Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

Both sidings at Wheal Veronica now have ballast, as does about a yard-and-a-half of the single line.

 

One I'm in the groove, with ABC Classic to help me along, I can get through either a yard of plain track or two points in an hour. There are about five yards of the single line still to do before I reach Treloggan Junction, so next weekend is looking promising.

 

After that, of course, I need to free up the points, clear away the surplus ballast and clean up the rails. Once that's all done, I'll take some more photos.

[Barry O]

Yes @St EnodocI did play against Caldy.

 

My ballasting is just about done as far as it can go currently. I need to get some walls built on the route to the fiddleyard, then it can be ballasted..always assuming I can get a rail match sleeper grime rattle can to spray the track in there . .

 

Baz

[Sandhole]

14 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Some nice pubs in your part of the world, so who knows?

 

Last time I was in the Wirral was for a rugby match against Caldy (@Barry O might have been on that trip too), over 40 years ago, so possibly time for another trip one day...

My last Wirral trip was over 30 years ago .
Me and Coachbogie went to an open day on the phenominal O gauge railway, Diggle.
What a stupendous experience that was.
Does anybody know what happened to Diggle?
Regards,
Chris.

[St Enodoc]

I gave the terracotta warriors a dab of black paint round their feet and ankles, and also on the top of some of their caps where I'd snipped off a protruding moulding pip. They're all now back in their box, waiting for the next locos to be detailed.

Edited September 27, 2021 by St Enodoc

[5BarVT]

20 hours ago, Sandhole said:

Does anybody know what happened to Diggle?

This one?

Paul.

[Sandhole]

3 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

This one?

Paul.

That's the beast, thanks.
The stations were undercover, the running lines ran in the garden , they were under covers too.
It was a superb piece of LMS, with an LNER branch.
It was a once in a lifetime experience thanks to the L&Y Society.
Chris.

 

[Sandhole]

1 minute ago, Sandhole said:

That's the beast, thanks.
The stations were undercover, the running lines ran in the garden , they were under covers too.
It was a superb piece of LMS, with an LNER branch.
It was a once in a lifetime experience thanks to the L&Y Society.
Chris.

 

A quick Google has brought up that, 'Day Trip To Diggle' is in Layout Topics on here.
Chris.

[St Enodoc]

Some news on the signalling front.

 

Spurred by the recent arrival from Narrow Planet (who are now called Light Railway Stores) of two more sets of etched lever numbers, I got the Pentowan lever frame files out today and tidied up a few details before sending them off to Graeme in Queensland for him to check and try to beat the interlocking. Hopefully, he will fail as the design is very similar to where we were last year before SigScribe refused to play nicely any more (it behaved just as badly today. I've given up).

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Some news on the signalling front.

 

Spurred by the recent arrival from Narrow Planet (who are now called Light Railway Stores) of two more sets of etched lever numbers, I got the Pentowan lever frame files out today and tidied up a few details before sending them off to Graeme in Queensland for him to check and try to beat the interlocking. Hopefully, he will fail as the design is very similar to where we were last year before SigScribe refused to play nicely any more (it behaved just as badly today. I've given up).

Yo Sainty

 

U is an engineer, so what is this given up malarkey?

 

Go to your tool box and pick out an appropriate 'ammer and fix the bl**dy thing.

[Oldddudders]

2 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Go to your tool box and pick out an appropriate 'ammer and fix the bl**dy thing.

You must have been a great nurse....

[Clive Mortimore]

20 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

You must have been a great nurse....

Hi Ian

 

Before I was a nurse I was in engineering, both the CEGB and REME taught me how to use a 'ammer properly. It isn't how heavy the hammer is or how hard you hit the object you are fixing but shouting the correct profanity as the hammer face clouts the target gets the best result.

 

As for nursing, I was great at catheteriziation, enemas, debriding dirty wounds, venipuncture and using leaches. I also became good at being hit and kicked, the male nurse always looks after the violent patients. Dodging projectile vomit was another skill. Many of my colleagues were impressed with my ability to use a mop after someone had just used a commode and the nurse who took it to the patient forgot to check there was a bed pan in it. Comforting and reassuring a upset junior colleague after a patient had died,  then getting home and having a good cry myself.

[Oldddudders]

16 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

As for nursing, I was great at catheteriziation, enemas, debriding dirty wounds, venipuncture and using leaches. 

When Deb was in the rehab hospital at Le Mans after her car crash, she quickly discovered that the most proficient nurse at providing her daily anti-phlebitic injection was Pierre, the only male, who really had the knack. In the end he taught her to do it herself on the weekends when she was home, avoiding dragging out the local nurse, who had more pressing patients, we suspected.

 

Not all female nurses are angels, and the one who removed my morphine drip a few weeks back left bruising that is still just about visible. I suppose the fact that she spoke better English than my French helped a bit, though. Being de-catheterised is also a daunting moment, but the mature lady in the urology clinic proved able to do it so comfortably. As she needed to do it more than once, I was grateful. The nurse/operator at the MRI scan seemed unmoved by my obvious intense pain getting on and off the scanner trolley.

 

Getting old virtually guarantees meeting more such people, sadly. But not getting old has its drawbacks, too! 

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Yo Sainty

 

U is an engineer, so what is this given up malarkey?

 

Go to your tool box and pick out an appropriate 'ammer and fix the bl**dy thing.

Buqqering around with computers ain't engineering, rough or otherwise.

[Clive Mortimore]

6 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Buqqering around with computers ain't engineering, rough or otherwise.

Ah !!! But think of the satisfaction as you shout "Ffwcio chi" as the hammer head makes contact.

[St Enodoc]

Ballasting is going well. Only another yard to do, which I should manage today, then tidying up and cleaning up.

 

This weekend should have been the BRMA Convention in Adelaide but wasn't. So, and with the absence of RMweb for the best part of the last two days, I was forced to do some actual modelling in the evenings.

 

 

Here's the basic shell of Porthmellyn Road Signal Box. Each of the sides now consists of three layers - an outer skin of bricks and/or planks; an .020" middle layer that contains the window and door openings; and an .040" inner layer to balance it all up. I like to use three layers, as my experience is that an odd number is less prone to warp over time (famous last words...).

 

I use Citrolene, a limonene-based solvent, to glue the layers together.

 

I'll cover the gaps in the planked areas with representations of the wooden beams and posts, after which I can start painting before the windows go in.

 

In other news, I'm contemplating pre-ordering a Rails Metro-Vick gas turbine to replace my ancient Q Kit...

Edited June 29, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Nick Gough]

Nice work.

Are those Wills bricks?

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

Nice work.

Are those Wills bricks?

Thanks Nick. No, they're the brick parts from two Ratio GWR signal box kits. The plan (which is working so far) is to use two Ratio 552 kits, plus a few other odds and ends like the mall Ratio 139 windows, to make something that is similar to Par signal box without being an exact replica. I particularly wanted to use the small window openings with the arched tops and sloping sills, which are on the long wall with the door to the locking room. The other long wall will be concealed up to window height by the platform, so the rather ropy cutting and shutting doesn't matter! The floor, which holds the whole lot together, is also made from the two Ratio floors.

[Tim Dubya]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

In other news, I'm contemplating pre-ordering a Rails Metro-Vick gas turbine to replace my ancient Q Kit...

 

I think that would be the kindest thing to do.  Is that a Kerosene Castle by the way?

[St Enodoc]

I did indeed finish ballasting as far as the first point at Treloggan Junction today and in fact ballasted the short section between the other end of the Loop and the Polperran Barry slip too. I did that because the entrance to the fiddle yard will be hard to conceal, so a bit of disguise will be a good thing.

 

Here's a helicopter view of the whole branch so far, showing the extent of the ballast.

 

I also took the signal box shell out to see how it looked in place on the layout.

 

 

So far so good I think!

Edited June 29, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

3 minutes ago, Tim Dubya said:

 

I think that would be the kindest thing to do.  Is that a Kerosene Castle by the way?

Tim, strictly speaking Kerosene Castle was the original Brown-Boveri GT, 18000, which is on the point of arriving at Rails and of which I have one on order. The second, MetroVick, loco was 18100, which Rails have just announced.

 

My Q Kit version of 18100 has great sentimental value, as I built it from a damaged kit that Mike Cole (owner of Q Kits and a fellow member of Leeds MRS) sold to me for a very reasonable price. It's had about three chassis over the last 45 years but I've never been able to make it run properly and the standard of finish is definitely not 21st century. Consequently, if I buy a Rails one (which is probable), the old kit will be retired but not scrapped.

 

As far as I know, neither of the GTs ran in Cornwall but mine will because, as I mentioned a page or so back, in Mid-Cornwall things happen slightly differently from the rest of the known world...

[Oldddudders]

Sundown & Sprawling?

[The Stationmaster]

5 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Tim, strictly speaking Kerosene Castle was the original Brown-Boveri GT, 18000, which is on the point of arriving at Rails and of which I have one on order. The second, MetroVick, loco was 18100, which Rails have just announced.

 

My Q Kit version of 18100 has great sentimental value, as I built it from a damaged kit that Mike Cole (owner of Q Kits and a fellow member of Leeds MRS) sold to me for a very reasonable price. It's had about three chassis over the last 45 years but I've never been able to make it run properly and the standard of finish is definitely not 21st century. Consequently, if I buy a Rails one (which is probable), the old kit will be retired but not scrapped.

 

As far as I know, neither of the GTs ran in Cornwall but mine will because, as I mentioned a page or so back, in Mid-Cornwall things happen slightly differently from the rest of the known world...

If you can magic a 'King' into Cornwall I can see nowt wrong with doing the same for 18100 with an axle load (if evenly distributed) of just over 21t 11cwt so almost 19cwt less than the maximum axleload of a 'King' (but 1t 11cwt more than the heaviest axle loadings of a D6XX)

[The Stationmaster]

5 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Sundown & Sprawling?

That's showing your age Mr Dudders

[Oldddudders]

Just now, The Stationmaster said:

That's showing your age Mr Dudders

Nearly as old as you, I think!

[St Enodoc]

29 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Sundown & Sprawling?

 

24 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

That's showing your age Mr Dudders

 

23 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Nearly as old as you, I think!

@Barry O and I joined LMRS in 1976, when we were students at Leeds University, so we're much younger than either of you! By that time, Sundown and Sprawling had become a permanent garden railway at Mike's home. I never saw the 60ft long straight end-to-end exhibition version, although many of Mike's locos and stock were regular performers on the club's Leeds Victoria layout: