Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

Still no RB02 as it was inadvertently left in the shop instead of being brought to the show, so I've ordered one instead. Rather annoying, but another couple of weeks isn't too signficant in the overall scheme of things.

[wigancg]

Hello St Enodoc,

 

Just caught up with this superb blog. Looks like you have a very interesting plan here which should shape up very nicely!

Good luck with it and I shall watch with interest

 

Chris

[St Enodoc]

A more leisurely pace this weekend. I started by screwing Fixit blocks to all the “loose” joists around the layout, which will make life easier when they are fixed permanently in place, but left them loose for the time being until all the point, signal and uncoupler locations are finalised. I will be able to screw the loose joists to the L-girders and to the baseboard tops. No photos of this because unless you peer under the layout they look exactly the same as they did before.

 

Next, I fitted another EB1 circuit breaker that I bought at Liverpool last Monday. The eventual power scheme will have four power districts: Down (including the Paddington loops); Up (including the Penzance loops); Branch (including Porthmellyn Road Branch, Loop and goods yard and the whole branch as far as Treloggan Junction); and Terminus (including Pentowan, Treloggan Junction and Polperran). At the moment I anticipate that the SB5 will have enough power to feed the whole layout, but a booster could be added later if it proves necessary.

 

Until the Down and Up power buses are installed, the temporary control position is between the lifting flap and Porthmellyn Road but the permanent location will be between Porthmellyn Road and Penzance. This is roughly at the mid-point of the Down and Up buses, and is also a convenient place from which to run the Branch and Terminus buses. Each of the four buses will of course have its own EB1.

 

 

Apart from fitting a few choc blocks around the layout so that the Down and Up buses can be broken down into convenient lengths – both so that I don’t have to wrestle with yards and yards of wire at a time and also so that the buses can be broken down easily if the layout ever needs to be dismantled – today’s main task was to tidy up the feeders to the lifting flap. I put in some choc blocks so that the droppers are protected from the movement of the flap, then wound some spiral wrap on the wires between the hinged end and the flap itself. After I took these photos I clipped the flap end of the wires to the hinge mounts and also marked which bus is which next to each of the choc blocks.

 

Naturally all this needed testing afterwards so to finish off the afternoon’s work I ran the Limited and the Milk round a few times – and then a few more times. The Limited now has a Castle on the front – 4099 Kilgerran Castle is an old Airfix model with Crownline detail and a full repaint. It hasn’t run much since I bought it, as the loft layout had been dismantled by then, but even with the old tender drive (with an NCE chip) it ran more smoothly than I expected. And yes, the driving wheels did go round at the right speed.

Edited July 22, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Stubby47]

Seems I owe you a pint.....

[St Enodoc]

Seems I owe you a pint.....

Ah, I wasn't going to mention that. Yes, I think the Wallabies held their nerve more than the Welsh, just enough to keep their noses in front. Mind you, it didn't look as if things would turn out that way when both Genia and Mumm were in the bin...

 

Had the match been in Cardiff I think it would have been a different story.

[johnpaddy22]

Just caught up with your blog, fantastic progress, puts me to shame! Following avidly... :-S

[St Enodoc]

Not much action lately, with the BRMA Convention in Brisbane and the Singapore Cricket Club Rugby 7s taking up the last two weekends. However, in the meantime the RB02 has arrived and I hope to set it up before some friends from Auckland visit this coming weekend so that we can give it a thorough "test" both on the main lines and the existing St Enodoc layout.

 

Also in this week's post was a large box from Marcway containing a vast number of copperclad strips, so now I have all I need to get point building under way once the main line wiring is finished.

[St Enodoc]

Just received an email from Kernow saying that O2 30225 is on its way. After renumbering as 30200, it will work the Padstow - Pentowan and return ordinary passenger service.

 

edited to add renumbering detail

Edited November 4, 2015 by St Enodoc

[bgman]

What all of the above have said !

I don't know how I've managed to miss this build but you've certainly given me food for thought here ( especially the hinged flap ) excellent work so far and GW to boot !

[St Enodoc]

With the RB02 set up on the main lines, hongkongmike of this parish and I had a good session on Saturday watching the trains go by from a variety of different places round the layout - very enjoyable.

 

However, I couldn't get it to work with the PowerCab on the old St Enodoc layout. I will have to read again the page on the NCE website that describes this.

[St Enodoc]

Well, I had another go with the RB02 and PowerCab on the old St Enodoc layout and still no joy. I set them up as per the picture on the "Step 2 - option B Wireless operation" page on the NCE website, both with the curly cable as shown in the picture and with the flat cable that came with the RB02.

 

In both cases, when the ProCab-R was switched on it "froze" at the radio version screen, and no key strokes would register thereafter (not even to shut the throttle down - I had to wait for it to time out). The PowerCab itself worked as normal all the time.

 

Everything is still fine when the RB02 is connected to the SB5 on the new main lines.

 

Equipment versions are:

 

Power Cab v1.65

Pro-Cab-R radio v1.5B

RB02 v2.1, radio v1.5B

 

Any ideas anyone?

[St Enodoc]

Well, I had another go with the RB02 and PowerCab on the old St Enodoc layout and still no joy. I set them up as per the picture on the "Step 2 - option B Wireless operation" page on the NCE website, both with the curly cable as shown in the picture and with the flat cable that came with the RB02.

 

In both cases, when the ProCab-R was switched on it "froze" at the radio version screen, and no key strokes would register thereafter (not even to shut the throttle down - I had to wait for it to time out). The PowerCab itself worked as normal all the time.

 

Everything is still fine when the RB02 is connected to the SB5 on the new main lines.

 

Equipment versions are:

 

Power Cab v1.65

Pro-Cab-R radio v1.5B

RB02 v2.1, radio v1.5B

 

Any ideas anyone?

RudderC of this parish has reminded me that the ProCab-R address needs to be 3, 4 or 5. I will double check this later.

[St Enodoc]

RudderC of this parish has reminded me that the ProCab-R address needs to be 3, 4 or 5. I will double check this later.

Success! It was a simple as changing the ProCab-R address. RodneyV, I will try to remember to change them back when I return them to you.

[Barry O]

Never ask a mechanical engineer to fiddle with electronic systems..... :-)

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Never ask a mechanical engineer to fiddle with electronic systems..... :-)

Baz

As long as the smoke stays in everything is usually OK.

[Barry O]

Just hold back on bashing it with a OO hammer!

[St Enodoc]

Today was the first long session in the railway room for over a month, with other spare time activities taking precedence over the last few weekends.

 

I started by tidying up the wiring round the lifting flap, shortening the bus wires that bridge the flap and clipping them to the baseboard legs. When I had done that, I stuck labels on all the existing wires before connecting up any more. I like to have a label on each end of every wire. I don’t number every wire individually, as the colour coding and circuit identification is enough.

 

Next I extended the wiring under the viaduct and connected feeders and droppers to the track at the Up end of the viaduct. This photo shows the bus wires leading off into the distance. The Down bus will be fixed to the L-girders against the walls and the Up bus to the other L-girders.

 

The insulated track joint inside the tunnel mouth marks the break between the two halves of the Up and Down buses. I have fitted RC snubbers on each side of the break, using 100 ohm 5W wire-wound resistors and 0.1 microfarad 50V ceramic capacitors.

 

I removed the temporary feeds near the lifting flap and fitted feeders and droppers to the tracks between the flap and Porthmellyn Road. I also fitted insulating fishplates to the Up and Down Mains so that when the lifting flap is raised all tracks between Porthmellyn Road and Trenance Tunnel will be isolated. Each individual piece of track on both lines now has its own feeder and dropper. This does mean that the main lines cannot be operated at the moment, but that will give me the incentive to get the bus wires, feeders and droppers installed as far as the Down end of Porthmellyn Road which is where the permanent feed points will be.

 

Finally, I had hoped to include a photo of my new Kernow O2 but it hasn’t arrived yet, so that will have to wait for another time.

Edited July 22, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

Just hold back on bashing it with a OO hammer!

I wouldn't dream of treating one of Mike's locos like that.

[St Enodoc]

30200 (disguised as 30225) arrived today and as I write is sitting on the rollers being run in while I listen to the last hour's play from the WACA. Apart from a little wobble on the leading drivers it is running very smoothly and quietly.

 

Based on what I've read on RMWeb recently, I checked the back-to-backs which are fine at a fraction over 14.5 mm - my track will accommodate B2Bs from about 14.0 to 14.7 mm - and then weighed the loco. The overall weight is 5.4 oz with 2.8 oz on the driving wheels. More than 50 years ago, in the Model Railway News, Jack Newton described his formula for calculating how much his 00 locos should weigh. The formula gave a ratio of 1 oz per 3 tons of adhesive weight on the prototype. Personally I am happy with a ratio of up to 5 tons/oz, which has given good performance on the layouts I have owned and operated over the years.

 

So how does the O2 match up? Well, as far as I have been able to ascertain the prototype had an adhesive weight of 32 t 16 cwt which means that the model as delivered has a ratio of 11.2 t/oz – too light for my liking. Once the decoder is fitted I will see how much weight I can fit round it in the smokebox and also see if there is any scope for anything else around the front end. However, I can't see any way to get anywhere close to 5 t/oz let alone 3. As 30200 will be limited to two coaches on level track in normal operation I don't think that will matter too much, but I can see why some people are finding that gradients and sharp curves are a challenge for this model.

 

In case anyone is interested, of the locos and other powered stock in my fleet (excluding those with tender drive and/or traction tyres) the lowest ratio is achieved by the Heljan AC Cars railbus, with a ratio of 0.4 t/oz (5.5 t/15 oz). Before today, the highest ratio was for the Hornby 2-8-0T at 8.9 t/oz, followed by the Hornby Grange at 6.9.

 

After running-in, the loco will go back in its box until I find time to renumber it, fit the decoder, fit DG couplings and add as much of the detailing supplied with the model as I can without fouling the couplings.

[Barry O]

Target date for having the layout finished is Jan 2018...hint!

 

Interesting figures for weight per loco. I have seen a 4mm Duchess which we the in at 625grammes. May be why it can pull the side off a house!

 

Not sure what the hammer weighs in at. Mike seems to be rebuilding it...

[St Enodoc]

Target date for having the layout finished is Jan 2018...hint!

 

Interesting figures for weight per loco. I have seen a 4mm Duchess which we the in at 625grammes. May be why it can pull the side off a house!

 

Not sure what the hammer weighs in at. Mike seems to be rebuilding it...

As CJF once wrote, a layout may be complete but never finished (think of Cwmafon...). Nevertheless I'd like to think that most if not all the track will be laid and working in two years' time. Anyway, I'll take the hint and have made a provisional booking for the spare room. If you come early enough in January we will spend a day at the Sydney Test.

[Barry O]

that plan sounds good to me!

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Good progress today. I managed to install the Up and Down bus wires right along the length of Porthmellyn Road as far as the location of the permanent power feed. I also connected the associated feeders and droppers.

 

This photo shows how the feeders and droppers are connected to the bus. The insulation on the bus is stripped back using the stripping tool, leaving a length of 5 mm or so exposed. The bare end of the feeder is twisted round the exposed bus wire and soldered. The other end of the feeder hooks round the loop on the dropper and again is soldered – and yes, I know I’ve forgotten to label the dropper ends of the Up feeders shown here.

 

In the photo you can also see a fixed joist on the left, plus two loose joists in the middle and on the right.

 

This photo shows the power feed set-up in its final location, although still only as a temporary arrangement. In the permanent configuration the SB5 will sit on a shelf with a backing board for the two EB1s so that they, plus the two additional ones for the Branch and Terminus, will be visible clearly from the Porthmellyn Road and St Enodoc signal boxes. The connection from the SB5 to the EB1s is definitely temporary as the bus wires are too big for the SB5 connector. Once everything is installed permanently I will find a way to deal with this – probably by having a very short length of thinner wire between the bus wires and the plug.

 

The lead disappearing off the top of the photo goes to the RB02, which is just sitting on the baseboard at the moment. In line with received wisdom, this will be moved to a small shelf on the wall so that it is at about head height to reduce the risk of the signal being blocked.

 

Once I had got the feeders and droppers connected it was possible to run trains again. The lifting flap and approach tracks are now all fed through the microswitches so that trains can’t approach from either end if the flap isn’t closed, but operation on the rest of the layout can continue.

 

A couple more weeks of work should see the bus wires completed round the whole layout with the feeders and droppers to the rest of the Up and Down Through tracks installed as well. Then on to point building – it would be nice to have at least a few loops laid and working before the BRMA Sydney Area group visit at the beginning of February…

Edited July 22, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[nerron]

Good progress John, looking forward to seeing it in the flesh in February.

[St Enodoc]

Good progress John, looking forward to seeing it in the flesh in February.

Thanks Ron, you (and everyone else) will be most welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing your layout too at some time, as I had to miss the August visit due to a National Committee meeting.