cornish trains jez

Ah, I’ve always enjoyed these updates and being immersed in the atmosphere! Looking forward to the next one!

Lovely stuff Simon as always. You need a pair of 37's in Railfreight distribution livery now just to complete the set!

Strange, was just thinking about this thread earlier today....

Hi Simon, Quality scratchbuilding there my friend, really coming along nicely. All these little additions help complete the scene and you really have captured the atmosphere of the area well. Best regards and stay safe, Jeremy

How about 10-SCR ( soft cushion required ) !

Evening all, Been busy track building today and finished the first of three turnouts on board one. This is a 1 in 10 turnout which I think will flow beautifully. The next will be the single slip followed by another 1 in 10. The reason I'm doing this is because I'm not totally happy with the Peco offerings but the reason I abandoned scratch built track in the first place was that the continental stock tends to run along the sleeprs with code 40 rail......but enter the "code 40 and a bit" rail!!!!! So, with the rail height issue in mind, I decided to experiment by adding a strip of 1.17mm wide x 0.25mm thick metal to the bottom of the code 40 rail before soldering it to the copper clad sleepers....and hey presto...the problem is no more! I've also made it compatible with Peco code 55 flexi track (I'm not sticking bits of metal to nearly 25 meters of straight track!!), so the height of the new code 40 and a bit rail is the same as code 55. I've raised the turnout sleepers as the Peco ones are quite thick so height we, it all matches in. And lets be honest, no one is ever going to analyse the track work that closely after the OHLE wires are all in place! So here is the first turnout, just needs a clean up with the fibre glass pen and the tie bar fitted and I'll move onto the slip. I've also used a mixture of plastic sleepers as I'm starting to run out of the copper clad ones until I re-order some more. Also, I've semi-finescaled it using Cav Millwards (he did Burton on Trent on this forum) N2 track work dimensions, although I've gone for 0.82mm flangeways, but still it looks much more prototypical. Another project I've been working on in the background is the post depot, based on the one at Thun. Here is the first floor posed in position on some wagon boxes to get the height with a rake of wagons unloading alongside. I've received another batch of plastics this weekend so I'll be able to crack on with the ground floor over the course of this week. Best regards and stay safe, Jeremy

Evening all, Lots going on with the layout at the moment. The bridge is still progressing, I've started the road overbridge, I've been scratchbuilding some turnouts that will be both compatible with Peco code 55 track and also continental stock, and I've made a start on some scratchbuilt OHLE masts tonight. Here are a few photos of my first efforts on the OHLE. I've used 1.5mm brass H section and a mixture of 0.31mm and 0.5mm wire. The tensioners are somerfeldt ones which I have a small stash of. First of all, I drew a template on a piece of ply and then blue tacked the parts in place while soldering to keep them in position. I also used two small pieces of 0.75mm thick plasticard placed under the wire parts so that they soldered to the middle of the mast. I used this photo for reference posted on Flickr by Vectron X4E: Best regards and stay safe, Jeremy

Nice work as always Grahame. Shapeways postage was about £8 last time I ordered, so I tend to get a large order together when I do to try and justify to myself paying the high postage rate. Best regards and stay safe, Jeremy

ha ha yes! I struggled when I did the buffered HST power car in exec livery, that was hard enough just with doing the white stripe!

Just looking at that cruel front close up, looks like I may need to do a little “tidying up” around the lower edges.

Good evening, Made some more progress on my SBB ICN 500 driving car over the weekend. The white coat has finally dried after taking near on two weeks to fully dry. A bit weird that! Anyway, having been in contact with an SBB train driver, he very kindly obtained for me the official SBB colour chart and official stock logo sizes and coach/loco detailing and associated chart for corresponding Humbrol paints which represent the closest match. So went the red last night and its already dry...maybe something to do with the weather! Just the black, and two shades of grey to go on. Then I'll need to work out how I can make some home made transfers to finish it off. Current state of play...It was a nightmare to mask with the sweeping curves up the front sides from the cab, even worse than when I masked my N gauge class 317 and sprayed it into NSE livery!! Best regards and stay safe, Jeremy

Hi Dave, Yes, you are quite right, all three manufacturers produce both locos. I have more experience with the Re460's as, on my last Swiss layout, I had both Minitrix and Kato offerings (the Fleischmann version not being available at that time). From my perspective, I think the Kato has a slight edge on the Minitrix variant. The one thing that I din't like about the Minitrix 460 is that it has a massive gap at the front in the fairing where the coupling is. The Kato versions are a little more subtle. Both have white directional lights but no red tail lights. The newer Fleischmann offering is much better, it has a lot of detailing, the pantographs are much finer, blackened, and there is also directional white/red head and tail lights. Great if you are running push pull operations, say with an IC2000 set or EWiv set. One thing I particularly like with the Fleischmann versions is the bag of additional detailing parts, which allows you to add the pipes but also, to remove the coupling and fill the gap with a clip in part, which makes the front fairing flat and true to the prototype. The Kato ones have also been updated and feature nice plastic pantographs which look really good. If you are looking for the advertising liveried locos, Kato and Minitrix have quite a repertoire of offerings. With regards to the Re465's, I've got a few Kato versions and will probably only buy Kato or Fleischmann. Hope this helps, and the Swiss bug WILL get to you eventually! Best regards and stay safe, Jeremy

It's in my latest Strathwood catalogue. Just checked and it has Philips name at the bottom on the cover. Same book then.

Blimey! That's a building and a half!!

Hi, Strathwood have published a book called "Tales from the Clay Country working with steam in Cornwall". Might be worth picking up for some inspiration and prototypical workings. Good luck with the layout. Best regards and stay safe, Jeremy