Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[chesterfield]

15 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I hope you will be able to see for yourself next month. Unfortunately it has closed off the complete walking circuit round the layout but that was going to happen sooner or later anyway. I will be leaving space for a duck-under though, for those who can't be bothered to go the long way round.

The long way round is usually the best - saves doing again after you have made a mess of it the first  time by taking a short cut . In this case it would mean I had just demolished your wonderful new construction, solid as it may be, by ducking under.

[Chamby]

On 06/12/2020 at 06:29, St Enodoc said:

I did indeed. First job was some careful measurement of levels, as although the garage floor is pretty flat there are a few millimetres difference in different spots. Once I was happy with that I sawed two lengths of 42x42mm to length for the intermediate leg.

 

Here it is, with a temporary strut to brace the top of the legs and everything else held together with G-cramps. This is looking from the operating space between Penzance on the right and Polperran on the left. Polperran will have five tracks at 50mm spacing with an extra 5mm at the front and back giving an overall width of 260mm. Behind Polperran will be the backscene separating it from the scenic part of the layout.

 

Next, I screwed the bracing to the legs, using 42x19mm recovered from the old St Enodoc layout legs. I glued a block of 42x42mm at the intersection of the two braces, which gives a nice strong leg unit. Finally, I screwed the L-girders to the fixed leg at the Porthmellyn Road end and to the intermediate leg.

 

Once everything was erected, I laid two pairs of joists and an offcut of 9mm ply on top of the L-girders to get a feel for the 57mm difference in levels between Porthmellyn Road and Polperran (which will be at the same level as Treloggan Junction and Pentowan). Allowing for St Enodoc station being level, that will give a gradient of about 1 in 100 between Porthmellyn Road and Treloggan Junction. This is purely for visual effect, as no track needs to cross another.

 

I won't screw the intermediate leg to the floor until the second pair of L-girders is erected, so that I can make sure I get a nice straight run parallel to Penzance.

 

Back to 5/8 signal next.

 

 

 

I looked in vain for the Shackleton.....

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, Chamby said:

 

I looked in vain for the Shackleton.....

 

 

[simontaylor484]

John

Could i enqire what you have made the L girders from please ?

 

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

John

Could i enqire what you have made the L girders from please ?

 

To save you searching, Simon:

 

The two parts are screwed and glued but when the glue has set I take the screws out so that they don't get in the way later when I'm screwing joists or other things to the L-girders.

[St Enodoc]

5/8 signal is now complete, so I hope to be able to install that and 35 disc this weekend. That just leaves three more discs to be built for Porthmellyn Road. One of those, 26, will control the exit from the Down end of the Loop while the other two (39 and 43) are part of the Branch signalling so, as with 9 and 51/45, won't get installed for quite a while yet.

[Barry O]

More things for the operations team to use in thecnext session.. although after a year away may take a while for them to remember how to operate the layout!!

Baz

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

More things for the operations team to use in thecnext session.. although after a year away may take a while for them to remember how to operate the layout!!

Baz

That's right Baz. There have been some big changes as far as the operators are concerned since the last session (which was when you were here in January). Uncouplers and hand point controls on a new panel; Line Clear switches and indicators between Paddington, Porthmellyn Road and Penzance; and as you say Porthmellyn Road is now fully-signalled as far as all the track laid so far is concerned. On the non-operational side, there are front fences at Paddington and Penzance; the viaduct guard rails; the ballast of course; and the embryonic baseboards for Polperran and the start of the branch. Oh, and on top of that, a recasting of the loco workings following some more information in Steam World magazine a few months ago. Quite a busy year, and not finished yet.

[St Enodoc]

I installed 5/8 signal and 35 disc today. I needed to move some uncoupler wiring before drilling the holes so I didn't have time to finish wiring them up.

 

I see from the photo that I also forgot to trim the ballast to allow 35 disc to sit level. I did, however, drill the hole for 26 disc ready for when it is built.

[St Enodoc]

It didn't take long to wire up these three signals, so I then went back to Polperran and made up the end frame that supports the L-girders at the Up end. Here I found a slight problem. I'd calculated the lengths of the L-girders based on the length of the magazine shelves but I didn't take into account the thickness of the bracing on the intermediate and end frames. Consequently, there was about 10mm too little room to fit two shelf units under the Up end of Polperran using 42x42mm legs. I therefore made them 42x19mm, which will leave just enough room. Annoying but not disastrous.

 

Once I'd sorted that out, I built the skeleton of the end frame, erected the L-girders and clamped everything together. Tomorrow I'll check again and make up the bracing. After that I'll be able to set the distance of the UP end from Penzance to be the same as the Down end and fix the frame to the floor. The final job will be to adjust the intermediate frame to get a nice straight line.

 

Here are some photos of the work in progress.

 

Here we are looking in the Up direction with Porthmellyn Road behind us and Paddington in front. Penzance is out of shot to the left. The gangway width between Polperran and Penzance is 900mm less the thickness of two fences, which brings it down to 894mm. The gangway at Paddington will be slightly narrower, as it will run between the fence there and the rear of Pentowan's backscene.

 

This is a side-on view. Polperran itself will be hidden behind a backscene running across the width of the picture. On our left is Porthmellyn Road, on our immediate right will be the St Enodoc peninsula and on the far right will be the Pentowan peninsula.

 

Finally for today, a look along the length of Polperran from the Up end with Paddington behind us this time. Polperran will occupy the rightmost part of this stretch with the backscene separating it from Porthmellyn Road, St Enodoc and Pentowan. It will be operated by the Penzance yardmasters as they will be considerably less busy than Paddington once the complete layout is operational.

[St Enodoc]

There's a Slater's Toplight brake 3rd on eBay at the moment. With two-and-a-half days to go, bidding has already reached GBP 75. Forget it...

[Barry O]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

There's a Slater's Toplight brake 3rd on eBay at the moment. With two-and-a-half days to go, bidding has already reached GBP 75. Forget it...

try asking David White if he is going to reissue them..  he is generally OK when I ask for help(!)

 

The layout is coming along well. Projected visit date is 2022 all being well.. 

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Barry O said:

try asking David White if he is going to reissue them..  he is generally OK when I ask for help(!)

 

The layout is coming along well. Projected visit date is 2022 all being well.. 

 

Baz

Thanks Baz. Yes, he is planning to re-release them. The only question is when (and, I suppose, how much?). I've got a few waiting to be built but could do with some more TKs. If a CK or BTK turned up at the right price I'd get one to add a bit of variety.

 

Guest room booked provisionally for early 2022. I hope we'll have had another running session before then...

[St Enodoc]

I finished the Polperran end frame today and screwed the L-girders in place permanently, all without incident. I also got the L-girders nicely lined up, straight and level.

 

Fixing the frames to the floor was the usual hit-and-miss affair though. I got one hole for each frame drilled into the concrete floor without too much trouble but, as always seems to happen, the second hole (and in the case of the intermediate frame the third too) managed to find a piece of reinforcement that the masonry drill couldn't cut through. I drilled another hole for the end frame without any problem but for the intermediate frame I gave up, cut the Rawlplug short and used a shorter screw. I think all will be well, especially when the L-girders for St Enodoc and Pentowan are in place later.

 

Here's the end frame complete with its bracing. As I mentioned yesterday, there's just enough clearance to get the magazine shelves in and out.

 

What's next? Well, once I've finished the last three ground signals and installed the one that I can, I might start on the platforms. It will be easier to build and install these before the curve of the branch gets in the way. I might have a breather from construction and do some work on stock instead though - we'll see.

Edited June 29, 2023 by St Enodoc

[acg5324]

Are your magazine racks modified Ikea Kallax units?

[St Enodoc]

15 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

Are your magazine racks modified Ikea Kallax units?

Yes they are Andy:

 

 

[acg5324]

I’ve a 2x4 unit under Olympia, putting wheels on it is a good idea as is blocking off the back.

[St Enodoc]

44 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

I’ve a 2x4 unit under Olympia, putting wheels on it is a good idea as is blocking off the back.

I strongly recommend putting the thick ply underneath and for that length I'd be inclined to use 6 castors.

[Denbridge]

23 hours ago, Barry O said:

try asking David White if he is going to reissue them..  he is generally OK when I ask for help(!)

 

The layout is coming along well. Projected visit date is 2022 all being well.. 

 

Baz

Having assisted with instructions for the toplights,  I was assured they will be released in due course. He's released the wagon kits, then all went quiet.

[KymN]

On 11/12/2020 at 09:52, Barry O said:

[it] may take a while for them to remember how to operate the layout!!

Too true.  I am learning to become an operator on a similarly sized edifice.  Challenging, but a great experience.

[St Enodoc]

On 12/12/2020 at 18:08, St Enodoc said:

There's a Slater's Toplight brake 3rd on eBay at the moment. With two-and-a-half days to go, bidding has already reached GBP 75. Forget it...

Sold for GBP 155. Good luck to whoever bought it. Well done to whoever sold it.

Edited December 15, 2020 by St Enodoc

[bgman]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Well done to whoever sold it.

 

Now then the question is ....do I sell mine or keep them ? 

[Neal Ball]

On 12/12/2020 at 13:46, Barry O said:

try asking David White if he is going to reissue them..  he is generally OK when I ask for help(!) .....

Apparently they will be out in 2021, together with the Clerestories 

[St Enodoc]

23 hours ago, bgman said:

 

Now then the question is ....do I sell mine or keep them ? 

Sell 'em - to me, at mates' rates of course...

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Apparently they will be out in 2021, together with the Clerestories 

That would be good. Let's hope so. Thanks.