[West Country to P4 - Part 7 - etched chassis]

Andrew.
 

That’s looking good. Might encourage me to unearth mine from the “to do” pile. I suspect it’s been maturing almost as long as yours…

 

Did you find that you had any sideplay on the driving wheels with the P4 spacers? I seem to recall the reason mine got shelved was that the frames were too far apart to work. I’ll have to have another look at it. 
 

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with the slide bars/cross head. 
 

Jeremy

[2022 - a new start]

Welcome back.  Look forward to seeing your various projects progress.

 

We might even get to catch up at an Exhibition this year...!

 

Jeremy 

[Due to actions by the RMWeb team, who decided to support the toxicity of @woodenhead and "punish" me by deleting all the images I've uploaded, this content has been redacted.]

Andrew,  your memory is quite good - the linhay is 21.5 in long on Wheal Elizabeth but as you say, in reality this is a pretty small works like the Carbis works.

 

I have been playing around with ideas based on the Wenfordbridge line on and off for a while but having visited the site last week while on holiday it is clear that this facility is somewhat bigger than its final output would suggest - according to "Map my Run" it is about 650 m long.  The buildings are Listed and still standing and although fenced off are clearly regularly accessed by "visitors".  I found a planning notice on part of the site dating to 2010 when there were plans to convert it into apartments and although that hasn't happened. the Local Authority website might have some info.

 

Like others, I find the clay industry and the rail facilities a fascinating subject and aspect of rail operations in Cornwall but, as Stoker, has said in the original post most facilities are way too large for just a corner of a layout but may lack the operating potential needed for me to sustain interest if modelled as a single facility especially in the air brake era of clay trains. Clay hoods are a little easier but you do need a lot of them to make sense of operations!

 

I look forward to seeing developments on Stoker's Rosevear project and also to learning much more about the clay industry as this progresses.

 

[Wheal Elizabeth closes]

As the new owner of Wheal Elizabeth I thought, as Andrew suggested, that I'd "break cover".

 

Like many it is a layout I have admired for some time and think it catches the essence of a China Clay branch extremely well.  I did draw up plans for a China Clay layout for the Scalefour Society D&E Layout Challenge but when I saw the plans Andrew proposed and the progress he had made compared to my faltering efforts I abandoned that challenge.  I have however been building up a selection of stock for my own Clay project but now I don't have to build that!!

 

My plan is to take stock of what I have bought and also to bring some of my part finished projects to completion concentrating on my two main areas of interest, the mid to late1950's and the mid to late 1970's.  Once I am satisfied I have sufficient stock and have ironed out any problems that may arise during conversion to DCC (to allow for sound in the diesels) I expect that I will take the layout to a few shows.  I doubt I'll be able to manage the 35 over 8 years that Andrew has done but you certainly haven't seen the last of Wheal Elizabeth on the exhibition circuit.

 

I suspect that any stock related updates will appear on my OMWB thread on the Scalefour Forum if you want to keep an eye on what I'm doing...

 

Jeremy

[West Country Conversion to P4 part 2]

Porthchullin Tatty is right that there are a couple of converted West Countries on St Merryn but despite his suggestion I didn't do the conversions. I have one in my started but not finished box which involved using Comet frames as cosmetic overlays to try and deal with the brake gear problem mentioned but I can't comment on how successful that will be as I've not finished! The St Merryn WC's, from memory, follow a similar route to ullypug's.