Burngullow Lane. - On the main line through Legend Land.

[TrevorP1]

An envelope bearing goodies from Railtec transfers arrived today. There were items for my third and fourth D8XX Warships (I need help!), some wagon chalk markings and a sheet of 3d brickwork.

 

I've used embossed plasticard for the platform walls and I'm happy with the way this has turned out but I just couldn't make a success of the retaining wall behind the signal box. I tried embossed plasticard and brick paper to no avail. This area will be one of the parts that visitors will see first and I can see it featuring in many of my photos as well so I wanted it to be right.

The Railtec brickwork is far from cheap and most likely far to expensive for example, a city layout but for this area I think it's well worth it. Photo of a section on my desk below. The architects among us will probably find something wrong (! ) and yes, I know it should be flemish bond but I'm very happy.  

 

My only (personal) reservation is matching the walls of the signal box which as far as I can see should be the same type. Unless a manufacturer produces a kit for the 1890ish pattern box before I need it I think I'll end up 'bashing' one from two Ratio (?) kits. All kinds of issues to deal with there but I'll get it done somehow!

 

So, happy with the brickwork and very happy with Railtec. Brilliant, fast, personal service from Steve with great products. - No connection just a very satisfied customer.

 

[richbrummitt]

At least it's not stretcher bond. 

[St Enodoc]

57 minutes ago, richbrummitt said:

At least it's not stretcher bond. 

Or Basildon Bond (other brands are available).

[Mark Cornwall]

Hi Trevor, great thread and I will watch with particular interest as the current owner of what is now Old Station Warehouse, the tallest building in the photo, just ahead of 6911. I'm planning on starting an N gauge layout this winter that will certainly feature some Grampound Road, era 5 action. Like you, I'll be in a garden building which will need a bit of fitting out first and I know from previous experience how long these things can take. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[TrevorP1]

13 hours ago, Mark Cornwall said:

Hi Trevor, great thread and I will watch with particular interest as the current owner of what is now Old Station Warehouse, the tallest building in the photo, just ahead of 6911. I'm planning on starting an N gauge layout this winter that will certainly feature some Grampound Road, era 5 action. Like you, I'll be in a garden building which will need a bit of fitting out first and I know from previous experience how long these things can take. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

 

Hi Mark. Interesting to hear from you. It must be an odd feeling knowing that someone will be making a model of your house, albeit as it was 60 years ago! A few months ago I had some correspondence with the owner of the old station masters house - he was interested in it's history. I think his name was Richard.

 

Good luck with your project. Anything to do with model railways is time consuming! It's interesting you are using N gauge, you can really do justice to the rolling farmland etc. 

 

If you haven't seen it already you might be interested in the 'St Enodoc' thread on here.

[St Enodoc]

On 05/10/2019 at 21:10, TrevorP1 said:

 

Hi Mark. Interesting to hear from you. It must be an odd feeling knowing that someone will be making a model of your house, albeit as it was 60 years ago! A few months ago I had some correspondence with the owner of the old station masters house - he was interested in it's history. I think his name was Richard.

 

Good luck with your project. Anything to do with model railways is time consuming! It's interesting you are using N gauge, you can really do justice to the rolling farmland etc. 

 

If you haven't seen it already you might be interested in the 'St Enodoc' thread on here.

Thanks for the plug Trevor!

 

To save anyone time searching just follow the link in my signature.

[TrevorP1]

Time goes by at an alarming rate these days and a progress update on Grampound/Ladock/St Stephen/TBA Road is long overdue. I've spent most of my modelling time working on the embankment behind the station and getting to grips with the station forecourt which is largely imaginary due to space restrictions. Most of the work should be obvious but I'm trying to get some false perspective going on behind the station  building using photos and anything I can think of!. The barn is from the holiday accommodation we use at Crugwallins. The photo was taken before the building was restored and has been flipped 180 degrees on the computer. Behind it 'across the road' is a house from Ladock taken from Google Street View. This still needs adjusting plus the saturation reducing as this much further into the background. Further right I'm still messing about but there will be a camping coach in this area.

 

 

Next up, the down Royal Duchy is hurried along by NBL Warship Panther.

 

 

As can be seen, I like Warships! Below, Caradoc heads the 16:40 Fridays only Penzance - Manchester relief. The engine began life at a blue Kelly but I've long hankered after a loco without the 4 character head code panel. There are several items still not quite right on the engine but it does me for the time being and is something a bit different.

 

 

Finally Dumbleton Hall draws to a stop with local train. The engine is the Bachmann loco of that name but reliveried to BR plus the addition of a Hawksworth tender which the loco ran with at this time. I'm no loco painter so the lining is from Fox sheets. The siphon behind is a heavily weathered (Mainline?) version and the southern van is a many years old Tri-ang Hornby version (I think) with Bachmann bogies and an underframe from spare Ratio bits - far from accurate but it's nice to keep the old stuff going. 

 

 

Dealing with these photos on the computer dramatically showed the difference between 'pristine' and weathered items. Black, particularly, just disappears into a dark mass on unweathered stock. I'm not brave or skilled enough to do an engine so this will be farmed out but I must try some light weathering on coaches.

[Neal Ball]

Nice to see photos of the station set out, its going to look great when everything has been built.

[checkrail]

Great work.  This is really coming to life. Love the wide sweeping curve cutting through the landscape.  Beautiful!

 

John C.

[Martin S-C]

That cluster of buildings on the outside curve has so many interesting shapes, angles and rooflines leading every which way. I can see that area being highly photogenic as the scenery side makes progress.

[TrevorP1]

5 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

That cluster of buildings on the outside curve has so many interesting shapes, angles and rooflines leading every which way. I can see that area being highly photogenic as the scenery side makes progress.

Yes, I’m looking forward to working on that area. I don’t have room to make it exactly as it was (even if I could find out) but I can certainly create something in character.

[TrevorP1]

I’ve just realised that it’s over a month since I posted the last update. Quite a bit has gone on in that time although not necessarily on the layout itself. A couple of weeks ago I finally got my ‘far from perfect but better than Hornby managed’ County class project operational. It’s worth a separate post when I get the photos together but basically it’s a Hornby body into which an 8f firebox has been grafted and the cab modified. It has a widened Castle tender and runs on an altered Bachmann modified hall chassis. I accept that wheels are 1mm too small but that’s almost within prototype tyre turning and at least it gets me a ‘signature’ Cornish engine.

 

Speaking of signature engines, work has started on a Comet chassis for one of the Granges. Much learning going on here but very enjoyable. It can be seen in the background of the photo below.

 

Another project is the first of the group of agricultural buildings. One of these still stands and I’m trying to recreate this as near as possible. For the other part of the group I’ve used some imagination and the only old photo I’ve found. I’ve based this part around an old Scenecraft model which I’d previously modified for a diorama. Slates and doorframes by York Modelmaking.
 

 

More photos soon.

[TrevorP1]

From one post in a month to two in a day but I did promise to put up some photos of the County hack job! I think the photos tell the story, one or two appeared on Tony Wright’s thread some while ago.

 

 

This shows the body after modification. Since I did this I found someone offering an etched cab but I’m blowed if I can remember who. No originality claimed for any of this as I know other RMWebers have done the same.

 

 

The widened Castle tender.

 

 

Sitting on the original Hornby chassis. It ran like a drunken donkey and looked worse. This was spring last year and with our wedding and the railway shed on the horizon I just painted it and put in a case on the wall.

 

 

Fast forward.... A few months ago I won a cheap Bachmann  Modified Hall on eBay and out of curiosity matched it to the County body. Made for each other puts it mildly! I consulted a Brassmasters instruction sheet as to the mods they make to put the Bachmann model right, and taking a liberal dose of brave pills hacked away!

 

 

Then I butchered the body to obtain the mounting for the rear so that I could use the Bachmann fixings.
 

 

 

 

 

 

And there it is 1006 ‘County of Cornwall’ on the up perishables. A few little things left to do and the splasher paint/lining needs redoing but at last I’ve got a County!

 

Not perfect by a long way but I can’t see an RTR one appearing any time soon. ( But we said that about 18000!).

 

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by TrevorP1
Insert larger version of last photo.

[Brinkly]

That looks Brilliant Trevor. I have one on my to-do pile!

 

Is it Jackson Evans (now owned by Precision Paints) who produce the County detailing kit? 

 

Kind regards

 

Nick

[TrevorP1]

7 hours ago, Brinkly said:

That looks Brilliant Trevor. I have one on my to-do pile!

 

Is it Jackson Evans (now owned by Precision Paints) who produce the County detailing kit? 

 

Kind regards

 

Nick

 

Thanks Nick, it gets the job done. I'm into a Grange chassis now - another vertical learning curve! 

 

PP  have various County detailing parts including side window beading but no side sheets or roof as far as I can see.

[Stoker]

Love the era and setting Trevor, looks like this is going to shape up to be a cracking layout. Anything in Cornwall with Class 22's is a win in my book.

Scott.

[Brinkly]

 

8 hours ago, Stoker said:

Love the era and setting Trevor, looks like this is going to shape up to be a cracking layout. Anything in Cornwall with Class 22's is a win in my book.

Scott.

 

The Western Region mainline is always a most acceptable subject to model!

[Martin S-C]

It amazes me that any GWR late period 4-6-0 isn't available RTR. Given how many 'repeats' we've had of some classes, its a surprise to hear there's no County.

[gwrrob]

6 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

It amazes me that any GWR late period 4-6-0 isn't available RTR. Given how many 'repeats' we've had of some classes, its a surprise to hear there's no County.

 

Although tender driven the old Hornby model can look ok to a blind man on a galloping horse.

 

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, gwrrob said:

 

Although tender driven the old Hornby model can look ok to a blind man on a galloping horse.

 

I agree Rob. I've got several Dapol/Hornby Counties (but they're loco drive not tender drive).

Edited December 10, 2019 by St Enodoc

[TrevorP1]

New Year is the time to look back on achievements (or otherwise!) during the last twelve months and many on RMweb have done this already. Some of the lists make impressive reading as regards the quality, let alone the amount, of work. Whilst I haven't completed anything on the actual layout for some weeks I have been beavering away indoors so, for what it's worth, and leaving aside most of the obvious things already mentioned in this thread here is my account for 2019.

 

• The HorBachPol County of Cornwall continues to perform well. One day I'll get round to finishing the odd jobs but it'll do for now.
• I have now 'worked up' four Bachmann Halls to represent Cornish or West Country locos. Just before Christmas I purchased the Brassmasters etches to make the Modfied version more like the real thing and when I have a new prescription of brave pills I'll give it a go.
• My 'Grange saga' continues. My examples must all have been 'Friday jobs' because none has ever worked properly. I've managed to take enough parts from three to produce two with working chassis. Main offending items were wheel back to backs, pick ups and frail wiring. At some cost in time these are now corrected and they are running in nicely. The remaining pile of bits is to be replaced with a Comet item which is slowly coming together.
• Numerous wagons & items of NPCS have been built, modified or weathered. Just lately I've been studying contemporary photos of goods trains or, more particularly, open wagons and their loads. This has resulted in a couple of Lowfits carrying Massey Ferguson manure spreaders and a battered ex-PO wagon with a load of oil drums (containing who knows what).
• Basic formations for many of the trains I want to run have been established. Also, rather than work towards a 'sequence' (the fiddle yard isn't big enough for a start) I have decided to go down the route of examples of particular trains or types of train. This is how Pendon works and if it's good enough for them... For selected workings my period will be extended - mostly backwards - so that for instance I can run the Cornish Riviera with a Brittania or Laira's last Star 4054 Princess Charlotte.

I've also:

• Laid an awful lot of track.
• Installed a huge amount of spaghetti wiring!.
• Made a start on brake van tail lamps, loco lamps and crews.
• Built more cassettes for the fiddle yard.
• Learned a lot about the real railway.
• Learned a lot about modelling.

I mentioned that no work has taken place on the actual layout lately. This has partly been due to the miserable weather and that I found it more productive to be at the workbench indoors. However, as Grampound Road has come together I'm finding that it has certain limitations and it is not giving me everything I would like. As has already been said by others on this thread, the curve through the station and the haphazard collection of agricultural buildings work well but, I'm wondering...

 

A move up the line may be afoot, or maybe not. No decisions yet, and there may be no change after all but I feel the need to consider a few things. Certainly the fiddle yard will stay as it is. There is nothing to be gained in the space I have and it is working well but the scenic side might be a different matter. We'll see!

 

A Happy New to All!

 

 

[TrevorP1]

In my last post I alluded to the fact that a change may be afoot. After much serious consideration over a period of several weeks (Act in Haste, Repent at Leisure etc.) I took the decision to dismantle the scenic side of the layout in order to make a fresh start. There were some things I liked, particularly the sweeping curve and the cluster of agricultural buildings but there were aspects that disappointed me. Specifically:

• Because I had adhered as much as possible to the real Grampound Road I couldn't see enough of the trains. They were partially hidden by the lie of the land or the station platform. 
• Although I am happy to watch the trains go by, it would be nice to do something different now and again.

I am happy, so in love with(!) the area so I couldn't move far and eventually settled on Burngullow junction - or at least an impression of. I hope to incorporate enough of the real location for folk to say "Oh, that's Burngullow isn't it". Except that it won't be. I'll put a plan up soon - dreckley? - but the the pointwork at the junction will be there with, along with a spur heading off to Drinnick Mill. There will be sidings on both sides of the line as per the real location but there will be no room for the huge clay dries. However there should be scope for a Linhay about 6/700mm long x about 150mm. Of course the whole thing will be on curve - the real Burngullow is almost straight. With this scheme trains can come and go to Drinnick Mill (involving reversing across both main lines as per the real thing) and also down freights can be held to let others pass.

 

80% of the above will be on a low embankment so that the trains are in full view and also giving the scope for a cottage and farm buildings alongside but slightly below the line.

 

The dismantling has been done and new materials have begun to arrive. Positive things should happen next week.

 

Family duties call now but I'll update regularly.

Edited May 6, 2022 by TrevorP1

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

In my last post I alluded to the fact that a change may be afoot. After much serious consideration over a period of several weeks (Act in Haste, Repent at Leisure etc.) I took the decision to dismantle the scenic side of the layout in order to make a fresh start. There were some things I liked, particularly the sweeping curve and the cluster of agricultural buildings but there were aspects that disappointed me. Specifically:

• Because I had adhered as much as possible to the real Grampound Road I couldn't see enough of the trains. They were partially hidden by the lie of the land or the station platform. 
• Although I am happy to watch the trains go by, it would be nice to do something different now and again.

I am happy, no in love with(!) the area so I couldn't move far and eventually settled on Burngullow junction - or at least an impression of. I hope to incorporate enough of the real location for folk to say "Oh, that's Burngullow isn't it". Except that it won't be. I'll put a plan up soon - dreckley? - but the the pointwork at the junction will be there with, along with a spur heading off to Drinnick Mill. There will be sidings on both sides of the line as per the real location but there will be no room for the huge clay dries. However there should be scope for a Linhay about 6/700mm long x about 150mm. Of course the whole thing will be on curve - the real Burngullow is almost straight. With this scheme trains can come and go to Drinnick Mill (involving reversing across both main lines as per the real thing) and also down freights can be held to let others pass.

 

80% of the above will be on a low embankment so that the trains are in full view and also dining the scope for a cottage and farm buildings alongside but slightly below the line.

 

The dismantling has been done and new materials have begun to arrive. Positive things should happen next week.

 

Family duties call now but I'll update regularly.

Sounds good Trevor. Burngullow will now have (at least) two alter egos!

[Chamby]

21 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

......

I am happy, no in love with(!) the area so I couldn't move far and eventually settled on Burngullow junction - or at least an impression of. I hope to incorporate enough of the real location for folk to say "Oh, that's Burngullow isn't it". Except that it won't be. I'll put a plan up soon - dreckley? - but the the pointwork at the junction will be there with, along with a spur heading off to Drinnick Mill. There will be sidings on both sides of the line as per the real location but there will be no room for the huge clay dries. However there should be scope for a Linhay about 6/700mm long x about 150mm. Of course the whole thing will be on curve - the real Burngullow is almost straight. With this scheme trains can come and go to Drinnick Mill (involving reversing across both main lines as per the real thing) and also down freights can be held to let others pass.

 

80% of the above will be on a low embankment so that the trains are in full view and also dining the scope for a cottage and farm buildings alongside but slightly below the line.

 

The dismantling has been done and new materials have begun to arrive. Positive things should happen next week.

 

Family duties call now but I'll update regularly.

 

Burngullow has changed a lot over the years... do you have a particular date in mind?  The station closed in 1931, if I recall correctly.

[checkrail]

I greatly admire those who model a real location as accurately as possible but I lean towards the view that aesthetics trumps fidelity to a specific location every time.  For me it's all about seeing the trains, and if geography, landscape, trees, buildings etc. get in the way then 'reality' has to be changed!  Best wishes for the revised layout - look forward to seeing more pics as it progresses.