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Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00


St Enodoc
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Hi John, you are making some good progress. I had never heard of a Barry slip but think I saw one in Woking yard back in the day. It took me a while to work it out. 

 

I found this the other day. Yours if you want them.

Cheers Peter.

20210803_182758.jpg

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1 minute ago, P.C.M said:

Hi John, you are making some good progress. I had never heard of a Barry slip but think I saw one in Woking yard back in the day. It took me a while to work it out. 

 

I found this the other day. Yours if you want them.

Cheers Peter.

20210803_182758.jpg

Thanks Peter, I think I'll pass on that though. If I did one I'd have to do them all!

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1 minute ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Peter, I think I'll pass on that though. If I did one I'd have to do them all!

Ha ha fair enough. It's not like your running out of things to do.

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11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Here's a thought on the brake van:

 

Fitted = bauxite.

Piped = grey.

 

Yes/no/maybe?

I agree - definitely a case of yes/no/maybe for piped vans although officially they should have been bauxite if the standard colour scheme was correctly applied.  The fitted vans should definitely have been bauxite in BR days.

 

Don't forget of course that the colour of the standpipres was changed in April 1952 and then implemented as vehices passed through shops.  The same colour codes also applied to Westinghouse brake pipes and would appear to have been an RCH standard until the Railway Executive decided to change it.  I wonder how long the changeover took in view of what it involved?

 

Pre 1952 change - braked vehicle - black standpipe;   piped vehicle - red standpipe

Post 1952 change  - braked vehicle - red standpipe'.  piped vehicle - white standpipe

Edited by The Stationmaster
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21 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Pre 1952 change - braked vehicle - black standpipe;   piped vehicle - red standpipe

 

Post 1952 change  - braked vehicle - red standpipe'.  piped vehicle - white standpipe

 

Bureaucracy at its best. :scratchhead:

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Trouble was the pipes didn’t stay clean, and the white particularly would get covered with reddish brown dust in traffic, giving out the wrong message. One instance the poor old guard coupled up a set of bogie perway flats thinking he’d got brakes on every wagon, and he hadn’t....

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Just now, 5BarVT said:

Looking better by the day.

Is that the permanent resting place for 5 HD buffer stops?

Paul.

Thanks Paul. Yes, each of the roads at Polperran will have an HD buffer stop at the end. That's a total of ten, plus the two Chapel Sidings at Porthmellyn Road and the Tregissey Siding at Paddington. The ones on the scenic parts of the layout will be replaced by a mixture of Mainly Trains and Lanarkshire Models kits.

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On 25/08/2021 at 01:15, St Enodoc said:

I finished the Barry slip last night.

 

21188048_20210825001Barryslipcomplete.JPG.4c060b4b79aa67f5f440f0c1d84dd8fb.JPG

Not too many challenges here apart from the usual ones with slips of finding places to gauge the different rails from. I extended the tiebars so that the point motors will be well clear of the secondary joist at the back of Polperran.

 

Once I've cleaned it up, it will be ready to lay at the weekend.

 

Just one more A5 LH to build and I'll have enough points for the whole right-hand (Porthmellyn Road) end of Polperran.


I think there’s kudos to be recognised in hand-laying bespoke trackwork like this when it’s for use in a fiddle yard (instead of just buying a double slip to be done with it).  Well done.

 

Many years ago now, when I was working for a precision engineering company, we worked out just how much was being spent on tools and jigs that were being made to the same standards as the high-tech products they supported - it was just assumed that everything would be done to the same level of quality, Keith.

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7 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:


I think there’s kudos to be recognised in hand-laying bespoke trackwork like this when it’s for use in a fiddle yard (instead of just buying a double slip to be done with it).  Well done.

 

Many years ago now, when I was working for a precision engineering company, we worked out just how much was being spent on tools and jigs that were being made to the same standards as the high-tech products they supported - it was just assumed that everything would be done to the same level of quality, Keith.

Thanks Keith. The trouble with buying a double slip, let's say Peco Electrofrog for the sake of argument, is that the actual radius through the slip roads is only about 24" which is far tighter than my minimum of 30". Add to that the price (about GBP 50 plus postage) and you can start to see why I haven't bought a ready-made point for well over 40 years, since my good friends at Leeds MRS taught me (an impoverished student) how to make them.

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18 hours ago, ian said:

 

Bureaucracy at its best. :scratchhead:

Or logic at its worst?  Apparently, according to the letter issued on the WR, the decision was made 'because of the comparatively small number of passenger stock vehicles fitted only with through pipes'.  Quite how that justified such  a change I am at a loss to understand because if nothing else it meant repainting the standpipes on all passenger stock let alone the freight vehicles:scratchhead:. No wonder the Railway Executive was sometimes regarded as being a long way detached from the real management and everyday running of the railway.

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On 29/08/2021 at 02:23, The Stationmaster said:

I agree - definitely a case of yes/no/maybe for piped vans although officially they should have been bauxite if the standard colour scheme was correctly applied.  The fitted vans should definitely have been bauxite in BR days.

 

Don't forget of course that the colour of the standpipres was changed in April 1952 and then implemented as vehices passed through shops.  The same colour codes also applied to Westinghouse brake pipes and would appear to have been an RCH standard until the Railway Executive decided to change it.  I wonder how long the changeover took in view of what it involved?

 

Pre 1952 change - braked vehicle - black standpipe;   piped vehicle - red standpipe

Post 1952 change  - braked vehicle - red standpipe'.  piped vehicle - white standpipe

http://www.gwr.org.uk/nobrakes.html tells us that:

 

"Some of the members of the following diagrams were fitted with through pipes (and thus becoming telegraphic code 'Toad A'): AA2, AA5, AA6, AA11, AA15, AA20. All of AA7, AA9 and AA10 were so fitted. These vehicles did not have a vacuum cylinder, although AA5s were fitted with a cylinder in the 1900s. AA21 was fitted with full vacuum brake gear, with a cylinder, and had screw couplings. A few of the AA23 vans became fully-fitted in BR days."

 

B950609 was an AA23 so, based on the above, it was either unfitted or fitted but not piped. I think it's fair to conclude that in the former case it would have been grey and in the latter bauxite.

 

As the model is grey, the pipes will therefore have to come off in due course.

 

The perils of buying second-hand!

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Having made all the parts over a few evenings last week, I built 709 point tonight. This is the last one for the Porthmellyn Road end of Polperran.

 

Before the mood deserts me, I'll try to build the last two for Polperran and the third one for Treloggan Junction so that they're ready to use when I need them.

 

Those for Pentowan will wait until the baseboards are built and the track plan finalised.

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For information and possible interest to mid-Cornwall readers... Modelmaster Jackson Evans have a 50% sale on this weekend.  Ends tomorrow, Tuesday.

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2 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Can I ask why you don't make your own track for the off-scene sidings ?

Very simple, Stu - time and effort. It's easier to use flexible track but, as you can see, once I'm clear of all the pointwork I use Peco which is cheaper than SMP. I did the same at Paddington and Penzance too.

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1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

... I use Peco which is cheaper than SMP. I did the same at Paddington and Penzance too.

 

Do you know if the rail head is finer on the SMP compared to Peco etc?

I got a bargain box and a half of OO SMP from eBay years ago and had heard the profile is thinner than other code 75.

 

I'm toying with the idea of using the Peco bullhead medium radius points when they arrive (as a back up in case I completely loose my {dodgy} point building abilities and give up again) and thinking about compatibility of the rail.... or I just get me files out :good_mini:

 

Cheers

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32 minutes ago, Tim Dubya said:

 

Do you know if the rail head is finer on the SMP compared to Peco etc?

I got a bargain box and a half of OO SMP from eBay years ago and had heard the profile is thinner than other code 75.

 

I'm toying with the idea of using the Peco bullhead medium radius points when they arrive (as a back up in case I completely loose my {dodgy} point building abilities and give up again) and thinking about compatibility of the rail.... or I just get me files out :good_mini:

 

Cheers

Tim, my Peco is flat bottom, not bullhead. The rails join to SMP with Peco fishplates. What you have to watch is the overall height. The Peco is about 1mm taller than SMP, so I lay the SMP on 3mm cork and the Peco on 2mm cork.

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49 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

 

In other news, a parcel from Kernow arrived yesterday with one of the new Dapol Foster Yeoman O&K hoppers in it. This is another addition to my "heritage" fleet, which represents a selection of trains that I've had something to do with during my working life.

 

The Foster Yeoman connection dates back to the late 1990s, when the company I worked for was engaged to audit the maintenance of the two O&K fleets (which were operated and maintained, but not owned, by Foster Yeoman). Every three months I would drive from home in East Sussex to Merehead, staying overnight at the George in Nunney, right opposite the castle (another of the ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit and which, like so many, is named after a GWR locomotive). Nice work if you can get it, as Ira Gershwin wrote.

 

I often saw the Foster Yeoman trains near my old home in Hampshire. The 1990s seem like yesterday but so long ago at the same time...

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