Camel Quay - A North Cornwall inspired layout in 4mm

[DLPG]

The track work looks excellent. I simply cannot decide the avenue to follow in terms of track. I'm currently leaning towards SMP. But then you see the improved Peco and then back to considering my options!

[DLPG]

I currently have loads of code 100. Might try spacing the sleepers to see what affect you get.

[BR(S)]

The track work looks excellent. I simply cannot decide the avenue to follow in terms of track. I'm currently leaning towards SMP. But then you see the improved Peco and then back to considering my options!

 

I can highly recommend C&L Finescale track.  See my layout thread (link in my signature) for mine (the first time I've used anything other than Peco Code 100), sprayed with Railmatch Sleeper Grime paint.  However, Peco track with the sleepers spaced out does look good; I was going to try this but was too lazy to space out the sleepers individually! 

[tender]

Arch bridges abound on the North Cornwall, so my quick trawl through the Irwell Press book confirms. St Thomas's Road Bridge at Launceston is very offset, and steeply inclined across the railway. Padstow opened in 1899, when there were still very few motor vehicles of any sort - roads were not constructed to consider artic lorries, so corners could be tighter, as many still are in the West Country. Maybe use the arch slightly less obliquely - and face with stone, of course.

Hi Ian,

Many thanks for the pointers towards the bridge. This has opened up a few ideas and a move away from a girder bridge. Polly found several pictures of this bridge and we are trying out a few possibilities based around this. Will post a few mock up pictures later this weekend for comment.

 

Ray.

[tender]

Hi WRLPG, Peter, BR(S).

 

I did look at using SMP/C&L track but felt that they didn't sit comfortably with the Peco code 75 turnouts that I had and didn't really want to go into making hand built turnouts at this stage. I'll be saving that for my next layout. The spaced out sleepering of the the Peco track together with a few modifications to the Peco turnouts is a good compromise IMO and time well spent. Spacing out a length takes about 30 minutes and modifying a turnout about 10 minutes.

 

Ray.

[DLT]

Very nice indeed Ray, I will be following your progress.  Can I raise a point?  Does it have to be a bridge hiding the entrace to the FY?  It doesnt look right to me, so close to the quay.  Would it be posible for the mainline to disappear from sight behind some quayside buildings (warehousing, fish sheds etc) that would make an appropriate background to the scene?

Just a thought!

All the best, Dave.

[tender]

H Dave,

Many thanks for your comments, after playing around all day with bridges and cuttings trying to hide the FY entrance I think you may have a point.

I think the key is getting something sufficiently high enough and maybe a warehouse might fit the bill.

 

I'll make up a couple of mock ups, one with a bridge and one with a warehouse and post some pictures for comment.

 

Ray.

[Andrew P]

Ray, have a look at Pen Y  Bont by Dukedog, he has just used trees very much as I have with Glen Roy,

 

Old Lune

[tender]

Hi Andy.

Thanks for the pointers to Glen Roy and Pen Y Bont. Yes, the trees idea works well here but on Camel Quay the scenic area carries on in front of and on top of the fiddle yard. So it's difficult to disguise what is essentially a tunnel on the scenic board.

So the latest incarnation is to actually make it a tunnel.

 

 

The tunnel entrance is still a bit oblique but that can be sorted.

 

 

Just trying to get a feel of what it would look like.

 

We did try out Dave's idea of using buildings but the height required made the layout look a bit industrial.

 

I still like the Idea of a roadway coming down from above the quay across the mainline and down towards the station. The hotel with a view across the quay has a 'taste' of Padstow with the Metropole Hotel on top of the hill overlooking the quay/station yard. So it's either a bridge or a tunnel at present.

 

 

A bit more progress with the platform, just the end slopes to finish and an overall surface to apply before painting.

 

Any ideas regarding the tunnel bridge problem welcome.

 

Ray.

Edited February 10, 2013 by tender

[trains12]

Hi Ray

Have a look at Porth Eithin how I did the tunnel entrance on that. I also did on original Kinmundy for Martin a girder bridge with a road over it to hide the entrance to the fiddle yard but this on the New Kinmundy has been done away with. Always, with a road bridge if you can, make then on a skew as this deflects the eye away from tracks going out of sight.

Peter

[mdjr78]

Hello Ray,

 

Great progress on your layout. It will have a lot of shunting potential. This is a topic I will follow.

 

Werner

[tender]

Hi Peter, Werner.

Many thanks for your comments. After a lot of prevaricating about the bush, I think it's going to be a bridge, tunnel, bridge, tunnel.....

 

 

Bridge .........................(tunnel)

 

I'll use AndyP,s idea of lots of trees.

 

If you think it's all wrong shout now......... Before the glue dries!

 

Ray.

[westerner]

I agree a bridge would look better.

[tender]

Having a rest from bridges for a bit while I get my thoughts together, so have been doing a bit more to the quay side.

 

 

I've used Daz modelling clay between the tracks for an infill, painted a bit of PVA down first to make sure a good key for the clay. Then rolled to the level of the rails. A modified track gauge rolled along the track cuts back the clay for the wheel flanges. When dry I go along the resulting groove with a needle file to expose the rail chairs at the bottom of the groove.

 

Ray.

Edited February 11, 2013 by tender

[Andrew P]

Tunnell, road and cottages above, really good,

 

At our club the guys that were doing the cobbles in the brewery made a small jig, sort of half a dozen or so cobbles. they used it whilst the DAS was still wet and impregnated the cobbles that way.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Andy.

[DLT]

I know you're up against it width wise; but can you get the road coming over the bridge and descending?  Or the FY under a hillside?  The massive retaining walls don't really say "Cornish Seaside" to me!

Just another thought!

Cheers, Dave.

[tender]

Tunnell, road and cottages above, really good,

 

At our club the guys that were doing the cobbles in the brewery made a small jig, sort of half a dozen or so cobbles. they used it whilst the DAS was still wet and impregnated the cobbles that way.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Andy.

Hi Andy.

Yes, I used that technique on AVAGO but I've not seen any pictures of cobbles being used as infill on the NCR, not to say they weren't used. What pictures I have all show either what looks like concrete (or tarmac maybe being B/W) or large slabs. I will carve the Daz along the Quay wall edge with large capping stones and try and get some more pictures of typical infill before messing around the the track section.

 

I know you're up against it width wise; but can you get the road coming over the bridge and descending?  Or the FY under a hillside?  The massive retaining walls don't really say "Cornish Seaside" to me!

Just another thought!

Cheers, Dave.

Your right Dave about the width, I could have done with another six inches but this was the maximum we felt we could get away with and still have use of the kitchen/diner. After all, it's not all about the modelling, you have to have a play at some time.

 

'Seaside' who said anything about seaside - This is definitely not sandy beaches and ice cream. More local passenger, mineral wagons and newspapers (should be fish as well but run out of room). It might see end of the ACE train with WC and 2P-Set if it doesn't look too silly negotiating the double slip on the run around.

 

Turning the retaining wall into an embankment would have lost either most if not all of the quay or the roadway covering the fiddle yard.

I don't feel it's totally untypical, early pictures of Padstow show the station approach road coming steeply down to the station with what looks like a stone retaining wall. There are others, St Austell for instance, although no track on the quay, not NCR but still Cornwall.

 

The roadway from above the FY does in fact slope down across the bridge before bending around to run down to the station. Plans at present are for the final run-in of the road to be behind a hedge/fence/wall built up against the back-scene.

 

Will be busy at the 'Little train show' National Slate Museum, Llanberis for the next few days so if your visiting the area pop-in and say hello.

 

Ray.

[georgeT]

Hi Ray, Just to say l like the way the layout is coming together, love the quay side, its different, keep the pics coming...

 

George.

[roundhouse]

Being a big fan of ex LSWR lines in Devon and Cornwall this is a very interesting layout and so far the work already done is really good.

 

It's giving me ideas as a replacement to my old North Devon layout especially with the way the mainline disappears into the fiddle yard.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Ian

[Oldddudders]

'Seaside' who said anything about seaside - This is definitely not sandy beaches and ice cream.

Will be busy at the 'Little train show' National Slate Museum, Llanberis for the next few days so if your visiting the area pop-in and say hello.

 

 

Sandy Cornish beaches & ice-cream on the Camel Estuary? Yes, they do exist - but mainly on the other side - Rock and Daymer Bay. My first vist to Padstow was by ferry from that side.

[Stubby47]

Went to Padstow last month and had ice creams (yes, in January !)

[southern42]

Sandy Cornish beaches & ice-cream on the Camel Estuary? Yes, they do exist - but mainly on the other side - Rock and Daymer Bay. My first vist to Padstow was by ferry from that side.

 

Rock was one of the early suggestions I put forward for the layout location but I couldn't find a convincing enough argument for it.  Now I know why.  I forgot about the sandy Cornish beaches & icecream. 

 

We'll have strawberries from the Stationmaster's fruit garden instead.

 

 

Edit: forgot the apostrophe.

Edited February 12, 2013 by southern42

[roundhouse]

When we were much younger our parents often took us to Padstow and Harlyn bay. They had a touring caravan in those days. I even remember me and my brothers not getting on too well in the back of the car parked next to Wadebridge station - how I wish I got out the car and took more interest in the old line even though it had lost the passenger trains by then. I even remember seeing the footbridge and the level crossing on the main street in Wadebridge. I just wish I had a camera back then.

 

Ian

[tender]

Sandy Cornish beaches & ice-cream on the Camel Estuary? Yes, they do exist - but mainly on the other side - Rock and Daymer Bay. My first vist to Padstow was by ferry from that side.

Went to Padstow last month and had ice creams (yes, in January !)

OK, you can have the ice cream, I'll pinch the ice cream man from AVAGO, but sandy beaches are out.

[tender]

Dispite being tied up with the Sioe Trenau Bach (Little Train Show for the non welsh speakers) the last couple of days I did manage to get a bit more done on the quay wall.

 

 

Das clay was rolled out pastry style to approx 1mm thickness before being applied to the PVA coated wall side between the plies, the excess trimmed off and smoothed into the quay surface. When dry 'stone' blocks will be scribed into the surface with capping stones on top. Still undecided about the finish of the quay surface, cobbles have been suggested but ive not seen any photos of the area supporting this, suggestions welcome.

 

Not sure where the lobster pots etc came from, every time I turn my head something new seems to appear.

Ray.

Edited February 15, 2013 by tender