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Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00


St Enodoc
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So, why the almost total radio silence from St Enodoc since Good Friday?

 

Well, my partner Veronica shares the Queen's real birthday, which this year fell on Easter Day. Now, here in Australia, as in many other countries, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays. ANZAC Day, which always falls on 25 April to commemorate the Allied landings at Gallipoli in 1915, is also a public holiday. Consequently, this year we have been able to get ten days off for the price of only three days' annual leave. The stars therefore aligned for us to spend Veronica's significant birthday this year on a tropical isle in the South Pacific. During our trip, strangely, following RMweb was not high on our list of things to do so, apart from one brief session, I didn't get a chance to catch up until we returned home today.

 

The tropical isle in question has no railways. It used to have one, which was a metre-gauge (Wikipedia says 3ft but I have my doubts, given the history of the place in question) affair that ran between the wars for about 30km and of which one loco is plinthed at the former northern terminus, but I didn't get a chance to visit the remains. It also has a Dotto train, of the type often seen in holiday resorts including my old home at Eastbourne. Luckily, we didn't see that either.

 

Anyway, while we were away the Bachmann loco crew had arrived, so I decided to make a start on the internal works for D601. First I lubricated the axle bearings and gears, which has quietened the model down quite a lot. I then removed the body to fit a driver and fireman at A end. To do this I followed the excellent instructions by bubbles2 of this parish, which can be found here:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/62201-kernow-models-d6xx-update/&do=findComment&comment=3500999

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/62201-kernow-models-d6xx-update/&do=findComment&comment=3501023

 

Once again some major surgery was needed to fit the crew into their seats but when I reassemble the loco I think that the total absence of their legs won't be too obvious (other than to them...).

 

I'll let the glue dry overnight then put the cab back together, after which I'll fit the decoder and try the loco out on the layout before changing the couplings and fitting some of the detail parts.

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6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

So, why the almost total radio silence from St Enodoc since Good Friday?

 

 

Remarkably similar situation here John. We've had a number of different relatives staying over the last couple of weeks but managed to get away for a short break in Snowdonia.

Most of the time was spent on or near the Welsh Highland or Ffestiniog and we enjoyed it so much that we have both become members. I can think of no finer way to enjoy that part of the world. We feel incredibly lucky that we are relatively close. Grampound Road isn't about to become narrow gauge but the boards left over from my previous project could well eventually find a good use.

 

I've chipped my NBL with a Zimo chip and although in time the CVs will need tweaking it is being put to good use on test train duties.

 

Hoping to crack on with the track work next week...

 

 

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Here are the two crew members glued to their seats.

 

20190426001D601crewinplace.JPG.58157da652ad5124a2e5f28b49869c76.JPG

Before refitting the body, I installed the decoder and programmed it using DecoderPro and the SPROG.

 

20190426002D601crewinplace.JPG.3add2ed0cb9e31000b85265565934303.JPG

Perhaps I should have followed the suggestion of someone on the D6xx topic and lowered the seats, as the crew have ended up a little higher than I would have liked. Nevertheless, they are now in place and my drivers will be able to tell easily which is forward and which reverse. In fact, they'll be able to do this even more easily when I finish detailing the loco. Because D601 will only work Class A trains (including the TPO) in the sequence, I'm going to fix the headcode discs at A end in that position. This will mean turning the loco after each trip but so be it. A bonus will be that I won't need a DG coupling on the front so I'll be able to fit all the extra detail at A end.

 

While the SPROG and DecoderPro were running, I decided to fit decoders to 3440 and W55000. I then took all three out to the railway room and tried them on the layout. All was well, although I'll have to adjust some of the inertia settings to get smoother acceleration and deceleration. I find that the TCS decoders are harder to set up in this regard than the NCE ones that I am more used to - but NCE don't make a 21-pin unit.

 

It was good fun watching 3440 at more than a scale 100mph though...

Edited by St Enodoc
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37 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Here are the two crew members glued to their seats.

 

846173238_20190426001D601crewinplace.JPG.05ef267cb88f7f491ab8887f1521099d.JPG

Before refitting the body, I installed the decoder and programmed it using DecoderPro and the SPROG.

 

1882724948_20190426002D601crewinplace.JPG.ea03d1754287893b9f21662573ea4f74.JPG

Perhaps I should have followed the suggestion of someone on the D6xx topic and lowered the seats, as the crew have ended up a little higher than I would have liked. Nevertheless, they are now in place and my drivers will be able to tell easily which is forward and which reverse. In fact, they'll be able to do this even more easily when I finish detailing the loco. Because D601 will only work Class A trains (including the TPO) in the sequence, I'm going to fix the headcode discs at A end in that position. This will mean turning the loco after each trip but so be it. A bonus will be that I won't need a DG coupling on the front so I'll be able to fit all the extra detail at A end.

 

While the SPROG and DecoderPro were running, I decided to fit decoders to 3440 and W55000. I then took all three out to the railway room and tried them on the layout. All was well, although I'll have to adjust some of the inertia settings to get smoother acceleration and deceleration. I find that the TCS decoders are harder to set up in this regard than the NCE ones that I am more used to - but NCE don't make a 21-pin unit.

 

It was good fun watching 3440 at more than a scale 100mph though...

3440....a 350/pilot/jocko* doing a ton?

 

*delete the names not used in your part of the world.

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1 minute ago, Clive Mortimore said:

3440....a 350/pilot/jocko* doing a ton?

 

*delete the names not used in your part of the world.

All right, clever clogs.

 

In the era of the Mid-Cornwall Lines that would have been, as you well know, D3440.

 

The real 3440 visited Cornwall at least twice during its first phase of preserved operation.

 

On 15/9/57 it worked an excursion from Plymouth to Penzance (and presumably back again) while from 13 - 23/2/61 it worked the Westward TV Exhibition Train in the Duchy to promote the new ITV station, which started up that year.

 

I'm sure that I've also seen a photo of it at Penzance on an Amateur Photographer special but I can't track that one down at the moment.

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10 hours ago, Barry O said:

Happy belated 21st to Veronica!

 

Just back from 10 days in Robin Hoods Bay ...lots of walking, eating and drinking... 

Baz

Thanks Baz, I'll pass that on. She's now the same age as someone at work who describes himself as thirty-twenty.

 

The usual crowd at RHB I assume?

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I don't need any more locos...

 

...but Hornby have released 6825 Llanvair Grange with a 3000 gallon tender in late lined green, exactly as seen in several 1950s photos of Cornwall. Now, I already have a standard 4000 gallon tender version numbered as 6825, so if I were to buy the new model and swap tenders, I could renumber the new loco as one of the five 83G Granges that I haven't got (yet).

 

What does the team think?

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17 minutes ago, Barry O said:

JDI

 

Baz

Thanks mate. Veronica will be pleased when a new green engine arrives that looks like all the others.

 

By the way, round here the expression is usually JFDI.

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On Friday night I started the next three points, by filing the rails to form the crossing vees. I had intended to continue on Saturday morning by filing up the three sets of blades (the reason I build points in batches of three is that is as many pairs of blades that I can do at one go without driving myself nuts). However, the computer had other ideas and by the time I had spent two hours on the phone to a very helpful MIcrosoft tech support lady in the Philippines, who tried valiantly but couldn't solve the problem, I didn't get started on the blades until after lunch. Once they were done, it was plain sailing and I built two points before breaking off for dinner and to watch the Waratahs let the Sharks win in Sydney for the first time in something like 19 years. I think that filing more blades might have been more fun.

 

Anyway, I built the third point this morning and this afternoon laid all three - two to complete Penzance and one to start the rest of the loops at Paddington - but because of the lost time yesterday I didn't have time to lay the connecting tracks. Never mind.

 

No more photos yet as it's all still a work in progress.

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I didn't get into the railway room last weekend at all, for sound reasons though.

 

On Saturday morning I popped in to the local St Luke's Model Railway Club show, which is always worth a look to see what RosiesBoss of this parish has been up to - scratchbuilding, kitbashing or modifying RTR stock to make yet more obscure GWR pre-grouping locos, coaches and wagons. He said that his next project is a Mersey Railway 0-6-4T, which will be worth looking out for.

 

After that it was off to our monthly BRMA meeting, an hour or so south of Sydney at Picton. We viewed a very nice work-in-progress model based on Bournemouth West, where our host was born. The terminus runs out, prototypically, via a triangular junction to a double track continuous run. There is also a reversing "short cut" and a fiddle yard so plenty of scope for operation.

 

On Sunday we went to an interesting concert which featured a showing of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with the Henry Mancini soundtrack played live by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Something different and an excellent afternoon's entertainment.

 

So, today I got back to the layout and achieved a nice milestone - all the track in the Penzance loops is laid (although the points are not motorised and I haven't wired the new track up yet). I'll carry on with that after next Saturday's running session, which I am fairly confident will be the last before we can run an expanded sequence.

 

20190512001PZDowntracklayingcomplete.JPG.85d937a59228966a95cb267b0f063aa4.JPG

Here's the completed layout at Penzance Down end...

 

20190512002PZUptracklayingcomplete.JPG.8e223f281638dae76c37dd83098d9d0e.JPG

...and at the Up end.

 

20190512003PD210pointlaid.JPG.9fb1d173656f22f74b0c8177248f2e1c.JPG

For good measure I laid the short piece of track connecting Paddington 210 point (the king point for loops 8 to 13) to the rest of the layout. Again, no motor or wiring yet but it does mean that there's no outstanding track work to be done, so I'd better get on with building some more points.

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On 26/04/2019 at 20:09, St Enodoc said:

All right, clever clogs.

 

In the era of the Mid-Cornwall Lines that would have been, as you well know, D3440.

 

The real 3440 visited Cornwall at least twice during its first phase of preserved operation.

 

On 15/9/57 it worked an excursion from Plymouth to Penzance (and presumably back again) while from 13 - 23/2/61 it worked the Westward TV Exhibition Train in the Duchy to promote the new ITV station, which started up that year.

 

I'm sure that I've also seen a photo of it at Penzance on an Amateur Photographer special but I can't track that one down at the moment.

Found it!

 

Plate 44 in Dick Blenkinsop's "Reflections of the Great Western". The caption reads:

 

"As a Sunday bonus the photographic magazine Amateur Photographer organised a special train from Exeter to Penzance hauled by no 3440 City of Truro. With standard BR stock it is climbing the 1 in 36 of Dainton Bank unaided."

 

The photo is dated 25 May 1958.

 

So the photo wasn't at Penzance but the train was definitely on its way there and I think that it's reasonable to assume that 3440 worked it throughout. The photo shows six Mk 1 coaches, all in what I'm pretty sure is crimson and cream. The loco is carrying reporting number 021.

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The tracklaying is going well. My layout due to be taken off hold as our bedrooms have been plastered, painted and now being filled with the furniture from the layout room! My co-conspirator is away at the moment but I am sure we can get the track laid and wired before the end of this year... that is if cricket doesn't get in the way!

baz

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1 hour ago, Barry O said:

The tracklaying is going well. My layout due to be taken off hold as our bedrooms have been plastered, painted and now being filled with the furniture from the layout room! My co-conspirator is away at the moment but I am sure we can get the track laid and wired before the end of this year... that is if cricket doesn't get in the way!

baz

Pray for rain...

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Just now, Stubby47 said:

Those baseboard lines at the Pz Down end initially make the actual rails look quite sharply curved, but they obviously aren't.

Thanks Stu.

 

The Down end is a mess due to flipping the PD and PZ loops back in 2016, which you will remember as the final revised track layout is almost exactly what you had suggested.

 

The minimum radius in the fans is 30" and the maximum is 48", which corresponds to the geometry of the curved points so everything flows smoothly, at least to the extent that my actual tracklaying permits.

 

Hope all went well yesterday by the way!

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