Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

A good roll-up at Charles' yesterday, with a couple of newer members plus a familiar friend from the Central Coast that we hadn't seen for a while, due to the C-word.

 

Charles drilled the final locking bar hole for me so I can now move on to setting up the tappets and then fitting the levers (actually, I could have moved on already but I'd decided to keep to the sequence in the construction manual).

 

On the 3862 gears saga, another kind RMwebber @Markeg pointed me to yet another possible source, New Modellers Shop.

 

If all these sources turn up trumps I'll end up with about half-a-dozen sets...

Edited April 10, 2022 by St Enodoc
speling

[St Enodoc]

On 10/04/2022 at 18:26, St Enodoc said:

On the 3862 gears saga, another kind RMwebber @Markeg pointed me to yet another possible source, New Modellers Shop.

New Modellers Shop emailed today to say that a set has been posted.

[St Enodoc]

At last a day when I wasn't busy with something else and it was dry, so I could set the Workmate up outside the workshop and get on with a job I've been thinking about for quite a while and actually planning since our March running session.

 

First, though, a bit of messing about with another bridge.

 

Between Porthmellyn Road and St Enodoc is in fact barely a train's length but, of course, they are supposed to be several miles apart, so I needed some form of break between them - not least to make sense of the signalling. On the Down line it's not too bad, with the Porthmellyn Road Down Branch Starting signal having the St Enodoc Down Distant (fixed at caution) below it and a good few feet between it and St Enodoc Down Home. I'll be doing the same for the St Enodoc Up Advanced Starting and Porthmellyn Road Up Branch Distant too but this will be quite close to the Porthmellyn Road Up Branch Home, hence the need to separate them visually while still leaving room for goods trains to shunt St Enodoc yard.

 

The obvious thing is a bridge, naturally, and the idea is that the road that crosses the main lines as they disappear off to Penzance will swing round and cross the branch to form the break. There's not much room, though, between the branch tracks and the future backscene, so I'll need to play around with the location and the skew angle before the position gets finalised.

 

Here's the current state of play, complete with another PSV for @Clive Mortimore's delight and delectation.

 

Then on to today's real job, which was to make a tea tray (or possibly a shove-ha'penny board?). This consists of a few bits of ply cut to size and glued together with some square-section pine to keep it all in shape.

 

 

What's it for? Not saying today. With luck it will be finished tomorrow, when all will be revealed if nobody's guessed first (operating team members excluded, as we did mention this over tea and cakes in March!).

Edited April 15, 2022 by St Enodoc

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

At last a day when I wasn't busy with something else and it was dry, so I could set the Workmate up outside the workshop and get on with a job I've been thinking about for quite a while and actually planning since our March running session.

 

First, though, a bit of messing about with another bridge.

 

Between Porthmellyn Road and St Enodoc is in fact barely a train's length but, of course, they are supposed to be several miles apart, so I needed some form of break between them - not least to make sense of the signalling. On the Down line it's not too bad, with the Porthmellyn Road Down Branch Starting signal having the St Enodoc Down Distant (fixed at caution) below it and a good few feet between it and St Enodoc Down Home. I'll be doing the same for the St Enodoc Up Advanced Starting and Porthmellyn Road Up Branch Distant too but this will be quite close to the Porthmellyn Road Up Branch Home, hence the need to separate them visually while still leaving room for goods trains to shunt St Enodoc yard.

 

The obvious thing is a bridge, naturally, and the idea is that the road that crosses the main lines as they disappear off to Penzance will swing round and cross the branch to form the break. There's not much room, though, between the branch tracks and the future backscene, so I'll need to play around with the location and the skew angle before the position gets finalised.

 

Here's the current state of play, complete with another PSV for @Clive Mortimore's delight and delectation.

 

Then on to today's real job, which was to make a tea tray (or possibly a shove-ha'penny board?). This consists of a few bits of ply cut to size and glued together with some square-section pine to keep it all in shape.

 

 

What's it for? Not saying today. With luck it will be finished tomorrow, when all will be revealed if nobody's guessed first (operating team members excluded, as we did mention this over tea and cakes in March!).

Yo Sainty,

 

An LS on a bridge and a tea tray, both in one post. Are you hoping to get voted layout of the year?

 

 

You have my vote.

[St Enodoc]

7 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Yo Sainty,

 

An LS on a bridge and a tea tray, both in one post. Are you hoping to get voted layout of the year?

 

 

You have my vote.

Vote early, vote often.

[Chamby]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

 

What's it for? Not saying today. 

 

Well it’s far too flat for normal Cornwall, unless it’s for an airfield, but then you’d need to have built a suitable four engined plane to park up on it....

 

Else it’s for the operating crew’s Rattler and paasty lunch?

[5BarVT]

Seems maybe a bit deep, but I'm going for a surround (or possibly support) for the Treloggan/Pentowan frame.

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Chamby said:

 

Well it’s far too flat for normal Cornwall, unless it’s for an airfield, but then you’d need to have built a suitable four engined plane to park up on it....

 

Else it’s for the operating crew’s Rattler and paasty lunch?

Not even lukewarm.

 

3 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Seems maybe a bit deep, but I'm going for a surround (or possibly support) for the Treloggan/Pentowan frame.

Paul.

On the cool side of tepid.

[Nick C]

Loco storage tray to sit over one of the fiddle yards?

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Nick C said:

Loco storage tray to sit over one of the fiddle yards?

Well done Nick.

 

Moving locos to and from the high level shelves above the loops is a bit tricky so I though I'd try a different method. If this one for Paddington works, I'll build another for Penzance.

[St Enodoc]

I finished the Paddington tea tray today.

 

It fits (thank goodness) snugly between the wall and the front fence. The front and rear support are made of 4mm ply, so with the nominal 30mm clearance from the wall and the fence to the centre lines of tracks 1 and 14 respectively there is still plenty of room for the trains underneath.

 

After I'd labelled it up I placed the spare locos on top. There's space for more, which will be needed once the Branch is operational.

 

Having got this far, I'm a bit worried about how much of the loops it hides. Something, such as a 16xx pannier, could easily get lost in there. If that turns out to be a problem at our next running session, I might slice the tray down the middle to make two narrower (300mm wide nominally) ones and spread them out a bit.

 

I then carried on with St Enodoc lever frame, completing Step 10 where the levers are fitted to the spindle. This is the stage at which it suddenly starts to look like a lever frame, not just a load of brass bits.

 

Here it is in Modratec mode with the levers at the back. There are only 27 working levers but of course the frame comes in modules of 6 levers, so I chopped the tops off levers 1, 2 and 3, just above the blind hole where the little spring and ball will go. That will let me connect them to their tappets and maintain the integrity of the frame when it's finished.

 

In layout mode the levers are at the front so the spaces become 28, 29 and 30.

 

Finally, I took the frame into the railway room for a trial fit at St Enodoc itself. So far so good, although the infamous Step 11 is next (fitting the springs and balls)...

[Barry O]

We have a similar loco tray onChapel.. it slides up and down but can be positioned so that you can see the trains in each fiddlecyard road.

 

Looks good.

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

8 minutes ago, Barry O said:

We have a similar loco tray onChapel.. it slides up and down but can be positioned so that you can see the trains in each fiddlecyard road.

 

Looks good.

 

Baz

Thanks Baz. In theory, this one can slide too but it's not really intended to. Once we've found the sweet spot it will probably stay put.

[Northroader]

Make the next tray with a Perspex bottom?

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

Make the next tray with a Perspex bottom?

Ooer missus!

 

Interesting thought but when it's covered with locos it might not make much difference.

[TrevorP1]

Your tea tray is giving me ideas John....

[The Fatadder]

What about a lid for it to keep the stored locos dust free?

[5BarVT]

11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I then carried on with St Enodoc lever frame, completing Step 10 where the levers are fitted to the spindle. This is the stage at which it suddenly starts to look like a lever frame, not just a load of brass bits.

Very nice.

11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

so I chopped the tops off levers 1, 2 and 3

I would have just gone for the tin of white paint!

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

What about a lid for it to keep the stored locos dust free?

Fortunately, the railway room is virtually dust-free (except when I start sawing wood). Over the seven years that the layout has been working, dust has hardly been a problem.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

I would have just gone for the tin of white paint!

I probably should have done that when I painted the levers in the first place, Paul, but as I had the urge yesterday to build the frame rather than paint more levers I decided that, since the "spares" are at the end of the frame, I'd leave them out altogether.

 

For the future Pentowan frame, they'll be in the middle to separate the notional Treloggan Junction and Pentowan ends of the frame. That might work better with white levers.

Edited April 17, 2022 by St Enodoc

[chesterfield]

23 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I finished the Paddington tea tray today.

 

It fits (thank goodness) snugly between the wall and the front fence. The front and rear support are made of 4mm ply, so with the nominal 30mm clearance from the wall and the fence to the centre lines of tracks 1 and 14 respectively there is still plenty of room for the trains underneath.

 

After I'd labelled it up I placed the spare locos on top. There's space for more, which will be needed once the Branch is operational.

 

Having got this far, I'm a bit worried about how much of the loops it hides. Something, such as a 16xx pannier, could easily get lost in there. If that turns out to be a problem at our next running session, I might slice the tray down the middle to make two narrower (300mm wide nominally) ones and spread them out a bit.

 

I then carried on with St Enodoc lever frame, completing Step 10 where the levers are fitted to the spindle. This is the stage at which it suddenly starts to look like a lever frame, not just a load of brass bits.

 

Here it is in Modratec mode with the levers at the back. There are only 27 working levers but of course the frame comes in modules of 6 levers, so I chopped the tops off levers 1, 2 and 3, just above the blind hole where the little spring and ball will go. That will let me connect them to their tappets and maintain the integrity of the frame when it's finished.

 

In layout mode the levers are at the front so the spaces become 28, 29 and 30.

 

Finally, I took the frame into the railway room for a trial fit at St Enodoc itself. So far so good, although the infamous Step 11 is next (fitting the springs and balls)...

Nice Mr N interesting to see how it works -

[The Fatadder]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Fortunately, the railway room is virtually dust-free (except when I start sawing wood). Over the seven years that the layout has been working, dust has hardly been a problem.

That sounds amazing, 

Alas mine is rather less successful on that front and its a constant fight between me the dust and the spiders.  One day I will replace the garage door with something more effective..........

[St Enodoc]

Just now, The Fatadder said:

That sounds amazing, 

Alas mine is rather less successful on that front and its a constant fight between me the dust and the spiders.  One day I will replace the garage door with something more effective..........

The roller door has brush seals all round to comply with bush fire regs. That makes a huge difference.

[St Enodoc]

20 minutes ago, chesterfield said:

Nice Mr N interesting to see how it works -

Indeed! Comments welcome in May.

[The Fatadder]

2 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

The roller door has brush seals all round to comply with bush fire regs. That makes a huge difference.

Interesting, now you have got me looking at the potential for fitting brush seals around the edges of my existing up and over door.....

At a first glance it does appear to be an option so should be a good upgrade for the summer.