Helston Revisited

[Andy Keane]

Spent a happy afternoon knocking together a rough model of the crane for the goods shed. Not great but it will be mostly hidden and an empty shed would be odd. Need to set it upright before final asembly so that it correctly locates in the shed roof beams.

 

 

I have now repainted the crane in mid grey since thats what the Great Western Way book says and the pictures I can find show that sort of think though they are in black and white so most everything is actually shown mid-grey!

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

I have started to plan the station building and I have found a puzzle. In every photo I look at there are no chimney pots on the station! The very similar St Ives building clearly does have quite prominent pots, three on each main stack and one on the end stack. Can anyone shed any light on this mystery.

[MJI]

I see what you mean.

 

I think you will have to look at any pot less chimney and see what they do.

[The Stationmaster]

4 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

I have started to plan the station building and I have found a puzzle. In every photo I look at there are no chimney pots on the station! The very similar St Ives building clearly does have quite prominent pots, three on each main stack and one on the end stack. Can anyone shed any light on this mystery.

No - but even a pre 1915 photo shows a distinct lack of chimney pots so I doubt if there ever were any.   I wonder if it was down to the station at Helston being fairly high up which made it more exposed to the wind hence fires drew well and the chimneys cleared smoke quite easily?  (The similar style of chimney at Carbis Bay - which would seem to have been quite well exposed to the north east had very tall chimneys but unlike Helston it was sheltered from westerly winds by the high land not too far behind it..)

[Andy Keane]

Searching around for pictures I found this one of marazion: http://www.urban75.org/railway/marazion.html

It too lacks the pots. I also notice when I look more closely at St Ives the three main stacks actually all differ. One has three pots, the middle one has two and the other end has just one toblerone on its side style (as per the loco shed at helston). I suppose it must very much have been a see what works kind of a thing - I recall my own parents trying various pots and cowls when I was a boy to get one to work well. I suppose just because many things GWR were standardized one must not assume everything was. The trouble with chimney pots and model railways is they are so very much visible to the viewer in a way they aren't in real life.

Edited September 11, 2021 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

Goods shed now painted. On to fittings the windows and roof.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

I would value some input if anyone can help - in the photos above of my goods shed model the "reveal" behind the various doors is brickwork but would it have been left as bare brick or painted to match the interior - I guess I mean where does the black and white internal wall paint stop? I have seen some photos that suggest the reveal was painted and others not, see for example https://www.flickr.com/photos/yeahwotever/23750844735/ which suggests bare brick.

Andy

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

Glazed and main roof timbers in place. Nearly finished.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

While making this building I have of course been thinking of goods shed a lot. One think that strikes me is how gloomy they must have been. With a line of wagons obscuring the round toped windows and the canopy over the road door (still to be fitted on my model) there must have been precious little natural light. It seems odd that they did not fit skylights but I have never seen a photo of a GWR branch / small station shed with them. I suppose they would have had gas lamps and  I intend to fit LEDs but would these have needed to be on all day long - seems very wasteful. Perhaps this explains wht in later years the road side canopy was removed.

[Penlan]

When, eventually, you come to the point of adding scenic details, one of the things I haven't fathomed is how the coal for Helston Gas Works was loaded into lorries for transfer across Helston Town to the Gas Works.
The Coal wagons appear to have been unloaded onto the loading dock, but I don't recall seeing any photo's of the dock with an 'elevator' there to load the coal onto lorries for transfer across Town.
As far as I can see, the coal wasn't unloaded anywhere else in the station area, e.g. so a lorry could back up and the floor of the lorry be basically level with the coal wagon floor.
The project is coming along very well.
 

[Andy Keane]

2 hours ago, Penlan said:

When, eventually, you come to the point of adding scenic details, one of the things I haven't fathomed is how the coal for Helston Gas Works was loaded into lorries for transfer across Helston Town to the Gas Works.
The Coal wagons appear to have been unloaded onto the loading dock, but I don't recall seeing any photo's of the dock with an 'elevator' there to load the coal onto lorries for transfer across Town.
As far as I can see, the coal wasn't unloaded anywhere else in the station area, e.g. so a lorry could back up and the floor of the lorry be basically level with the coal wagon floor.
The project is coming along very well.
 

There was also a coal merchant to the south of the goods shed with coal staithes but I suppose this would have been heating fuel and not for the gas works. In addition there is some uncertainity on the length and end termination of the siding with the goods platform - it seems to have been extended in a gentle curve around the back of the goods shed in some views and there is something at the far end of the goods platform in the 1940 aerial photo that I cannot make out. Perhaps this was where coal handling happened? If the track extended beyond the goods platform then direct handling into lorries would then have been possible I guess. Do you know of any photos of similar facilities at other GWR stations?

Andy

[The Stationmaster]

Here the coal yard seems to have a casualty of Edwardian layout changes and subsequently coal was dealt with from wagon to cart, and later to lorry, from wagons standing in the long mileage siding along with other traffic.  I presume that the gasworks coal went through the same siding as far as I know for the simple reason that there was nowhere else to unload it. 

[Andy Keane]

Finally finished the goods shed - next comes the carriage shed!

 

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Andy Keane

[Graham T]

Looks very impressive Andy!

[Andy Keane]

I am now working on the signal box using the commercial 4mm kit as a starting point while I wait for Jakub at LCUT to cut the parts for the carriage shed and station building.

So far I have built an interior kit up from etched parts, just a bit more painting to do:

 

 

At the same time I have started to turn the huge kit of laser cut parts into base-boards. I am using slow cure epoxy for these and management have allow the granite kitchen top to be used if I cover with a big teflon baking sheet. Its the best true flat surface I have of the size I need:

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Andy Keane

[Graham T]

Which etched kit are you using for the signal box interior?

[Andy Keane]

31 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Which etched kit are you using for the signal box interior?

I am using bits from this one: https://severnmodels.com/D10-Signal-Box-Interior

Its a very nice but very delicate kit with lots of bits one can use.

Andy

[Graham T]

Thanks Andy, that looks like a nice kit.  How did you find it to assemble?

[Andy Keane]

14 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Thanks Andy, that looks like a nice kit.  How did you find it to assemble?

I used a fine soldering iron for all of it except the setting of the levers in the frame which I did with epoxy resin. The bits are fiddly but manageable with fine tweezers and I think nicer that laser cut wood for such fine detail. As to whether will ever notice inside my signal box who can say!

Andy

[Graham T]

10 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

I used a fine soldering iron for all of it except the setting of the levers in the frame which I did with epoxy resin. The bits are fiddly but manageable with fine tweezers and I think nicer that laser cut wood for such fine detail. As to whether will ever notice inside my signal box who can say!

Andy

 

I've used quite a few etched kits in the past, but you're a better man than me if you can solder them!  I think I'll be sticking (haha) with superglue.

 

As for it being noticed - how about leaving the roof detachable?

[Andy Keane]

4 minutes ago, Graham T said:

 

I've used quite a few etched kits in the past, but you're a better man than me if you can solder them!  I think I'll be sticking (haha) with superglue.

 

As for it being noticed - how about leaving the roof detachable?

I plan to leave two of the windows slid back and have the signal man there with the stuff behind him. The fact that I have the levers correctly set for moving a loco from the shed to platform will be a subtlety that will just please me.

[Graham T]

That is a nice touch

[Andy Keane]

For people interested in the Helston branch I have just gotten hold of a copy of the Great Western Railway Journal number 55 (Summer 2005). This has a lovely long article about how goods services were operated on the branch written by a guard who worked there. It includes a couple of nice photos I have not seen anywere else. Copies of the journal can still be had on eBay for a few pounds - well worth it.

Andy

[Mulgabill]

On 12/10/2021 at 22:12, Andy Keane said:

I am now working on the signal box using the commercial 4mm kit as a starting point while I wait for Jakub at LCUT to cut the parts for the carriage shed and station building.

So far I have built an interior kit up from etched parts, just a bit more painting to do:

At the same time I have started to turn the huge kit of laser cut parts into base-boards. I am using slow cure epoxy for these and management have allow the granite kitchen top to be used if I cover with a big teflon baking sheet. Its the best true flat surface I have of the size I need:

 

Hi Andy - I am impressed with the kit of parts for the signal box.

 

Would I be right in thinking you have drawn it, and Jacub has laser cut it?

 

If so would you mind if I asked him to do me a set? I'm not sure that my eyes are

up do the detail, at the moment. But at least my inability to cut 2 pieces of card

the same, has an explanation. But I shan't know the solution until a clinic

appointment next month. Then it depends how long the queue is for treatment,

I suspect.

 

Looking forward to seeing some of your work, to date, landing on some baseboards.

 

All the best

TONY

[TrevorP1]

26 minutes ago, Mulgabill said:

>>> But at least my inability to cut 2 pieces of card

the same, has an explanation. But I shan't know the solution until a clinic

appointment next month. Then it depends how long the queue is for treatment,

I suspect.

 

 

Whatever you do keep that appointment!

 

I've had a narrow escape with wet macular degeneration. I'm one of the small group of very lucky ones whereby the treatment actually reversed some of the problem and didn't just stop it. As it is I still try to file off little bumps and so on that aren't there...

 

Let nothing get in the way of that appointment!