Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

11 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Apart from 'The Fourth of July', which I believe is some sort of celebration day in the US of A.

 

Personally, I feel there is a much better reason to celebrate that date...

You are George M Cohan and I claim my five pounds.

[Stubby47]

5 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

You are George M Cohan and I claim my five pounds.

Close, but he was born on the 3rd of July, despite what he claims in his song.

[Regularity]

Presumably he wasn’t a “real live nephew of his Uncle Sam”, either?

 

Put a feather in my cap and name it after some pasta.

[Barry O]

10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Bother (other expletives are available)! If I'd thought about that I'd have delayed my post by an hour and 21 minutes...

 

No chance of dancing in the moonlight round here last night, unless you were wearing SCUBA gear.

 

Anyway, my university degree was a 2-1, not a Desmond (RIP).

No I got the Desmond degree.. so it all fitted in well yesterday!  

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Close, but he was born on the 3rd of July, despite what he claims in his song.

Wikipedia (which, as we know, is always right...) says that his baptismal certificate showed 3 July but his family always claimed 4 July - well, they would, wouldn't they? Anyway, I'm not going to let any inconvenient truths get in the way of a good story.

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

No I got the Desmond degree.. so it all fitted in well yesterday!  

 

Baz

Very good. If I'd been a bit more awake yesterday I'd have said that my degree was a Train out of Section.

Edited February 23, 2022 by St Enodoc

[St Enodoc]

The first weekend in March sees the return of the North Shore Railway Modellers' Association Exhibition, after our enforced cancellation last year:

 

http://www.nsrma.com.au/2022/01/

 

As usual, the British Railway Modellers of Australia http://www.brma.org.au/ will have a stand and as usual I will be demonstrating how to build copperclad points.

 

If you are at the show, please drop by and say hello.

[Barry O]

Have a good time!

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Today I modified the temporary screen at Polperran to simulate the actual hole in the backscene.

 

 

It's quite wide due to the very shallow angle at which the track passes through it, so it will take a little disguising. I'll worry about that later.

 

I then finished a simple but time-consuming job that doesn't affect anything except visual appearance. I'm not going to say what it is (other than to say that it has nothing to do with unbuilt Airfix aircraft kits), as I want to wait and see whether any of the operating team spots it in three weeks' time.

 

Finally, I've done an inventory of the points needed for Pentowan, so that I know which templates to take to next weekend's show. Very pleasingly, I'll be able to use the last remaining points that are already built - one being the prototype double slip, which isn't the best-looking beast but as it will sit in a non-passenger line it will do nicely. The other three are the last B6 fiddle yard points left over from the St Enodoc oval layout fiddle yards. They haven't got equalised timbering but with the missing timbers added I think they'll be all right. I certainly don't feel the urge to build replacements just because of that.

 

That leaves just 16 points left to be built for the whole layout - four B8 RH curved points for the approach and a dozen A5s of both hands for Treloggan Junction, the crossovers and the carriage sidings. I won't get them all made at Forestville but it would be nice to complete at least some of the curved ones. Watch this space.

Edited April 30, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Keith Addenbrooke]

As others also comment regularly, it all looks so neat..!

 

That large hole in the backscene may need some consideration - seems wise not to make a snap decision.  I guess part of the problem will be concealing reversing movements that pass in front of (behind) the hole for Sidings 1 to 5.  The second photo implies the gap may also be visible from the end of the other operating aisle too, depending on scenery?  

 

Apologies if this jumps the gun, but it set me thinking, but two immediate ideas were these:

 

1.  Screen the hole with a hedge of trees?

2.  In front of the hole and at an angle, have a tunnel mouth or wide bridge?

 

In other words, I don’t think I’d even try and scenic a hole like that on the flat for a rural setting (which probably means the next post will be a prototype photo of just such an arrangement…).  Hope that’s OK, Keith.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
(Photos replaced with text - copies of images had not been kept)

[Mulgabill]

1 hour ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

As others also comment regularly, it all looks so neat..!

 

That large hole in the backscene may need some consideration - seems wise not to make a snap decision.  I guess part of the problem will be concealing reversing movements that pass in front of (behind) the hole for Sidings 1 to 5.  The second photo implies the gap may also be visible from the end of the other operating aisle too, depending on scenery?  

 

Apologies if this jumps the gun, but it set me thinking, but two immediate ideas were these:

 

 

 

In other words, I don’t think I’d even try and scenic a hole like that on the flat for a rural setting (which probably means the next post will be a prototype photo of just such an arrangement…).  Hope that’s OK, Keith.

 

My lateral thinking on this, came up with a suggestion that you might try aligning your full backscene roughly

along the lines of the last pic. But with rounded "corners", whilst retaining the 90deg mouth (Minimising the required opening). This could be hidden more easily, and subtly by trees.

 

Would be interesting to see a mock up, and would lose the need for an unprototypical tunnel, perhaps.

 

All the best

TONY

 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

As others also comment regularly, it all looks so neat..!

 

That large hole in the backscene may need some consideration - seems wise not to make a snap decision.  I guess part of the problem will be concealing reversing movements that pass in front of (behind) the hole for Sidings 1 to 5.  The second photo implies the gap may also be visible from the end of the other operating aisle too, depending on scenery?  

 

Apologies if this jumps the gun, but it set me thinking, but two immediate ideas were these:

 

 

 

In other words, I don’t think I’d even try and scenic a hole like that on the flat for a rural setting (which probably means the next post will be a prototype photo of just such an arrangement…).  Hope that’s OK, Keith.

 

4 minutes ago, Mulgabill said:

 

My lateral thinking on this, came up with a suggestion that you might try aligning your full backscene roughly

along the lines of the last pic. But with rounded "corners", whilst retaining the 90deg mouth (Minimising the required opening). This could be hidden more easily, and subtly by trees.

 

Would be interesting to see a mock up, and would lose the need for an unprototypical tunnel, perhaps.

 

All the best

TONY

 

 

Thanks, Keith and Tony.

 

There will certainly be a bridge (as at the real Tolcarn Junction), not a tunnel, and possibly some trees as well although this part of Cornwall isn't wooded heavily. I don't want a curved backscene though.

 

The final answer will be a skew bridge, the angle of which I'll work out later - and yes, Keith, part of that experimentation will be to minimise the view through the hole from the Porthmellyn Road/St Enodoc direction.

[The Stationmaster]

On 13/02/2022 at 09:39, Harlequin said:

 

OK, no problem. I'll add some tracking like PENZANCE above and send you a PDF at the right size. (I'm not convinced the cream outline is correct for the prototype, I think it might be something the reproduction people have done, but I'll use cream outlines so you have consistency.)

 

Late to the party as ever/. But if you like Phil I'll raid my garage and dig out my totem (a very rare one so I won't name it here) and measure various parts of it such as the width of the cream edging.

 

The earlier, much smaller, rectangular nameboards - which seem to have been used in various places (and not on lamp posts) under station canopies - definitely did not have a cream edging and also used a different typeface.   These seem to have vanished from most places by the early -mid 1960s

[Harlequin]

5 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Late to the party as ever/. But if you like Phil I'll raid my garage and dig out my totem (a very rare one so I won't name it here) and measure various parts of it such as the width of the cream edging.

 

The earlier, much smaller, rectangular nameboards - which seem to have been used in various places (and not on lamp posts) under station canopies - definitely did not have a cream edging and also used a different typeface.   These seem to have vanished from most places by the early -mid 1960s

That would be great, thanks!

 

I used lots of photos as reference and then judged things by eye until it looked right but having actual measurements would be wonderful.

 

It would also be great to measure the colours with a colorimeter but that's a separate issue.

 

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

That would be great, thanks!

 

I used lots of photos as reference and then judged things by eye until it looked right but having actual measurements would be wonderful.

 

It would also be great to measure the colours with a colorimeter but that's a separate issue.

 

Can't do much about the colours - certainly in a reliable way as what looks right on my camera probably won't be right when it gets to you.   Plus it is not only weathered from well over a decade in use but that wasn't helped when I had to recover it from the station building demolition site.    

 

Fortunately I did get there in time to save, intact,  a genuine TVR relic as well which is one of the backlit station names painted on the reverse side of transparent glass (and them backed with white translucent glass)  which were placed in a fixed quarterlights above the top of the main window in things like waiting rooms;   but that is very strictly a Taff Vale thing so no use elsewhere.

[The Stationmaster]

Right duly measured and be prepared to be as surprised as I was  .  Whether or not it is unique, which i can't say without checking other real ones of course there is a narrow black line round the face of the totem outside the cream line and I'm certain that it is original enamelling. What follows are the direct measurements taken off the totem Iown.

 

The outer black line is 4mm wide, then comes the cream line which measures 9mm wide at the top but only 8.5mm along the bottom so I suspect there was some sort of regular small variation in the width of the cream line.  The height of the lettering (using E and L as examples was) was 76mm, the letter E is 42mm wide overall, note that all three horizontal lines of the E are the same length.  however the base of the letter L is only 40.5mm long.  the width of the upstroke of the L is 7.5mm. 

 

So clearly there were minor differences between letters if this totem is a representative example but there does seem to have been a little bit of 'wriggle room' with teh sizing of letters  - were they sign written by hand before enamel was baked I wonder?

 

By the way if anybody wants the correct measured size for GWR concrete platform edge slabs I can easily get those in our station car park

[BWsTrains]

17 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Today I modified the temporary screen at Polperran to simulate the actual hole in the backscene.

 

 

It's quite wide due to the very shallow angle at which the track passes through it, so it will take a little disguising. I'll worry about that later.

 

I then finished a simple but time-consuming job that doesn't affect anything except visual appearance. I'm not going to say what it is (other than to say that it has nothing to do with unbuilt Airfix aircraft kits), as I want to wait and see whether any of the operating team spots it in three weeks' time.

 

Finally, I've done an inventory of the points needed for Pentowan, so that I know which templates to take to next weekend's show. Very pleasingly, I'll be able to use the last remaining points that are already built - one being the prototype double slip, which isn't the best-looking beast but as it will sit in a non-passenger line it will do nicely. The other three are the last B6 fiddle yard points left over from the St Enodoc oval layout fiddle yards. They haven't got equalised timbering but with the missing timbers added I think they'll be all right. I certainly don't feel the urge to build replacements just because of that.

 

That leaves just 16 points left to be built for the whole layout - four B8 RH curved points for the approach and a dozen A5s of both hands for Treloggan Junction, the crossovers and the carriage sidings. I won't get them all made at Forestville but it would be nice to complete at least some of the curved ones. Watch this space.

 

In the upper pic do I spot the tip of a catch trap point? Presumably a cosmetic proxy with just a single blade?

 

Could you comment on how you add these into existing trackwork, as I've a couple to add to my setting based on the latest revision.

 

Regards,

 

Colin

Edited February 26, 2022 by BWsTrains
correction

[St Enodoc]

On 27/02/2022 at 10:15, BWsTrains said:

 

In the upper pic do I spot the tip of a catch trap point? Presumably a cosmetic proxy with just a single blade?

 

Could you comment on how you add these into existing trackwork, as I've a couple to add to my setting based on the latest revision.

 

Regards,

 

Colin

Yes, that's right Colin. The St Enodoc - Polperran leg is goods-only so is trapped at both ends.

 

I lay the SMP track first then, before ballasting, cut away half-a-dozen sleepers and replace them with copperclad timbers, set out as shown in the excellent David L Smith GWR Trackwork book. Then I add the dummy blade, on the outside of the running rail, when I solder the rails back in place.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

A few more odds and ends today, most of which aren't worth mentioning and only one of which was worth a photo.

 

After "adjusting" the markings for a small number of pin locations (they're not critical but getting them to within about 0.5mm is a good idea) I marked the centre lines of the bars as well, ready for popping.

 

I've also marked where the ends of the short bars need to be cut but this will wait until after drilling.The final cutting job will be where some of the short locking bars need to be divided into two or three parts, marked with a rough X for the moment. Again, I'll do this after drilling.

 

Now, you might recall that about a year ago we had the long saga of St Enodoc signal box and the camping coach siding. Today I found a suitable offcut of ply for the siding track base. The signal box will go on the Down side near the toes of 7A and 10A points with the windows facing the operating aisle, making room for a nice flat area where the holidaymakers can relax and watch the trains go by. This will be the last piece of track to be laid at St Enodoc, so once the lever frame is ready I'll be able to install it, plant the signals and connect everything up. Don't hold your breath, though.

Edited April 30, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[16Brunel]

On 23/02/2022 at 21:14, Neal Ball said:

Typical that the Americans can’t even get that right, I’ve never understood why they have it arse about face 

 

Throughout the centuries the British used to swing between dd/mm/yyyy and mm/dd/yyyy - fortunately they finally settled on the more logical dd/mm/yyyy, while the Americans kept the mm/dd/yyyy in use at the time they split away.  If you really want a logical format, use the Asian yyyy/mm/dd (hh:mm:ss etc) - it will always sort correctly in numerical order (ie in computer filenames - oh how I've had to argue that point over the years).

[The Fatadder]

On 26/02/2022 at 23:15, BWsTrains said:

 

In the upper pic do I spot the tip of a catch trap point? Presumably a cosmetic proxy with just a single blade?

 

Could you comment on how you add these into existing trackwork, as I've a couple to add to my setting based on the latest revision.

 

Regards,

 

Colin

I have used a similar approach, but with plastic sleepers and Exactoscale chairs instead of copperclad.  I soldered the extra rail in place, before gluing the chairs on.  This has worked for me both in plain track, and for two points that needed trap points added between the Vee and the switch rails.

 

 

[Regularity]

On 23/02/2022 at 10:47, Regularity said:

The most sensible date format is year-month-date, as it can also be sorted alphabetically. 2023/02/20

 

On 28/02/2022 at 08:01, 16Brunel said:

If you really want a logical format, use the Asian yyyy/mm/dd (hh:mm:ss etc) - it will always sort correctly in numerical order (ie in computer filenames - oh how I've had to argue that point over the years).

A point made six days before, too…

[St Enodoc]

A busy week back in the office, following the easing of mask restrictions last weekend, which, together with a big industry conference/exhibitions/dinner, didn't leave much time for other important things in life.

 

However, I've added all the "missing" timbers to the three former off-stage points so that they're ready to use at Pentowan. You can see them here - they're the shiny ones.

 

Today I've been gathering all the bits I need to make some more points at the Forestville exhibition tomorrow and on Sunday. I won't get all 16 done (obviously) but if I manage four or five that will be good.

Edited April 30, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

Forestville day 1 - I built one-and-a-half points, talked too much and spent too much. Just like old times...

[Tallpaul69]

Glad you are enjoying your first exhibition in ages.

 

Sad though is the loss of Warnie!

Why do such good guys die young?

Yes, I hated him when he was regularly demolishing the England team, but you had to admire his skill, and since retiring he has been brilliant as part of the commentary teams.

 

On an entirely different sporting subject, it is great to see Ukraine being successful at the winter Paralympics, while Russia is thrown out!

 

So getting back to modelling, those points do look good.