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About this blog

This blog about a fictitious BR(WR) Engine shed in Cornwall based on what might have been if the proposed lines to St. Just and Lands End were built.

Entries in this blog

Planning

Rospeath Lane - The planning stage

I hope you are you sitting comfortably? I suggest with a coffee and couple of biscuits to hand, or whatever tipple and nibbles this hour of day dictates. This is a long entry and you may need sustenance to keep you awake.   I’ve been planning an Engine Shed project for some time now. Unfortunately I’ve had to revise it due to the reduced space in my ‘Man Cave’. Initially I had 16 feet in length to play with but a decision earlier in the year meant I now only 11ft. My idea is to create
Yan

Yan in Planning

8
Electrical

Power Districts and Staining Timber

This week has been spent on two main areas:   Pondering the wiring of the layout got me thinking about Power Districts. Staining sleepers prior to track laying.   Firstly on the subject of Power Districts I’ve decided to have seven. You may wonder why I’ve gone for seven on such a small layout but let me explain my thinking… I’ve only had the privilege of operating a couple of DCC layouts but one of the main issues I experienced was electrical shorts. On one layou
Yan

Yan in Electrical

8
Planning

1/8th Scale model of the revised layout

Well.. it's a little rough, but it's helped with a few construction ideas.   Stage left   Stage right   Complete frontal view   There still needs a few of the ancillary buildings to add (sand house, lamp store, etc.) and I might add a bit more detail on the buildings (like the openings to the running shed). I can also continue to play around with the sighting of trees in the background as well as the front. The single tree in the front is
Yan

Yan in Planning

4
Track

Could I use some Phosphor Bronze Rail?

A couple of days ago I tweaked my back which has hampered progress on baseboard construction. To keep a modicum of momentum going on this project I looked around for some light duties.   I’d been kindly given some used Phosphor Bronze track, unfortunately as it’s mainly in short lengths I’ll not be able to use it for standard 60ft sections of track. It would be a shame to discard them so I started to mull over how to justify their use. I vaguely remembered reading something about the G
Yan

Yan in Track

3
Buildings & Scenery

Coaling Stage

When drawing the first plan featured in my previous blog, I discovered that the length of the incline up to the coaling stage, along with the building itself  (and the track extension beyond), had a big effect on the space required. To finalise the layout I needed to know the track height at the coaling stage. I could then work out what would look correct and be feasible for a loco to propel four coal wagons up the incline. So earlier in the year the coaling stage was the first building I made a
Yan

Yan in Buildings & Scenery

2
Locomotives

Daunting number of locomotives - a possible solution

While I'm waiting for timber to arrive for baseboards and track I'm having another purge on stuff that I've accumulated over the years. As it would be daft to move on stuff that I'll need, it has made me consider the stock requirements for Rospeath Lane.   The year I'm aiming to represent is 1959 (as the shed would still have had a good quantity of steam locomotives but the first Diesel Hydraulics and Class 08 shunters would be seen). As well as being the end of the summer months for s
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Yan in Locomotives

2
Buildings

Clamping and Gluing

The clamps I’d ordered to help with construction of the baseboards arrived yesterday, which enabled me to start constructing the framework for the first board. In an attempt to keep these large baseboards as light as possible I’m only gluing the components together, no screws or pins. On my previous layout (Tredethy Wharf) I’d glued and screwed the boards together so this is new territory for me. On these boards with the amount of joints and the supposed strength of wood glue (around 3000ppsi) I
Yan

Yan in Buildings

2
Life

Way off topic

I know this blog is way off the topic of Model Railways but it’s what I’d been doing while house sales were going through…   During recuperation after my operation I decided to try and raise funds for Rospeath Lane as well as other future modelling projects. This was also with the intention of reducing the amount of stuff I’ve collected. So time has been spent pontificating on what wargaming figures and model railway items I could sell. Some hard decisions have been made along with mak
Yan

Yan in Life

2
Baseboards

Goodbye to Rospeath Lane version 1

I’ve eventually been able to get my new hobby room organised. I have eventually organised my new hobby room, transforming it from a storage room, filled with furniture and boxes, to a space where I can begin building a layout. First task was to take a proper look at the original Rospeath Lane baseboards. The damage was not as bad as I originally thought… Hmm…it would have been an excellent layout with potential for expansion in the future. Despite building it in two baseboards, it would be very
Yan

Yan in Baseboards

1
Life

What a funny old year that was

Well what’s been happening then? “Not A lot” modelling wise as other things got in the way during 2021. Golf took up much of my time during Spring and early summer as I wanted to enjoy playing before an operation. After the operation, to remove a tumour around my pituitary gland, I ended up with Meningitis B. This meant I spent just over 4 weeks in hospital plus about a couple of months to gain some sort of fitness without feeling knackered walking upstairs. We then had a short break away in the
Yan

Yan in Life

1
Planning

Fitting Rospeath Lane v.2 in my car

At the outset, the primary concern of mine was fitting Rospeath Lane v.2 in my car. Rule 1d of the Scalefour Jubilee Challenge stipulates "The layout has to be portable and capable of being transported by a single car or similar size vehicle and exhibited by two people". I'm surprised it dosen't state that both operators have to be transported in the same car as the layout. As a cost saving exercise for exhibition managers, I feel it would be prudent for both operators to travel with the layout.
Yan

Yan in Planning

0
Planning

Pushing it to the limits

My intended period for the model will eventually be March to July 1959.This will allow the majority of locomotives seen on shed to be steam but also allow me to run a few of the early Diesel shunters and Hydraulics.   This made me wonder about how they would have refuelled the diesels. Penzance didn't receive its first allocation of diesels until Sept 1958 when they allocated three Class 08s for training. In November of the same year, they reallocated two of the three, leaving one (D35
Yan

Yan in Planning

0
Planning

Can Rospeath Lane be resurrected?

I've not posted on RMWeb about Rospeath Lane for sometime now, in the meantime I have added a few posts on my independent blog about this project. If anyone is interested to see how far I got until I lost my mojo, the blog can be found here at https://rospeathlane.blogspot.com/   During the six months since I posted on the above blog my problem has been the damage to Rospeath Lane's baseboards, along with its size. The damage must have occurred during our move to Cumbria and/or during
Yan

Yan in Planning

0
Track

Staining more Sleepers

Progress is being made in trying to create sleepers for the three sidings at the front of the layout. I’m starting to hone the technique in staining these sleepers but I don’t think I’m there yet. I feel the colours are not quite right but it’s starting to feel I could achieve a reasonable representation of old weather worn sleepers.         Once they have been embedded in ballast, chairs and rail added, along with a modicum scattering
Yan

Yan in Track

0
Track

Track Foundations

The original track plan had to be discarded as it was in too poor a state due to being used for constructing the baseboards. So during this last week I printed out and pasted together another full size track plan. This will be pasted to the baseboards and used to position the turnout along with laying all plain track in situ. First task was to make sure the new track plan fitted… Hmm overall the fit was not too bad but there were a couple of very minor tweaks to be made. I’m putting the slight m
Yan

Yan in Track

0
Display

The purists may scoff

Just arrived this morning is a reproduction of the shed plate carried by locomotives that where allocated to Penzance (Long Rock) Engine Shed. Yes I know Rospeath Lane is not a model of the facilities at Long Rock but in my alternative history it would have been the primary Engine Shed for that area so would have been allocated 83G as its shed code.     I wait for the derision from the purists to see if I'm brave enough to display the plate on the layout if it every go
Yan

Yan in Display

0
Baseboards

Progress on the Two Main Baseboards

Hopefully the photos below will depict my progress over the last few days   Last few sections being glued in place on the second board after checking on the turntable for position, height and alignment   View from the front with the last fascia being fixed in place   It all looks OK, ready for the different sections for the baseboard tops to be cut and glued in place.   Checking all the cut-outs for the inspection pits, also the pos
Yan

Yan in Baseboards

0
Planning

A revised Track Plan (v.18)

Baseboard construction was put on hold this week due to the creation of a credible Signal Box Diagram. While I’d been waiting for the glue to dry on each section I’d put some thought into the signal diagram and how engine movements would be controlled. Even though I’ve read a few books on the subject I eventually realised that I needed some guidance and posted a request on the Scalefour Society’s Forum for advice. The information I received was superb and highlighted a number of issues with my o
Yan

Yan in Planning

0
Baseboards

Getting there with the first baseboard

Slow progress on the construction of the first baseboard. Hopefully the pictures will help to explain my thoughts on how I’m building the boards. At the moment nothing is fixed in place the books are helping to keep everything in place.   All profiles have been cut to reflect the different ground levels, with additional sections cut out for the turntable and inspection pits. The baseboard top is at the bottom with the track plan on so I can position the infill sections to miss any poss
Yan

Yan in Baseboards

0
Baseboards

Baseboard construction - Part 1

I made a tentative start on building the baseboards yesterday. My first task was to mark the different track levels on each cross piece. All changes of track levels do seem subtle at this stage. I’m hoping that subtle changes should help to project a believable scene.     At the above stage I realised that the very end cross piece (furthest away in the above photo) was going under the turntable. How did I miss that on my plan? I’ve been lucky enough to acquire a GWR turntabl
Yan

Yan in Baseboards

0
Baseboards

No excuss now - some timber has arrived

Yesterday  Plywood for the sleepers arrived all 4000 of them for plain track, plus strips for turnouts. My God, this now looks a daunting task to lay all those sleepers!     Then this morning I got a knock on the door and found the arrival of the baseboard timber.     As travelling to the nearest decent Timber Merchant would probably be against the current Covid rules I settled on ordering the plywood online. Initially I thought about using a supplier of
Yan

Yan in Baseboards

0
Planning

Rospeath Lane - More planning

Another updated plan, I’ve now reached v15! Too much pondering and not enough physical modelling you may think. "The Devil is in the detail” and I may be overthinking some aspects of this plan. In the end I hope I will have thought of most of the gremlins that might creep into this project. In looking at the previous plan, I started to contemplate the proposed signal box diagram and the comments made. This brought me around to asking what happens beyond the bridge (scenic break) on the
Yan

Yan in Planning

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