solution.

[philipy]

That does look good Trevor

[gilfachphil]

As I read your post I was thinking you were going to add the tiles individually!

Looking good.

Shame about the new printer,

Phil

[Trevor Thompson]

As I read your post I was thinking you were going to add the tiles individually!

Looking good.

Shame about the new printer,

Phil

Well its odd that you should think that! Because it does not work very well - getting the spacing between the slates evenly the same is difficult, and the slates tend to twist out of line. Of course I tried it! A pile of individual slates and the strips I went on to create:

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It was Peter who told me about making strips of plastic to put on the roof - I just adapted it to printing! the lengths are different so that the joints are staggered. You can see that there are two types of strip, one type is just slates and the other has a 1.5 width slate at each end.
A refinement will be to use a third type of strip for the top row which has the top edge lowered. But it works!

It is a shame about the printer - but I think I have made the right decision to go for a different manufacturer - well so far at least.

Trevor

[philipy]

It is a shame about the printer - but I think I have made the right decision to go for a different manufacturer - well so far at least.

So come on... don't keep us in suspense... which was the problematic one and what is the replacement?

[ge_rik]

Great way to do the slate roofs. Having spent ages cutting slots in strips of plasticard and getting blisters in the process, I'll seriously consider this approach for any future builds.

Rik

[Trevor Thompson]

It is a shame about the printer - but I think I have made the right decision to go for a different manufacturer - well so far at least.

So come on... don't keep us in suspense... which was the problematic one and what is the replacement?

The one which failed was a Flashforge Adventurer 5M Pro. I have replaced it wish a Bambu Labs P1S.

So far I am impressed with the replacement. Particularly with the support via their online wiki, which has helped me to generate the best print of a large section of building (in ABS) that I have ever achieved:

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This was set with the 45 corner joint flat on the bed, using a 15% sinewave infil pattern, and adding the supports manually. The usual problem is that some part of the print comes free from the bed due to shrinkage. In this case it remained firmly attached until after it had finished. It is the section of the wall adjoining the station building which just out at the front - hence the stonework.

You would think it should be printed flat as in this one - but the corners lift as the ABS shrinks:

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This is the other half of the wall which is hidden behind the station building. It only started to lift one corner while printing the last 2 layers. which in itself is pretty good.

Trevor

[philipy]

The one which failed was a Flashforge Adventurer 5M Pro. I have replaced it wish a Bambu Labs P1S.

So far I am impressed with the replacement. Particularly with the support via their online wiki, which has helped me to generate the best print of a large section of building (in ABS) that I have ever achieved:

[/quote]

Thanks Trevor. I've never used either of those manufacturers but I have heard good things about Bambu.
That print looks pretty impressive for starters.

[Trevor Thompson]

I have just finished assembling the first two sides of the station building. I just wanted to share the way that this corner has fitted together:

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It is a pretty food fit. And don't forget this is ABS! Not all of the stones have aligned exactly on each side of the joint ( they did in Sketchup), but I am pleased with this as an outcome.

I am beginning to think there has been a step change in the accuracy and quality of what I am printing.

Trevor

[Trevor Thompson]

Further progress.

The station masters house is taking shape:

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The roof trusses are in place, and I am working on the batons to go over them.

The retaining wall is almost finished, and I have tried the station buildings in position:

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While it is a huge building it is rather dwarfed by the area where it will sit, and at least there will be room for a double track between the porch and the footpath.





I have just received a bundle of rail from Cliff Barker, and have started to print the chairs. So track making comes next.

Trevor

[Trevor Thompson]

Round the corner the final siding is taking shape. That is where the retaining wall isn't quite complete. I decided to add an inclined plane leading down from the area behind the wall. I can imagine the winding gear and the quarry at the top! That is less important - but I thought that unless the inclined plane were incorporated at this stage there would be no possibility of adding it later. The inclined plane:

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Trevor