Drinnick Stores - again.

[Stubby47]

Many years ago I started a blog on a soon abandoned idea for making a short photo plank called 'Drinnick Stores'.

 

Research into a background story for The Circle and The Stores (T-CATS) has led me full circle...

 

The Nanpean wharf sidings and the low level lines to the Drinnick Mills complex is tempting me to create another small layout.

 

 

Orientated with the FYs on the right, the upper level line would drop in to the main wharf sidings and the lower level line would disappear under the bridge.

 

 

This is just food for thought at the moment, but I'm very tempted...

 

 

[Stoker]

If you're interested I have a track plan for a layout based on the low level lines. It's slightly condensed to retain the linhay on the right and rail overbridge on the left as scenic breaks without taking up too much space, and having the added operational interest of the power plant coal chute. Designed to fit on an 8ft x 2ft plywood, using Peco EM gauge Bullhead as a good standard for realistic curves and turnout lengths. I also have a "close enough" mockup of the building in sketchup.

[Stubby47]

Thanks Stoker, but I have to say I don't want a china clay layout as such, hence my interest in the track plan north of the bridge.

I've added a fictitious 3rd siding,  to make up the inglenook,  but the higher, Drubbers siding could be used as the 3rd one, it would just stretch the layout somewhat.

To gain enough height for the bridge would need a steep incline out and also a falling line to the lower exit, but I think it would all fit in 8ft.

 

In Maurice Dart's West Cornwall Mineral Lines book, image 44 shows the last clay wagon leaving Drinnick Mill dries behind a Class 37.

I presume the loops between the photo location and the bridge were used to run around the wagon, which was then pushed under the bridge to let the loco lead up the incline towards the main.

Can anyone confirm or deny this assumption?

[Stoker]

Just now, Stubby47 said:

Thanks Stoker, but I have to say I don't want a china clay layout as such, hence my interest in the track plan north of the bridge.

I've added a fictitious 3rd siding,  to make up the inglenook,  but the higher, Drubbers siding could be used as the 3rd one, it would just stretch the layout somewhat.

To gain enough height for the bridge would need a steep incline out and also a falling line to the lower exit, but I think it would all fit in 8ft.

 

In Maurice Dart's West Cornwall Mineral Lines book, image 44 shows the last clay wagon leaving Drinnick Mill dries behind a Class 37.

I presume the loops between the photo location and the bridge were used to run around the wagon, which was then pushed under the bridge to let the loco lead up the incline towards the main.

Can anyone confirm or deny this assumption?

Operations at Nanpean Wharf were always awkward. There was a loop just south of where the line down to the Wharf diverged from the branch. This loop was used for Dubbers and West Of England sidings, and could provide a run around for the wharf, but trains were limited in length by the wharf forming a considerable chunk of the headshunt. If wagons were present at the wharf when a train had to run down to the lower lines, those wagons would have to be removed to the branch before the train could proceed. This was further compounded by the loop at some point being truncated into a siding removing it's functionality, meaning that the lower level sidings were only accessible as a propelled reversal from the wharf. Trains leaving the lower level sidings would have to run the locomotive around the wagons and propel the train up to the wharf in order for the locomotive to be on the correct end of the train if it was travelling back toward Burngullow. More often than not though, train movements at Drinnick were scheduled to take place as part of other workings up the branch, meaning the train could be propelled back up the incline toward the branch to rejoin part of a longer train as it worked toward Treviscoe or Parkandillack.