Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

Australia Day is a public holiday so a bonus day today for working on the layout.

 

I decided to complete the two crossovers and the track between them.

 

Here are Porthmellyn Road 41 points...

 

...and St Enodoc 7 points.

 

I laid the inner (Up) track using a 30" Tracksetta to get a smooth curve. For the outer (Down) track I used the Proses parallel track jigs set at 60mm spacing.

 

Finally I pushed the long china-clay train on to the Down track, where it just fits nicely between the toes of the crossovers.

 

Next will be wiring, point motors, ballast and signals.

Edited June 28, 2023 by St Enodoc
Images restored

[Barry O]

Glad to see you used a holiday wisely! We watched the celebrations last year on the riverside in Perth. A lot warmer than it is here today!

Baz

[Chamby]

Re: cobbling together signal boxes, have you taken a look at the stuff produced by LCUT?   They sell laser-cut signal box elements, as well as a lot of other really useful bits for stations, industrial buildings, bridges and retaining walls etc.  You can either buy the complete kit, or individual components.  I have found the proprietor to be very helpful and efficient.

 

www.lcut.co.uk

[St Enodoc]

38 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Glad to see you used a holiday wisely! We watched the celebrations last year on the riverside in Perth. A lot warmer than it is here today!

Baz

Sure is - 36 deg today. The hottest Australia Day for over 50 years.

[Mulgabill]

37 minutes ago, Chamby said:

Re: cobbling together signal boxes, have you taken a look at the stuff produced by LCUT?   They sell laser-cut signal box elements, as well as a lot of other really useful bits for stations, industrial buildings, bridges and retaining walls etc.  You can either buy the complete kit, or individual components.  I have found the proprietor to be very helpful and efficient.

 

www.lcut.co.uk

 

I'll second that.

 

Jakob produced the doors and windows for Helstonish Station, to my sizes.

 

Certainly worth a look, and even I thought them reasonably priced.

 

TONY

Edited January 26, 2021 by Mulgabill
spelling

[St Enodoc]

33 minutes ago, Chamby said:

Re: cobbling together signal boxes, have you taken a look at the stuff produced by LCUT?   They sell laser-cut signal box elements, as well as a lot of other really useful bits for stations, industrial buildings, bridges and retaining walls etc.  You can either buy the complete kit, or individual components.  I have found the proprietor to be very helpful and efficient.

 

www.lcut.co.uk

Thanks Phil. I was aware of the brand but not thewide  range of components. Very interesting.

[Barry O]

7 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Sure is - 36 deg today. The hottest Australia Day for over 50 years.

About 38 degrees warmer than here then.. prefer the heat to the cold..

 

Baz

[Sharky]

12 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Sure is - 36 deg today. The hottest Australia Day for over 50 years.

 

It was 20 deg with showers down here yesterday.
I don't know why we've been dealt such a dud summer...

Edited January 26, 2021 by Sharky

[Neal Ball]

If we are comparing temperature- it was 25 in the shade here yesterday.... just as nice today, but didn’t catch the temperature.

I went running around 9am this morning and it was lovely - almost Spring like!

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, Sharky said:

 

It was 20 deg with showers down here yesterday.
I don't know why we've been dealt such a dud summer...

Hi Sharky

 

Slightly different to bush fire one last year. That seems a long time ago.

[john dew]

20 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Australia Day is a public holiday so a bonus day today for working on the layout.

 

I decided to complete the two crossovers and the track between them.

 

Here are Porthmellyn Road 41 points...

 

...and St Enodoc 7 points.

 

I laid the inner (Up) track using a 30" Tracksetta to get a smooth curve. For the outer (Down) track I used the Proses parallel track jigs set at 60mm spacing.

 

Finally I pushed the long china-clay train on to the Down track, where it just fits nicely between the toes of the crossovers.

 

Next will be wiring, point motors, ballast and signals.

 

I am very impressed with your progress John.....you put me to shame.

 

Does the B.V. at both ends of the china clay train reflect actual practice on the prototype or is it just for operating convenience? I am very tempted to do something similar although it won’t be on a clay train!

 

Best wishes

 

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, john dew said:

 

I am very impressed with your progress John.....you put me to shame.

 

Does the B.V. at both ends of the china clay train reflect actual practice on the prototype or is it just for operating convenience? I am very tempted to do something similar although it won’t be on a clay train!

 

Best wishes

 

Thanks John! Overall, though, you are way ahead of me.

 

The two brake vans are just for convenience (although there are photos of trains with two brake vans on the Bodmin branch, to avoid shunting at Boscarne Junction, Bodmin Road and Bodmin General).

 

We're doing it for the same reason at the moment, to minimise shunting while the long clay train terminates at Porthmellyn Road, but once it can run between Paddington fiddle yard and  Polperran fiddle yard the loco and the brake van will be crane shunted at both places (as they already are at Paddington).

[john dew]

Crane shunting......now there is a concept.....not sure how RR&Co will cope....it tends to be rather picky about train formations! 
 

 

[St Enodoc]

Electrical head on today.

 

I needed to add the Branch power zone track bus, ready to wire up St Enodoc, and decided to tidy up the track power distribution arrangements at the same time.

 

I got rid of the old chocolate block connectors, which were rather untidy with multiple wires in many of the terminals, and used proper brass busbars instead. I added the Branch EB1 circuit breaker and another one for the future Terminus power zone. After changing over the cables for the Down, Up and Yard power zones and adding those for the Branch, I switched on and, fortunately, all five LEDs lit up. A quick "coin test" for each power zone passed, so I connected up the Branch bus. I've fitted three intermediate choc blocks to this, so as to keep the individual lengths of cable manageable. These choc blocks have four terminals - two for the track bus and one each for the Points return and Uncoupler return. As all the points on the Branch will be driven by analogue motors, I don't need an accessory bus here. That will feed Polperran direct in due course.

 

The bus follows roughly the route of the track and finishes where the two L-girder units are joined. I need to make up an RC filter to go here.

 

Next, I'll mount the four point motors (but won't wire them up yet) and track droppers, then I can install the feeders that link the track bus and droppers.

Edited June 28, 2023 by St Enodoc
Images restored

[Barry O]

You be careful doing wire strangling activities! 

 

Coming along well. .. and , as usual, very neat and tidy.

 

Baz

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

. .. and , as usual, very neat and tidy.

 

Baz

Agreed - although I don’t pretend to understand the electrics / electronics, the good St does keep everything clean and well ordered, setting a standard for us all to aspire to (it can be done!) and it is a pleasure to follow progress.

[St Enodoc]

14 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

although I don’t pretend to understand the electrics / electronics

Just two wires...

[ian]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Just two wires...

...cut into lots and lots of pieces.

[St Enodoc]

4 minutes ago, ian said:

...cut into lots and lots of pieces.

Indeed - or, as I've said before, multiples of two wires.

 

There are only two wires in the second photo above though!

[Clive Mortimore]

Yo Sainty

 

I like how every thing is neatly labelled even the material used for your baseboards is labelled wood.

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

even the material used for your baseboards is labelled wood

Lucky that, eh?

[Nick Gough]

7 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Yo Sainty

 

I like how every thing is neatly labelled even the material used for your baseboards is labelled wood.

Wood be no chance of mistakes with that.

[St Enodoc]

This afternoon I started by mounting the four Cobalt iP Analogue point motors under the baseboards, after which I tested them using a 9V battery and left them all in the Normal position.

 

Next I drilled the holes for the droppers, pushed the droppers in from underneath, cut and bent the ends, and soldered them to the rails. There are 24 droppers - four for the frogs and ten each for the red and black rails. Where sections of track are very short, such as between the heels of the crossover points, I don't fit droppers but solder the fishplates at one end.

 

Once that was done, I worked round from the Porthmellyn Road end connecting the red and black feeders to the droppers and to the bus wires. I only made two connections to the buses, with the feeders daisy-chained the rest of the way.

 

All the way through I used the multimeter in continuity mode to check that I hadn't made any mistakes.

 

 

Once I was happy with that, I switched the meter to the 200V ac range and powered up the layout. All the bits that should be live were, with no shorts, so I added green frog jumpers to Porthmellyn Road 41 points - pending connecting up the point motors - and installed temporary buffer stops at the head of steel nickel-silver in case of runaways.

 

Finally, I tested the new track, first with a light engine and then with the long china-clay train. That was interesting, as the 42xx could not lift the train up the 1 in 110 gradient on the 30" radius curve. I had guessed that this might happen, given how light these locos are. I will need to add some weight, for which there is not much room. The cab seems the most likely place, sitting as it does between the two rearmost coupled axles. I think I'll start with some lead under the roof and on the floor. The cab is dark enough inside for that not to show. As and when I fit crews they will have to have their legs amputated below the knee, I'm afraid.

 

Before @Clive Mortimore has a conniption, I should say that I ran out of time before I could label all the feeders. That's tomorrow's first job.

Edited June 28, 2023 by St Enodoc
Images restored

[St Enodoc]

On a completely different tack, may I please ask a favour of my Cornish-based friends?

 

When lockdown permits, would somebody please measure for me the width of the road and/or footpaths on the overbridges at a) Bugle station; and b) Par station?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited January 31, 2021 by St Enodoc

[St Enodoc]

I started today by labelling all the Branch track bus connections that I installed yesterday. Then I installed the Points/Signals and Uncoupler return buses to St Enodoc.

 

After that, I connected the frogs to the terminal blocks for each of the four points and in turn connected the terminal blocks to the point motors, so that I could remove the temporary frog jumpers. That rounded off a good weekend's work.

 

 

Next time I'll connect Porthmellyn Road 41 points to the lever frame and fit the dummy safety point (40) between 27A points on the Loop and 41B points on the Up Branch. That's the last piece of trackwork at Porthmellyn Road, other than extending the Up Sidings to their full length, once I've decided what that should be.

 

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by St Enodoc
Images restored