Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[Oldddudders]

41 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

The Peco rail profile is different though - it's the same top and bottom, not really bullhead.

Wasn't 'double-headed' rail used in earlier Victorian times? 

[Jesse Sim]

On 09/01/2022 at 18:18, St Enodoc said:

With a little bit of overtime, I laid all the remaining track at Polperran over the weekend. The point motors are still to be fitted, and I haven't started any wiring at all, but I'm pleased to have finished it this weekend.

 

This is the view from the buffer stop end. You can see a Barry's Buffer in the foreground. I'll replace this by the usual Hornby-Dublo buffer stops in due course but I'll have to build some more scale ones first, to release those that are in temporary use on the scenic sections.

 

Once the glue's dried, I'll add some cosmetic sleepers to support the rail joints.

 

This view, from the other end, shows the clear space at the throat between the fans. The point control panel will go here and there'll also be room to store spare wagons for the freight trains.

 

The five roads at this end are for:

 

1. the ACE

2. the long clay train (which is at Paddington at the moment)

3. the WR Truro freight

4. the SR Wadebridge freight (the Hornby and Bachmann vans will alternate on this)

5. spare (at the moment but watch this space)

 

Trains that use these roads will access them via the headshunt at the other end.

 

Back to work (from home) tomorrow so there won't be much more action, other than tidying up, before Saturday's running session.

I think I have some of those old Hornby dublo ones laying around here, I’m happy to loan them to you. I say loan, as I’ll probably use them on the next layout in the future hahaha 

[5BarVT]

8 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Wasn't 'double-headed' rail used in earlier Victorian times? 

I think I heard that many moons ago.  Gave up on it when they discovered the ‘head’ at the bottom became worn before they inverted it (corrugations).

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

I think I have some of those old Hornby dublo ones laying around here, I’m happy to loan them to you. I say loan, as I’ll probably use them on the next layout in the future hahaha 

Thanks Jesse, that's very kind. You could bring them over tomorrow if you can find them...

 

Definitely a loan, as once the scenic ones are built and installed I'll have no further use for them.

 

Thanks.

[St Enodoc]

A few matters arising for today:

 

On 12/01/2022 at 21:17, St Enodoc said:

The Tyer's Electric Token Instruments arrived from Modelu today.

 

I have to say that they are absolutely gorgeous and are much smaller than the Springside ones I've used before - I suspect that the latter are somewhat overscale. Anyway, they'll go into stock now until I build Treloggan Junction and Pentowan signal boxes.

The Springside machines are, as best as I can tell without pulling the roof off St Enodoc signal box, about 9.5 or 10mm high, while the Modelu ones are 6mm, so approximately 60% bigger - sorry Simon! The Springside ones also seem wider in proportion than the Modelu ones.

 

On 12/01/2022 at 21:17, St Enodoc said:

On the other hand, I'm down to my last 40 yards of SMP. I think that should be enough, though, even with 10 carriage sidings to lay at Pentowan.

A quick check on the draft layout plan suggests that I'll need about 36 yards of SMP track plus offcuts, so I think I'll be OK.

 

On 12/01/2022 at 22:17, St Enodoc said:

The difference in overall height is the difficulty there, Steve. SMP uses thin sleepers, so the height is about 1mm less than Peco (Code 75 FB and BH are the same height, as I understand it).

I measured some track today, which was more interesting than I expected:

 

There are two distinct styles of SMP, one with 4mm wide sleepers (which I think is the older version) and one with 3.4mm wide sleepers. The height of both types varies from about 3.1mm to 3.4mm.

 

Peco Code 75 FB also comes in two styles, one with solid, flat-based, sleepers and the other with hollow-based sleepers. The hollow type is consistently 4.0mm high while the solid type is consistently 4.1mm high.

 

Depending on the particular combination, therefore, the height difference between SMP and Peco can vary from 0.6mm to 1.0mm.

 

I've no C&L, so I couldn't check that but, for completeness, I measured a made-up copperclad point with SMP timbers and rail, which came in at 3.2mm.

On 09/01/2022 at 18:18, St Enodoc said:

Saturday's running session.

...is now cancelled as too many of the team have had to drop out, due to Covid or for other reasons, so we were only going to have four operators. That's really one too few to have a proper session, even with me doubling up as Porthmellyn Road signalman and Fat Controller, so reluctantly I've called it off.

 

So, instead of tidying up and testing this afternoon, I installed the last four point motors at Polperran and installed all the droppers for the track I laid last weekend. I'll carry on this weekend and might possibly get the track feeds and point motor wiring done. I'll have no excuse after that not to start on the Polperran point control panel.

 

[Barry O]

Sorry to hear about the running session. If we had been rich sports people we could have flown 9ver and got into Oz to help. (But the very recent news on jokervich seems that even the rich sports people can fall foul of Oz immigration..Good!)

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Sorry to hear about the running session. If we had been rich sports people we could have flown 9ver and got into Oz to help. (But the very recent news on jokervich seems that even the rich sports people can fall foul of Oz immigration..Good!)

 

Baz

I've no problem with sports people, rich or otherwise.

 

Rich d!ckheads are another matter altogether.

 

An excellent letter in today's Australian newspaper:

 

"If Australia "wrongly" deports Novak Djokovic, I hope he'll accept an apology that it was an "administrative mistake" and "merely a human error and certainly not deliberate"."

[Nick C]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The Springside machines are, as best as I can tell without pulling the roof off St Enodoc signal box, about 9.5 or 10mm high, while the Modelu ones are 6mm, so approximately 60% bigger - sorry Simon! The Springside ones also seem wider in proportion than the Modelu ones.

I measured a real one last time I was in Alresford box - 12.5" wide, 10" deep, 20.5" tall - which scales to 4.16mm x 3.3mm x 6.8mm

[St Enodoc]

33 minutes ago, Nick C said:

I measured a real one last time I was in Alresford box - 12.5" wide, 10" deep, 20.5" tall - which scales to 4.16mm x 3.3mm x 6.8mm

Thanks Nick - so the Modelu ones are spot on, as you might expect.

[St Enodoc]

I made good use of the non-running session today, first by going to Bunnings where I found that their stocks of timber had been replenished. I therefore got about 90% of what I will need for the Pentowan peninsula. No sausage sizzle though.

 

Back home, I started wiring the new track at Polperran while listening to the cricket. I've got about half the droppers connected but none of the motor or frog connections yet. No short circuits so far - let's see how tomorrow goes.

[BWsTrains]

18 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

No sausage sizzle though.

 

I was at "mine" but counted that absence a blessing! The smell of those fatty snags on the barbie makes me want to chunder

 

De gustibus....

 

PS non-Aussies may get a free translation at www.understandingstrine.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by BWsTrains
clarification

[Sharky]

4 hours ago, BWsTrains said:

 

The smell of those fatty snags on the barbie makes me want to chunder

 

 

That's just Un-Australian!

 

Mind you the smell of vinegar does the same to me so who am I to judge.

[acg5324]

7 hours ago, BWsTrains said:

 The smell of those fatty snags on the barbie makes me want to chunder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this part of the long lost missing verse from the Men at Work “Down Under” song?

[Sharky]

9 hours ago, acg5324 said:

Is this part of the long lost missing verse from the Men at Work “Down Under” song?

 

It was first penned by the legendary Bush Poet 'Banjo Paterson' and was lost to time. Passed on only through verbal tellings of the 'Tale of the Bunnings Carpark' by the local people of the Western Suburbs.

[St Enodoc]

I rounded off a busy weekend by finishing all the track connections at Polperran, including labelling the wires and adding the blue insulating tape to show that the polarity of these differs according to whether the route is set from Polperran to St Enodoc or to Pentowan. The meter revealed no shorts and a quick test showed that trains responded correctly to a throttle.

 

Next time I'll add the accessory bus cabling and the individual harnesses to each point motor, after which I can program them.

 

I've sketched out a rough design for the point control panel, which will also hold the Mini Panel and the "First Come First Served Tokenless Block" switch and LEDs that will control entry to and exit from Polperran. More on all this as construction progresses.

[St Enodoc]

On 14/01/2022 at 18:19, St Enodoc said:

I've no problem with sports people, rich or otherwise.

 

Rich d!ckheads are another matter altogether.

 

An excellent letter in today's Australian newspaper:

 

"If Australia "wrongly" deports Novak Djokovic, I hope he'll accept an apology that it was an "administrative mistake" and "merely a human error and certainly not deliberate"."

Australia 1, Rich d!ckhead 0.

[St Enodoc]

32 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Australia 1, Rich d!ckhead 0.

Australia 4, England 0...

[Sharky]

33 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Australia 4, England 0...

Would've been nice if England actually showed up to play for the Test Series... 
That being said Last night was interesting to watch with how quickly the wickets fell on both sides.

[St Enodoc]

The postman delivered a nice second-hand Hornby T9 today - R3108 708 in SR black. A quick run on the test track with a 9V battery was nice and smooth so later I'll take the body off and check the innards. If all is well I should be able to fit the chassis straight into 30710.

[St Enodoc]

30710 is now back in action.

 

A very simple chassis swap - just one retaining screw and the electrical connector to the tender - and all is well. Just a crew, coal and discs to add and that will be another job off the list.

 

The Okehampton - Pentowan set makes two return trips on each of Friday and Saturday, so I think I'll roster 30710 and 31849 turn-and-turn-about to give them both a run, leaving 41297 to work the Wadebridge goods (which only runs on Fridays).

[St Enodoc]

On 16/01/2022 at 21:26, St Enodoc said:

Australia 1, Rich d!ckhead 0.

 

On 16/01/2022 at 21:59, St Enodoc said:

Australia 4, England 0...

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/125159-for-those-that-fear-coming-to-australia/&do=findComment&comment=4716514

[St Enodoc]

While looking for something else, I found this:

 

It's the plan of the original St Enodoc layout, the branch terminus first mentioned way back on page 1 of this topic:

 

My great friend Bob Beattie, at that time Secretary (and still the Chief Track Fettler) of Brighton Model Railway Club, drew the plan that went with the article on the layout published in the December 1987 Railway Modeller.

 

The "China Clay Drying Shed" is the same one that now sits at Wheal Veronica and the signal box is also still in use. Some of the other station fittings are safely (I hope) packed away, ready to be re-used on the current Mid-Cornwall Lines in due course.

 

Good examples of the "circular economy" or, as we used to call it, "waste not, want not".

Edited June 20, 2022 by St Enodoc
Images restored

[jazzer]

On 14/01/2022 at 07:19, St Enodoc said:

I've no problem with sports people, rich or otherwise.

 

Rich d!ckheads are another matter altogether.

 

An excellent letter in today's Australian newspaper:

 

"If Australia "wrongly" deports Novak Djokovic, I hope he'll accept an apology that it was an "administrative mistake" and "merely a human error and certainly not deliberate"."

To be fair, that tennis tournament must have been a  high standard.  Djokovic only missed two shots and went out 

[Regularity]

And he’s just like the English Cricket team, going home early without winning a test…

[5BarVT]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

While looking for something else, I found this:

 

It's the plan of the original St Enodoc layout, the branch terminus first mentioned way back on page 1 of this topic:

 

My great friend Bob Beattie, at that time Secretary (and still the Chief Track Fettler) of Brighton Model Railway Club, drew the plan that went with the article on the layout published in the December 1987 Railway Modeller.

 

The "China Clay Drying Shed" is the same one that now sits at Wheal Veronica and the signal box is also still in use. Some of the other station fittings are safely (I hope) packed away, ready to be re-used on the current Mid-Cornwall Lines in due course.

 

Good examples of the "circular economy" or, as we used to call it, "waste not, want not".

Seeing that plan made me think “the other end of Camel Quay” as seen elsewhere on here. i.e. where the clay came from for the quay.

Paul.