Poldeen - N Gauge in a box!

[Robert Shrives]

Hi ,

Well spotted, along with some Rusty Epletts` Cornish railways liveried  locos - Black, large yellow ends and lizard BR logo - D600 and D6300 "strategic reserve"- found in a shed in Cornwall and 37207 the layout played host to a large logo 68 - which was very popular! 

The fun one was the class 49.  Rusty was able to follow the Foster Yeoman lead on buying in US locos but with a reduced budget and so when IR were offering 071 class locos, as the 201 was expected to achieve more, he was able to obtain one for trails, well he might have done anyway before the board found out .... 

It is a Shapeways 071 3D print on a US chassis. Sadly the lines are too much to bear so it is only used on night freights but was waiting a path back on Poldeen and was dumped in the kickback siding.  The US chassis from an Atlas RSD5  is silky smooth and the micro trains coupler does just about work with the Dapol easyshunt.  

 

I guess a baby 58 if you squint/ look the other way.

Robert  

[Chris M]

This is a surprising good layout to operate. I say that after running it got a short while at the Warley open day. It photographs very well.

i was so impressed I found myself drawing up a plan for something similar.

[Robert Shrives]

Just to put here as part of a record of the layout.  Modern two car dmus with headlamps and second vehicle bogies with pickups bought an interesting operational headache. A set stopped just short of the bufferstops meant the second vehicle wiring connected the always live pointwork to the bufferstop section so it was always running! A joy of DC...  

 

However with a bit of thought and thanks to David`s clear wiring work it was possible to move just two wires and cut one fishplate to cure. It is now possible to have a two car unit in the platform and have a freight arrive in the loop or have a railcar/ light engine come in on top of the twin.

 

I have ordered from Rails of Shefield a pair of the Peco vary gauge loco lifts to see if I can make an easy lift out unit  to make fiddle yard more flexible.    If it works and a third one for quick hand free turning of locos with one end detailed bufferbeams  then hopefully even more enjoyable to operate.

Robert  

[David41283]

Hi Robert, 

 

2 car DMUs with all wheel pick-ups were certainly not something I even thought of when building the layout! The longest passenger train the station ever saw with me was a 153! I made sure that the isolating section was long enough to contain a 153. Sounds like you've come up with a good solution.

 

Great idea about the new loco lift - I did intend to build a traverser, but couldn't think of a way of achieving this successfully in such a small space. The loco lift could be an ideal solution if successful.

 

Cheers

 

David