Penhayle Bay

[Gwiwer]

The first arrival to record in 2014 and something of a Christmas present to myself is the Polybulk wagons.  Two of four have so far been delivered.

More detailed views are in my weathering thread but here's the first pair crossing Darras Viaduct after the addition of my own weathering over the top of that provided by the factory.



They look quite at home sitting in the yard alongside the china clay wagons and some cement tankers all of which also carry my own weathering and mostly also over the top of factory dirt sprays.  

[Gwiwer]

Thanks Gents.

The remaining pair of Polybulk wagons has arrived from Kernow MRC and has had additional weathering added to the factory coating.  In a similar style to the first pair one is lightly weathered and the other more heavily but in this case also including spatter (of what?  Perhaps clay, cement or even paint) in the detailing.

The four wagons shown together; the two newest are those on the right



A comparison of the two new arrivals showing different styles and degrees of weathering



Spatter!  



And finally a clip of the wagons forming part of a train.  Click on the still image to start the video.

[pwr]

I always thought these were impressive wagons

 

Paul R

[Ralph]

the new wagons look great, nice 'silver bullets' too.

[Gwiwer]

As it's become warm at night here's some views suitable for such long summer evenings. With a little moonlight thrown in for good measure.

 

Moonlight reflecting from the sea and from the roof of something running above the beach



"Something" proves to be a late evening down HST which must be calling at Penhayle Bay as the driver already has his cab light on!



Running in.  The new beach festoons with fewer, shorter stanchions look much better I reckon and the low wall which conceals the wiring and prevents beach-goers falling over the edge is clearly shown; the sloping pathway behind the beach didn't have anything to prevent this sort of accident until recently

 

[7APT7]

Hi Mate

 

Those photos are cracking mate, the light effect that you have and the beach scene with the HST light makes a great atmosphere...

 

Did you create the photo and light effects digitally or a setting an the camera, or just close the curtains and hope for the best...

 

Well which ever it was, do some more as it look excellent mate.

 

Jamie

[Etched Pixels]

Ooh those sunbathers must be cold... excellent stuff

[stewartingram]

Bet they are skinny dipping at that time of night?

 

Stewart

[Gwiwer]

Hi Mate

 

Those photos are cracking mate, the light effect that you have and the beach scene with the HST light makes a great atmosphere...

 

Did you create the photo and light effects digitally or a setting an the camera, or just close the curtains and hope for the best...

 

Well which ever it was, do some more as it look excellent mate.

 

Jamie

 

None of the above!

 

The layout is outdoors.  This really is moonlight shining through the polycarb roof over the layout.  The camera was set to "Auto" and placed on the tripod to allow for an exposure time of 1 second.  

 

Bet they are skinny dipping at that time of night?

 

Stewart

 

Probably.  But if I showed the skinny-dippers would I be in breach of good taste and decency

[Gwiwer]

 

I have Saturday 1st February pencilled in for an open-house with the layout running and the in-build boards for the Beer & Branscombe project on display with static rolling stock, loosely-positioned buildings and basic scenery.

 

 

Confirmation of the above.  I shall have "Open House" on SATURDAY 1st FEBRUARY for anyone who wishes to drop in between the hours of 2pm and 9pm.   That's a long session but gives flexibility for folk to suit themselves; I don't expect anyone other than myself would be here for all of that time though you're welcome to stay around if you wish.   

 

It works like this: I'm single-handed as these dates are always chosen to be when Sharon is away so as not to frustrate her research and writing program meaning I cannot do all of meet, greet, run trains and run the kitchen.   Tea, coffee and nibbles will be available and I might have a friend able to help with catering but nothing's guaranteed until the day.  Anything else you want you're welcome to bring along and there's a BBQ available if you want to make use of it.  The back gate will be open with signage up for you to walk through to the layout but the house doors (other than from the backyard into the kitchen) will be locked and not answered.

 

With a very busy summer ahead of us this will be the only open-house at Penhayle Bay this season.

[Sasquatch]

Excellent stuff! Those beach pics look great and always enjoy the videos.

Shame that's it's so far as I'd love to come by and see Penhayle Bay in action, I'm pretty handy with a barbecue too!

[Gwiwer]

I surprised myself with an impulse purchase recently.  I wasn't going to "do" any more BR blue unless it had a strong and specific Cornish connection.  But Hattons has picked up the ModelZone commission for the Bachmann class 47 as 1662 "Isambard Kingdom Brunel".  I understand these were in production when MZ went down so it was too late to stop them.  They no doubt went to a suitable bidder who is now selling them on at a bargain price.  Shawplan etched nameplates are included and I like the little touch of having the headcode characters slightly misaligned.

 

IKB duly arrived, was test-run, piped up and weathered to join the fleet and has released the final Lima "duff" (47474) which hadn't been in use anyway for several years.  1662 joins the stud of WR named "Brush" here which while more closely associated with the London area certainly reached the far south-west at times.  A couple of spots of oxide undercoat on the nameplate might not go amiss in future.

 

 

 

[7APT7]

Hi mate

 

Its Nice model

 

Who is the limited edition by... I do the same as you... No, I'm not going to buy another loco, I have enough ltd as it is..... OK, make it the last. lol

 

Jamie

[Gwiwer]

Bachy 47s run the best of the lot for my money.  My fleet includes around a dozen of which those remaining are Bachmann and Heljan with one Hornby kept only because it's a half-decent large-logo version.  I've had but withdrawn several Lima and one ViTrains specimens as well.

 

The VAT-free price to non-EU buyers made this very attractive.  The original MZ-listed price was more than enough to convince me it was a loco I didn't really need.  But here she is and she'll work alongside green "Thor" and "North Star" from the WR namers.

 

Another little curiosity is that the batch produced is of 512 which is exactly the same number that BR produced!  I'm not sure the full-sized one came with a little slip of paper saying she was No. 80/512 though

[Ralph]

IKB looking fine, a classic Western region machine, looks great running on Penhayle.

[Gwiwer]

Western Region or Scottish Region???

 

 

I have a pair of class 17 Claytons for no other reason than that I like them.  They are my regular test locos and among other things are very handy for identifying low power spots thanks to their quite distinctive motor noise which drops noticeably if a loose joiner or dirty point blade is encountered.

 

Having them stabled on shed along with what might be class 21 and 27 (though aren't) and class 25 reminded me of a few trips north of the border in the early 1970s .....  

 

No, I'm not about to invest in a Railroad class 06!

 

The shafts of sunlight are natural.

[Gwiwer]

Confirmation of the above.  I shall have "Open House" on SATURDAY 1st FEBRUARY for anyone who wishes to drop in between the hours of 2pm and 9pm.   

 

Weather forecast is published for those coming along.

 

34C and sunny with light winds.  It gets warm around the layout; a 34-degree day can feel like 5 more under the roof.  There's air-con in the house and plenty of open air around the place.  

 

I've found a few spots of heat-related damage to the scenery; some can be fixed, others not as repainting parts of the back scene would be involved which in turn would look new against the remainder but them's the breaks for an outdoor layout in this part of the world. 

[brushman47544]

Hi Gwiwer,

 

That IKB looks great. I too have one on its way from Hatton's. When fixing the supplied etched nameplates, did you need to remove the transfer or did the etched ones cover it completely? Will save me trial or more likely error when it arrives.

 

Thanks.

[Gwiwer]

In this case the etches are a perfect cover for the decal.  That isn't true of every similar fitting job as many of us will know.

[SRman]

A big thank you to Rick for his hospitality today at Penhayle Bay.

 

I took a few photos on my phone - probably not up to Rick's standards but they aren't too bad and show some slightly different perspectives on features he has shown before.

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Beckett]

Rick,

a most enjoyable afternoon and a very impressive layout.

Thanks from me

 

Peter

[winterbournecm]

Hope the open day is going well mate. We'll raise a glass to you later in Snozzle braving fierce winds and lashing rain. 

[Gwiwer]

Cheers Craig.  

 

I'll raise a glass back at you and cross my fingers that the weather doesn't do its worst.  I'm watching the fate of the Watering Hole on Perranporth beach as much as anything - they reckon it's going on the next high tide but if it does there's nothing left to keep the sea out of the town centre.

 

Around 30 visitors here on a very warm afternoon during which just about everything which could go wrong didn't!  Trains ran perfectly give or take the occasional slipped coupling and wheels off.  Despite the air temperature nudging 40C under the roof and with a packed house making it feel warmer still the layout controller never faltered in seven hours of continuous operation.  Only the small lighting transformer cut out due to overheating but it does that anyway.  A few minutes later and it was good to go again.

 

Uploading pics / vids now so should be posted within an hour or so.

[winterbournecm]

Excellent a good day then. Clare would share Sharon concerns about lots of visitors - she looks after us very well on our neddy nights. IKB looks great too, that would fit in well with the 70s scenes well. Must stop getting Railfreight liveries - but they look so great on 56 / 37 / 47 dont they? 

[Gwiwer]

A very long, hot and thoroughly satisfying day is about to end here.

 

Penhayle Bay was set up to be fully operational, yards included, and with all but the most minor snags and faults rectified.  That has taken a week's worth of spare time.

 

The new Beer & Branscombe layout boards were brought indoors and erected in the lounge room across the arms of two chairs.  It's far from ideal but presented the project as it currently is.  Representative trains and the resin buildings collected for the layout were suitably placed.

 

The bare board plus track and trains for the Joyntsal Creek diorama were placed in their intended position meaning all of my current projects were available for inspection.

 

Around 30 people came along for the open house one or two of whom I had never previously met.  They had heard of it as friends of friends.  Despite becoming very hot in the layout area the atmosphere was extremely convivial and with the added bonus of "more trains indoors" and with air-conditioning and refreshments also offered the place was positively alive with chatter from lunchtime until well into the evening.

 

I chose to present a mixed selection of trains mostly from the late 1960s - mid 1970s with the changeover from BR maroon / green to blue featured.  One or two more modern items appeared and visiting locos were also offered time on the layout.

 

The branch passenger train was made up of a mixed rake of green and blue DMU vehicles.  A departmental train was parked in the loco run-round formed of 4-wheel CCT-type vans and the green Dapol track cleaner.  In the foreground is a part of the mixed parcels train on the main line which include blue and maroon vans of BR, Gresley, Stanier, Thompson and Hawksworth designs.

 

 

Maroon "Warship" - blue/grey stock.  A sight seen regularly in the late sixties and very early seventies.

 

 

The blue-grey TPO rake was in use.  Someone wanted greener sea - is this OK now?  

 

 

Paired up green class 22s worked a lengthy mixed freight of mostly 4-wheel vans.

 

 

A happy band enjoying a day by the seaside!  RMweb was represented by at least SRman, P.C.M., DougN, Peter Beckett and Jim76 (apologies to anyone overlooked).   In the platform a short passenger rake is led by a visiting Railfreight livery class 31.

 

 

At the panel P.C.M (owner of the Llanbourne layout) gets to grips with the track plan hoping to direct a train out of the yard.  Strong sunlight in evidence including reflection off the rails.

 

 

Another visitor (though you can't tell from this angle) was a ScotRail liveried class 47 seen here pulling away with an up train past a waiting Western on the down loop.

 

 

Australian interloper!  A Walker railcar ran a few trips on the St. Agnes branch in place of the usual BR DMU

 

 

Meanwhile express passenger locos are posed on Darras Viaduct for comparison.  On the left is a V/Line N-class loco of the type used on many longer regional runs in Victoria to and from Melbourne.  On the right is one of Kernow MRC's commissioned-version weathered class 52 Westerns.  Both come with a superb level of detail as standard.

 

 

Video clips are uploading and will be added shortly.

 

In conclusion I would like to thank all those who shared the day and contributed to its success, and for all of the many generous and very positive comments made on all the projects on show.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Gwiwer