Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I have no idea what a "sausage sizzle" is, but I want one.

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

I have no idea what a "sausage sizzle" is, but I want one.

It's a tradition at Bunnings, which is our equivalent of B&Q or such like. At weekend lunchtimes, different charities or community organisations run a BBQ as a fundraiser. The standard serving is a sausage, sliced lengthways, with two pieces of ordinary white bread and (optional) onions. All for $2.50, no extra charge for red sauce, brown sauce or mustard. Not exactly gourmet fare and to maximise their returns most of the organisations use the cheapest ingredients they can find (and why not?).

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

now i really want one!

 

Our local b&Q has a hotdog van, but I'm never there at a time when hotdog eating seems appropriate

 

In a similar vein, I miss airshows, and airshow catering... nothing beats the roar of multiple piston engine fighters and a decent hotdog packed with fried onions

[Lacathedrale]

Hotdog, raw onion and mustard is a great combo - but I can't get enough of fried onions.  Planning on burgers tonight, hollowing out the inside of the top of the bun to ensure maximum onion-holding capacity.

[St Enodoc]

Yesterday the LM2596 regulated voltage power supply unit arrived, so I stuck the tiny heat sink on to the chip, as recommended, and tested it on the bench.

 

Using the actual 12V dc wall wart that I use for the signal power supply, I adjusted the open circuit output to 1.30V as measured on my very cheap multimeter then measured the voltage across a 5.6 ohm resistor, which was 1.33V.

 

I then adjusted the voltage under the same load to 1.30V...

 

...which corresponded to an open circuit voltage of 1.28V.

 

Finally, without changing the setting, I tried it with an actuator, when the voltage was again 1.30V (all values rounded).

 

It does everything that the supplier said (although I haven't tried it at maximum current yet) so I'm now a very happy chappie again. This has given me the confidence to remove the individual current regulators from the signal power modules and leave them just as relay modules supplied at 1.3V dc instead of 12V dc.

Edited July 17, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[aardvark]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Not exactly gourmet fare and to maximise their returns most of the organisations use the cheapest ingredients they can find (and why not?).

 

To clarify, the ingredients of the feast are provided by Bunnings, which will explain the remarkable similarity of the offerings irrespective of the community group present. 

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, aardvark said:

 

To clarify, the ingredients of the feast are provided by Bunnings, which will explain the remarkable similarity of the offerings irrespective of the community group present. 

Thanks, I didn't know that. It must be on a store-by-store basis, as there is some slight variation. On Saturday, for example, we were offered a choice of white or wholemeal bread!

[manna]

11 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

now i really want one!

 

 but I'm never there at a time when hotdog eating seems appropriate

 

 

G'Day Folks

 

With me working shift on the Railways and other jobs in my working career, I can eat any thing at any time, Trifle for breakfast or Sardine sandwiches at 4am, without any bother. Hot Dogs are a 24 hour fare, just like Hamburgers.

 

manna 

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, manna said:

G'Day Folks

 

With me working shift on the Railways and other jobs in my working career, I can eat any thing at any time, Trifle for breakfast or Sardine sandwiches at 4am, without any bother. Hot Dogs are a 24 hour fare, just like Hamburgers.

 

manna 

That's interesting. When I worked shifts, which admittedly wasn't for very long, I used to eat breakfast-type food after I woke up, lunch-type food during my mid-shift break and a proper dinner-type meal after the shift ended before I went to bed.

[manna]

G'day Folks

 

Yep, breakfast at 10pm, lovely.

 

manna

[aardvark]

58 minutes ago, manna said:

Breakfast at 10pm, lovely.

 

It's 10pm somewhere ...

[Bogie]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks, I didn't know that. It must be on a store-by-store basis, as there is some slight variation. On Saturday, for example, we were offered a choice of white or wholemeal bread!

 

A choice of bread?!   Some people obviously have access to a better class of Bunnings than the rest of us!

[Ashley Bridge]

It’s always five pm somewhere in the Empire ! 

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Bogie said:

 

A choice of bread?!   Some people obviously have access to a better class of Bunnings than the rest of us!

Well, we are the Premier State of course...

[St Enodoc]

32 minutes ago, Ashley Bridge said:

It’s always five pm somewhere in the Empire ! 

An old sailing colleague of mine always claimed that his yacht had an adjustable yardarm, so that the sun was always over it.

[KymN]

On 14/10/2020 at 19:47, St Enodoc said:

Well, we are the Premier State of course...

I wouldn't mention your Premier at the moment...

[Barry O]

On 14/10/2020 at 10:18, St Enodoc said:

An old sailing colleague of mine always claimed that his yacht had an adjustable yardarm, so that the sun was always over it.

You can always join us in a drink when our time is drinking time!!

Baz

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, KymN said:

I wouldn't mention your Premier at the moment...

I wondered who would be first to mention her...

[St Enodoc]

An enjoyable non-work day today, which I made the most of.

 

This morning I went round to see Rob @RosiesBoss for a look at his extensive collection of scratchbuilt, kit-built and kit-bashed locos, coaches and wagons. Most of these represent something from the Welsh Valleys in the 1930s although he has modelled some other equipment too - not least a kit-bashed Kitmaster 8-car WR Blue Pullman. I was especially interested in his use of such things as Tri-ang Nellie, Bachmann (US) and Athearn chassis for motorising his locos. Thanks Rob.

 

After lunch, Charles @RudderC popped round - the first visitor to the Mid-Cornwall Lines since March. I started with a show-and-tell of the work I've done since our last running session in January and then we decided, of course, to run some trains. Charles chose to work Porthmellyn Road signal box for the first time, which he picked up fairly quickly, while I did everything else - so the gaps between trains were in some cases prototypically long... We ran through some of the sequence, starting from train 79 where we left off in January. By omitting repeat moves for the china-clay trains and the railbus, we finished the Friday sequence (appropriately) by the end of the afternoon.

 

There were a few glitches but overall things went pretty well. It was good to see trains running again and also good to see Charles enjoying a different role from his usual choice of Penzance yardmaster.

 

Back to the banner signal now - I've started painting the signal and fitted the actuator, so I hope to get it finished soon.

 

I'll also be installing the new signal power supply over the weekend - not before time, because another current regulator failed today. I don't think it burnt out the actuator though.

[St Enodoc]

Today I fitted the new signal power supply unit.

 

I needed to mount it on a backboard with connectors before mounting it on the layout.

 

Next I converted all the existing signal power modules to just relay modules.

 

These are a lot simpler and tidier now.

 

The only trouble was that some of the signals still didn't work. That's when I discovered that the jack plugs and sockets are only a loose fit to each other and therefore only making intermittent contact. I'll have to replace them with something else, possibly a miniature connector as used by radio control modellers. I'll see what I can find. A bit annoying really.

Edited July 17, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I'll have to replace them with something else, possibly a miniature connector as used by radio control modellers.

Some searching suggests that JST RCY connectors might be an economical alternative - any thoughts or experiences to share?

[St Enodoc]

14 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Some searching suggests that JST RCY connectors might be an economical alternative - any thoughts or experiences to share?

Apparently not!

 

I think I'll order a few to try - they're only $0.74 a set from the same people who do the signal power supply. I'll also see what's in the radio control section of our local model shop later in the week. In the meantime, having had a good walk this morning and planning to watch the Bl00dyslow Cup this afternoon, the most I'm likely to get done modelling-wise today is to finish the banner repeater.

[St Enodoc]

...which indeed I have.

 

I placed two 16BA nuts on the spindle to act as spacers before bending it at 90 degrees. I made the bend so that when the wire is horizontal the arm is half way between the On and Off positions. Then I trimmed the spindle back so that I could spring the loop in the operating wire over it before connecting the wire to the actuator. After the usual to and fro of adjustment I tested it with a battery and all was well.

 

I therefore put a very thin coat of paint on the spacers and wires to disguise them without gumming the whole thing up (I hope!).

 

The signal is now ready to install just in front of the future bridge that will mask the exit from the scenic area at Porthmellyn Road to the Penzance loops.

 

Making this signal turned out to be a simpler job than I expected, so I might well make another for the Treloggan Junction Up Branch Advance Starter, which will be very close to the backscene in front of the Polperran fiddle yard.

Edited July 17, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Barry O]

I watched the bleeding slow game today.. Southern Hemisphere rules are strange... scrums still a nightmare...

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

With nothing to do on the existing signals until some decent connectors arrive, and with it being a work day anyway, there was nothing for it but to start another batch - three more ground discs this time (32, 34 and 47), which will complete the main line signals at the Down end. No photos, as it's just the same as last time apart from priming and painting ten etched discs - a full Scalelink fret's worth.

Edited October 19, 2020 by St Enodoc