Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

I made a start on the Paddington reconfiguration this afternoon as I wanted to get cracking before I changed my mind again.

 

After clearing the trains from the Up end of loops 1 to 6, the first job was to remove the seven point motors and their connections.

 

I then lifted all the points and the connecting tracks, which left a gap in the old Down Main (now Penzance loop 1). The points came up fairly easily by sliding an old steel rule under the timbers. It was also quite easy to sand the trackbed after the points and track had been removed.

 

I will save the odd lengths of rail for point building.

 

I also had to remove a section of 2 mm thick cork at Paddington Up end so that I could replace it with 3 mm cork where the pointwork will go. This section was about 2 feet square and removing it with a chisel was straightforward although tedious as there was so much of it.

 

After a good clean up and vacuum I laid a piece of 3 mm cork in the gap. I cut this slightly under size to make it easier to fit.

 

Finally for today I laid the plain line in Penzance loop 1, where points 101 and 102 used to be.

 

I got further with this than I expected so next week I can connect the existing droppers to the new plain line. Once that's done I think I will build the fence behind Penzance before moving on to relaying the recovered points on their new alignment.

Edited July 21, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

I see from another topic that The Fatadder of this parish has bought a Scalefour Society point blade filing jig.

 

As I have a fair number (slight understatement) of points to build over the next year or two I would like to get hold of one of these and the accompanying vee filing jig.

 

So:

 

- are they both available again?

- do you have to be an S4 Soc member to buy them?

- if so, would somebody mind acting as an agent for me; or if not, how can I order them?

 

Thanks.

[The Fatadder]

Both are available (or at least were on Saturday), but are only available to members other than at the 3 scalefour shows.

 

Unfortunately I'm no longer a scalefour member or I'd be happy to help,

[Mallard60022]

I am reassured by the fact I have 4 of the tools and both Tracksettas being used here. However, apart from that similarity, any trackwork I have done in the fiddle looks like it was fitted by someone with no muscle control of any sort and should have remembered to wear their spectacles. My only excuse is that it will only stay as the Fiddle if it actually works.

I admire your persistance  St.

Philth (still recovering from watching Murray......)

[St Enodoc]

Both are available (or at least were on Saturday), but are only available to members other than at the 3 scalefour shows.

 

Unfortunately I'm no longer a scalefour member or I'd be happy to help,

Thanks Rich, that's what I thought.

[St Enodoc]

A very nice walk this morning in Muogamarra nature reserve up near the Hawkesbury River. A bonus was seeing the two steam specials from Sydney to Gosford descending Cowan Bank.

 

After lunch Veronica went out to get some sort of beautification done so I was able to connect the droppers to the piece of plain track I laid last weekend in Penzance loop 1.

 

After that I built the fence behind Penzance to stop any derailed trains from diving to the floor.

 

 

This is simply 3 mm MDF screwed to the back of the L-girders along the straight part, and to the back of the joists across the corners - nothing fancy.

Edited July 21, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

I laid the seven points for Paddington Up end in their new locations today.

 

First I laid the new 101 point and the recycled 102 point (which was the former 101 point). To explain, the old 102 point was a B8 curved point so it wasn't suitable for the new location. It will be recycled at Penzance Up end in due course. The old 101 point, a standard A5, took its place. I built a new 101 point, still an A5 but with the radius eased to about 36" so that it fits into the curve of the old Up Main at the front of the layout.

 

I pinned the new 101 point in the reverse position and fitted a temporary frog connection.

 

The other five points in the fan for Paddington loops 2 to 7 are in exactly the same relationship as before, just in a different place.

 

I fitted the motor to 101 point so that it would hold the point in position mechanically and I could remove the pin.

 

Next time I will lay the connecting tracks between the points I laid today and the corresponding Paddington loops. After that I can connect droppers and feeders to the new trackwork then fit the other point motors and connect them up.

 

I also had a look around the Tregissey siding area, to see if I could extend it to connect with Paddington loop 1 and then lay a new, shorter, Tregissey siding. If I can, it will be less awkward than a crossover between Paddington loops 1 and 2. Watch this space.

Edited July 21, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Stubby47]

I'm impressed by the casual "I built a point" - makes it sound so easy, when we all know it's scary black art.

[The Fatadder]

Are your point numbers sequential?

 

With 100+ points to build I can see the appeal of investing in the jigs! And I'm sat here feeling that the 20 odd I have remaining feels a lot...

[St Enodoc]

I'm impressed by the casual "I built a point" - makes it sound so easy, when we all know it's scary black art.

Thanks Stu. I've only ever built copperclad points so I have no experience of other methods such as moulded chairs or ply-and-rivet, but it really isn't too difficult. I described how I do it in a post on 28/5/16.

 

The hardest bit is filing the blades, followed by filing the crossing vees. There are several topics on RMWeb describing different ways of doing these jobs. I've picked up a few ready-made ones from eBay over the years but by no means enough for all the points.

 

After that the key is using gauges all the way through the process and checking at each stage. I recommend having a go. Your first one or two points might be a bit ropey, but after that you'll find the ability to build almost any configuration to suit your layout, as well as the low cost compared with ready-to-lay points, makes the effort worth while.

[St Enodoc]

Are your point numbers sequential?

 

With 100+ points to build I can see the appeal of investing in the jigs! And I'm sat here feeling that the 20 odd I have remaining feels a lot...

Rich, the numbers run in blocks. 100 series is Paddington Up end, 200 series is Paddington Down end and so on. In total there will be something like 120 points on the final layout but a good number of these, probably around 30, will be recycled from previous layouts or have already been made.

 

The jigs would save time and also reduce the risk of me filing nice vee-shaped cuts in the ends of my fingers, but if I can't get hold of a set I'll carry on regardless.

 

Edit - spell checkers are all very well but I need something to tell me when I've mis-typed a word that is still a word - form/from in this case.

Edited August 21, 2016 by St Enodoc

[St Enodoc]

I laid the remaining track to connect Paddington loops 2 to 7 to Penzance loop 14 today.

 

This photo shows clearly how the Paddington loops are now all about two feet shorter than before. Correspondingly, the Penzance loops will be two feet longer than on the original plan.

 

I fitted the point motors to the remaining six points and while the drill was out I also made the holes for all the new droppers, so next time I can fire up the soldering iron and start connecting the droppers and feeders.

 

On the original plan, the Down Main and all the Paddington loops were going to be connected to the Down bus, and the Up Main and all the Penzance loops to the Up bus. To minimise the amount of rewiring I have decided that at both locations loops 1 to 7 will be connected to the Down bus and loops 8 - 14 to the Up bus.

 

At Paddington Down end I had another look at the Tregissey siding with a view to extending it to become the new link from the Up Main to Paddington loop 1. I had tried to draw this out at 1:10 earlier in the week but the geometry of arcs of different radii defeated me this time. On the board at full size it all came together, which confirmed that I need to build one A5R and one B8L curved point to make the connections. To fit it all in I need to slue the existing Tregissey siding about 10 mm closer to the Paddington throat to become the new link. There will then be room for the new siding between that link and the existing Down Main. This new siding, unlike the old one, will only be long enough for the railbus.

Edited July 21, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Anthony Ashley]

John,

 

Good luck with making sooo many points. I think the scale of the plan is quite daunting with the amount of track construction you need to do. Interested in your layout as it develops. Keep up the steady process.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

[St Enodoc]

John,

 

Good luck with making sooo many points. I think the scale of the plan is quite daunting with the amount of track construction you need to do. Interested in your layout as it develops. Keep up the steady process.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

Thanks Anthony. It is a little daunting but as I said above in reply to Stubby47 point making doesn't worry me at all - in fact I rather enjoy it (except for filing blades...). I'm also breaking things up by staging the works. Once the rearrangement at Paddington that I'm doing now is finished I'll work through Penzance 2 to 7 in the same way. Then we will have six loops at each end and proper timetable running will be possible. After that I'll start work on Porthmellyn Road itself before finishing off Paddington and Penzance. As a result I won't get too bored with just adding more and more loops.

[St Enodoc]

Last night I built the new B8L curved point for the Tregissey connection. It only took an hour or so as I used a ready-made 1:8 vee and a ready-made pair of B-type switches. The A5R will take longer as I have run out of 1:5 vees and A-type switches, so I will have to file them up first.

[St Enodoc]

The A5R took two evenings' worth of spare time. Yesterday I filed up the blades and vee (I really ought to do these in batches but after one set I usually feel that I have lost the will to live) and tonight I put it all together. I might lay these two points before wiring up the seven at the other end, then work through all the wiring in one go - we shall see.

 

Anyway, on Saturday we have our monthly BRMA meeting at the home of Peter the Cornishman, which will be the first time he has hosted us. Nothing can go wrong... nothing can go wrong... this is a recorded message...

[St Enodoc]

Yesterday's BRMA meeting was great fun. Peter's layout is a double track dumb-bell with a total length on each track of over 50 m. With automatic four-aspect colour light signalling and two trains on each track, drivers had to obey the signals to avoid running into the train in front. By regulating the speeds carefully it was possible to run on greens all the way.

 

We also ran a few trains on and off the main lines both at Paddington (a fiddle yard) and Penzance (based on the real station albeit with a single track approach). This was more exciting as the signals aren't interlocked with the points yet.

 

I also had a very enjoyable session on the Mid-Cornwall Lines today. I decided not to lay the two new points after all but to concentrate on the remodelled Paddington Up end first. I installed all the droppers, then connected up the point motor coil wires and the feeders to the point frogs. After that I connected the rest of the feeders both to the droppers and the respective buses, so all the track power wiring is back in place.

 

As before I was able to test this using the Warship, with its long electrical wheelbase, and by changing the points manually. All was well, so to round off the afternoon I rearranged some of the trains in the Paddington loops. This is necessary because at the Up end the loops now connect into the Up Main rather than the Down Main, so instead of setting out the first twelve Down trains in the sequence I need to set out the first twelve Up workings. Some of the trains are the same as before, albeit facing the other way, but some are different so I will need to dig through some more boxes to find them.

 

Before that I will connect the point motors and frogs to the decoders. The decoder addresses all stay the same but the Mini Panel inputs will have to be reprogrammed, which means that I will also have to modify the point control panel itself to reflect the new layout.

[St Enodoc]

A good weekend for tying up loose ends. Yesterday I reconnected the Paddington Up end decoders and tested them before RudderC of this parish popped round to have a look at progress. While he was here we reprogrammed the Paddington Mini Panel for the revised Up end layout. It was good to have two people for this as otherwise I would have had to walk the length of the layout after testing each input to see if the points had thrown correctly. Once we'd done that we had a short play, including a test run for his 1366 pannier which has had some tweaks to the chassis. It now runs a lot better than before so it can go back home to work between Porth Tangawr and the dock branch.

 

Today the first job was to replace the broken pushbutton on the Paddington point control panel. I then moved one of the pushbuttons from the old Down Main to control the route to Paddington loop 14 at the Up end. The next task was slightly more involved. I disconnected the pushbutton for the point at the Down end of loop 14 from the Mini Panel and connected it direct to the Momentary input on its decoder. This is feasible as 215 point's Normal coil is the only one that needs to operate for that route - at the extreme bottom right of the panel. This has freed up an input for the revised Tregissey Siding arrangements in future.

 

Here is the control panel with the revised arrangement at the Up end. When I remodel the Down end I will make a complete new front panel.

 

After a quick tidy up I got some more trains out so the Paddington loops now hold twelve trains that originate from Penzance on a Friday. There's a good mixture of freights, expresses and the TPO, while a milk train can circulate on the Down line as well.

 

 

 

 

6825 Llanvair Grange is on the 2130 Penzance to Paddington express in loop 7. As well as seating accommodation, this train also conveys a sleeping car and plenty of parcels space in the shape of two BGs and a Siphon G. A few weeks ago someone mentioned trains with coaches in three liveries. This one has four - plain crimson (on the Siphon G), crimson and cream, maroon, and chocolate and cream.

 

I'm now back to where I was in July before I decided to reconfigure the loops. You can see that each loop at Paddington still has space to hold two trains and the Penzance loops will now be able to do the same.

 

The next stage is to lay the Penzance throat and a temporary connection that will allow trains to run to and from Paddington in both directions. The first six Penzance loops and the remodelling at Paddington Down end will follow.

Edited July 21, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

During our walk in the West Head area yesterday morning we spotted this little fellow:

 

 

Fortunately we didn't see any pumas so it was obviously a good omen for last night's match in Perth.

 

Today's work on the layout was largely invisible to the naked eye. I went round the loose joists under the Paddington baseboards and fixed them in place where there is no possibility of them fouling any point motors in future. These were essentially the joists under the plain lengths of Peco track and the ones under the Paddington Down end throat. The rest will stay loose until all the points in their vicinity have been installed and motorised.

 

Next I adjusted the position of the temporary fouling point markers so as to maximise the available length of each loop. I did this in the time-honoured way by pushing two long coaches on converging tracks until the end of the inner one touched the centre of the outer one. I then slid a fairly thick pen (about 12 mm diameter) in between them to give a good clearance and marked the location on the cork. I moved the fouling point markers for each of the loops to their new positions, the idea being that the marker needs to be visible and not obscured by a train.

 

 

I've been quite conservative with the positioning but if, once we start operating in earnest, I find that I need an odd extra wagon length or half a coach length, I will tighten them up to give a smaller clearance. When I am happy with the position of the fouling points I will fit vertical posts (BBQ skewers) with the loop numbers on them, which will be easier to see.

 

If you've been following the saga of the loop reconfiguration, you might have realised that a couple of the new points will be located on the rearmost track at Paddington, against the wall and above the L-girder. Fitting an H&M point motor won't be practicable for those points so I played around with other brands of motor today and fortunately I found a couple of old Maygib ones that will do nicely.

 

That's about it for this weekend. During the coming week, time permitting, I might start building the new points for the Penzance Up end throat. Three A5Y and a couple of A5R points are needed for the first stage.

Edited July 21, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Andrew P]

It's coming on well, and all looks so neat, in fact FAR TO NEAT, hahaha, really good workmanship.

[St Enodoc]

It's coming on well, and all looks so neat, in fact FAR TO NEAT, hahaha, really good workmanship.

Thanks Andy. As you know, I do try to keep things neat, although the rearrangements at Paddington have resulted in a mish-mash of old and new markings which has left things rather more messy than before.

[Barry O]

all be done and dusted for my (our) visit...

 

 

That stock looks a tad clean..

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

I filed up five 1:5 vees this evening. I start with a length of rail twice as long as the crossing rails need to be - about 150 mm - and file one half of the vee on each end. Only when I'm ready to solder it up do I cut the rail in half. This way it is easy to make sure that the two halves of each vee are of opposite hand.

 

First I scribe a mark in the web about 3 mm from each end of the rail. Then I file this at the 1:5 angle until the mark is reached, when about half the thickness of the web remains untouched. Next, I bend the filed end of the rail gently towards the filed face so that it is flat along the length of the rail.

 

Now I turn the rail over and scribe a mark in the web about 5 mm from each end. I file each end of the rail at the same 1:5 angle until I reach the mark. This results in a nice sharp point at the tip of the vee.

 

Finally I draw-file all the edges to remove the burrs and just take the edge off the top of the vee, to give a smoother run into the crossing.

 

Until I get some S4 jigs (watch this space - a kind soul has ordered me a set to pick up next time I visit my daughters in Sussex) I have to hold the rail down by hand while all this filing is going on. As a result, five vees is about as much as I can manage in one go. When life has returned to my fingertips later in the week I will have a crack at some blades, although one set per session is about par for the course with them.

Edited July 21, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[bgman]

Hi John,

 

Rather fortuitous, I've just taken delivery ( literally ) of these ( please excuse the pic quality )

 

 

I've not tried them before but would like to give them a go for some turnouts I'm planning to make.

I thought they may be an alternative to cutting up copper clad and as they're pre etched it could save me some time !

Know what you mean about the fingers !!!

Yours is coming on a treat matey

[Stubby47]

Have you thought about using a hardish block of rubber ( pencil eraser) to hold the rail in place whilst filing ?