Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[chuffinghell]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Good progress at Treloggan Junction this afternoon.

 

First, I trimmed the end of the main line trackbase and joined it up at the St Enodoc end to the existing trackbase. However, at the Pentowan end there's nothing for it to join up to yet, so I set out a datum point to fix the alignment.

 

In the bottom-left corner you can see a straight line perpendicular to the track centre line with a small circle where they intersect. This circle marks a spot exactly 1120mm from the end of the Polperran L-girders and 160mm from the edge of the Polperran trackbase. From this datum I used the card templates to draw the 30" radius curve of the main line, which is now fixed so I inked it in.

 

This view shows how the main line curves round towards Pentowan station. It also shows, in pencil, roughly where the point at the Pentowan end will go.

 

I rested three of the Polperran points in position to show how the tracks relate to each other. Once I've cut a piece of ply to fill the gap between Pentowan and Polperran, I'll be able to ink in the rest of the track centre-lines and point locations. Treloggan Junction signal box will sit on the wider piece of ply between the main line and the branch.

 

As part of all this I fixed more joists and risers to the L-girders and to the trackbase, so that I could remove all the various clamps that were holding everything together. Most of these joists are over-length so that I can cut them back once I decide exactly where the edge of the scenic are should be.

 

WOW!! that's looking awesome (I'm probably too old to use the word awesome but...)

[Chamby]

54 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

 

WOW!! that's looking awesome (I'm probably too old to use the word awesome but...)

 

Don’t worry, “awesome” shows your age... these days it’s “awsum” !

[acg5324]

43 minutes ago, Chamby said:

 

Don’t worry, “awesome” shows your age... these days it’s “awsum” !

Or as our Canadian friends pronounce it …….. Arsum! …..or they at least seem to during our holidays there.

[chuffinghell]

15 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

Or as our Canadian friends pronounce it …….. Arsum! …..or they at least seem to during our holidays there.

 

My younger brother spent 17 yrs in Canada, he's been back a few years but we are still trying to re-educate him with regards to using the correct English terminology

 

For example

 

Loft not attic, cellar not basement, rubbish not trash and my biggest bugbear Aluminium not Aluminum etc, etc 

 

I mostly do it to annoy him and get him wound up because that's what older brothers are for  

[St Enodoc]

More progress at Treloggan Junction today.

 

First I cut a piece of plywood to fill the gap and form the trackbase for the Branch. I had to fit another short secondary joist to support this, which was good enough for there to be no need for fishplates to join it to the Main and Loop trackbases.

 

 

 

I then laid the foam trackbed and the cork infill at the point, after which I painted the infill Grot Grey.

 

Treloggan Junction trackbase and trackbed are, therefore, complete. I now need to finish the points so that I can lay the track permanently here and, when I've built the Barry slip, into Polperran.

Edited June 29, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[5BarVT]

Then the question is: Which comes first, Pentowan or Polperran?

:-)

Paul.

[KingEdwardII]

What radii are you using on the triangle?

 

Mike.

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Then the question is: Which comes first, Pentowan or Polperran?

:-)

Paul.

Polperran. Pentowan will need many (20) more points, so will be built progressively. Also, working out the full expanded sequence for Pentowan will take a lot more time and effort.

 

I'll get Polperran sorted first.

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, KingEdwardII said:

What radii are you using on the triangle?

 

Mike.

30" in old money, Mike. That's the minimum anywhere on the layout except the Wheal Veronica branch, which comes down to 670mm (just over 26").

[St Enodoc]

A much less intensive day's work, for a change, today.

 

If you have sharp eyes, you might have noticed in one of yesterday's photos that I installed the fence at the front of the Chapel Sidings, behind the Polperran buffer stops and I decided to add the Polperran road numbers to this today.

 

Then, just for fun, I placed St Enodoc signal box roughly in the position where Treloggan Junction box will go. I don't think it looks too bad.

 

I did a few other odds and ends, none of which were worth photographing, then after tea I thought it was time to run a few trains, since most of them haven't moved since our May running session and the September session isn't looking very promising at the moment either.

 

I started with train 549, the 0815 SO Polperran to Paddington. We've mentioned this train, under Polperran's real name of Perranporth, before. The through coaches, the Newquay portion of the previous day's 0930 Paddington (including a dining car) ran empty from Newquay to Perranporth, then continued to Truro where another set of coaches was attached before proceeding to Paddington.

 

This is such an unusual set of workings that I was determined to include it in the sequence on the layout. Once Pentowan is operational, the empty stock will run to Polperran from where it will be crane shunted to Penzance to join the rest of the train.

 

By the time I had to finish, I'd run 24 trains in just under an hour-and-a-half without major mishaps. That's not bad for a single-handed session, although I admit that I didn't work the signals at Porthmellyn Road. I do feel, though, having walked between Penzance, Porthmellyn Road and Paddington a number of times, that I've got close to my 10,000 steps today.

Edited June 29, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[5BarVT]

33 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I placed St Enodoc signal box roughly in the position where Treloggan Junction box will go.

Looks good.

 

34 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I've got close to my 10,000 steps today.

We happened to talk about step counters with our daughter who responded “There’s one on your phone.” and promptly showed us the iPhone app.  Oh dear, now I can’t kid myself!

 

Paul.

[Northroader]

Triangular junctions on the GWR out in the country and I think of Bradford Junction, although much more sprawl than yours:

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/bradford-jct-to-chippenham.html

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, Northroader said:

Triangular junctions on the GWR out in the country and I think of Bradford Junction, although much more sprawl than yours:

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/bradford-jct-to-chippenham.html

Some aspects of Bradford Jcn I would like to forget.  The only route to access the signal box involved walking through a rather messy (battery housed) chicken farm with considerable mud underfoot which the land owner always refused to clean up although BR staff had a legal right of access.   It was also an area of occasional amusement - a few years before I moved to the area the Driver of an Up diverted West of England train forgot to hand over the token at Chippenham and over-carried it all the way to Paddington;  I've often wondered if this set the British distance record for an over-carried token?

 

the north to west junction chord was regularly used for overnight stabling for a particular category of 'Special Train'.  One night I and the Divisonal Chief Signalling inspector were in the 'box awaiting the arrival of one such train and the member of platform staff at Chippenham who had handed the token to the loco crew rang the Signalman to say that he thought the tail lamp was out.  The Signalman - fortunately for him in the presence of some 'brass'  - immediately applied the most sensible course of action he could think of and referred the matter upwards - to me and the Chief DI.  A sanguine view prevailed from our joint counsel and we did nothing as we knew the train could not possibly have divided and that it had the token - we were right.  When the train arrived the Handsignalman who took the token confirmed that the tail lamp was burning brightly.

[drduncan]

Wouldn’t the signal box be better sited  on the outside of one of the chords as it will give visibility of all approaches?

Duncan

Edited August 15, 2021 by drduncan

[5BarVT]

7 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

forgot to hand over the token at Chippenham and over-carried it all the way to Paddington

Don’t know if it was that incident, but we consider (used to in my case now) putting on a control to require the token in before clearing the signal off the branch.  Easy to do on a freight branch where the token hut will be at that signal, less easy at somewhere like Chippenham where there were auxiliary instruments on the station some way beyond the junction and (in that case I think) no platform starting signal.

Paul.

Apologies to St.E for turning his topic into reminiscing about signalling.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, drduncan said:

Wouldn’t the signal box be better sited  on the outside of one of the chords as it will give visibility of all approaches?

Duncan

Duncan, the real Tolcarn Junction box was inside the triangle, towards the Newquay end, which was convenient for token exchange on the Main and the Branch. On the real thing, the Loop (from St Enodoc to Polperran, as I have modelled it) was only really used for loco turning rather than train movements. My use of it for the long china-clay train is completely imaginary.

 

https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/gwf/S1131.htm

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Don’t know if it was that incident, but we consider (used to in my case now) putting on a control to require the token in before clearing the signal off the branch.  Easy to do on a freight branch where the token hut will be at that signal, less easy at somewhere like Chippenham where there were auxiliary instruments on the station some way beyond the junction and (in that case I think) no platform starting signal.

Paul.

Apologies to St.E for turning his topic into reminiscing about signalling.

No problem Paul. It's all grist to the "realistic operation" mill.

[ianathompson]

10 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

member of platform staff

 

10 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

rang the Signalman to say that he thought the tail lamp was out.

 

Par for the course?!

Have had this one more times than I care to remember.

 

Ian T

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, ianathompson said:

Par for the course?!

Par or Porthmellyn Road?????

[Oldddudders]

I went to Barnstaple a few years back. It is now the plain-line terminus of a single line. At the outer end of the platform, facing the driver as he sets sail back to Exeter, is a large sign asking "Have you got the token?"

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I went to Barnstaple a few years back. It is now the plain-line terminus of a single line. At the outer end of the platform, facing the driver as he sets sail back to Exeter, is a large sign asking "Have you got the token?"

About 100m further on is an even larger sign:

 

"WELL, HAVE YOU?"

[Stubby47]

Would they not already have the single line token when travelling TO Barnstable ?

[5BarVT]

History might mean that they have to give it up and then take it back.  But Stubby is right, there’s no underlying need for that.

Paul.

[Mike_Walker]

14 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Would they not already have the single line token when travelling TO Barnstable ?

Yes, but the driver has to surrender it into the instrument and get it out again before he can depart.  I mentioned the signage (there are actually three!) when I was up there doing route mapping for GWR and our driver replied, sheepishly, that it has been known to happen - more than once!

 

 

[Oldddudders]

21 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Would they not already have the single line token when travelling TO Barnstable ?

Please stop being logical!