Garden Railway Forum

Trevor

Things are still moving forward on the railway in the valley of the mill - even though it is a bit hot out there at the moment.

Firstly the path which follows the first extension behind the cottage is now almost finished. The membrane and gravel are in place, and half of the handrail is installed:

and the latest extension is well underway. I have now started to install the wider trackbed where the next passing place / station will fit:

I will go out there again later when it has cooled down to lay stonework under the plastic shuttering. Partly to act as shuttering and partly to reduce the quantity of concrete I have to wheelbarrow up a hill. It looks a bit odd at the moment but an explanation follows:
This is roughly what I am attempting to create. The track comes in from the right, widens into a passing loop, and finishes with two parallel sidings. The inspiration for the layout is the Victorian arrangement at Tan-y-Grisiau on the Ffestiniog railway. That explains the tapered blue block which represents the station building which was a weird tapered shape. The two blue circles are wagon turntables with track disappearing into a goods shed. Lower down the loop is another rectangular block which represents a row of cottages.

Trevor

I have of course outline plans for the buildings which will be something like this:
A row of four cottages based on the row of quarry workers cottages at the Welsh Slate Museum. I will add that to the 3 D printing section.

My plans so far of the station building at Tan-y-Grisiau. This is much more skeletal - but it is at least started:

You may notice that the track as it is laid in our garden always seems to end up with a bank on the side where the real thing has a valley. This leads me into making mirror images of the buildings I model. As usual it will be a mirror image of the real thing which gets printed. That will place the goods shed which is on the left above on the right hand uphill side of the passing loop which is where it is shown on the track plan in the last post.

Bear in mind that in the picture above the track is in front of the station

Trevor

Excellent work Trevor, well thought out and constructed. I'm particularly impressed with the handrail, a vast improvement for us wobbly visitors!

Thanks Peter.

That handrail is pretty essential - it is really easy to step backwards into a void when you are concentrating on trains. I am looking forward to being able to host an area group meeting when it's finished.

Trevor

That is the handrail finished - just the apple tree to prune - but that needs management approval. I am getting fed up of hitting my head on the branches as the weight of apples brings them closer to the steps:
And the trackbed for Tan-y-grisiau. is now in place. With the row of cottages roughly in place to see if there is enough room:
I expect to have to extend that concrete infil behind the trackbed as the station building alone is going to be about a metre long.

Trevor

Super job Trevor, the handrail looks great and the track-bed moving forward rapidly.... LBS will stay in business as long as you are in their area!

Well this is all very, very exciting.

The handrail looks very sturdy, and I would think the risks involved in being hit on the head by an apple are much less severe than stepping off the bank!

Tan-y-Grisiau is looking good, as with Dduallt it'll be nice to be able to see the station building since you can't see it at the real thing any more. The cottages already look very impressive. I should have guessed it'd be Tan-y-Grisiau next, following on from Tan-y-Bwllch and Dduallt. But which of the Blaenau stations are you going to model when you reach the greenhouse?

Ah the final terminus! That will be Duffws! I have already started it - including all the stonework and slate details. It is going to take some time to complete it though - it is a bit complex. That choice might also lend itself to a siding at the back of the station with an open fronted carriage shed to take the quarry workers train.

Trevor

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 3:05 pm Super job Trevor, the handrail looks great and the track-bed moving forward rapidly.... LBS will stay in business as long as you are in their area!

Well may be - but I think it was probably as cheap a way to create it as any. On the basis that I want it to be stable of course!

In fact the bag in the picture has garden waste in it. We seem to fill two of them every week at the moment!

Trevor

Trevor Thompson wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 10:23 pm Ah the final terminus! That will be Duffws!

Ah, another fine looking station - assume you are modelling it with the 1877 building? I had to pop in there the other week to answer a call of nature!

Duffws gives the option to model an incline too... up to the cabin?

Yes to the 1877 building.

David found a set of 7mm scale drawings for me - which are extremely detailed. Satisfyingly so but also daunting in the detail in that building.

An inclined plane has always been a possibility - we can discuss how it might be achieved when you next visit to run trains.

Trevor

The track has reached the passing place at Tan-y-grisiau station:
and I am now building a pair of points which will close the far end of the loop, and give access to the sidings:
They incorporate the wagon turntable. The turntable gives access to the goods shed, and beyond the turntable will be a left hand point and two sidings.

Trevor

Corrrr .... That looks good!

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 7:18 am Corrrr .... That looks good!

Rik

Glad you like it!

Trevor

The track is almost finished. All of the point work is fixed in place and the sidings fitted. It is just the main line which will act as a head shunt for now which is left to lay:
I have run out of chairs (which I buy from Cliff Barker) and as an experiment I have designed a chair to be printed the filament printer in ABS:
At the moment they seem to be very strong - and they don't seem to want to split along the filament grain. They even cope with being pushed into fairly tight holes being twisted in the hole and being pulled back out. So this is 80 of them. They are based on the type of chairs used on the Ffestiniog prior to something like 1870. While the ones I have been buying are intended for G scale they are very like the ones used on the Ffestiniog in the later Victorian period - and that is a fluke that I am happy with! So If these fail over a time it's back to buying them!

I am hoping for the weather to allow me to ballast the track in the next few days.

I am also thinking about cranks, rodding, and a ground frame to operate those points. Perhaps cranks and guides for the rodding could be printed? Dare I even print the ground frame?

Trevor

Great to see you're finally getting there. It's a huge job. Certainly interested to see how the printed chairs hold up over time..

Will you paint the chairs (UV protection) or just leave them, and see what happens?

Phil.P

Trevor Thompson wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 8:42 pm

I am also thinking about cranks, rodding, and a ground frame to operate those points. Perhaps cranks and guides for the rodding could be printed? Dare I even print the ground frame?

I printed cranks and bases in PLA ( using brass screws as pivots) and they have been fine outside for 3 years so far. .
In this picture the operating servo is hidden under a printed hollow pile of sleepers, also in PLA.