Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[acg5324]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Happy Easter everyone.

 

Having bemoaned the unavailability of Milky Bay Easter eggs recently, I was overjoyed to find some in Coles last weekend. Small they may be but any Milky Bar egg is better than none.

 

 

The ones in the middle were on special so I had to buy two to save a dollar. Anyone else think they look like Orville?

At first glance I thought .....is this a strange Australian tradition of putting Broccoli in with Easter eggs!  Ahhh they’re bunny’s.

[St Enodoc]

27 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

At first glance I thought .....is this a strange Australian tradition of putting Broccoli in with Easter eggs!  Ahhh they’re bunny’s.

Must be all that N gauge modelling making your eyes go funny.

[Bogie]

No true Australian eats Broccoli - let alone decorates with it!

[acg5324]

3 hours ago, Bogie said:

No true Australian eats Broccoli - let alone decorates with it!

What not even barbecued? 

[St Enodoc]

Two coats of varnish on the lever frame casing and, as I expected, the grain has stood up so it's a bit rougher than I would like. I think I'll give it a quick rub down (with sandpaper, not the Sporting Life) and then another coat.

 

Apart from a bit more tidying up on the C65, most of today was taken up with erecting some new shelves in the lounge room. @NHY 581 of this parish will be pleased to know that they are Ikea LACKs.

[Bogie]

On 12/04/2020 at 20:46, acg5324 said:

What not even barbecued? 

 

At the heat I have my plate at, broccoli would vaporise in an instant if I attempted to barbecue a piece of the stuff.  Which is probably just as well.

[St Enodoc]

I haven't had time yet to put the final coat of varnish on the lever frame casing but I have printed permanent versions of the signage on self-adhesive labels, ready for when I do.

 

I also spent an enjoyable hour or so last night trawling through a couple of recent Steam World magazines that featured Cornwall. I now have details of about 100 more trains on specific dates with the actual loco that was pulling them. That will be very helpful for updating the loco workings when I expand the sequence to cover the whole layout.

 

Might mean I need some more locos...

[Ashley Bridge]

Definitely means you’ll need more Locos.   Big ones!
 

Might need more storage too, that’s a slippery slope.- - -

 

Rich

[Stubby47]

10 minutes ago, Ashley Bridge said:

Definitely means you’ll need more Locos.   Big ones!
 

Might need more storage too, that’s a slippery slope.- - -

 

Rich

Just open the garage door and add another fan of sidings

[5BarVT]

2 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Just open the garage door and add another fan of sidings

“Just”???

:-)

Having said that, it’s an issue I’m grappling with too (only at the theoretical level) as rostering locos per service to get the correct head codes means multiple locos where previously one or two would have sufficed.

How steep a gradient can a (heavy) light loco manage . . . 

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

The final - I hope - coat of varnish went on tonight, so when that's cured nicely I can reassemble the casing and add the signage. Porthmellyn Road Signal Box will then be complete.

 

Later, I was rummaging round for couplings and found that I was down to the last two that have been made up. Out with the Metal Black and I've now got another four frets ready for cutting out and soldering up. After that there are only another four left. I feel a shopping list for Wizard Models coming on...

[Bogie]

At the risk of sounding unduly provocative I have to say that for a layout that has reached 125 pages there are bu**er all videos of this fantastic creation in operation (or even semi-operation).

 

I know it is a work (masterpiece) in progress - but seriously is there a bone you can throw us?

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, Bogie said:

At the risk of sounding unduly provocative I have to say that for a layout that has reached 125 pages there are bu**er all videos of this fantastic creation in operation (or even semi-operation).

 

I know it is a work (masterpiece) in progress - but seriously is there a bone you can throw us?

At the risk of sounding unduly provocative, you'll have to look harder! The most recent is on page 100:

 

We probably won't do another one until there are some signals in place.

[Bogie]

That's 25 pages ago!   I know of TV shows that have been cancelled for giving their fans less!

Edited April 15, 2020 by Bogie
Typo

[Ashley Bridge]

4 hours ago, Bogie said:

That's 25 pages ago!   I know of TV shows that have been cancelled for giving their fans less!

Play nicely, you two!   
 

Obviously he’s busy self-isolating, or maybe , like me, cannot get his mate to come round and sort out all the scary tekkie bits .

 

 Rich 

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Ashley Bridge said:

Obviously he’s busy self-isolating, or maybe , like me, cannot get his mate to come round and sort out all the scary tekkie bits .

You're right Rich, I'm not clever enough do the video stuff myself and of course in the present situation we can't hold any running sessions anyway. The March one was cancelled and the May one is almost certain to go the same way.

[Barry O]

Video taking is ok but there are better ways to spend your time. Like making and fitting couplings, building signals, fitting uncoupling magnets, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

 

Baz

Edited April 16, 2020 by Barry O

[St Enodoc]

31 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Video taking is ok but there are better ways to spend your time. Like making and fitting couplings, building signals, fitting uncoupling magnets, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

 

Baz

Building coaches...

Building wagons...

Ballasting...

Building buildings...

 

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

You're right Rich, I'm not clever enough do the video stuff myself and of course in the present situation we can't hold any running sessions anyway. The March one was cancelled and the May one is almost certain to go the same way.

 

The current circumstances are the first time ever I've been pleased I have a small layout that can be operated all by myself.  Of course, I'm also a grumpy old git so I don't have an operating crew anyway

[St Enodoc]

Between finishing work (at home) around 5 pm and dinner at 6-ish there's a nice little window for doing odds and ends in the railway room. Tonight I checked that the varnish was hard - it was - so I rebuilt the Porthmellyn Road lever frame casing.

 

The two side pieces are still slightly rough, possibly because the plywood I used for these was of a slightly lower quality. The front, top and backboard have turned out nicely, although not quite up to the standards of @KymN of this parish, whose motto is "if it doesn't move, French polish it".

 

I'll put the signage on at the weekend I think.

Edited July 18, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Ashley Bridge]

Compared to the chock-block ends of my wire-in-tube efforts sticking out of the fascia, that’s a bloody masterpiece!
 

Chapeau. 

[Clive Mortimore]

4 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

The current circumstances are the first time ever I've been pleased I have a small layout that can be operated all by myself.  Of course, I'm also a grumpy old git so I don't have an operating crew anyway

Hi Doc

 

One of the great pleasures of my little model railway is I can be a miserable old git and operate all by myself or  have mates over and be very sociable in letting everyone else drive should they wish. Sadly at present I am being an old grumpy git, but still enjoying playing with me train set.

[St Enodoc]

I fitted one DG coupling to the C65 tonight.

 

Why only one?

 

Well, this coach will form a set with a Phoenix D106 BSK that isn't built yet. The inner ends will be semi-permanently coupled, using a length of wire pivoting on press studs under the coach floors.

 

I'll describe this in more detail when I do it.

 

The C65 itself is now ready for the body to be cleaned up and painted in crimson and cream. The droplight frames will, however, have to stay brown I'm afraid, so the final livery will be something of a fictitious hybrid, in the same way as the bogies. Nobody will know except you and me.

[St Enodoc]

I stuck all the signage on this afternoon, so Porthmellyn Road Signal Box is now complete...

 

 

 

...except that it isn't.

 

I was slightly disappointed by the self-adhesive labels. For one thing, the black ink seemed to smudge very easily when I pressed the labels down on to the lever frame casing. Also, the crease where the lever leads fold over the top front corner really isn't sharp enough. I think I'll go back to ordinary paper and fix it on with a glue stick.

 

Anyway, for now, as my dear old grandad used to say "a blind man'd be glad to see it", so here we are:

 

This is a standard record shot, and the record will show that the lever number for the Down Main Distant has slipped out of line. I might have knocked it at some point and not noticed. After taking this photo I removed it and stuck it back on straight, with a bit more glue this time

 

I thought it would be a nice conceit to set the frame up for a through train on each of the Up and Down Mains plus an arrival up the Branch. This shows the Line Clear LEDs and the Line Clear Release buttons lit up as well.

 

I've just noticed that I managed to keep the Shack out of the frame in these two pictures as well. Phew!

 

Uncouplers are next!

Edited July 18, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[The Fatadder]

Looking very good, one day I must replace ,my basic control panel with a leaver frame.   Every time I see it on the mid Cornwall lines I want my own!