Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Today I cut the slit in the Branch trackbed for the superelevation, then extended the short joist under the Chapel Sidings to support the branch just on the Down side of the toe of 41B points.

 

I then decided it would make sense to relay the temporary Up and Down Branch Spurs on their correct alignment.

 

First, having lifted the tracks for the second time in two days, I found a small offcut of 9mm ply that would extend the Up Branch Spur just enough to get the full long clay train - 42xx + two Toads + 10 clay tips - in. I used another piece of ply to support the joint and moved the temporary joist and riser to support the extended Spurs.

 

After that, I laid the temporary tracks on both Spurs but without 41A and 41B points at this stage, as these need some fettling before they're ready to reuse.

 

 

Here are the relaid tracks from the end looking Up and from the side. You can see that I also put a further piece of ply in place temporarily to catch anything that might fall off.

 

 

Finally here is the long clay train tucked into the Up Branch Spur, pretending to be at St Dennis Junction awaiting its path back to St Enodoc, Porthmellyn Road and on to Tregissey.

 

That's it for construction for the time being until I get some more timber to make up the St Enodoc L-girders. In the meantime I'll turn to other things, like the platforms. In preparation, I've looked through lots of photos showing the relationship between the various buildings and station furniture at Par, to get the relative positions roughly the same at Porthmellyn Road.

Oi Sainty

 

Call yourself an engineer, everyone knows black tape is better at holding fings down than blue.

 

How do you work so tidily and with such accuracy?

[St Enodoc]

5 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Oi Sainty

 

Call yourself an engineer, everyone knows black tape is better at holding fings down than blue.

 

How do you work so tidily and with such accuracy?

Oi Morty.

 

Ran out of black, sorry.

 

As I said on Wright Writes, I like to be organised (which doesn't always mean tidy), otherwise I can't get on with anything. Accuracy? Well, as long as it fits and works that's all I worry about. I design stuff to get the concepts right but after that a lot of what you see is knife-and-forked rather than designed in the strict sense of the word. As the Wild Man of Bishop Auckland @LNER4479 says, there's always a bit of "give" when you put it all together.

[Chamby]

On 03/01/2021 at 07:08, St Enodoc said:

I've had a good look at this today, nearly wearing out my eraser and running out of pencil leads in the process.

 

 

First, here's the arrangement I drew out yesterday, with no straights between the reverse curves. The centres of the 180-degree curves at the Up and Down ends are marked with blue pins, which are about 2500mm apart.

 

The red pins show the critical gangways: on the left, next to the viaduct/lifting flap (which is between 550mm and 600mm wide, depending on whether I shave a bit off the lifting flap width and/or tighten up the clearance between the single line to Treloggan Junction and the baseboard edge); and at the top, between St Enodoc and Porthmellyn Road (about 600mm). My preferred minimum is 600mm although I'm prepared to go down to about 550mm where the narrow part doesn't extend very far.

 

 

Although adding straights between the reverse curves doesn't add to the overall length or reduce the gangway width at the lifting flap - good - it does mean that St Enodoc swings clockwise around the centre of the curve at the Up end (blue pin on the right), resulting in the top corner of St Enodoc getting too close to Porthmellyn Road and leaving a gangway only 450mm or so wide - bad. That's really too narrow so on the face of it I can't go that way.

 

However, all is not lost.

 

The goods shed road at St Enodoc runs right to the corner of the baseboard where the red pin is at the moment. If I were to shorten it, I could cut off the corner of the board to increase the gangway width. That's something to check another day, when I can get the board in question up on to the workbench and play around with the goods shed mock-up. So, Mike @Michael Edge, watch this space!

 

After all that I needed to do something less complicated and more productive, so I fixed all the loose baseboard joists at Porthmellyn Road now that all the under-board gubbins is in place. I then marked out an offcut of 9mm ply ready to make the first section of the Branch baseboard at Porthmellyn Road. I've got quite a few decent-sized offcuts so I might be able to get all the way to St Enodoc without having to buy any new sheets.

 

Fascinating stuff!  I've been mulling over your plans for a couple of days now and have a question/suggestion, if I may be so bold?

 

You seem keen to fill in the space in the centre of your layout with as much as possible, and leave the minimum out of space for moving around.  I can envisage this perhaps being problematic on operating days if operators need to pass each other, as well as the tight 'pinch points' that you have highlighted.

 

If you take the plans as being an inverted 'F', how critical is it operationally to have open access between the arms of the 'F'?  If not very critical, and you can reach over these boards adequately from the outer edges, then you could pinch the arms together and change the shape from a 'F' to a triangle on a stick, if you understand me.  This would open up the space a bit, as well as alleviating the pinch points (red pins) somewhat.  Layout-wise, it should make make no difference to the flow of the track and may even give you a bit more latitude re: radii?

 

Just a thought 

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, Chamby said:

 

Fascinating stuff!  I've been mulling over your plans for a couple of days now and have a question/suggestion, if I may be so bold?

 

You seem keen to fill in the space in the centre of your layout with as much as possible, and leave the minimum out of space for moving around.  I can envisage this perhaps being problematic on operating days if operators need to pass each other, as well as the tight 'pinch points' that you have highlighted.

 

If you take the plans as being an inverted 'F', how critical is it operationally to have open access between the arms of the 'F'?  If not very critical, and you can reach over these boards adequately from the outer edges, then you could pinch the arms together and change the shape from a 'F' to a triangle on a stick, if you understand me.  This would open up the space a bit, as well as alleviating the pinch points (red pins) somewhat.  Layout-wise, it should make make no difference to the flow of the track and may even give you a bit more latitude re: radii?

 

Just a thought 

Thanks Phil. There's a long post about how I came up with the layout design back on page 2 (can that really be six years ago?):

 

 

In summary, I wanted to include:

 

- the junction, using a slightly stretched version of one I started back in teh 1990s

- the passing station, using two of the baseboards from the previous layout that I built here in Australia

- the china-clay dries, using the kiln (or potentially a new version of it) that I built about 40 years ago

- the triangular junction

- the terminus

- a dock for unloading china-clay trains

- as many storage loops as I could fit in.

 

Constraints were:

 

- minimum radius 30" except for the china-clay line

- no track passing over another

- full walk-round access apart form the entrance to the room

- minimum gangway width 600 mm

- minimum gangway width where people congregate 900mm

- maximum train length 9 or 10 coaches

- maximum overall size 7m x 6m

 

In the end I managed to achieve all of these except the dock.

 

Your thoughts are interesting and reflect some of basic configurations that I played around with early on but in the end a straightforward oval round the walls for the main line, with the branch snaking its way up and down the middle, was the only practicable way that I found to fit it all in.

 

The main areas where people congregate are the Paddington and Penzance loops and these gangways are 900mm wide. The Porthmellyn Road, St Enodoc and Pentowan signalmen won't need to move around. The people who do are the drivers, who follow their trains to a certain extent.

 

The critical area is at the left end of the St Enodoc peninsula, the higher of the two. There are pinch points at the top, left and bottom, which may end up as slightly less than 600mm. However, because these open up on either side I don't think that there will be too much congestion. Note that on the plan above there is a section missing along the bottom of this peninsula (between St Enodoc and Treloggan Junction) that will just be a length of single track.

 

Everything will be in reaching distance from one side, with a maximum reach of about 750mm. The terminus will be a bit wider at the buffer stops end but here we can cheat by reaching along from the end, as there won't be a backscene there.

 

Time will tell of course, and I do appreciate your thoughts, but I'm afraid that the time for radical changes to the plan has long passed.

Edited January 6, 2021 by St Enodoc
600mm not 60mm!

[Barry O]

Pinch points of less than 60mm... i know I have lost weight but how will I fit through that?

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

26 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Pinch points of less than 60mm... i know I have lost weight but how will I fit through that?

 

Baz

Thanks! Glad you're paying attention. Edited...

[St Enodoc]

I got an email today saying that 8485's numberplates are on their way from Scotland. I wonder whether they or the loco will arrive first?

 

Memo to self: make the smokebox numberplate. Could be a nice little job while listening to the cricket tomorrow.

[St Enodoc]

20 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I got an email today saying that 8485's numberplates are on their way from Scotland. I wonder whether they or the loco will arrive first?

 

Memo to self: make the smokebox numberplate. Could be a nice little job while listening to the cricket tomorrow.

I did make the numberplate this morning. I found that I had to open my last pack of Slaters 1.5mm letters and numbers to get the 5.

 

Anyway, having done that I thought I'd make and fit some more couplings. I assembled another fret of 16 made and fitted another eight wagons, this time some old Mainline and Bachmann models with the central screw for tension look couplings. Not quite as easy as the Dapols, because the coupling needs a fairly sharp upwards bend to get the height right, but still pretty straightforward. Again, four of the eight were from Harry's collection and the rest from my stockpile.

 

Oh, and not a bad day's cricket apart from the loss of over three hours to rain.

[St Enodoc]

I bought the wood for the St Enodoc peninsula structure yesterday and spent some time this afternoon playing around with the sizes and locations of the L-girders and legs with relation to the station baseboard position, point motor locations, gangways, joist overhangs, timber lengths, space for magazine racks and so on. After a few iterations with the pencil and eraser I think I've got a design that will work. There will be two separate L-girder sections, one 1750mm x 600mm that will carry the Up end of the station; and one 1950mm x 900mm that will carry the Down end of the station plus the 180 degree curves to Treloggan Junction and Wheal Veronica. The latter will have a leg at each corner but the 600mm wide section will just be suspended between the "curve" and Polperran L-girders.

 

If this still looks and feels right tomorrow, I will start cutting, gluing and screwing.

[Barry O]

Measure twice.. cut once..

 

Only saying like!!

Baz

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Measure twice.. cut once..

 

Only saying like!!

Baz

Measure twice, cut once, throw away, measure again...

[Northroader]

No, get tracks laid before you decide it’s nbg.

[Oldddudders]

56 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Measure twice, cut once, throw away, measure again...

Monstrous! You're a Chartered Engineer! Only we amateurs are allowed such repetitious failures!

[St Enodoc]

9 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Monstrous! You're a Chartered Engineer! Only we amateurs are allowed such repetitious failures!

That only applies during working hours...

[FarrMan]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Monstrous! You're a Chartered Engineer! Only we amateurs are allowed such repetitious failures!

Speaking as a Chartered Engineer, if only you knew!

 

Lloyd

[Barry O]

11 minutes ago, FarrMan said:

Speaking as a Chartered Engineer, if only you knew!

 

Lloyd

ere... be careful .. there is more than one chartered engineer on here!

 

Baz

[FarrMan]

22 minutes ago, Barry O said:

ere... be careful .. there is more than one chartered engineer on here!

 

Baz

No criticism meant of anyone on here. None of us are perfect. I know some of my mistakes, and I know a few from others that I have unearthed, including a jetty built in a completely different place to where the 'land' (in this case, seabed) was purchased for it.

 

Lloyd

[KingEdwardII]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Measure twice, cut once, throw away, measure again...

Equally importantly - do all your measuring and then find that:

 

- the railway room ain't square

- the floor ain't level

- you just covered up the power socket you need to use...

 

Yours,  Mike.

[Northroader]

I’m alright, I stopped paying my subs when I retired. Mistake away...

[5BarVT]

6 hours ago, KingEdwardII said:

- the railway room ain't square

Done that (last time)

Paul. C.Eng.

[KymN]

11 hours ago, FarrMan said:

...including a jetty built in a completely different place to where the 'land' was purchased for it. 

 

A long time ago I designed a jetty for feasibility and costing purposes in reinforced concrete.  The design department then re-designed it in pre-stressed concrete.  The Chief  Construction Engineer built it in timber.  His nickname was 'Up-she-goes'.  

[St Enodoc]

The design still looked good today, so I made up the L-girders and other parts for the St Enodoc peninsula baseboard structures.

 

Here are all the bits laid out ready for assembly. Back to work tomorrow, so I probably won't do any more to this until next weekend, which was supposed to be our first running session of the year.

 

This is the shelf glued and screwed under the Polperran L-girder that will support the Up end of the St Enodoc structure. There is a similar shelf where the two L-girder assemblies come together. The shelves will take the weight and the two structures will be clamped together with screws.

 

I'm pleased with progress over the Christmas and New Year break, which was aided and abetted by the fact that we didn't go anywhere, essentially because we weren't allowed to.

Edited June 28, 2023 by St Enodoc
Images restored

[KingEdwardII]

15 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

aided and abetted by the fact that we didn't go anywhere, essentially because we weren't allowed to.

Yes, Covid-19 has a few small advantages...

 

...another one is extra cash available for modelling since I can't spend it on much else 

 

Mike.

[Barry O]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The design still looked good today, so I made up the L-girders and other parts for the St Enodoc peninsula baseboard structures.

 

Here are all the bits laid out ready for assembly. Back to work tomorrow, so I probably won't do any more to this until next weekend, which was supposed to be our first running session of the year.

 

This is the shelf glued and screwed under the Polperran L-girder that will support the Up end of the St Enodoc structure. There is a similar shelf where the two L-girder assemblies come together. The shelves will take the weight and the two structures will be clamped together with screws.

 

I'm pleased with progress over the Christmas and New Year break, which was aided and abetted by the fact that we didn't go anywhere, essentially because we weren't allowed to.

and a lot of ABC Classis on the radio (I get it on line here)

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

12 minutes ago, Barry O said:

and a lot of ABC Classis on the radio (I get it on line here)

 

Baz

...apart from when the cricket's on, in which case it's ABC Sport.