Trezeath - BR(S) in N Cornwall - 00

[ColinW]

Paul, what gives you the right to post such a wonderful layout on here and ME MISS IT in the past, this is a really inspirational bit of Southern Modelling, thank you for the great pics and I will have another look through later when I get in after Club.

 

Great Stuff.

 

Bodge   

 

EDIT = Just noticed I have seen it before in Jan 2013.

Have been fortunate enough to see this layout 3 times at exhibitions (Orpington, Erith & Tonbridge, although as I'm a club member of Tonbridge, the last one should be no surprise!!) and it is a great layout to stand and watch at a show.

 

Colin

[paulr1949]

Have been fortunate enough to see this layout 3 times at exhibitions (Orpington, Erith & Tonbridge, although as I'm a club member of Tonbridge, the last one should be no surprise!!) and it is a great layout to stand and watch at a show.

 

Colin

Thank you Colin for your kind comments. It's always nice to hear that people enjoy watching layouts - even though we did have a few gremlins at Tonbridge ;-)

[paulr1949]

A brief update. Trezeath has no more bookings this year at the moment, I had to decline one show in June as I felt it wasn't going to be ready and one in August as I will be away - the main reason  behind this is that preparations are well under way for my daughter's wedding in July, and I have had to put "major" modelling on hold for a while, doing what I can in the time available between Model Railway Club, volunteering at the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway, singing and family history (oh and, of course, the wedding!)

A while after the last outing, I took stock and found that there had been some damage, namely one signal and about half a dozen trees.

 

 

Not a good photo but it shows the problem!

 

 

A storm has hit Cornwall (well it did, didn't it?)

 

 

The signal has been temporarily repaired - it is my intention to replace all the signals with MSE(Wizard) brass working kits, but I haven't got very far yet

 

 

The felled trees have been removed and replacements planted - my how quickly they've grown!

 

The other thing I have been working on is changing over the control systems to operate with DCC using the Gaugemaster Prodigy system (luckily I have 4 co-operators who have the same system, so will be able to source additional handsets.)

All the bus wires are in, they are not connected up yet, but I hope to do some testing later in the summer.

 

 

[paulr1949]

Work has started on a signal from MSE parts. It will be a 2-doll bracket for the exit from platform 2 which has two options. The dolls will be of equal height as either route is "main" and leads to the main single line.

 

I have studied the thread on semaphore signals from SteveAtBax of this parish and am utilising some of his ideas. One of these was to use a wide tube to make the fit into the baseboard, and smaller tubes inside to take the operating wires.

I made up a frame from ply to allow the tube to fit, which holds the signal well for the next stages. Should really have sat the signal vertically!

 

 

The bracket has been soldered up and the top is ready to have the tabs filed down

 

 

The bottom showing the wide tube with two small tubes inside

 

 

and the bracket attached - all ready for cleaning up.

 

 

You can just make out the two small holes in the baseplate.

 

The next task is to prepare and mount the dolls. More soon

 

 

 

 

 

[paulr1949]

Oh dear, soon didn't happen! The small matter of my daughter's wedding got in the way, and modelling basically took a back seat for the best part of 2 months. And since the big day, it's been too hot to do much. I have been getting on with soldering up the new control panel for DCC operation in short doses to fit in with the weather. Signal construction has come to a halt as I need to obtain another piercing saw handle. I need much finer blades to cut the brass etches than I have at present - greengiant of this parish kindly gave me a couple, but I've put them down somewhere and can't currently lay my hands on them.

 

Trezeath is now booked to appear at Crawley next April, interspersed with outings for White Oak light railway and a club layout, so I must get the proverbial finger out.

[lmsforever]

I do not know why I have not clicked onto your layout page before ,it is very well built obviously N  Cornwall and naturally Southern I shall be following your progress especially the signals as I have a couple of kits  and have not started on them.

[paulr1949]

A brief and very belated update on preparations for the Crawley show in 10 days time. The layout is now DCC-controlled, using a gaugemaster prodigy express system, extra handsets for exhibitions coming from various members of the operating team. I have added chips to 5 of my locos, and three or four more will be done before the show, and the fleet will be augmented by some from friends. The loco roster may thus be a little different to before: I'm not even going to think about chipping an old Ivatt tank, and the M7's are proving somewhat difficult! We did some testing at the clubroom on Saturday and this proved that the made-up computer leads I had bought weren't man enough to operate the points, so I had to spend yesterday making up one new lead (the.old one was very slightly too short and was suffering from being pulled about). Some fencing has been sorted out, hedges planted and a new greennhouse sourced (and weathered). Unfortunately, one of the MSE signals was danaged earlier in the year and I have not had time to replace it yet, so I'm still no nearer to my goal of operating signals (I have the switches on the control panel, the servos to operate them and some of the signals, but getting them all to happen is proving difficult).

 

Come and say hello if you're at the show.

[paulr1949]

A post-exhibition update, after some time widning down (including a holiday in Italy with friends which involved flying out to Maples then returning by train).

 

After the successful DCC-debut, I have stripped out the surplus wiring. Annoyingly, I still need two leads to one of the boards (the one with the most points) to enable control of points, frog switching and, eventually, signals.

 

When at home, the layout resides in my railway shed, and sits on flat plywood "shelving" (foir want of a better word). I have spent some time over the last few weeks building small support brackets which fit into the slots for the legs and support the layout about 45mm off the top of the ply. This enables me to get in and attach or detach cables as required without moving the whole board/layout. I have a few small repairs to carry out (the odd chimney, bit of hedge etc) and the new control panel to complete, then (or perhaps concurrently) I can restart on the brass signals. I made up a Ratio kit quickly for the Crawley show to temporarily replace one which was damaged at home earlier in the year. I also have three or four locos to chip, along with three "on order". Trouble is, as always, lack of time (or trying to do too many things).

 

Photos to come soon.

[paulr1949]

Time for an update. Having had a break and doing other things since the layout's last outing at Crawley back in April, it was time to set to work on a new control panel.

 

But first, some photos of the layout at Crawley.

 

So construction of the control panels started a couple of weeks ago, and "fitting out" has taken place over the last few days.

 

The inside of the box, with 25-way "D" connectors which connect to the boards. There are more terminals than I will need, but it was easiest to use plugs and sockets which I already had "in stock". I prefer a connection to each board where possible, it means that I can test each board individually. Having said that, there are only connections directly to 3 of 5 scenic boards: there are no points on board 1, so that is just an inter-board plug/socket chocolate block connector; board 4 to board 5 is the same (no points) and ditto the connections through to the fiddle yard (which is a sliding 6-road board). The extra connector goes to board 2 to operate the signals - should they ever get built ;-))

 

The back of the control panel. Connections will run from the tag strips at the bottom to the tag strips in the previous photo. Obviously this is still a work in progress, the 5 leads at the left hand end are points feed from CDU, LED feed/return and DCC feed/return. This latter is for frog switching, as I do not like to rely on the swicthes on the Seep point motors. You can't really see it properly, but the two long copperclad strips at the top are cut - the top one is mainly for LED resistors which will run between the two, plus the left and right hand end sections are for points feed. The LED returns all go to small copperclad strips. All the points are operated by a toggle switch for direction and a push-button for actual operation. This allows me to have LED indications and frog switching without using relays or electronic wizardry. The exception is the three-way point in the loco area, which uses a diode matrix so has a rotary switch for operation, LED and frog switching, with final point changing by push button.

 

The front of the panel. Signals are marked with red squares, and a separate switch panel will be constructed when required, which will  fit to one side or the bother of the control panel. Still to be added are "holsters" for the Prodigy controller handsets.

 

I have set myself the task of completing this and testing by the end of the month, so I can then get on with some other important things, such as signals.

[paulr1949]

Oh dear, I appear to have left things rather hanging in the air - sorry :-/

The control panel was duly completed and tested, with only a couple of minor problems found. Some minor repairs have been done where necessary, a couple of trees have been replaced, some more figures added and a boat has started rowing up the river.

The "700", "02" and Heljan rail us have all been run in on the rolling road and chipped, and a new station sign is under construction. The layout is appearing at the Orpington MRS exhibition in Pratts Bottom village hall next weekend (9/10) - do say hi if you are there

[Brinkly]

Nice little layout Paul.

 

Do you plan to do any more improvements this year?

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick

[paulr1949]

Nice little layout Paul.

 

Do you plan to do any more improvements this year?

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick

Thanks for the comment, Nick.

 

I hope to be able to complete a few things between the layout's visit to Orpington next weekend and it's next outing at Ilford in April. Not directly the "layout" as such, but the first thing to do will be to test out a strip of warm white LEDs which I bought recently, as the current lighting rig is very heavy. With a bit of a push, I can get three of the boards up on their legs in the shed with the lighting supports attached.

What I really do want to do is get at least one more signal sorted out and in position if not actually "servo-ised". Time will tell.

 

I will post some photos soon

[paulr1949]

Once again, I have been somewhat foiled - this time by an attack of gremlins on my right knee and foot, both of which swelled up to resemble a flabby balloon. It was very painful for 10 days and prevented me from getting around the house let alone getting out to the shed! No excuse really, but everything was going roughly as it should and then all of a sudden I've lost over a week of modelling time.

 

Anyway, prior to the outing at Romford in a couple of weeks time, I have tested all the locos and they all now work reasonably , having had some time on the rolling road and some oil. I have altered the back-to-backs on my Heljan AC railbus, which means it will now run all the way round the layout without falling off! My O2 is running better (see the Kernow O2 thread for more) although still not perfectly. I am going to try a small amount of weight in the smokebox and see if that makes a difference. One of my M7's was running very jerkily but, after some oil, wheel-cleaning and time on the rolling road it appears to have improved. A friend has very kindly adjusted my Sprat & Winkle couplings for me and I have replaced a station running-in board (the letters just fell off - honest, guv, I didn't touch it!). Had to replace two as otherwise it would have looked a bit odd.

 

The knee problem has put paid to my signalling efforts for the time being, I have just run out of time. I have done a bit more work on the bracket signal (the one I started about 18 months or more ago) but I don't think I'm going to get any more done. I've tidied up some scenery, done a bit of weathering on a bridge, re-glued the sides of the long plate-girder bridge and one side of the river bridge....

 

No more new engines - when I was tetsing them this week I had them all in the station and found I had 14 of them which is enough for the moment!

[paulr1949]

Well the Ilford MRS show has come and gone and once again, the leg gremlins attacked me, this time in the shape of badly bruised toes and twisted ankle - when carrying (fortunately lightweight) bits into the hall on Friday night it was rainign, and we were in a hurry after a 2½ hour journey for the 20-odd miles from Orpington, I slipped on some muddy grass and went a over t. I spent most of the show sitting, trying to get comfortable and hobbling round.

 

The layout performed reasonably well except one point would not switch into reverse and the frog on that point was electrically dead - despite there being continuity all the way from the power source on the control panel! A couple of locos just stopped working - then when I took them to another section of track worked fine, and continued to work fine when I put them back where they should be. Hey ho.

 

The next outing is at Tolworth in November.

[paulr1949]

A long time ago I updated this thread. Life has got in the way in the shape of two club layouts. Trezeath performed quite well at Tolworth in November 2016 and some of you might have seen the "What happened to..." article in the Railway Modeller in summer 2017. Very little has happened since then except the occasional movement up and down the layout to impress/please my 3 year old granddaughter. I did build a new fiddleyard and a 90 degree arc with a single track 2' 6" radius curve so that I could use the layout in the shed.

 

Given that the layout currently has no exhibition invitations, and everything else that is going on, the layout is likely to be up for sale later this year.

[paulr1949]

I have now sold Trezeath and it has moved to a new home in Hampshire. I hope to start constructing a new layout soon. I am waiting for a quote on some baseboards.

[380John]

What a beautiful layout it was. First time I had seen it was today, browsing through the thread. Lots of atmosphere and excellent modelling. 

 

Good luck with the new project. 

 

John 

[woodenhead]

@paulr1949 but thank you for resurrecting the thread even if it was to announce the end.

 

Nice to go back over the images in the thread, such a lovely model.

[paulr1949]

Thank you chaps. I decided a while ago that it would be nice to build (and hopefully complete as far as possible) a layout of my own: Trezeath was bought from the late Richard Lane. A photo of the last "ACE" arriving a couple of weeks ago.