Penhayle Bay

[class"66"]

Another follower here now!!

 

cheers neil..  

[Gwiwer]

The new Crompton didn't stay shiny for long!

 

A few detail changes have seen the fitted pipework trimmed back and couplers fitted at both ends as this loco will be required to work trains in both directions without leaving the scene for turning.  The Heljan vinyl stick-on headcodes have been removed and replaced with paper ones salvaged from the bits bag of an earlier class 33.  And it's had a modest weathering.

 

Images shown below compare the new D6530 with D6563 from an earlier tooling and illustrate some significant differences in the roof, side grille and buffer step plates among other areas.  The correct roof curvature makes the new one look a little better but on the whole I prefer the detail and styling of the older model especially the side grilles.

 

The headcodes fitted are in the sequence relevant to my future layout.  BR Southern Region used 61, 62 and 63 for Waterloo - Salisbury - Exeter trains (fast, semi-fast and stopping respectively) and 64 was Weymouth - Yeovil - Bristol when worked by SR stock (though was usually WR stock showing the appropriate 4-character headcode) so I am assuming 65 refers to the Lyme Regis branch, 66 was actually Reading - Salisbury - Yeovil Junction but for my purposes is extended to include Seaton Junction - Beer, 67 is for the Sidmouth branch and 68 for an Exeter - Beer train via Seaton Junction.  Double whites are correct for the inner end of locos coupled to trains (and for the leading end when shunting); double reds are incorrect and were only used as end-of-train markers so seldom seen on a locomotive unless it was stabled and also protected with a red tail lamp.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2014 by Gwiwer

[brushman47544]

Thanks for the Class 33 comparisons. You've helped confirm that I won't replace my current versions with the new ones unless they go phut. The last photo of the two versions of grill is the killer - the new looks worse to me than the incorrect cab and roof profile of the older version.

[Gwiwer]

What better to couple behind the Crompton than a pair of recently-arrived Hornby SR-design bogie vans?





And coupled behind said loco at the head of a train .....




 

I-spy a finger mark which now it's up on the big screen I can see and remove from the little van

 

[P.C.M]

Hi Rick,

Your new Crompton does look good, I like those SR vans too very nice.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Gwiwer]

Cheers Peter.

 

Memories for you there, eh?  Though maybe not in green

[Gwiwer]

Currently there are three class 33 locos out on the layout and two more "on shed" indoors as in addition to the green pair D6579 in blue was also a recent arrival and has been keeping me entertained. This is one of the older style of Heljan locos obtained at a very good price no doubt because the new ones were imminent!  Also in my collection are blue locos 6572 and "bagpiper" 33 111 with high-level jumpers for push-pull work and the only one in my collection with a TOPS number.

Today saw D6579 leading a freight around the layout and catching a little sun-glint in the process.



Then bursting out of Nansglaw Tunnel



Where the backpackers on the cliff path were more preoccupied with the view than with the train behind them

[P.C.M]

Cheers Peter.

 

Memories for you there, eh?  Though maybe not in green

Hi Rick,

Used to see class 33s everyday though never saw them when they were green.

33111 is my favourite Pusher so look forwards to seeing that on Penhayle  Bay. I have a 33/1 on the workbench at the moment that will become 33111. 

I will be back in the UK in May so hope to get some haulage again on 111 down at Swanage.

 

Cheers Peter.

[muddys-blues]

Hi Rick, this thread keeps looking better every time I visit, any chance of you posting some videos......especially those with the trains just passing by ? Go on pretty please ? 

[Gwiwer]

Hi Rick, this thread keeps looking better every time I visit, any chance of you posting some videos......especially those with the trains just passing by ? Go on pretty please ? 

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

There are video clips scattered throughout the topic but rather than you trawling through or me posting a series of links you can find most of the recent ones hosted here http://gwiwer.smugmug.com/ModelRailway-1/Model-railway-videos/n-S4bmc/

 

I add more from time to time.  The constraints are that my camera doesn't allow good quality video capture and the upload and processing also take a considerable time because of the file sizes.  But watch this space.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Gwiwer

[Gwiwer]

Hi Rick,

Used to see class 33s everyday though never saw them when they were green.

33111 is my favourite Pusher so look forwards to seeing that on Penhayle  Bay. I have a 33/1 on the workbench at the moment that will become 33111. 

I will be back in the UK in May so hope to get some haulage again on 111 down at Swanage.

 

Cheers Peter.

 

Memory failure!  33111which I had thought was in the drawer is actually 33112.  

 

Nevertheless I staged a shed line-up of all five Cromptons now in the fleet here.  Only 33112 carries a TOPS number (and a name which I intend to remove in due course).  So either D6530 in SYP green or 33112 is the odd man out.  All the rest could have co-existed as seen.

 

Headcodes shown, with Southern Region Western Section / South Western Division meanings, are double white blank on D6579 (known to many SR enginemen as "square") for the inner end of a loco on a train or the leading end for a shunting movement, 62 on 33112 (Waterloo - Exeter semi-fast also unofficially used for Exeter - Barnstaple workings), G2 on 6572 (Brighton - Exeter - Plymouth pre 1972 after which 11 was used) and 66 on D6563 which is Reading - Salisbury - Yeovil Junction (more commonly seen on a 33/1 and 4TC though for my purposes it also means Salisbury - Seaton Junction - Beer).   D6530 inside the shed also has its double white blanks towards the camera.

 

 

 

The inner ends of these locos show B6 on D6579 (an SR internal freight, parcels or van train headcode the precise meaning of which varied over the years according to traffic patterns; inter-regional freights were assigned two-letter headcodes.  Pre-1972 it could also have applied to an inter-regional passenger train), 68 on D6530 (fictitious and assumed to mean Exeter - Seaton Junction - Beer for my purposes), double red blanks as the end-of-train marker on 33112 as it will sometimes be at the rear of a train pushing it, double red blanks incorrectly on 6572 which should really have double whites fitted and double whites on D6563.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Gwiwer

[bobster]

Great Rick - Top modelling - Very nice group of Crompton's there.

 

Cheers, Bob.

[P.C.M]

Nice line up Rick,

why remove the Nameplates on 112, I remember seeing it like that back in the day, it looked pretty good.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Gwiwer]

Moving back into "proper" Western Region territory ......

 

A pair of Warships leads a down freight below Wheal Julia and above the sleepy shed at Ponsangwyn

 

 

With the freight clear of the section it was closely followed by the down TPO (with a BG coupled behind the loco) which crossed an up train of assorted vans behind a Peak at Chillabucks Junction

 

 

The freight must have caused some delays as block-and-block behind the TPO came the down sleeper which the up vans passed during its station stop at Penhayle Bay; as per local instructions all long down trains requiring to stop here must pull through the tunnel and stop at the section signal unless the starter is "on".

 

 

The sleeper also comes past Wheal Julia, down through the woods and above the small shed where a pair of 22s are being prepped for duty

 

 

Some of the sleeping car passengers have already raised the blinds, fully or partially, to watch the views roll by.  One seems to be up and dressed.

 

 

Both main lines are busy as the sleeper arrives at Treheligan where an up passenger working has followed the vans train through from Penzance and the postman has just loaded up from the earlier TPO arrival and heads off to start deliveries.

 

 

The "country" end of Treheligan station shows that the freight has been looped here for the following trains to pass.  The St. Agnes branch DMU arrives to connect into the waiting up train and out of the down.

 

 

As the down sleeper departs past Wheal Garden (where there always seems to be someone waving at the trains!) ...

 

 

..... the up Paddington train behind 1662 "IKB" accelerates past Carregylp Dries where just a single wagon is being loaded.

 

 

With that flurry of activity over the signalmen, station staff and photographer can all relax for a while!

[Earl Bathurst]

Lovely pictures of the layout. What do you use as grass for your field?

 

scott

[Andrew P]

Hi Rick, thanks for some wonderful pics and all the useful headcode information. :locomotive: :locomotive:

 

Cheers.

Andy

[Gwiwer]

Lovely pictures of the layout. What do you use as grass for your field?

 

scott

 

Thanks Scott

 

The grass is created in a number of different ways.  Some of it is Woodland Scenics and Hornby (Skaledale) fine scatter.  Some is Woodland "foliage" which comes in sheets which can be cut and stretched / shaped as required.  More again is "field grass" though stuck in clumps with tweezers rather than using an electro-static device.  Low hedges and clumps of bush are either Woodland "Fine Leaf Foliage" (dried real plant material as opposed to the synthetic "foliage" sheets) or the medium and coarser scatters.

 

Typically I have used a mix of products across all areas so that nothing looks evenly coloured or textured except where that look is specifically required.  So the steep hill slope above the lane which the bus is negotiating is mostly fine "burnt grass" with a little medium of the same and a little of a fine but slightly darker Hornby product mixed roughly together.  There are also patches of bare rock which is nothing more than painted plaster cloth on the slope or small castings using Woodland moulds and Casting Plaster for the cutting side at the bottom of the lane.  

 

The rough but flatter land between the railway and the mine house is again a similar mix of scatter products but brightened here with a Heki product which gives a random scattering of a really vivid light green.  There is also a pathway across that piece of land made of fine Woodland brown and grey ballast plus some fine light brown scatter all mixed together.

[Earl Bathurst]

Thank you. Ill have ago hopefully mine will turn out as good

scott

[Ralph]

get set of new photo's, love the stories to go with them, kep up the great work.

[bigwordsmith]

Rick what an outstanding layout- Just read the thread for the first time

 

Two questions: 1) Doesn't it ever rain down there, if so how you do you protect everything.

2) how do get your track work to look so good - not even a fishplate in evidence 

 

Peter

[Gwiwer]

Hi Peter and welcome aboard!

 

To answer your questions - firstly yes it does rain here and when it does it can sometimes dump several inches in a few hours.  It also hails which is just as much of a concern as the stones can be from pea-sized up to cricket-ball sized though usually are at the smaller end of that scale.  The layout is outside the house and protected by the house wall and a six-foot fence which form the two long sides.  One end is partially covered with corrugated plastic though has a gauze mesh at the top to allow air to circulate through the layout area.  On hot summer days the air temperature can reach 43C but in the layout area itself (as some visitors will know) it can be nearer 50C.  Over the top is a corrugated plastic roof which keeps 99% of the rain off.  That's as good as it gets outdoors.  The other end has to be open to allow access but has a folding trellis and bird netting across it when not in use to minimise visits by the "wrong sort of creature".  Birds still find their way in at times and leave their tell-tale calling cards here and there.  Possums and cats are occasional visitors but find it hard to get past the netting.  Spiders, flies and mosquitoes are constantly in attendance though seldom an operational nuisance.

 

The track is laid and allowed to weather naturally.  There is no painting of the rails here except rust on a couple of very short dead-end routes leading from trap points into the dirt.  Ballast is allowed to completely dry and is then over-brushed with a wash of dilute acrylics (black and brown about 1 : 10 paint to water) to take the new-ness off it.  When that in turn is dry I brush on weathering powder according to location; brown and black for heavily-stained areas and just a little light brown let down with mid-grey for higher-speed running lines.  In order to prevent it being sucked into loco mechanisms it is blended with a 1" house-painting brush then over-sprayed with the wet water which has the effect of wetting the pigment momentarily, allowing it for that moment to wick into the ballast and over the sleepers and has largely ensured nothing remains loose and powdery on the surface.  Branch lines have green powder used for moss and lichen on the sleepers and between the rails while white casting plaster is used in preference to weathering powder for the china-clay areas because it doesn't fade away.

 

I can't explain why there seem to be no fishplates.  They are there.  Every yard length of plain track has them at each end and every point and crossing likewise.  Without fish-plated joints my track would buckle every time it got warm.  It has to cope with a temperature range of between 5C and 55C.  Even Peco admit that's beyond what it's rated for.  I leave decent gaps when track laying in cooler weather but smaller ones if it's hot.  Perhaps the joiners too have blended in through a mix of natural and artificial weathering.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Gwiwer

[bigwordsmith]

Thanks for that Rick - very useful tips which I'll try out on The Waverley Route when I get going.

[Sasquatch]

Nice Crompton line up there Rick. We quite often saw one at Brighton, they made a lovely rumble in the train shed when departing.

Do you have to make preparations for winter or are your winters mild enough that no action is needed?

 

Talking of hail, it hailed here one day about 5 years ago the size of golf balls. One was so big it dented the roof of my truck! Oh and our latest critter problem is a raccoon who enters the house by way of the cat flap and helps himself to a bowl of cat chow. Just happy he's not making off with the models!

Regards Shaun.  

Edited April 19, 2014 by Sasquatch

[Gwiwer]

Nice Crompton line up there Rick. We quite often saw one at Brighton, they made a lovely rumble in the train shed when departing.

Do you have to make preparations for winter or are your winters mild enough that no action is needed?

 

 

Thanks Shaun.  I too remember Cromptons at Brighton; they certainly made their presence felt under the train shed with that snarl as they moved off and even the tick over left no room for guessing what was in.  As a younger lad it was a treat to ride into Brighton after school on the "Exeter" (which had come from Plymouth until 1968) and was due in at 18.25.  Mostly that was a single 33 with eight on but on summer Saturdays it was two up with 11 on which made a splendid sound throbbing away at the buffer stops on platform 2.  

 

Until the route closed it was possible to arrive at 18.25 behind a 33, rush over to the eastern side and depart at IIRC 18.30 behind another of the class on a Victoria via Oxted working, first stop Lewes.

 

Winters here are cool with typical temperatures around 12 - 17C dropping to the range 5 - 10C overnight.  It seldom gets colder though with damp air the running isn't always as smooth as I'd like at times.  As  I don't leave rolling stock outside for extended periods and the weather isn't so kind with cold, dark and sometimes damp evenings the layout gets less use through the winter and I leave the fiddle yards untouched not needing to store multiple trains there.  It can rain heavily here and we get hail as well.  Our spring is usually the "wet" season though stormy weather from the Southern Ocean can bring heavy downpours at any time.  Hail can do a lot of damage - Christmas Day 2011 for example saw two large storm cells dump sufficient large hail (up to golf-ball size) that around 30,000 cars were written off around the city and major damage done to many homes. 

 

This is from March 2010 and shows another of our storms 

 

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/storm-brings-chaos-to-melbourne-20100306-ppm4.html

 

The railway is as well protected as it reasonably can be.  The plastic roof keeps 99% of normal rainfall off though a few spots always get through and some gets blown in at the open end.  In heavy or persistent rain there are a few spots where it will find its way in despite waterproofing and a couple of areas of the woodwork have become wet.  So far they have also dried out (eventually) without harming the layout.  When we are away for an extended period the vulnerable areas are draped with thin plastic drop-sheets which keeps the worst of any leaf and dust off and should direct any water harmlessly to the ground.  The layout has been there almost 10 years and is still holding up so I'm doing something right!

[Gwiwer]

The Easter weekend has, in recent years, marked the end of my summer running season. After the holiday Monday I scale back the operation, leave no more outside than is necessary and generally cease to maintain the fiddle yard altogether.

On Saturday I enjoyed an extended running session all on my own and with almost everything running smoothly. I need to investigate rough riding over a couple of points and non-operation of one motor but those are all in the fiddle yard and not urgent.

I set up to run a summer Saturday timetable in the late 1980s.

First movement of the day was a down freight which, as it can delay faster train behind, was run off into the down loop at Carreglyp.



Sure enough the mail train was close on its heels and as this is one which must not be delayed the looping of the freight was a piece of good regulation.



With the mails clear the down sleeper was through soon afterwards.



And with only a short pause yet another down train came through formed of a pair of class 150/2 Sprinter units. This is from Plymouth and will form the St. Agnes branch train for the day boosted from its normal 2-car formation to cope with the expected holiday crowds.



The first up train of the day was formed of a class 158 DMU this being a stopping service to Cardiff which passed the down sprinters in the woods while Ponsangwyn yard rested quietly for the weekend.



The sprinters took the branch and passed the freight which had advanced from the goods loop to the platform loop - all of half a mile!



As the early HST ran in for London the sprinters arrived back off the branch to make the advertised connection.



The bay platform holds 5 coaches quite happily so even this strengthened train wasn't a problem and still has plenty of track ahead before the stop block; the HST stopped right on the mark with the guard's compartment just on the back of the platform.



The London train powers through Penhayle Bay without stopping; down in the car park the annual Easter bus rally is getting under way.



This year (2014) marks the 60th anniversary of the first Routemaster bus entering service in London. It also marks the 75th anniversary of the earlier RT type entering service. There were Routemasters lined up in the car park and a couple of RTs as well as a few other London and provincial types.



Historic buses from the Portsmouth, Southdown and Gosport & Fareham fleets were on parade. All types represented in the display, London and regional, have a personal connection.  I have travelled on them all, most display routes I used to use at one time or another and a few I have actually driven.



Another up stopper worked by a 158 this time bound for Bristol



There's always one! Whether it was the buses or the sea views this photographer was definitely in a place he should not have been!



On summer Saturdays anything could be pressed into service - and often was! A class 101 DMU arrives on a down stopping train and is passed by another London-bound HST.



The DMU is revealed to be another 4-car working with the 101 triple-set boosted by the GW150 liveried single car on the rear. This is a stopping Plymouth - Penzance working for local passengers.



Then the holiday rush really got going with loco-hauled trains and any rolling stock available working extra services for the hordes. An Oxley (Wolverhampton)-based Inter City "executive" set of refurbished Mk 1 stock comes through on a Manchester - Penzance working.



Then a Paddington - Penzance train appeared with the green class 50 in the lead and a rake of mostly air-conditioned Mk2 stock and stopped to set down passengers. As per local instructions long trains must pull through the tunnel and stop at the section signal here.



Mostly allows for the fact that the scratch rake probably cobbled together hastily overnight included a Mk1 buffet car and two non air-conditioned brake coaches from early Mk2 builds



"Classic" buses gave rides around the local area while the regular service was worked by a Leyland National with its distinctive saloon heating pod on the roof.



By this time there were some unusual workings heading back up-country as well including a Network SouthEast rake behind a suitably-liveried class 50 hired by InterCity for the weekend. This would have worked down overnight from Paddington and returned in time for a Sunday rest before resuming its normal Oxford line commuter duties.



Finally it was time for a well-earned break and some refreshment. 



The entire process was repeated later with those trains which came down returning to places farther east and a procession, later on, of down HST sets from London and much farther afield bound for Penzance. 

Click on the image to start these videos

 

First the overnight freight is looped:

 

 

Just in time as the TPO is hot on its heels and must not be delayed.  An up Cardiff train formed of a single class 158 unit pulls away as the mails arrive

 

 

Then an up HST and St. Agnes branch train make an early morning connection at Treheligan also featuring the down sleeper.

 

 

Then another NSE set was spotted behind a GW150 green class 47 as yet more IC-livery Mk1 coaches come through Treheligan. 



And finally after a very long day the passenger service thinned out sufficiently to permit freight a pathway once more 



HAPPY EASTER!!!