Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[Clive Mortimore]

22 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Veronica and I wish all friends and followers of, and contributors to, the Mid-Cornwall Lines a very Merry Christmas.

 

Time to open our presents now, then Christmas cake and champagne for brunch later.

 

 

Happy Xmas Sainty

 

Is it a barbie on Bondi Beach later on?

[31A]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Veronica and I wish all friends and followers of, and contributors to, the Mid-Cornwall Lines a very Merry Christmas.

 

Time to open our presents now, then Christmas cake and champagne for brunch later.

 

 

 

Thank you, and the same to both of you from me!

 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Happy Xmas Sainty

 

Is it a barbie on Bondi Beach later on?

Nope. Strictly stay-at-home as always. That lets us both consume intoxicating liquor in (possibly more than) moderate quantities.

 

All the best.

[Nick Gough]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Veronica and I wish all friends and followers of, and contributors to, the Mid-Cornwall Lines a very Merry Christmas.

 

Time to open our presents now, then Christmas cake and champagne for brunch later.

 

 

Merry Christmas to you as well.

[Neal Ball]

7 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Happy Xmas Sainty

 

Is it a barbie on Bondi Beach later on?

Would the beaches be open this year? Ours have been closed for the last two years to stop the crowds gathering

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, Neal Ball said:

Would the beaches be open this year? Ours have been closed for the last two years to stop the crowds gathering

Yes, all open (at the moment).

[Barry O]

Looked like a very impressive cake. 

 

Hope you have both had an excellent day!

 

Baz and her indoors

Edited December 25, 2021 by Barry O

[acg5324]

Merry Christmas to you both, first card winners again.

[Sandhole]

Merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful new year to you and your family, St Enodoc.
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts, this last year.
Regards,
Chris.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Sandhole said:

Merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful new year to you and your family, St Enodoc.
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts, this last year.
Regards,
Chris.

Thanks Chris and the same to you and yours.

[Tallpaul69]

Boxing Day greetings to John, Veronica and all worldwide followers of the Western Region in Australia! 

 

Yesterday was a laptop free day as we were visiting our eldest son Geoff's in laws. Great time and food had by all with hardly a dispute even when the board games got tense!

The Grandchildren even took their dog for a walk without protest.

 

Olivia's managed to get my sound and lights fitted Night Owl to me on Christmas Eve. I haven't opened it yet - daren't do it in the present opening marathon yesterday, I am keeping it for a quiet time in a day or two as a post Christmas pick me up!

So more details and a pic or two soon on Lower Thames Yard.

 

Happy New Year to you All,

Cheers for now,

Paul

 

[The Stationmaster]

John - Boxing Day greetings (well it's still Boxing Day here) to you and Veronica.   No doubt the weather there is considerably better than the soggy couple of days we've had here.  We also stay at home on Christmas Day so all can have a tipple - including me as that day is one of my alcohol drinking days.

[bgman]

7 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

including me as that day is one of my alcohol drinking days.

 

Merry Boxing Day Mike ( and John of course ).

 

Ironically yesterday was the FIRST day I've had an alcoholic drink for many years, a very nice vintage Port and I slept extremely well afterwards !!! 

 

ATVB to one and all on this thread.

 

G

[St Enodoc]

27 minutes ago, bgman said:

the FIRST day I've had an alcoholic drink for many years, a very nice vintage Port

The whole bottle?

 

27 minutes ago, bgman said:

I slept extremely well afterwards !!! 

Not surprised...

[St Enodoc]

To the accompaniment of ABC Grandstand's ball-by-ball commentary from the MCG, the last two days have seen the completion of Porthmellyn Road signal box (except, of course, for the steps) with the addition of two downpipes, the soil/stench pipe, the roof vents and a couple of other odds and ends.

 

I was keen to finish the box before the end of the year but, as I've said elsewhere on RMweb, I often find these last stages of a task tiresome and I've been known to rush them as a result. I've tried to avoid that this time by doing other odd jobs around the house while glue and/or paint was drying.

 

All that remains is to fit the two nameboards and the notice on the the door prohibiting entry by unauthorised persons. I hope to do this tomorrow and then take some photos.

[Andrew P]

Belated Christmas Greetings. 

 

Belated Boxing day Greetings.  

 

Monday (well it is here) Greetings. 

 

Happy New Year Greetings, in life, health  and Modelling for 2022. 

[St Enodoc]

At last, Porthmellyn Road signal box is complete, apart from the steps which I'll make and fit once the structure has been mated with the yet-to-be-built island platform. I do still need to fix the roof in place with Black Tack though.

 

Here is the finished article:

 

The roof vents are by Scalelink, as I mentioned before. After fitting small pieces of .010" styrene as flashing, I drilled the roof and inserted the vents. I painted them with Railmatch cream, the main roof colour is Humbrol 31, the flashing is Humbrol 64 and the gutters and eaves are Precision HST underframe brown as for the rest of the buiding.

 

The window handrails are .025" styrene rod, painted black before fitting.

 

The nameboards are courtesy of @Harlequin who kindly sent me a PDF in advance of a new range of designs he is developing. I printed them on to self-adhesive address labels and stuck these to .020" styrene before cutting them to size. They're fixed in place with double-sided adhesive tape. They look absolutely super and I'm sure that when Phil brings them to market they will find a home on many a layout. Thanks Phil!

 

The notice on the door is from the Roger Smith range of photographic notices and signs.

 

I fabricated the soil/stench pipe from .080" styrene rod.

 

 

The chimney is the original from the kit, with the H top cut off and a (Ratio?) wagon buffer glued on as a cowl. I think the chimney should be taller than the roof vents but a trial piece looked too spindly, so I left it shorter.

 

I didn't use the downpipes from the signal box kit, as they have a joggle at the bottom to clear the brick plinth on the standard kit. Instead, I used two from the Ratio 538 gutters and downpipes accessory pack.

 

You will have noticed the small vertical rod - the same material as the handrails - to the right of the chimney stack. This hides a particularly poor vertical join between two sheets of brickwork. Is it a water supply pipe? Is it an electrical conduit? Who knows? Who cares?

 

That's it for building construction for a while. Next I want to fit couplings to @Barry O's china-clay wagons and also do a few other odd repair jobs on locos and rolling stock. After that, if I can get some 9mm plywood, I might finish off the Polperran baseboard and lay the rest of the track there.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by St Enodoc
Images restored

[TrevorP1]

Very nice indeed John.

[37114]

On 23/10/2021 at 20:21, Tim Dubya said:

 

OK then, Gastard Deep Storage (Octavian ltd, twixt Corsham & Melksham), a former munitions store, is now a bonded warehouse deep, deep underground.  Wine is held in bond until the duties are paid and Slack Alice (the most beautiful of winding engines) pulls it to the surface.

 

When I 'worked' for a mail order wine company, I'd pick up from there (after having my vehicle searched by a proper uniformed security guard, the ones with a white cover atop their hats).  I was offered a trip down but was put off by the same sort of safety gear miners wear about their personages, so missed out.

 

There are some pictures in a local book just released, they have their own rail system down there which is shown in one photo, amazing place 

[Nick Gough]

That signal box looks top notch.

[Chamby]

16 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

At last, Porthmellyn Road signal box is complete, apart from the steps which I'll make and fit once the structure has been mated with the yet-to-be-built island platform. I do still need to fix the roof in place with Black Tack though.

 

Here is the finished article:

 

The roof vents are by Scalelink, as I mentioned before. After fitting small pieces of .010" styrene as flashing, I drilled the roof and inserted the vents. I painted them with Railmatch cream, the main roof colour is Humbrol 31, the flashing is Humbrol 64 and the gutters and eaves are Precision HST underframe brown as for the rest of the buiding.

 

The window handrails are .025" styrene rod, painted black before fitting.

 

The nameboards are courtesy of @Harlequin who kindly sent me a PDF in advance of a new range of designs he is developing. I printed them on to self-adhesive address labels and stuck these to .020" styrene before cutting them to size. They're fixed in place with double-sided adhesive tape. They look absolutely super and I'm sure that when Phil brings them to market they will find a home on many a layout. Thanks Phil!

 

The notice on the door is from the Roger Smith range of photographic notices and signs.

 

I fabricated the soil/stench pipe from .080" styrene rod.

 

 

The chimney is the original from the kit, with the H top cut off and a (Ratio?) wagon buffer glued on as a cowl. I think the chimney should be taller than the roof vents but a trial piece looked too spindly, so I left it shorter.

 

I didn't use the downpipes from the signal box kit, as they have a joggle at the bottom to clear the brick plinth on the standard kit. Instead, I used two from the Ratio 538 gutters and downpipes accessory pack.

 

You will have noticed the small vertical rod - the same material as the handrails - to the right of the chimney stack. This hides a particularly poor vertical join between two sheets of brickwork. Is it a water supply pipe? Is it an electrical conduit? Who knows? Who cares?

 

That's it for building construction for a while. Next I want to fit couplings to @Barry O's china-clay wagons and also do a few other odd repair jobs on locos and rolling stock. After that, if I can get some 9mm plywood, I might finish off the Polperran baseboard and lay the rest of the track there.

 

 

 

15 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

Very nice indeed John.

 

6 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

That signal box looks top notch.

 

Proper job!    Just needs seagull sh!t spattered across the window panes now.

[TrevorP1]

We visited Padstow today (the last time was  almost 40 years ago and it’s changed a bit, not necessarily for the better) and spotted this on the harbour wall. Is there something you’re not telling us John? 
 

 

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

We visited Padstow today (the last time was  almost 40 years ago and it’s changed a bit, not necessarily for the better) and spotted this on the harbour wall. Is there something you’re not telling us John? 
 

 

Thanks Trevor. Not so much the hotel but the little church in the dunes, where Sir John Betjeman is buried and which forms my profile picture,  was the inspiration for the St Enodoc name all those years ago. One of our favourite spots when we went to Cornwall on holiday in the 1960s was Daymer Bay. My brother and I would run across the dunes and leap over the lip to see who could "fly" further. Happy days, remembered through this and the previous layouts that have borne the name.

[TrevorP1]

30 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Trevor. Not so much the hotel but the little church in the dunes, where Sir John Betjeman is buried and which forms my profile picture,  was the inspiration for the St Enodoc name all those years ago. One of our favourite spots when we went to Cornwall on holiday in the 1960s was Daymer Bay. My brother and I would run across the dunes and leap over the lip to see who could "fly" further. Happy days, remembered through this and the previous layouts that have borne the name.

Thank you John. I appreciated the inspiration for your forum name but I had no idea there was a hotel nearby. 
 

That must be a very powerful memory of your childhood. I do understand these things and they matter. For me it’s Pendennis Castle and thanks to some very kind people at English Heritage that is where my parents ashes are scattered. 
 

Pendennis hasn’t changed much and hopefully neither has St Enodoc. Wonderful memories of times when the worst thing in life was a trip to the dentist or the end of the school holidays.

[St Enodoc]

38 minutes ago, TrevorP1 said:

Thank you John. I appreciated the inspiration for your forum name but I had no idea there was a hotel nearby. 
 

That must be a very powerful memory of your childhood. I do understand these things and they matter. For me it’s Pendennis Castle and thanks to some very kind people at English Heritage that is where my parents ashes are scattered. 
 

Pendennis hasn’t changed much and hopefully neither has St Enodoc. Wonderful memories of times when the worst thing in life was a trip to the dentist or the end of the school holidays.

Yes, powerful memories, aided by Kodachrome slides and Standard 8mm cine.

 

Others include the paddle floats at Polkerris, which will (I hope) reappear at Pentowan beach; surfing at Trevone Bay with a plywood body-board (which, many years later, became part of a layout baseboard!); the china-clay ships at Charlestown; the seemingly endless sands at Pendower; and of course Kelly's ice cream everywhere!