Penhayle Bay

[nerron]

Sounds good Rick.

 

When you get them, may I suggest that you increase the width of the stripes on the arms to about 3 mm? They look faintly ridiculous with such narrow stripes. Oddments of black or white transfers work well and the appearance will be transformed.

Thanks for pointing that out John.I thought they looked a little odd but couldn't understand why.

[Gwiwer]

The latest Bachmann release has arrived, has been weathered and has entered traffic

 

47436 is seen on Darras Viaduct with a train of early Mk2 stock.  The loco has received a light weathering, apart from the roof which is much dirtier, and will replace a similar Hornby item which has an older-style motor, is less refined generally and has never been a particularly satisfactory performer.  The Hornby loco is reserved for a fellow modeller so already has a new home to go to at some future time.

 

 

 

 

In other news replacement Viessmann street lights have arrived from Germany to progress repairs to the sun-damaged road scenes around Treheligan.  The originals mostly still worked but in an effort to remove the two which didn't the wiring was damaged beyond repair and all have to be replaced.  I usually source lighting from Gaugemaster in Ford, UK, but on this occasion they were out of stock of the required and a German eBay dealer offered them from stock and cheaper as well.

 

I have a few afternoons free next week and hope to have a respectable amount of the rebuild under way or even complete by Easter.

[Andrew P]

Stunning shots there Rick, the lighting looks superb and

 

Thanks for posting them.

[Gwiwer]

Thanks Andy.  Nothing added - just pure natural daylight.  Not even sunlit today as it's been quite dull and cloudy.

[Gwiwer]

The street lights are "roughed in" to use a building term and will go exactly where the old ones were, plus one new location as I now have seven available so six will be fitted with one retained as a spare.

 

Today I relaid the track through the down platform loop which was a casualty of the platform structure removal.  I had hoped it wouldn't be beyond recall but it would have had to move anyway making the existing rails too short by about 1cm.  So out it came and in has gone the new.

 

The shaped wood for the down platform island has been fixed in place and tomorrow attention will turn to shaping the up side piece.  Ten minutes with a jig saw does most of it then as long as it takes with various sanding devices to fine-tune the shape and fit.  This one will adjoin a short surviving section of plastic platform which is the base for the main building.

 

I had hoped to sand down the wood to include the slight overhand of the pavers but this would prove extremely time-consuming.  I had also intended to scribe pavers directly into the wood.  Gauge-testing with various rolling stock has shown this is just slightly too low for comfort and would benefit from a top surface.  Being wary of plastic after recent events I have chosen to revert to the Metcalfe card I used on Treheligan Mk2 and with brick-print card for the platform faces.  

 

That is all either in stock or on its way from a warehouse in Widnes.  The card will stick directly to flat pine not the previous balsa and I hope will therefore stay in place without curling up at the edges.  It was also munched by slugs on a previous occasion so this time it will benefit from application of pastel shading to vary the colour somewhat and to perhaps make it a little less appetising (not to mention harder to make progress on) for the local gastropod community.  

 

I can run trains on all lines even though Treheligan station remains closed and bus replacements are in operation from Penhayle Bay.  I'm working through Easter (except Good Friday) so no public running session then but hopefully in the week or two following and once the whole layout looks as it should once more.

 

If the Dapol signals arrive in time and are an easy install they might even be up and working by then as well.

 

Photos will be provided if I can manage the time. - there's not too much spare at the moment.

[Gwiwer]

A few shots of work in progress.

 

The new down island platform at the eastern (London) end with a small piece of the future printed card surface placed for effect.  The newly-laid loop track contrasts with the surviving main lines and the remaining bit of plastic base together with some of the damage it has sustained are evident.

 

 

A longer view taking in the length of the station and showing that the new platforms are almost single pieces of wood.  The down island requires a small extension at the far end while the up platform will retain the plastic so long as I can fix it securely back to the baseboard.  The plan is that with single lengths and a prepared surface the card should stick evenly without creating air bubbles.  It was small air bubbles between the plastic sheet and less smooth balsa which contributed to problems over recent years.

 

 

Finally what appears to be a complete mess but is in fact the rough-wired street lighting.  Connect yellow to yellow, connect orange to orange / brown and switch on.  They work.  The road surface cracked in the heat and has had to be stripped back.  As the wiring runs through the fine ballast used for the roadway I have to rewire first before finishing the road.  This circuit includes the LED inside the pub which is also reconnected and works once again.

 

[Gwiwer]

Another day - another couple of hours work.  The lighting is going in and the road surface is slowly being reinstated.  It's a multi-stage process requiring the soldering and taping of electrical connections, gluing the taped blobs to the sub-surface, holding the wires in position with PVA and then adding the roadway (fine ballast) in two or three thin layers each in turn sprayed with dilute PVA and allowed to go off before the next goes down.  New weeds have been added alongside the road.  The new lights are seen in working order though the focus hasn't done me any favours.  

 

 

 

 

Also in the same work session the down platform loop track has been ballasted and a few other spots made good; this is all glued except the patch at the platform end where the bracket signal has to go back.  That in its turn has shown itself to be beyond re-use having been knocked and broken multiple times over the years and will be replaced by a kit already in stock.  The paint can and other heavy objects on the up platform are to hold the plastic down while the glue goes off and hopefully holds it back flat against the baseboard.  The latest Bachmann class 47, newly arrived here and lightly weathered, hauls a short rake of Mk2 carriages through the down platform loop where some buildings have been temporarily replaced to give a sense of progress to the works.

 

 

[P.C.M]

Looking good Rick,

I like your class 47 too. Are you just glueing the platform down? might be worth chucking a few screws in.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Andrew P]

Morning Rick, Yes as Peter says, its looking good, could you not leave the Traffic Light and stick a Car with it's nose half way up it? I was at Work once, and heard this screech, looked out to the Road and there was a Car almost vertical up a Lamp Post, then it started to very slowly slide back down until the Lamp Post looked a bit like your Traffic Light, it then stopped with the nose about 6ft from the ground. It was very comical to watch, and luckily no one was hurt, which made it even better.

 

Just to add to that, we called the Police, they came and sorted it out and the Breakdown Lorry towed it away.

 

About 15 minutes later, another screech and another Car came BOUNCING BACKWARDS over the low wall at the front of the Car Sales, again no one hurt, but when I called the Police they said; YES WEVE BEEN AND DELT WITH THAT INCIDENT, they couldn't believe that there were TWO in the same spot in about an Hour.

 

Love the 47 BTW.

 

All the best with all the repairs.

[Gwiwer]

Hi Peter

 

I might be able to get a few screws in but they would come up from beneath not down from the top.  One reason I'm keen to try the single piece of wood is that it has a smooth surface which would be lost to some extent with countersunk screw-holes bored through.  There will also be more fixings in place once the buildings and lights go back but for now it's pretty well glued down.

 

Hi Andrew

 

I could always create a little scenario along the lines you suggest although there is already the van skidded into the dry-stone wall in another spot.  The traffic light pole isn't untypical of those found in some spots in the UK where they have to be seated in the road but are bent either for better sighting or to give a little extra clearance in tight spots.

 

Good Friday tomorrow - plenty of time for messing about outside though I'll skip the noisy sanding of the other platform unless I know the neighbours are out.  It's their holiday too.

[brushman47544]

Good to see your progress. Doesn't look for the faint hearted. But what vehicle collided with that (bent) traffic light on the bridge? I can't believe the Highway Authority would have installed it like that!

[brianusa]

The main lines look quite realistic with all the bits and pieces lying in the track.  Very prototypical these days!

 

Brian.

[Gwiwer]

Good to see your progress. Doesn't look for the faint hearted. But what vehicle collided with that (bent) traffic light on the bridge? I can't believe the Highway Authority would have installed it like that!

 

Thanks Andrew.  With very little experience of the more typical room-sized indoor layout I'm not sure how faint-hearted or otherwise I might be.  Working outdoors was always going to have its challenges and on the whole the layout has done very much better than I ever expected.  Some parts are now in their 11th year and around 75% remains original.  The bits which need re-doing tend to be the same bits including the station which will become the Mk4 version.  

 

The main lines look quite realistic with all the bits and pieces lying in the track.  Very prototypical these days!

 

Brian.

 

 

Hi Brian.  I hear you!  Too much rubbish let lying around.  When the layout is on show I usually have a good clean-up before hand but often intentionally leave a few bits of junk lying where they might be found on the real thing.  Scrap lengths or rail for example, of which there is usually one dumped in front of the grounded van body below the road bridge.  That will all return when the station is completed but the long-serving red / grey ferry van body will be replaced by a kit-built bauxite short wheelbase body as the red / grey is too recent for many of the liveries / years I portray.  Bauxite is rather timeless in that respect.  The "new" van has been down in the loco yard for a few years and its place there will be taken with some scrap.  The ferry van body is destined for the recycling bin unless anyone wants one.

[Gwiwer]

A couple of hours this afternoon saw the roadway brought back to a much-improved state though not yet finished.  Yes, that's a bus on the bridge

 

 

Some new Peco hedgerows in the fields opposite the pub and a general refresh of the groundwork as well as the road itself.

 

 

While the road surface mix was out I also relaid the car park surface at Penhayle Bay which was starting to crumble away.  I'm not happy with some of the white lines; these need to be re-done.  The open-top bus is on its last week of operation for this season; after Easter Monday it retires for the winter (here) until November.

 

 

After ballasting the track yesterday the new platform facings were glued in today.  These are stone rather than brick.  Mk1 used stone, Mk2 and Mk3 used brick.  I happened to have far more of the Vollmer stone than the Faller brick sheets in stock so with enough to complete the job in one go I opted for stone once again.

 

 

[Andrew P]

I love the Camper Vans and Busses in the Car Park Rick, and excellent little scene.

[Gwiwer]

The road is back in and the pub forecourt and car park surfaces are reinstated though not yet white-lined.  At least the outdoor table for the thirsty can go back into position though it might gain an umbrella before too long.

 

 

In other news the up platform has been shaped, fixed and has its facing stone sheets glued on.  For the first time ever platform 1m the branch bay, which faces away from the viewer has fully-modelled stonework.  In all previous versions it has been been left as bare plastic or wood on the grounds that it cannot be seen.  It can be seen by a camera or a mirror!

 

The workbench has been busy with new Shire Scenes brass etches for the totem nameplates blackened, a delivery of Dart Castings ground disc signals likewise and numerous other bits and pieces of signalling kit have been spruced up.  The Dart Castings will have the discs painted white (with a red band and two coloured spots for the lenses) before they go on the layout to replace less durable Wills / Ratio plastic versions of the same.  New self-adhesive pre-cut totems are awaited from Trackside Signs which should be an exact fit on the etches.  The platform surface card sheets are also still awaited but once arrived should go down very quickly.  With the platform surfaces down everything such as lights, signs, buildings and people else should be able to go back equally quickly and the station can re-open for traffic.

[john flann]

Rick, looking back through these posts reminds me of recent and current activities at Port Bredy and how universal and useful as weights are paint pots. Whatever, these makeovers are worth while though often proving more difficult to implement than a new build. Your results look good.

 

You also mentioned ground signals, there I found a good source in Detail Matters via Google, I commend them. No connection just a satisfied customer. Located in Ireland and with excellent service.

[Gwiwer]

Thank you John for your thoughts and comments.  Always good to see you visiting Penhayle Bay.

 

A little more go done today.  That "bent" traffic light doesn't look quite so odd when seen from the approaching driver's point of view.   

 

 

Footpath starting to go back into place - first fit of a card-print Metcalfe product cut to shape.

 

 

And there's a welcoming light in the bar once more.

 

 

The first of the Dapol working semaphores has gone in.  All three have had their arms shortened and consequently repainted to ensure the white / black bars are in the right place; posts and ladders have also been painted to remove any "plastic effect".  It's not yet wired up though the job looks quite simple.

 

 

Clearance is quite tight but adequate.  The tracks here are on a gentle right-hand curve meaning more clearance is required to the left than the right to manage rolling stock overhang.

 

[P.C.M]

Looking really good Rick,

I do like those Dapol signals. If you need a distant let me know I have one for sell.

 

Cheers Peter.

[St Enodoc]

Thank you John for your thoughts and comments.  Always good to see you visiting Penhayle Bay.

 

A little more go done today.  That "bent" traffic light doesn't look quite so odd when seen from the approaching driver's point of view.   

 

 

Footpath starting to go back into place - first fit of a card-print Metcalfe product cut to shape.

 

 

And there's a welcoming light in the bar once more.

 

 

The first of the Dapol working semaphores has gone in.  All three have had their arms shortened and consequently repainted to ensure the white / black bars are in the right place; posts and ladders have also been painted to remove any "plastic effect".  It's not yet wired up though the job looks quite simple.

 

 

Clearance is quite tight but adequate.  The tracks here are on a gentle right-hand curve meaning more clearance is required to the left than the right to manage rolling stock overhang.

 

Signal arms look excellent Rick.

[The Stationmaster]

Signal arms look excellent Rick.

 

They do need to be shortened as they are over length which makes the proportions look ridiculous.  Technically they are also a tiny bit too deep but it's by so little that it doesn't really matter especially once the arm has had a little taken off the end (about 1mm if I remember rightly - I did post something about it a couple of years back giving the exact amount to remove).

 

The other thing which also greatly improves appearance is to remove those peculiar horizontal ribs on the post - definitely from the front of the post although the sides can be left for the ones with the ladder support strut and the landing.  Quite why they are there I can't understand as they bear no resemblance at all to anything on the real thing - they're nothing like the small attachments to hold the guides which keep the down rod(s) in line.

[Gwiwer]

I wondered about those ribs but then also wondered if I could do a satisfactory removal job without causing more harm.  The one that's up, as you can see, retains the ribs, hasn't has the depth changed on the arm but has shed about 3mm from the end of it.  

 

If I were to be picky I could suggest that the framework around the lenses is also too thick - the Ratio kits seem to show this much better - but again it can't easily be changed without doing more harm than good.

[St Enodoc]

I wondered about those ribs but then also wondered if I could do a satisfactory removal job without causing more harm.  The one that's up, as you can see, retains the ribs, hasn't has the depth changed on the arm but has shed about 3mm from the end of it.  

 

If I were to be picky I could suggest that the framework around the lenses is also too thick - the Ratio kits seem to show this much better - but again it can't easily be changed without doing more harm than good.

You could change them all for Scalelink arms...

[The Stationmaster]

I wondered about those ribs but then also wondered if I could do a satisfactory removal job without causing more harm.  The one that's up, as you can see, retains the ribs, hasn't has the depth changed on the arm but has shed about 3mm from the end of it.  

 

If I were to be picky I could suggest that the framework around the lenses is also too thick - the Ratio kits seem to show this much better - but again it can't easily be changed without doing more harm than good.

 

The spectacle casing is way over scale but I don't think a Ratio arm would be a satisfactory substitiute as it is much nearer to scale and therefore fairly fine/flimsy.

 

I've not looked at etched arms but any substitution needs to allow for the way Dapol have linked the arm to the mechanism - which isn't as per prototype and therefore might not suit a substitute arm which has things in the right place.

 

Here's a 'before' and 'a bit after' comparison.  The length of the arm has been reduced to 16mm (but as can be seen in this view the position of the white band was unaltered) and the lower ribs have been removed - the bottom one has only been cut off at the front of the signal while the middle one has been removed completely.  The top rib has been left although this is not really entirely accurate and it should be removed from the face of the signal post.

 

Edited March 31, 2016 by The Stationmaster

[brianusa]

Good to see the railway coming back to life, Mike.

 

Brian.