Penhayle Bay

[St Enodoc]

I did wonder about the security of ORR's intellectual property but the seal would be a 3-D embossing on a real letter, surely.

ORR is of course now the Office of Rail and Road not the Office of Rail Regulation, if that makes any difference.

[Gwiwer]

Reality came home with a vengeance today.  I was woken at 7am by the sounds of a large semi-trailer carrying a 40-foot container reversing into position in our small court.  The neighbours are leaving for the Netherlands.  Tomorrow, Saturday, is the final open-house running session for Penhayle Bay featuring only BR Western Region trains.  In a very few weeks time I too shall be leaving for London with as much as will fit into a container and our future new home.  Penhayle Bay, at least in its present operable form, will be no more.

 

I know of a comfortable number of people coming.  There are sometimes a few who just arrive and are equally welcome.  The forecast is a sunny 30C which will make it on the warmer side but there is a shaded seating area under one of our larger trees outside and indoors is air conditioned.

 

In addition to running Penhayle Bay the portable N-scale Boghouses project, which is not currently operable, will be on static display.  This is coming to the UK with me along with some sections of Penhayle Bay.  

[Andrew P]

Have a good running session Rick, and I'm sure you'll soon have something up and running once back in the UK and settled.

[SRman]

I still intend being there, Rick. Waiting to hear from Doug and Rob as to how many of us will arrive together.

[DougN]

I would love to make it. Only problem I have is a family issue which has to be addressed with master DougN but it might require the afternoon. I will be in touch around lunch SRman.

[St Enodoc]

Reality came home with a vengeance today.  I was woken at 7am by the sounds of a large semi-trailer carrying a 40-foot container reversing into position in our small court.  The neighbours are leaving for the Netherlands.  Tomorrow, Saturday, is the final open-house running session for Penhayle Bay featuring only BR Western Region trains.  In a very few weeks time I too shall be leaving for London with as much as will fit into a container and our future new home.  Penhayle Bay, at least in its present operable form, will be no more.

 

I know of a comfortable number of people coming.  There are sometimes a few who just arrive and are equally welcome.  The forecast is a sunny 30C which will make it on the warmer side but there is a shaded seating area under one of our larger trees outside and indoors is air conditioned.

 

In addition to running Penhayle Bay the portable N-scale Boghouses project, which is not currently operable, will be on static display.  This is coming to the UK with me along with some sections of Penhayle Bay.  

Have fun Rick. If it makes you feel better it's raining here, although 30 deg still expected with possible thunderstorms later.

[DougN]

Thanks for a great afternoon. The trains were mostly behaving themselves along with the people who turned up. It will be sad to see the end as we know it of the layout but I am sure just as much entertainment and interest will be able to be achieved in time on the other side of the earth! The weather may not be as hot though.. when I looked at my phone it said 34 to where you are!

[Peter Beckett]

Thanks for a great afternoon. The trains were mostly behaving themselves along with the people who turned up. It will be sad to see the end as we know it of the layout but I am sure just as much entertainment and interest will be able to be achieved in time on the other side of the earth! The weather may not be as hot though.. when I looked at my phone it said 34 to where you are!

I second that motion. A very enjoyable afternoon with much traffic on the tracks. Thanks, Rick.

 

Peter

[Gwiwer]

Many thanks to all who came along, regular visitors and new faces alike.

 

Fifteen of us, about as many as the layout can accommodate happily without taking turns, enjoyed quite a warm afternoon which just about remained comfortable enough given a mid-session tea break.  Most trains played nice most of the time and the only technical glitches were a couple of heat-related issues with points reluctant to change and the lighting transformer tripping out and refusing to trip back in again.  From past experience it will take until well into the evening for that to occur.  The main Morley controller has a cooling fan fitted which certainly earned its keep today; the top panel of the controller was very hot indeed making me wonder how long until it too tripped out.  It never did.  Good things, Morley controllers.

 

As ever I was too busy at the panel and with general hosting duties to grab photos of the day itself.  I'll take some of the trains which were presented for service and add them here later.

 

Provisionally at this stage Friday March 31st after 7pm and all day Saturday April 1st between 10am and 10pm are set aside for an anything-goes final fling.  If it runs on DC and OO track you're welcome to bring it along and run / photograph it on the layout.  I'll have some of my non-WR collection out and about too.  SR EMU sets running mysteriously bereft of a third rail, multi-headers on the branch, the Australian stock of which one loco has already made two trips to the UK and anything else I can find to play with.

 

There are a few weeks of occasional running left.  But today was the final open-house for the normal WR stock in front of a crowd.  With thanks to Sharon for providing catering assistance despite being absent from the afternoon on other business.  And with thanks to all who made today as friendly and enjoyable as always.

[P.C.M]

Thanks Rick,

It was a great day. I took a few pics so will post up some later.

 

Cheers Peter. 

[Markeg]

Thanks Rick for the great afternoon.  Nice to meet you and see Penhayle Bay.

 

Hope all the plans for moving go well for you both.

 

Mark

[Gwiwer]

Good to meet you too Mark and thanks for taking the time to travel down.  

[P.C.M]

Here you go a few pics of Ricks Masterpiece. It truly is a great layout with some of the best scenic work and detail I have seen.

 

Cheers Peter.

[SRman]

Adding my thanks to those who have already done so: thank you for a wonderful afternoon of running trains and swapping stories. Very enjoyable. I forgot to take any photos too, so we''ll have to recreate the setting when you have the final fling for Penhayle Bay.

The day was completed afterwards when DougN and his family joined me and my other half for a meal out at Sofia's in Burwood East.

 

[Gwiwer]

Those pictures turned out all right Peter.  I still can't get used to using a phone to take pictures since my point 'n' shoot died but seeing yours gives me some ideas for angles I haven't used and where the SLR just won't fit.

[St Enodoc]

Here you go a few pics of Ricks Masterpiece. It truly is a great layout with some of the best scenic work and detail I have seen.

 

Cheers Peter.

Very nice Peter. A fitting valedictory photoshoot.

[Gwiwer]

It's been a busy few days to put it mildly and I still don't have the photos from last Saturday ready to post.  

 

What I do have is a few views of locos which both arrived too late to debut at the event having arrived respectively on Monday and today.  These have been quickly tested, weathered and placed in traffic though will see very little use here.  They are destined to return to their boxes within days for return shipping to the UK during May.

 

37284 arrived on Monday despite hopes of making it in time to double-head Saturday's china clay workings.  Not a Cornish loco but at least a WR one having spent its blue life at Landore (Swansea) and Canton (Cardiff) so it matches well enough and could have reached Cornwall at times.

 

 

 

Having done the easy bit and descended the branch alone 37284 was paired with "native" 37207 named William Cookworthy and with a Cornish Railways "Wizzie Lizzie" logo applied.  The two in tandem took the train uphill through the forest shattering the peace and quiet with the thrash of 24 English Electric cylinders on full power.

 

 

An "off the edge" shot on the narrow part of the layout because the light is good and shows off 207's nameplate.  Note also the differing treatment of the radiators with 207 having a grille guard but not 284.

 

 

And growling off into the distance .....

 

 

Then in today's post came Hornby's latest class 50 offering in the shape of 50026 "Indomitable" in the first iteration of Network SouthEast livery with its garish stripes.  Hornby has to my mind captured the colours quite well; they were described as making real trains look like plastic toys by some when the livery first appeared.  This loco has again been weathered though lacks my usual Fox etched nameplates at this stage; these will be added at some later time.

 

 

And approaching Treheligan where the clays are held on he branch awaiting a road up-country.  The comparison between Hornby and Bachmann representations of the same livery is significant though not too jarring.  The Mk1 coaches so painted faded rather quickly as they were often berthed in the open.  This livery did not wear well and was replaced with darker shades and detail changes such as upswept curved corners instead of the angles.  Hornby released 50002 in that livery some time ago which is also in my fleet.  Summer Saturdays saw BR InterCity sector hiring a rake of Mk1 coaches from NSE which were normally used on weekday business trains between Paddington and Oxford.  The hired set ran a Paddington - Penzance - Paddington round trip usually behind a class 50 and this working is represented here.

 

[brushman47544]

I do like the double-headed 37s. My 37284 arrived last week. I want to add the frost grills, so need to find a suitable CF, BR or LE loco with cut away valences and yellow head code panel that still had them.

 

Interesting to compare the Bachmann (on the Mk1) and Hornby representations of NSE blue. In the photo, the Hornby 50 is darker so looks like the later blue, but as you say in the first version of NSE livery with angled stripes. What I can't remember now is whether any 50s received the intermediate stripes (i.e. curved up over the cabs) and if so in which NSE blue, as opposed to the final version with the horizontal stripes the full length of the loco.

Edited February 9, 2017 by brushman47544

[Gwiwer]

Certainly the earlier 50002 in final NSE horizontal stripes which Hornby released some time ago has too dark a shade of blue.  It doesn't help that this was a factory-weathered release either adding gloom to darkness.  As the weathering on 50026 was applied quickly tonight for the photos I may try to lighten the colours a little with some pale grey powder wiped over the whole body.  If it doesn't do the trick then it's only powder and wipes straight off again.

[Gwiwer]

Edited February 13, 2017 by Gwiwer

[Gwiwer]

And hot on the heels of announcing the final chance to enjoy this layout comes the delayed photo-shoot of the last BR-WR "genuine" running day.  Not photographed on the day as I mentioned above because it's already a challenge to run the trains, meet and greet, organise the teas and keep an eye on everything when single-handed.  There's also not the opportunity to get the exact shot required.  But these are a record of the trains offered for service on that final "proper" running day.  No attempt was made to keep to a specific timetable or time period.  The only criterion was BR Western Region in Cornwall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some video clips

 

 

 

 

 

The SmugMug gallery with these images and clips holds 40 files.  Please feel free to browse the lot at this link rather than me filling your screens and this reply window.  A SmugMug account should not be needed to view.

 

https://gwiwer.smugmug.com/ModelRailway-1/Penhayle-Bay-Final-WR-Running-Day/n-gtw8QB

[Gwiwer]

I logged into my Facebook account this morning to discover that Penhayle Bay has now topped 10,000 fans watching its page there.  I'm not sure how many other layouts have their own dedicated Facebook presence but I'm rather humbled that my modest efforts have garnered such a level of world-wide interest.

 

 

[Bogie]

Congratulations.

 

It does mean though there are about to be 10,000 sad people in the world when Penhayle Bay breathes its last.

[Budgie]

Congratulations.

 

It does mean though there are about to be 10,000 sad people in the world when Penhayle Bay breathes its last.

 

and about 10,000 people hoping to read about the new layout back in Blighty in due course.

[Gwiwer]

Ladies and gents.

 

Just a reminder that next weekend sees the FINAL chance to enjoy Penhayle Bay in operation.  Friday evening (only if there is sufficient demand) and Saturday 31st March and 1st April will be the last chance I have to offer an open-house to anyone interested.  I shall keep the layout intact until the advertised closure date of 17th April - Easter Monday - but have to work on every other day until then.  

 

We have successfully relocated to London and a small flat in the Strawberry Hill area of Twickenham.  Rail enthusiasts will be aware that this is also the site of a depot operated by South West Trains and currently home to the Bluebell Railway's preserved class 423 (4Vep) unit in addition to maintaining a fleet of suburban and main-line trains.

 

The space available, smaller than we had expected, means that it will not be possible to retain a working portion of Penhayle Bay.  While we have accepted a smaller property than intended or hoped it is in many ways very suitable for us.  It is under two minutes' walk from the station which, with Sharon's somewhat restricted mobility, is extremely helpful.  She has a reasonably easy and short commute to work at Kew Gardens by way of a change between train and bus at Richmond.  We viewed numerous larger places including one I really liked which had a loft conversion that would have been a perfect railway room.  However Sharon found the stairs too steep there and in several other places we saw which ruled them out and favoured the ground floor flat we agreed would be our best option.  Those who have met Sharon will understand why a step-free (or almost step-free) home and trip to work are desirable.  She can manage stairs but often only with some difficulty.  The older London houses we saw mostly had rather steep central staircases - and in one instance without a continuous handrail.

 

So what of the immediate future?  

 

I have set up my room in the flat with an elevated bed to maximise floor space.  There will be space for a couple of sections of Penhayle Bay.  There will be room to store Boghouses and return it to operable condition though it would need to normally live flat against a wall.  There is room to use the boards originally track-laid for Beer & Branscombe either to finally built the Beer part of that project or, more likely, to build something else entirely.  Something else entirely would be Southern electric-themed though I shall find a way to allow steam and perhaps the occasional WR freight to appear.   Whether to weather is another conundrum.  The flat is newly carpeted and I have no outdoor space of any kind.  If I do "dirty stuff" it must be in the bedroom and with the carpet covered with a drop sheet.  I already have nearly all the rolling stock I would need and of that nearly all is already weathered meaning I might not need to do too much more.

 

It's "All Change" on the layout front and in many other ways.  

 

Come and enjoy Penhayle Bay if you can.  While you can.