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Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00


St Enodoc
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The IRO is a modern creation - and none the worse for that. Arguably it has never been more necessary than now. And you have demonstrated why the signal engineers opted to have an Institution rather than an Association....

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1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

The IRO is a modern creation - and none the worse for that. Arguably it has never been more necessary than now. And you have demonstrated why the signal engineers opted to have an Institution rather than an Association....

 

1 hour ago, 5BarVT said:

But an association would give the signalman something to fall back on . . . !

Paul.

 

What has all that got to do with chocolate biscuits?

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7 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

The IRO (Institution of Railway Operators) feels a lot more relevant (as an outsider).

As a signal engineer I am MIEE (O.K. MIET, but I’m old and grumpy) because that’s how I had to get C.Eng. back then.  I’m also FIRSE and go to their meetings and conferences (well, did) because that has been far more useful to me in practice.

Paul.

 

6 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

The IRO is a modern creation - and none the worse for that. Arguably it has never been more necessary than now. And you have demonstrated why the signal engineers opted to have an Institution rather than an Association....

In my view, the IRO is a most welcome addition to the group of professional bodies associated with the rail industry.

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8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

 

In my view, the IRO is a most welcome addition to the group of professional bodies associated with the rail industry.

Of course in the old BR days, there were evening classes in Rules & Signalling and multiple other skills, with certificates for passing an exam. I think the footplate grades had Mutual Improvement Classes. All of this went out with the bathwater decades ago. 

 

Anent advertising slogans - Du vin, du pain, du Boursin. Lunch today.

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15 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Of course in the old BR days, there were evening classes

Correspondence courses too, Ian. I took a couple of those over the years (not in Rules & Regs though, although perhaps I should have done)

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On 31/05/2021 at 12:42, St Enodoc said:

Which reminds me that it is many a long year since I ate a mint and plain chocolate Jacobs Club biscuit...

 

572752252_20210605001JacobsmintClub.thumb.jpg.a42f806745e8b6225108ec25ea44838f.jpg

Found these in our local Aldi this morning (other supermarkets are available)! Milk not plain but a good second-best.

Edited by St Enodoc
images restored
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1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

I had a number of other things to do this weekend, including yesterday's BRMA monthly meeting at @RudderC Charles' place, where he had set up his extended 0 gauge layout. The extension runs beyond the existing Uley Junction fiddle yard and joins a double-track continuous run, which has some loops on one side. Apart from being a test track, the idea is to give  Charles' grandchildren a layout on which to run trains round and round. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and it stayed dry - fortunately, because the extension occupies half of Charles' drive outside the garage.

 

Today I did get into the railway room and extended the single line and Wheal Veronica branch track bases. These now reach a point where the tracks are perpendicular to the long Porthmellyn Road wall and parallel with the short Nancegwithey Viaduct wall. This made it easy to check the horizontal alignment before fixing everything in place.

 

1350277575_20210606003singlelineandWVtrackbaselookingDown.JPG.3f8b9c2d083610bbc53218012ad8bcd6.JPG

First, I installed two more long joists across the L-girders then added three further shorter joists, approximately radial to the tracks.  I cut these three joists to length so that they can support the fascia in due course.

 

1790648975_20210606002singlelineandWVtrackbasetransverseview.JPG.fcff81bf53e9f54ccf3b78361cfcd23e.JPG

Next, I worked my way round adding risers, using the spirit level to give a falling 1 in 100 gradient on the single line and a rising 1 in 50 gradient on the china-clay line. I also packed the track bases with 1mm styrene on one side of the risers  to give some superelevation. The vertical separation between the two tracks here is just over 30mm.

 

344709570_20210606001singlelineandWVtrackbaselookingUp.JPG.2cc8e424d549b310ab62faf16d42601e.JPG

I think that before I cut and erect any more track base I'll lay a yard of track on both these lines, which will let us run round and shunt at St Enodoc station.

 

 

 

I always find this stage of layout building particularly rewarding, with visible progress being made rapidly. 

 

My own approach would be slightly different to yours I think.  (An observation, not criticism).  I would probably have completed the viaduct and done more scenery on the already built sections before moving on to further board-building.  I like to have my modelling in progress going on at all stages, so that any given time I can do the tasks that my mood takes me to on the day.  Otherwise I find that sometimes the day-to-day modelling can get a bit repetitive.

 

I’m guessing from your activities, that expanding the operational aspects of the layout is your early priority, rather than getting it to look more complete at this stage!  

 

 

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Very much enjoying watching the progress John. I admire your discipline.  Although I have an overall 'aim' for the coming months, now that the layout is up and running I'm like Phil in that I prefer to have several projects on the go so that I can work on each as the mood takes me. 

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12 minutes ago, Chamby said:

I’m guessing from your activities, that expanding the operational aspects of the layout is your early priority, rather than getting it to look more complete at this stage!  

Correct!

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Just now, TrevorP1 said:

Very much enjoying watching the progress John. I admire your discipline.  Although I have an overall 'aim' for the coming months, now that the layout is up and running I'm like Phil in that I prefer to have several projects on the go so that I can work on each as the mood takes me. 

I am making (slow) progress on Porthmellyn Road Signal Box, which, when finished, will let me build the platforms around it. What drives me on, though, is the prospect of expanding the sequence further. To do that I need more track!

 

As those who know me will attest, scenery isn't my strong point but I do intend to address that at some stage. I will probably start with the tunnel and viaduct then work my way round progressively in due course.

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2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I had a number of other things to do this weekend, including yesterday's BRMA monthly meeting at @RudderC Charles' place, where he had set up his extended 0 gauge layout. The extension runs beyond the existing Uley Junction fiddle yard and joins a double-track continuous run, which has some loops on one side. Apart from being a test track, the idea is to give  Charles' grandchildren a layout on which to run trains round and round. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and it stayed dry - fortunately, because the extension occupies half of Charles' drive outside the garage.

 

Today I did get into the railway room and extended the single line and Wheal Veronica branch track bases. These now reach a point where the tracks are perpendicular to the long Porthmellyn Road wall and parallel with the short Nancegwithey Viaduct wall. This made it easy to check the horizontal alignment before fixing everything in place.

 

1350277575_20210606003singlelineandWVtrackbaselookingDown.JPG.3f8b9c2d083610bbc53218012ad8bcd6.JPG

First, I installed two more long joists across the L-girders then added three further shorter joists, approximately radial to the tracks.  I cut these three joists to length so that they can support the fascia in due course.

 

1790648975_20210606002singlelineandWVtrackbasetransverseview.JPG.fcff81bf53e9f54ccf3b78361cfcd23e.JPG

Next, I worked my way round adding risers, using the spirit level to give a falling 1 in 100 gradient on the single line and a rising 1 in 50 gradient on the china-clay line. I also packed the track bases with 1mm styrene on one side of the risers  to give some superelevation. The vertical separation between the two tracks here is just over 30mm.

 

344709570_20210606001singlelineandWVtrackbaselookingUp.JPG.2cc8e424d549b310ab62faf16d42601e.JPG

I think that before I cut and erect any more track base I'll lay a yard of track on both these lines, which will let us run round and shunt at St Enodoc station.

 

 

Hi Sainty

 

That looks like you have given it some thought and engineered it.

 

What is wrong with bish bash bosh method I use?????

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41 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Sainty

 

That looks like you have given it some thought and engineered it.

 

What is wrong with bish bash bosh method I use?????

Well, the basic design is engineered, as you put it, but the detailed execution is definitely bish-bash-boshed (or knife-and-forked as we often say in the Big Railway business).

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On 05/06/2021 at 11:57, St Enodoc said:

 

1042563741_20210605001JacobsmintClub.jpg.04d556624cd49bdcd497fb1ca8aa826a.jpg

Found these in our local Aldi this morning (other supermarkets are available)! Milk not plain but a good second-best.

I sampled one today.

 

They're longer, narrower and thinner than I remember. The biggest disappointment was that instead of thick, hard chocolate that you could bite off carefully leaving the wafer intact, the coating seemed to have melded into the biscuit.

 

Verdict: It tasted good but the changed structure made it a slightly disappointing experience. Still, a second-rate mint chocolate biscuit is better than no mint chocolate biscuit...

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1 minute ago, St Enodoc said:

chocolate that you could bite off carefully leaving the wafer intact

Which was the main attraction (in my mind).

Paul.

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On 02/06/2021 at 12:21, Oldddudders said:

Of course in the old BR days, there were evening classes in Rules & Signalling and multiple other skills, with certificates for passing an exam. I think the footplate grades had Mutual Improvement Classes. All of this went out with the bathwater decades ago. 

 

Anent advertising slogans - Du vin, du pain, du Boursin. Lunch today.

Having found a few minutes to pop and update on layout developments beyond the Tamar I find myself among chicolate biscuits and 'qualifications;.  The old Rules I & Signalling course were an excellent way of adding a tax free fiver (provided you got high enough marks in the exam) to your income in the days when a fiver was still worth a bit.  Interestingly such courses still continue on one part of NR land and they even take 'outsiders' (for a fee) and the courses are highly regarded as they are run by a chap who really cares and actually knows what he is doing.

 

As far as the IRO is concerned I looked down their list of boxes to tick to acquire a certain level in the Institution when i was doing consultancy work as it was suggested that it might impress clients.  I quickly found that I could actually tick every box for the top 'rank' including such unusual things as managing hire contracts (I was one of the earliest in that field after 1994) but as I was semi-retired I never bothered.  The only thing that worried me about the IRO was when I came across somebody who was writing training papers for them which dealt in detail with work he had never done in his railway career  in my view anmy professional qualification is only as good as the knowledge it imparts and tests by examination and experience so I was left wondering about that.

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3 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

All looks to complicated for me.

 

Nah.

 

Lay the board, lay the track, try a train.  If it struggles, make the slope shallower, if it whizzes up, make the slope steeper.

 

Simples

 

(No indigenous peoples where intentionally or unintentionally insulted in this post).

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