Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[KeithMacdonald]

36 minutes ago, teaky said:

I had a feeling it wasn't TP.  Cheers Keith.

 

I've a feeling my ambiguity might get attention from the Rivet Police.

So, just in case:

• Douglas Adams was the author.
• Rob McKenna was the fictional character.

If he (Rob McKenna) ever drove down the A30 to Mid-Cornwall, it would have coincided with news reports of record amounts of rain and reservoirs overflowing. But who would believe that? Oh, wait...

[Bogie]

Saw your post on Jessie's Brighton Junction.  Is everything okay?

 

You guys in NSW seem to have pulled the short straw for weather!

[St Enodoc]

16 hours ago, Bogie said:

Saw your post on Jessie's Brighton Junction.  Is everything okay?

 

You guys in NSW seem to have pulled the short straw for weather!

Thanks Bogie. Well, as I and others have said in other topics, we had a lot (understatement) of rain over the weekend with gale force winds too. The sort of thing that Far North Queensland gets a few times every season but much worse than we're used to down here.

 

To give folk an idea of how much, the Warragamba dam in NSW went from 43% to 61% of capacity over the past week.

 

We had a roof leak in a place we'd never had one before, which brought down about a square metre of the brand new dining room ceiling. Our builder has done a temporary repair on what seems to be the source of the leak so we'll see what happens later in the week when we are forecast to get another rain storm.

 

Our power went off for a few hours on Sunday afternoon and again on Sunday evening. It is still off, although other parts of the street are back on so with luck will we be soon too. We'll have to wait and see if the NBN internet (which also supplies the Foxtel TV feed) comes back on at the same time.

 

I did have a quick look in the railway room yesterday and as far as I can tell everything there is fine.

 

Because of all that I didn't get any more work done on the layout on Sunday but before the light faded I did a little bit of fettling on a coach that I bought through eBay a few months ago. If all goes well I should get most of the remaining MDF front fence strips up this coming weekend.

Edited February 11, 2020 by St Enodoc

[Tallpaul69]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Bogie. Well, as I and others have said in other topics, we had a lot (understatement) of rain over the weekend with gale force winds too. The sort of thing that Far North Queensland gets a few times every season but much worse than we're used to down here.

 

To give folk an idea of how much, the Warragamba dam in NSW went from 43% to 61% of capacity over the past week.

 

We had a roof leak in a place we'd never had one before, which brought down about a square metre of the brand new dining room ceiling. Our builder has done a temporary repair on what seems to be the source of the leak so we'll see what happens later in the week when we are forecast to get another rain storm.

 

Our power went off for a few hours on Sunday afternoon and again on Sunday evening. It is still off, although other parts of the street are back on so with luck will we be soon too. We'll have to wait and see if the NBN internet (which also supplies the Foxtel TV feed) comes back on at the same time.

 

I did have a quick look in the railway room yesterday and as far as I can tell everything there is fine.

 

Because of all that I didn't get any more work done on the layout on Sunday but before the light faded I did a little bit of fettling on a coach that I bought through eBay a few months ago. If all goes well I should get most of the remaining MDF front fence strips up this coming weekend.

I guess the water is better than the fire, says he who has never experienced the extremes of either?

And our household in the UK gets upset when we have the occasional lack of water or power!

We must start counting our blessings.

 

Anyway, good that you could get on with a little bit of modelling.

Cheers

Paul

[St Enodoc]

Power and NBN back on as of 2100 tonight.

 

In other news, a Slater's Toplight brake 3rd came up on eBay last week. In the end I was outbid but the final sale price of just under 50 quid was in the real world for a change.

 

In other other news, I did win an eBay auction for a Tri-ang Bell Signal Set. I've no idea what I will use it for, but I've wanted one since I was about 10...

[5BarVT]

For your line clear release to Pentowan?

I’ll go find the naughty step.   :-)

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

For your line clear release to Pentowan?

I’ll go find the naughty step.   :-)

Paul.

Yeah but no but yeah but no...

 

Two reasons:

 

- that wouldn't make sense on its own. I'd need half-a-dozen or so sets for the full layout; and

 

- there's enough noise in the railway room during a running session without adding all those bells to it.

 

No, I think they'll just stay as a souvenir - unless I set out the Big Big train in the garden...

[St Enodoc]

On 11/02/2020 at 22:21, St Enodoc said:

I did win an eBay auction for a Tri-ang Bell Signal Set.

... and here it is:

 

 

Very nice condition, although I haven't tested it yet. Never having knowingly seen one in the flesh before, I was surprised how small it is. Each block instrument is about 80mm high x 40 mm wide x 60mm deep.

 

The instructions are missing, although I can probably work out how to make it work. However, if anyone has a set of instructions they could copy for me, or can point me to a set anywhere, that would be nice.

 

Many thanks to "s-shore" of Port Rowan, Ontario, for putting this up for auction and to the underbidders for letting me win it.

Edited July 18, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

I fitted four more strips for the front fence at Paddington this afternoon. That leaves just two more to go.

 

The next one will go in front of the UTP for the tethered "emergency" throttle, which is fixed to the L-girder at the moment. I'm minded to leave it there, as there is no real need for it to be visible on the front of the fence, since in normal operation only the wireless throttles get used, and it will be neater without the throttle cable sticking out into the aisle.  However, I haven't decided about the throttle caddy yet. At some stage there will be a number of these located around the layout so another to hold the tethered throttle makes sense. I can decide this later.

[sandwich station]

There you go John. I have a couple of these sets myself.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, sandwich station said:

There you go John. I have a couple of these sets myself.

Perfect, thanks!

 

Now, I found a reference on the web that said that 3,850 of these sets were made. I wonder where the other 3,847 are...

[sandwich station]

This thread maybe of interest to you John.  

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126137-tri-ang-signalling-system/&tab=comments#comment-2856937

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, sandwich station said:

This thread maybe of interest to you John.  

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126137-tri-ang-signalling-system/&tab=comments#comment-2856937

Yes it is - thanks. That didn't pop up on a search of RMweb yesterday.

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Or you could have the real thing, Finsbury Park No 6 box, I am told the wooden one is GNR, the other BR.

 

manna

Edited February 16, 2020 by manna
forgot to post Pics.

[St Enodoc]

I finished off the Paddington and Penzance front fences this afternoon.

 

This section will prevent a repeat of the infamous Jesse's Curve incident.

 

On the right you can see the tethered throttle in its caddy below and behind the fence.

 

At Paddington, the fence ends just before where the scenic section above the tunnel will start.

 

When I'd finished, I realised that by bending the little hooks on the backs of the sequence clipboards the other way they could be hung on the fences. I think that the yardmasters might find this useful.

 

The clipboards could also hang on the stock shelves, which would let the yardmasters read them easily but might restrict access to some of the loops.

 

Finally, Veronica used her iPhone to take a panorama of the whole of the fence. Despite the vertical stripes, which I think are from the fluorescent tubes, I think this unusual view is quite fun.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Barry O]

Excellent work!

Baz

[TrevorP1]

That’s impressive John. Proper Job!

[St Enodoc]

I spent some hotel thinking time in Melbourne last week finalising my thoughts on the Line Clear indicators between Paddington (PD), Porthmellyn Road (PM) and Penzance (PZ)  (and, eventually, down the branch too as far as St Enodoc (SE) where the double track will end).

 

At the moment, we're still using the self-contained battery-powered LED lights at PD and PZ to indicate when the yardmaster is ready to receive a train into the storage loops. This goes back to when PM was just plain double track and trains just ran between PD and PZ.

 

I'm going to extend the principle of that to take account of the commissioning of PM signal box. This means that each of PD, PM and PZ can indicate to the "signal box" in rear when it is ready to receive a train. The switches will activate the respective Line Clear releases at PM and also the LEDs at PD and PZ, which will in effect the home signals there. Likewise, PM will also be able to indicate to PD and PZ when it is ready to receive a train, although there will be no Line Clear releases at PD and PZ - the LEDs will simulate the section signals in this case.

 

To keep it simple, there will just be a single two-way switch at the receiving end of each section with one position for Line Blocked and the other for Line Clear. The switch will energise a red or green LED at the box concerned and in the case of the PM switches the red or green LED at PD or PZ. When the switches at PD and PZ are at Blocked there will be no indication at PM but when the PD or PZ switch is moved to Clear the respective section signal's Line Clear Release button at PM will light up.

 

I've designed a system to do this using 5 of the conductors in a 6-way cable between each of the boxes. This will carry a 12v dc supply to the respective LEDS. At PM the 12V dc supply will also energise a Line Clear Relay. This is because the Modratec Eemecks that lock and release the section signals operate on a conditioned 5V dc supply, not 12V, so the relays will switch this.

 

Here's a schematic of the generic arrangement, with A representing an actual signal box (e.g. PM) and B representing a storage yard (e.g PD or PZ).

 

Today I started the wiring for the indicators, beginning at PM as this is where the 12V dc supply will come in.

 

First I made up a simple panel for the Line Clear relays. The relays are standard DPDT units but with only one pair of contacts in use. There are three relays, one each for the section signals to PZ (6), SE (9) and PD (49).

 

I mounted the panel to the right of the PM lever frame, which is where all the main power feeds to the layout are at the moment (once the branch is built they'll be moved a little to a permanent home, either close to the same place or under the line between PM and SE). I've only connected the relay switched contacts so far. The coil connections will come later.

 

On the left of the lever frame is the spare 12-way plug and socket that will connect the switches and lights on the lever frame front panel to the rest of the layout. To the left of that are three connector blocks, one for each 6-way cable.

 

That's as far as I got today. Next, I'll complete the wiring of the relay board and the connector blocks before starting work on the switches and LEDs themselves. After that, the last step will be to run the 6-way cables between PD, PM and PZ. I only have two more spare weekends before our next running session, so I'm not sure whether everything will be working by then, but I'll have a crack.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Chamby]

So...  That’s where all lost spectacle cases end up, who’d have thought it?

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Chamby said:

So...  That’s where all lost spectacle cases end up, who’d have thought it?

Yes, you can never have too many spectacle cases. Good for storing drill, paintbrushes, other modelling stuff and, just occasionally, spectacles.

[Barry O]

Ere..just be careful with thus "hotel thinking"...tracklayouts have been changed in the past to just ordinary thinking..

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

31 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ere..just be careful with thus "hotel thinking"...tracklayouts have been changed in the past to just ordinary thinking..

 

Baz

I'd be very happy to have NO hotel thinking time...

[St Enodoc]

Once in a while, something quite out of the ordinary pops up on eBay. Here is one such:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FIRMWAY-OO-GAUGE-RIGHT-HAND-POINTS-Vintage-c-1963-box-of-18-items/324083951608?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

A real curiosity and a blast from the past.

 

No connection with the seller.

 

 

[Barry O]

If you want some I have two "boxed" Firmware points.....

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Not much action on the layout this weekend, for a number of reasons.

 

First, I had to do some picture framing work for some small prints that Veronica bought recently. This took a while, as it's about 20 years since I last had to cut a mount. At least I didn't have to make the frame itself (thanks Ikea).

 

I then spent some time getting myself organised for next weekend's North Shore Model Railway Exhibition:

 

http://www.nsrma.com.au/exhibition-2020/

 

First I cleaned up the BRMA display cases which had a full year's worth of dust on them, having been stored under the house since last year's show. I then sorted out some trains to put on display. As I'll be spending some time demonstrating how to build points, I also gathered together all the stuff for that, including some power cords and the infamous table lamp.

 

In between demo sessions I'll be helping to operate RudderC's Uley Junction 0 gauge branch terminus. This is always great fun and the layout draws a good crowd. Any keen-looking youngsters will get a chance to operate the goods yard too.

 

With what little time remained, I did some more wiring work for the Line Clear indicators. All the "shore side" wiring at Porthmellyn Road is finished. Now I need to install the actual LEDs and switches at all three locations, then connect everything together with some 6-way cable.

 

I did test the wiring and when I fed 12V dc to each Line Clear Relay in turn it was good to see the respective push-buttons light up below the lever frame to confirm that the line was indeed clear.

 

Off to Melbourne tomorrow for just one night, as on Tuesday the LMRSE&DSAB reconvenes with the arrival of Mr & Mrs Barry O from New Zealand for a few nights before they head back north and home. As you might expect, Tuesday's weather forecast is for rain...

Edited March 1, 2020 by St Enodoc