Helston Revisited

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Graham T said:

Mind you, at least I don't have a Deltic

Yet.

[37Oban]

12 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

I find my locos are multiplying in n umber. I must try and work out how they are doing this.

 Evolution in progress!  They've taken over from wire coat hanger left in wardrobes!

 

Roja

[KeithMacdonald]

On 16/09/2022 at 21:26, Graham T said:

It's a problem isn't it?  Mine seem to do the same.  Mind you, at least I don't have a Deltic 😉

 

If a Deltic can get as far west as Camborne, pulling the Mazey Day Cornishman, maybe it can get to Helston and Chuffnell Regis as well?

 

 

[Andy Keane]

1 hour ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

If a Deltic can get as far west as Camborne, pulling the Mazey Day Cornishman, maybe it can get to Helston and Chuffnell Regis as well?

 

 

I guess if the Helston branch had actually been preserved who knows what might have arrived. I see that SVR have one in their sidings at present.

[Andy Keane]

I have now gotten the roof on the station. It probably needs a touch of filler to bed down the ridge tiles and maybe a bit more weathering but overall I am quite pleased. next I have to cover the foam block to make the platform.

[Mikkel]

Very nice. I like the roof, just the right kind of wear.

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Mikkel
Typo

[Andy Keane]

To add to the congestion at Helston my eldest sent me a large prairie complete with sound for my birthday. Its very new and shiny so I will need courage to weather it. But I will also go in and add crew and stay-alive I think.

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Having been down in West Cornwall over the past few days (mainly for the KMRC 20th Anniversary but also to get in some rail travel)  I passed through Gwinear Road on trains a total of six times.  Five of these were in daylight and the location is very recognisable thanks to the level crossing but there is no trace at all in that area of there having been a railway leaving the main line there - just fields over the formation of the Helston branch.   With so little to mark what has gone it was a salutary reminder of your efforts to recreate the other end of the branch and show some history - great stuff Andy, and coming along nicely. 

[KeithMacdonald]

8 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Gwinear Road .. but there is no trace at all in that area of there having been a railway leaving the main line there

 

As it was, with the Helston branch being the straight bit running east-west.

 

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.3&lat=50.19727&lon=-5.34551&layers=168&b=1&marker=50.186430,-5.418167

[Andy Keane]

11 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Having been down in West Cornwall over the past few days (mainly for the KMRC 20th Anniversary but also to get in some rail travel)  I passed through Gwinear Road on trains a total of six times.  Five of these were in daylight and the location is very recognisable thanks to the level crossing but there is no trace at all in that area of there having been a railway leaving the main line there - just fields over the formation of the Helston branch.   With so little to mark what has gone it was a salutary reminder of your efforts to recreate the other end of the branch and show some history - great stuff Andy, and coming along nicely. 

Mike, thanks for the kind words - its a slow business but I am trying to get as close as I can to what was there. Part of the fun is doing background research to track things down. I recently got a copy of "Great Western Steam in Cornwall" and it has a lovely photo of the station I had not seen before which gives a view of several of the minor buildings which I am now plotting how to build. But then to balance this madness I am also collecting locos, most of which would never have gone there - I recently got hold of a battered 39xx Prairie tank kit built model (the ones converted from Dean Goods locos) which I am restoring. Its an ugly thing but fun all the same.

Andy

Edited September 20, 2022 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

11 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

As it was, with the Helston branch being the straight bit running east-west.

 

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.3&lat=50.19727&lon=-5.34551&layers=168&b=1&marker=50.186430,-5.418167

I agree it is amazing how little of Gwinear road now exists. It was clearly once a bustling hive of activity. But being so far from any habitation its only purpose was the branch of course.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

I agree it is amazing how little of Gwinear road now exists. It was clearly once a bustling hive of activity. But being so far from any habitation its only purpose was the branch of course.

As with so many GWR stations, the clue is in the name!

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

As with so many GWR stations, the clue is in the name!

Yep.  So they've either gone completely as at Gwinear Road or been re-christened 'Parkway' as at Bodmin Parkway.  However Didcot Parkway is a bit of a confusing one and got its suffix when they built a huge multi-storey station car park😜

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Yep.  So they've either gone completely as at Gwinear Road or been re-christened 'Parkway' as at Bodmin Parkway.  However Didcot Parkway is a bit of a confusing one and got its suffix when they built a huge multi-storey station car park😜

Just supposing...

 

...that Helston had been Porthleven Road.

[Andy Keane]

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Yep.  So they've either gone completely as at Gwinear Road or been re-christened 'Parkway' as at Bodmin Parkway.  However Didcot Parkway is a bit of a confusing one and got its suffix when they built a huge multi-storey station car park😜

So far I have yet to see a model layout blighted by a large concrete multi-storey car park but probably someone out there loves them.

[The Stationmaster]

21 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

So far I have yet to see a model layout blighted by a large concrete multi-storey car park but probably someone out there loves them.

There are a few layouts about with large modern buildings so no doubt the day isn't too far away.   Personally I prefer Helston and that sort of place but on Saturday I noticed that the Falmouth branch is now well and truly blighted by some adjacent large modern buildings

[Neal Ball]

Great to see the progress @Andy Keane that station building looks great.

 

Although I bet the Deltic is a squeeze through your new over bridge!

 

Great progress.

[Andy Keane]

1 hour ago, Neal Ball said:

Great to see the progress @Andy Keane that station building looks great.

 

Although I bet the Deltic is a squeeze through your new over bridge!

 

Great progress.

In truth I have not had the courage to try the Deltic as I am pretty sure I know what will happen. In hindsight I should have made the rear face of the bridge wider with a tapered “tunnel” as it as the curve tightens on the rear I have issues. But we all know what hindsight is.

[Neal Ball]

7 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

In truth I have not had the courage to try the Deltic as I am pretty sure I know what will happen. In hindsight I should have made the rear face of the bridge wider with a tapered “tunnel” as it as the curve tightens on the rear I have issues. But we all know what hindsight is.

It will be easier to “ease” the tunnel aperture at this stage then, rather than when all the scenic work is complete.

[Andy Keane]

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

It will be easier to “ease” the tunnel aperture at this stage then, rather than when all the scenic work is complete.

I finally plucked up the courage and hooray - the Deltic squeezes through - just! It turns out the coaches of my B-set are in fact slightly tighter but with a bit of easing they too get through.

But heaven help any passenger who has his head out of a carriage window.

[Tankerman]

16 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

There are a few layouts about with large modern buildings so no doubt the day isn't too far away.   Personally I prefer Helston and that sort of place but on Saturday I noticed that the Falmouth branch is now well and truly blighted by some adjacent large modern buildings

 

Penryn is the same, the buildings are accommodation for students at the Exeter University campus at Tremough just outside Penryn. 

[Andy Keane]

I now have the platform paving in place. Next to the painting and final bedding in of the station building. I have kept the whole platform section free of the baseboards for now so I can get all around it to do that. Otherwise it would be really tricky.

[Andy Keane]

The latest locos. 3912 still needs numbers adding but otherwise is getting there with a Dean Goods sound chip - an ugly thing but I am growing quite fond of her. In the background a Bachmann large prairie 5109 with uprated sound chip and full stay-alive which makes her run very sweetly.

At this rate I will soon have more locos than wagons.

A very clean large prairie

The stay alive super caps just fit:

[Andy Keane]

More work on the cutting. I had been planning to use CraftFoam for the hills and got some samples. But I find it rather dense and not that easy to sand or file so have instead decided to go with XtraTherm boards (https://www.insulationuk.co.uk/products/xtratherm-pir-insulation?_pos=1&_sid=8ca8eed56&_ss=r ). This is much cheaper than Craft Foam, more readily available, lighter and easier to work. The minimum thickness you can buy is 15mm so for really thin layers I will still use Craft Foam though. One step forwards I have made was to realise that after cutting the XtraTherm its very easy to peel of the silver foil which then makes gluing and sanding simpler. On the left the foil is left in place and on the right only on the very bottom. I am also very happy with FoamPutty (https://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Item/Filler-Foam-Putty™-473ml/ITM8143). Its incredible stuff - its so light that when you pick the tub up it feels like its empty but the putty works really well and sits on the XtraTherm nicely and sands and shapes well with it. I then plan to use FoamCoat over the top (https://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Item/Foamcoat-500ml/ITM3435).

 

[Andy Keane]

I am now nearing the end of the basic foam structure for the cutting. I just need to add some of the thin yellow foam to the tops of some of the blue blocks so I can contour them (I don't want completely flat fields). As I noted before it turns out the yellow XtraTherm is much easier to do this to than the blue Craftfoam. The embankments are pretty steep but the photos of the real thing seem to support this. The little cut-out on the RHS before the bridge is for a platelayers hut where one wall seems to have been set directly into the embankment. It must have been a dank hole.

Andy

(nb the last picture below also shows that Macaws did get down the branch so my two Ratio kits are quite legit)