The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

[Old Man Aaron]

That three-way point has weathered in beautifully. It's surprising how finicky bolster wagons are, I always expected mine to run like ordinary bogey stock.
Can't wait to see the castle come together. The idea of incorporating some scale-ish overgrowth would really kick it up a notch too.

[Trevor Thompson]

The castle progresses!

The four base layers and the four second layer sections fixed together:

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Trevor

PS it should be in the garden next weekend!

[Trevor Thompson]

The main tower is now complete, and is in the process of being painted:

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Now I am preparing the outer walls and their towers for printing:

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The outer towers are based on the main tower reduced to 3/4 size. Both the inside and the outside will be visible so I am adding the stonework embossing to the inside. Because these are in sections I will be able to create towers and walls of different heights and shapes using the components. Excuse all of those guide lines on display - I didn't want to delete them yet as they are there to make sure the stonework aligns from one section to the next.

Trevor

[Trevor Thompson]

I have just installed the main tower of the castle. A couple of photos:

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The second photo looks as if the tower isn't vertical. I think the horizon isn't level in the photo - remember the track is all at an angle. The fence posts in the background don't look level either and they are all at different angles so it is difficult to tell from the photo. I will get the spirit level out though - that photo makes me doubt myself!

Trevor

[Andrew]

That's looking really good!

Amazing that the (19th c?) planners allowed the railway to build a trestle bridge round such a fine monument... Will you construct a halt for use by tourists wishing to visit the castle?

[Trevor Thompson]

I have just installed the main tower of the castle. A couple of photos:

IMG_3118.JPG

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I have checked the level and adjusted it - and retaken the photo with a bit more care to get the horizon level! (The second photo looks as if the tower isn't vertical. I think the horizon isn't level in the photo - remember the track is all at an angle. The fence posts in the background don't look level either and they are all at different angles so it is difficult to tell from the photo. I will get the spirit level out though - that photo makes me doubt myself!)

Trevor

[Trevor Thompson]

That's looking really good!

Amazing that the (19th c?) planners allowed the railway to build a trestle bridge round such a fine monument... Will you construct a halt for use by tourists wishing to visit the castle?

I think you could get away with anything before 1935!

I think anyone visiting the castle will have to walk from the station at Dduallt. Which might be a que for a group of figures somewhere.

Trevor

[Andrew]

I think anyone visiting the castle will have to walk from the station at Dduallt. Which might be a que for a group of figures somewhere.

Ah yes, fair enough, I can see it in the background now!

Some period tourists would look rather nice...

[Trevor Thompson]

It is a while since I added anything to this thread - I haven't abandoned the project but other things have got in the way. I have steadily been printing parts for it.

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This is the first wall tower, with its remains of walls. Another is printed ready for assembly. Then another one is required for the back of the castle.

I have also started drawing up the gatehouse, which will sit at the front of the castle between two wall towers.

Photos of the first 2 wall towers in the garden (to see how they fit in situ) will follow when it stops raining!

Trevor

[philipy]

"...stops raining"?????

Good to see the updates Trevor. I was wondering only yesterday if you'd made any progress recently, although I'm aware the weather wouldn't have been helping much.

[Peter Butler]

Photos of the first 2 wall towers in the garden (to see how they fit in situ) will follow when it stops raining!

Trevor

"...stops raining"?????

For those who are not aware, both Trevor and I live in West Wales, so we can expect the rain to stop possibly in June 2024!

[-steves-]

Photos of the first 2 wall towers in the garden (to see how they fit in situ) will follow when it stops raining!

Trevor

"...stops raining"?????

For those who are not aware, both Trevor and I live in West Wales, so we can expect the rain to stop possibly in June 2024!

I think that's just wishful thinking, it never stops raining there does it

It's raining here too

[Old Man Aaron]

Looks great.

[Trevor Thompson]

Looks great.

Thanks Aaron

[Trevor Thompson]

It has been a while since I have been able to get outside to do anything on the railway.

Since we have had some dryer (well less consistently wet) weather I have resumed work on digging out for the extension. I didn't get as far as I had intended with it last year - I got distracted by a major project which had nothing to do with railways - and that took my attention from August until October.

So I have laid 4 lengths of track from the steps towards the greenhouse, and prepared for the next section of retaining wall. You might also be able to see that the trackbed is now only 12 feet away from the steps at the far end.

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and the groundwork in more detail:

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I have planned to add a passing loop at the end of the four lengths of track, at least it will feel like I have been making progress. You might recall that the last track I laid had filament printed chairs. I wasn't sure that they would be strong enough - but they have lasted well, and I am going to use them from now on. I have refined the design and am printing them using the "fine" setting on my slicing software which makes the steps in the finished print far less obvious. It takes a lot longer 17 hours to print 80 chairs. I have been wetting the chairs in a tank of acetone before using them. This seems to make them significantly stronger. I am currently using Oak sleepers which Phil kindly made for me with his bandsaw. The chairs sitting on end on the bench have been in the acetone and are waiting for it to evaporate, before being fixed to the sleepers:

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I have started to make the first point, and these are made with more sleepers from Phil, this time from Beech. Now that I am making my own chairs I have decided to go back to using chairs in the points as far as possible, minimising the brass strip soldered to the rail. To that end I have designed the special chairs for the points, and will print them shortly. I hope to be able to bolt the chairs adjacent to the point blades to the rail with 10BA bolts. We will see if that works in due course.

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The sleepers are partly prepared and are now soaking in preservative.

Trevor

[drewzero1]

Wow, that's coming along well! I'll admit I was skeptical of the printed parts holding up outside, glad to hear they're doing fine. Did you use any special filament or just plain PLA? The acetone trick sounds like it might help melt the layers together and form a stronger layer bond; I'll have to remember that because I've had some issues with splitting along layer lines when a part is stressed.

[dudeface]

Wow, that's coming along well!

Instead of coming up with my own compliment, I'll just reuse Drew's.

[Old Man Aaron]

Cheap, effective, good-looking track. Can't beat that.

[philipy]

Looking good Trevor.
I've never seen anyone actually dunk prints in Acetone before, although I have seen it suggested to suspend them in a sealed container with acetone in the the bottom. Be interesting to see how they perform in due course - I assume this is using ABS not PLA?

[Andrew]

Fantastic progress!

How long will the completed line be? And how long will it take to complete a single trip?

When I built my own (very much shorter!) end-to-end line, I was surprised to find that (with a live steam loco) the downhill journeys are often longer than the uphill ones, I think because I find it hard to resist the temptation to storm the incline on the way up! I blame the installation of chuff pipes - it sounds so good!