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Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00


St Enodoc
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attachicon.gif20151205 006 30200 at Dungog cropped - Bill Cooper.jpg

Here is 30200 in action, rather a long way from home. The layout is the North Shore club's model of Dungog on the NSW North Coast Line.

 

Cricket aficionados may be interested to know that Dungog was the home town of the larrikin batsman K D (Doug) Walters.E W Swanton said of him " if he ever played a dull innings I never saw it."

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Cricket aficionados may be interested to know that Dungog was the home town of the larrikin batsman K D (Doug) Walters.E W Swanton said of him " if he ever played a dull innings I never saw it."

Thanks Ron.

 

In 1972 I spent a lot of time at Lord's when I should have been revising for O Levels. I watched two days of Bob Massie's Test and saw every batsman at the crease except Doug Walters!

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Someone mentioned Dungog - nice layout ;)

 

attachicon.gif214_DS~1.jpg

 

(at the Gough Whitlam Leisure Centre, 2004.) 

And still going strong Mike. Now fully equipped for DC or DCC and with quite a bit of enhancment of the scenery over the years. Have a look at http://www.nsrma.com.au/layouts.htm (where you will find the current St Enodoc layout as well).

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Anthony - we use a lot of them on our layouts at Leeds MRS (see Herculaneum Dock for some shots).

 

 bit fiddly to make, you quickly get the hang of making them. Use a height gauge to get them the same hight on every bit of stock and just check them to make sure the droppers are Ok and off you go.

 

One suggestion is not to put a loop and dropper on the ends of a loc with a live body as this could lead to short circuits if it is coupled to something else with a live body.

 

You can blacken them but I no longer bother as they tarnish all on their own.

post-7650-0-76615200-1449931091_thumb.jpg

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Anthony - we use a lot of them on our layouts at Leeds MRS (see Herculaneum Dock for some shots).

 

 bit fiddly to make, you quickly get the hang of making them. Use a height gauge to get them the same hight on every bit of stock and just check them to make sure the droppers are Ok and off you go.

 

One suggestion is not to put a loop and dropper on the ends of a loc with a live body as this could lead to short circuits if it is coupled to something else with a live body.

 

You can blacken them but I no longer bother as they tarnish all on their own.

attachicon.gif21t Hoppers.JPG

Anthony, adding to what Baz has said (bearing in mind that ours are 4 mm and I have never used the 2 mm version), you need to make sure the coupler bar is just far enough in front ot the buffers to stop them touching on curves. As you might be able to see from the photos, we bend the "wings" of the bar back slightly which helps with this. As far as teh droppers are concerned, the slight kink seems to help with operation over the magnets and you do need to make sure that the ends of the droppers are never below rail level.

 

Barry's might tarnish in the Yorkshire smog but I always blacken mine before assembly using Carr's metal black or similar.

 

Commercially-produced electromagnets are expensive. I make my own using metal sewing machine bobbins. I have promised to write up how I do this for TCH but haven't quite got round to it yet.

 

If I think of anything else I'll let you know.

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Three visitors this afternoon - Charles and Peter from the operating team and Peter's brother John, who is on holiday from the UK. Although Peter now lives in Sydney and his brother John in Cambridge, they are both Cornish men by birth.

 

post-21039-0-20649700-1449986407_thumb.jpg

Here is Peter's Dapol Western on the Limited at Porthmellyn Road. The nameplate is missing - I'd better check whether it's lying around on the layout somewhere.

 

We had a good session on the main lines and also had a play with St Enodoc.This was slightly less successful as I haven't cleaned the track for a while and the SEEP point motors need a squirt of WD-40 both to free them up mechanically and also to provide more reliable frog switching. Nevertheless, it was good to run the layout using the radio for the first time, with the drivers walking round the outside and the signalman in splendid isolation in the middle.

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I wouldn't use WD40 on Seep point motors - I use something called GT85 now. Not sure if this is sold in Australia though.

Thanks Mike. Perhaps that's why they don't work so well :(. Never heard of GT85 - I'll check (I remember a hot Ford sports car called a GT40 though).

 

Edit - found this website http://www.gt85.com.au/. If this is the same stuff then we're in business.

Edited by St Enodoc
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That looks like the stuff mike has.

 

Baz

 

PS got my dates wrong - tests are in 2018 apparently...

Thanks Baz. Is GT85 part of Fred's H&M SM3 refurb process that he hasn't sent me details of yet (hint)?

 

The Sydney Test always starts on 3 January, so whichever year you come there will be cricket to watch (as long as you go on teh first day if W Indies are playing).

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No it isn't which is why he hasn't written anything yet as some of them are held together with cable ties at the moment. Divvn't fret I will be doing some for me soon.. clean, adjust add to points , add GT85 and then tighten the top plate screws up when they work to your satisfaction...

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No it isn't which is why he hasn't written anything yet as some of them are held together with cable ties at the moment. Divvn't fret I will be doing some for me soon.. clean, adjust add to points , add GT85 and then tighten the top plate screws up when they work to your satisfaction...

Thanks Baz. Sounds pretty similar to what Nicktoix used to do years ago, except for the GT85. Loctite on the bottom plate screws too I guess?

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That looks like the same stuff, it doesn't have the bad effect on plastics that WD40 can, works wonders on Seep point motors and old Portescap motors where the "essential" pink grease has gone solid.

Thanks Mike. I'll pop into the local cycle shop and get some. For SEEP point motors, do you use it on the changeover switches or just the armatures/coils?

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Spray the whole lot - I don't normally use the switch on the Seep point motors, it's not very reliable in the conditions out in my shed. I have to add a microswitch as well, one reason why the new bits are nearly all Tortoise powered, as will the next layout.

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Spray the whole lot - I don't normally use the switch on the Seep point motors, it's not very reliable in the conditions out in my shed. I have to add a microswitch as well, one reason why the new bits are nearly all Tortoise powered, as will the next layout.

Fair enough Mike, thanks. I use the switches on the SEEPs but microswitches with H&Ms. Where do you put the microswitch on a SEEP?

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Two methods, first one I've been using for some time.

post-1643-0-74085700-1450459939_thumb.jpg

The point motor is spaced off the baseboard with two washers, a strip of nickel silver with two holes is threaded over the operating wire and pivoted at the other end with a screw. A small piece of n/s forms a striker for the microswitch. This requires the point tiebar to have a loop for the operating wire - in this case a wire loop soldered to the pcb tiebar. The H&M point motor coil in this picture is for an uncoupling magnet - good use for redundant/half dead point motors.

 

new method

post-1643-0-57613900-1450460204_thumb.jpg

post-1643-0-66478800-1450460219_thumb.jpg

 

I found some cheap microswitches with a long lever arm. This rests directly against the seep operating wire, the motor has to be spaced away from the baseboard by about 10mm for this method but has the advantage of allowing the wire to work in a hole in the tiebar. Done in a hurry this week with rather crudely cut lumps of plywood for spacers, in the past I've used machined spacers for this purpose.

 

Most of the Seep motors on Herculaneum had microswitches added with a wire poking into the hole to be hit by the armature. Works well for a while but because the armature moves inside the hole at the end of its travel the wire can sometimes latch on the outside instead of following it.

 

Incidentally the latest Seep motors I have bought look a bit better made, in the past the coils have worked loose from the baseplate with use, for years I've been winding wire round each coil to prevent this

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Two methods, first one I've been using for some time.

attachicon.gifDSCF3765.JPG

The point motor is spaced off the baseboard with two washers, a strip of nickel silver with two holes is threaded over the operating wire and pivoted at the other end with a screw. A small piece of n/s forms a striker for the microswitch. This requires the point tiebar to have a loop for the operating wire - in this case a wire loop soldered to the pcb tiebar. The H&M point motor coil in this picture is for an uncoupling magnet - good use for redundant/half dead point motors.

 

new method

attachicon.gifDSCF3766.JPG

attachicon.gifDSCF3767.JPG

 

I found some cheap microswitches with a long lever arm. This rests directly against the seep operating wire, the motor has to be spaced away from the baseboard by about 10mm for this method but has the advantage of allowing the wire to work in a hole in the tiebar. Done in a hurry this week with rather crudely cut lumps of plywood for spacers, in the past I've used machined spacers for this purpose.

 

Most of the Seep motors on Herculaneum had microswitches added with a wire poking into the hole to be hit by the armature. Works well for a while but because the armature moves inside the hole at the end of its travel the wire can sometimes latch on the outside instead of following it.

 

Incidentally the latest Seep motors I have bought look a bit better made, in the past the coils have worked loose from the baseplate with use, for years I've been winding wire round each coil to prevent this

Thanks Mike. I like the look of the second method, although retrofitting would be a problem as my operating wires are of course already trimmed off at the tiebar end. However, looking at your photos, I've just thought of a third method that should work for retrofitting to motors mounted direct to the baseboard. By putting a "long-arm" microswitch on a stand it could be operated by the projection of the wire on the non-baseboard side. I will give that a try.

 

I always use a loop on the tiebar (end of a paper clip) as otherwise there isn't enough throw to work the built-in switch.

 

post-21039-0-35400300-1450473510_thumb.jpg

I like your recycled uncoupler magnet too, although I make my own based on metal sewing machine bobbins.

 

post-21039-0-64723600-1450473579_thumb.jpg

 

Edited to add photos

Edited by St Enodoc
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Merry Christmas to one and all.

 

 

 

I hope that you were all good boys and girls this year and that Father Christmas brought you what you wished for.

 

 

 

As I mentioned several posts back, not far from Pentowan is the major Coastal Command base at RAF Lanherne. In the 1950s the Maritime Reconnaissance role was performed by Avro Shackletons, so when Airfix announced earlier this year that they would be bringing out a new 1/72 scale kit I decided that I would have to have one for the Mid-Cornwall Lines. Here it is, a Christmas present from Veronica.

 

 

 

post-21039-0-89870900-1451008213_thumb.jpg

It will be an imposing beast when built, with a length of nearly 400 mm and a wingspan of over 500 mm. Clearly there won't be enough room for it on the layout, so I intend that it will hang suspended (like the Stranger in Paradise) from the ceiling, somewhere over the approaches to Pentowan Station.

 

 

 

The kit includes two sets of decals, but both are too recent for the Mid-Cornwall Lines. I therefore ordered a set of Model Alliance decals from Hannants in the UK so the model will be finished as WL737 of 220 Squadron, which was based just down the road at St Eval in 1953.

 

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You mean you haven't built it yet. :-)

 

Have a good festive season!

 

Baz

Ha ha, when I last built an Airfix aircraft kit there were about 10 parts and one sheet of instructions. This one has what looks like about a thousand parts and a 20-page book.

 

Anyway, I was too busy keeping "hydrated" while I cooked Christmas dinner. All over now for another year, apart from stilton and port after we watch the Queen's Christmas Message in about half an hour's time.

 

All the best to you, Mrs Barry O and the young Barry Os (or is that Barries O?).

Edited by St Enodoc
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