The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

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ge_rik
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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by ge_rik » Sun Apr 05, 2026 11:14 am

Trevor Thompson wrote: Sun Apr 05, 2026 10:23 am .....The files for the fencing will be in the 3 D printing section shortly.
Trevor
That'll be handy. I noticed on my latest video that the fencing behind the platform at Peckforton is looking decidedly sorry for itself.

Rik
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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Tropic Blunder » Mon Apr 06, 2026 12:10 am

Looking great Trevor I love to see the buildings and fences it makes it look lived in and not just a railway on a hill, Bravo!

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Trevor Thompson » Mon Apr 06, 2026 9:19 am

ge_rik wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 6:15 pm I do love your 3D printed buildings, Trevor.
I wish I had the courage to try ABS printing but my past experience has been unsuccessful.

Rik
The enclosed printer is the key. The Bambu Labs P1S is the best I have had.

Trevor

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Old Man Aaron » Sun Apr 19, 2026 4:13 pm

Looks phenomenal, Trevor.

I just hope the red point sleepers don't show up if/when the ballast chips/wears..
Regards,
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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by nlc1072 » Fri May 01, 2026 12:23 am

Trevor Thompson wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 4:16 pm The station building is now finished and installed on the railway:

IMG_2747.JPG

The goods shed is temporarily in place to mark its footprint in the station area. All three buildings are set in dry mortar and levelled. I am looking for a damp night tonight. and from the other end:

IMG_2740.JPG

I made the tunnel yesterday, and you can see the its mouth in the distance. The tunnel is made from old bricks, with paving slabs for a roof. I am going to hide the bricks by cladding the entrances with stonework , and extending that to edge the cutting each side of the trackbed.

Finally a low level photo which shows some of the detail:

IMG_2738.JPG

The adverts were printed onto self adhesive photographic paper, mounted on a printed backing, and varnished. Just need some customers to occupy the seats under the veranda.

Trevor
I know it's a while back, but do you have any photos or talks on how you designed and built these station buildings? They're quite incredible.

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Trevor Thompson » Wed May 06, 2026 8:17 pm

nlc1072 wrote: Fri May 01, 2026 12:23 am
Trevor Thompson wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 4:16 pm The station building is now finished and installed on the railway:

IMG_2747.JPG

The goods shed is temporarily in place to mark its footprint in the station area. All three buildings are set in dry mortar and levelled. I am looking for a damp night tonight. and from the other end:

IMG_2740.JPG

I made the tunnel yesterday, and you can see the its mouth in the distance. The tunnel is made from old bricks, with paving slabs for a roof. I am going to hide the bricks by cladding the entrances with stonework , and extending that to edge the cutting each side of the trackbed.

Finally a low level photo which shows some of the detail:

IMG_2738.JPG

The adverts were printed onto self adhesive photographic paper, mounted on a printed backing, and varnished. Just need some customers to occupy the seats under the veranda.

Trevor
I know it's a while back, but do you have any photos or talks on how you designed and built these station buildings? They're quite incredible.
Sorry to take so long to respond to this. I haven't been on the forum for a while.

I don't really know what I can show you to answer your question about the buildings. I think I have put quite a lot onto the forum about them already - and I don't want to bore everyone by going into copious detail.

At least I can say that things have moved on even in the last 12 months. A new computer has enabled me to use Autocad Fusion, instead of Sketchup to design the buildings. It still involves finding a plan for the original building and inputing it into the CAD software so I can trace it. Because it has to be built in pieces (maximum print size is 250 x 250 mm) the design has to be done with that in mind. In the end it still comes down to laboriously drawing stonework onto the surfaces and then "pulling" the stones out 1mm from the surface - to create the appearance of stonework.

Then it is a matter of printing each component and glueing them together as they are printed. That can take weeks for the bigger buildings. It all seems a bit extreme - and I don't suppose any one else is likely to follow my lead in making these large buildings!

Trevor

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Trevor Thompson » Wed May 06, 2026 8:20 pm

Old Man Aaron wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 4:13 pm Looks phenomenal, Trevor.

I just hope the red point sleepers don't show up if/when the ballast chips/wears..
I also hope that they don't become visible. Really I should have waited until I had a new supply of black filament - but in a hurry as usual!

Trevor

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Trevor Thompson » Wed May 06, 2026 8:28 pm

My latest building.

A row of 4 low relief cottages, one of which is a shop, in site temporarily at "Dinas":
IMG_5044.jpg
IMG_5044.jpg (2.84 MiB) Viewed 215 times
and a close up of the shop:
IMG_5043.jpg
IMG_5043.jpg (2.57 MiB) Viewed 215 times
The shop door is open and I intend to place the shopkeeper ("ai" generated from a historic photo) in the doorway permanently.

Trevor

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by philipy » Wed May 06, 2026 9:21 pm

wow, that is a surprise! No wonder we haven't seen anything from you for a while, but its worth the wait. The shop terrace is a masterpiece.
Philip

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by ge_rik » Thu May 07, 2026 7:40 am

Are the loaves and cans 3D printed as well? The loaves look good enough to eat!

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by IRON MAN » Thu May 07, 2026 8:58 am

Have been following your thread for a while. Dinas is looking brilliant, I do like how the trackwork uses the space.

Kind regards

Dan J

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Phil.P » Thu May 07, 2026 11:07 am

Does Mr Jones do Bara Brith?

My usual supply, is no more.

Phil.P

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Trevor Thompson » Fri May 08, 2026 8:19 pm

ge_rik wrote: Thu May 07, 2026 7:40 am Are the loaves and cans 3D printed as well? The loaves look good enough to eat!

Rik
Yes - the individual cans and boxes were all filament printed and printed in multiple colours. So they have not been painted. Just glued onto the printed shelf. I drew the rectangular loafs in Fusion, and the round ones are "ia" versions of a loaf from Pompeii courtesy of "Meshy". The shop front is based on a photo.

Trevor

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Trevor Thompson » Fri May 08, 2026 8:21 pm

Phil.P wrote: Thu May 07, 2026 11:07 am Does Mr Jones do Bara Brith?

My usual supply, is no more.

Phil.P
No - but Mrs T does!

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by Trevor Thompson » Fri May 08, 2026 8:49 pm

Thanks for the kind comments on my efforts!

Let me show you some more detail at the other end of "Dinas":
IMG_5045.jpg
IMG_5045.jpg (2.67 MiB) Viewed 58 times
The part built cottages are now in place as well as the scaffolding. You can see the sloping wall and the tunnel entrance behind the buildings. That was Philips idea. There is a sloping path leading up to the "quarry" which will eventually feature a stream of workers climbing it. At least that is the plan! The first of the team of builders is temporarily in place, with his wheelbarrow. That "scene" will develop as previously suggested on this forum!

You can tell that I have been on "Meshy" batch creating figures for future use.

I know that the advice is that the pointing shouldn't be white on model buildings - but I reasoned that in the case of a building under construction it can't really be dirty - its only just been laid. I am sure they would have been using lime mortar as well - which would be white, whatever the "sand" they were using. So right or wrong, we have white pointing!

At the other end of the"Dinas" the barrier between the railway and the slate quarry is in place, with its gates:
IMG_5046.jpg
IMG_5046.jpg (2.63 MiB) Viewed 58 times
The concept for the gates and wall is based on photos of the actual station. A slate boundary marker is due to be placed by the wall. The information from the photo has just been altered to fit the particular situation where I want to disguise a double siding at the end of the line. It will be a while before the slate quarry gets very far - it is just in my head at the moment.

Trevor

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by LNR » Sat May 09, 2026 1:13 am

Beautiful work, I do like that partly constructed building. Hmm! food for thought there.
Grant.

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by philipy » Sat May 09, 2026 5:59 am

Trevor Thompson wrote: Fri May 08, 2026 8:49 pm You can see the sloping wall and the tunnel entrance behind the buildings. That was Philips idea.
Glad to be of help, it works well. I did notice it on the pics you posted a few days ago.

Trevor Thompson wrote: Fri May 08, 2026 8:49 pm There is a sloping path leading up to the "quarry" which will eventually feature a stream of workers climbing it. At least that is the plan!
I love that idea, can't wait to see it come to fruition.
Philip

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Re: The Railway in the Valley of the Mill

Post by gilfachphil » Sat May 09, 2026 7:01 am

I forsee lots of photo opportunities later today. All looking splendid,

Phil

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