Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

As all good project managers know, no plan survives contact with reality and, as I'm not a good project manager, this one didn't - but only by a little bit.

 

When I set it all out on the boards, I found that a larger radius on the Platform 1 approach gave me a little more space to play with, so I moved the tangent point at the Down end closer to the stop blocks and increased the radius to about 2150mm. This now gives me at least 48mm track centres at the slip, which is good. As I haven't got a template for this radius, I used the yellow pins to mark the approximate offsets.

 

I also changed the radii and tangent point of the compound curve for Platform 3, to make the Platform 2 and 3 track centres slightly more consistent, but when I got back indoors it occurred to me that this might not leave room for the starting signals, so I may well go back to last night's alignment here. I'll check tomorrow.

 

Nearly there - once I'm really, really happy I'll cut and fit (loosely) the rest of the joists for all four boards, so that the trackbase is supported properly before I start gluing foam and cork.

 

 

[Barry O]

Message from our PW Engineer Mr Alan Smith  "stop drawing.. use your eyes to get it sorted..."

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Message from our PW Engineer Mr Alan Smith  "stop drawing.. use your eyes to get it sorted..."

 

Baz

That's easy for someone who owns, and knows how to use, a complete set of original North Eastern Railway railway curves to say.

 

Nevertheless, please thank the esteemed Mr Smith for his sage advice (as always) and ask him if he would mind awfully explaining to the assembled company what versines are and what to do with them...

Edited December 29, 2022 by St Enodoc

[Michael Edge]

Have you ever tried using Templot? It's a bit quirky but it does all this for you and produces a full size printout - it's also completely free now.

[St Enodoc]

11 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Have you ever tried using Templot? It's a bit quirky but it does all this for you and produces a full size printout - it's also completely free now.

Mike, I've looked at it but never used it - although on one occasion a friend generated a Templot drawing of a particular formation for me.

 

Computers + quirky = no thanks, as far as I'm concerned!

 

 

[Harlequin]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Mike, I've looked at it but never used it - although on one occasion a friend generated a Templot drawing of a particular formation for me.

 

Computers + quirky = no thanks, as far as I'm concerned!

 

 

Yes, that’s my problem with Templot as well.

Having written desktop software professionally for the past (ahem) 30+ years I have pretty strong views about how it should behave. Templot falls so far outside that envelope for me that, even though it has very impressive capabilities, I just can’t get on with it.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Harlequin

[Michael Edge]

2 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Yes, that’s my problem with Templot as well.

Having written desktop software professionally for the past (ahem) 30+ years I have pretty strong views about how it should behave. Templot falls so far outside that envelope for me that, even though it has very impressive capabilities I just can’t get on with it.

Agreed, I have to re-learn it almost every time I use it (and it drives me mad at times) but what it can do when you struggle through it is little short of incredible. I've been building track and pointwork in various gauges for more than 60 years but what I have designed with Templot in the last 15 or so runs much better than anything else I've done.

[P.C.M]

Merry Christmas and happy new year John, I don't post that often but always drop by and enjoy following your progress. 

 

Cheers Peter.

[St Enodoc]

9 minutes ago, P.C.M said:

Merry Christmas and happy new year John, I don't post that often but always drop by and enjoy following your progress. 

 

Cheers Peter.

Thanks Peter and the same to you and the family. Similarly, I follow Llanbourne but don't often contribute.

 

Stay well.

[St Enodoc]

I followed Smithy's advice today and, after confirming that there will be room for the Platform 1 and Platform 2 starting signals, I inked in most of the track centre lines at Pentowan. The ones I left out are the connection between carriage sidings 1 and 2 (I forgot...), the curves at the station end of the three platforms (I'll mark those out later by spacing them from the Loop) and the goods yard (final layout still to be confirmed - not urgent).

 

Here's the same view as for the last few iterations.

 

This shows the full sweep of the station as seen from the lifting flap. I think it will look pretty good once it's all in place.

 

After adding some more loose joists, I had a little play.

 

I borrowed St Enodoc signal box to see how it looked at the end of the  loco spur, with an ancient Mainly Trains stop block in front. I haven't finalised the length of the loco spur yet. This will be a trade-off between length for loco stabling and the lengths of the platforms on the other side of the signal box. The actual signal box will be another Ratio kit but with the entrance door moved to the other end.

 

I placed three LM&S stop blocks at the ends of carriage sidings 1 to 3. The beams are in line with the end of the marked track. There's still a bit of room to play with between the stops and the baseboard edge.

 

Tomorrow, I hope to add some joists and/or risers for the baseboard nearest Polperran and connect that to the Treloggan Junction trackbase. I don't think I'll have time to lay any cork or foam before the New Year though.

[BMacdermott]

Hello John

 

It is fascinating to watch your progress!👍

 

All the best for 2023!

 

Brian

[St Enodoc]

Thanks Brian and the same to you and yours.

[martin_wynne]

10 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Yes, that’s my problem with Templot as well.

Having written desktop software professionally for the past (ahem) 30+ years I have pretty strong views about how it should behave. Templot falls so far outside that envelope for me that, even though it has very impressive capabilities, I just can’t get on with it.

 

Templot is not a professional desktop software product. It's my hobby. It works the way I want it to. I'm happy for others to use it if they like it. Or not if they don't.

 

Over the years many have written in a similar vein to your post. But I'm still waiting for any of them to post their own software to replace Templot. It would be great if anyone (you?) did that, because after 40+ years of Templot I'm getting old and tired. But I'm not holding my breath.  

 

Martin.

[Harlequin]

20 minutes ago, martin_wynne said:

 

Templot is not a professional desktop software product. It's my hobby. It works the way I want it to. I'm happy for others to use it if they like it. Or not if they don't.

 

Over the years many have written in a similar vein to your post. But I'm still waiting for any of them to post their own software to replace Templot. It would be great if anyone (you?) did that, because after 40+ years of Templot I'm getting old and tired. But I'm not holding my breath.  

 

Martin.

 

There's no denying that Templot is your masterpiece, Martin. Anyone who tries to follow in your footsteps, or who might take on the open source Templot and attempt to update it, would be a brave person indeed. They would need your in depth knowledge of the subject to avoid making silly mistakes. In fact, it would probably need an entire team of people with expertise spread across many disciplines to make a decent replacement or update.

 

P.S. I'm old and tired too!

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Harlequin

[martin_wynne]

5 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

 

There's no denying that Templot is your masterpiece, Martin. Anyone who tries to follow in your footsteps, or who might take on the open source Templot and attempt to update it, would be a brave person indeed. They would need your in depth knowledge of the subject to avoid making silly mistakes. In fact, it would probably need an entire team of people with expertise spread across many disciplines to make a decent replacement or update.

 

 

Thanks Phil.

 

Alistair Ward and Graeme Defty are having a go and haven't given up yet. I know they would welcome any help:

 

 https://github.com/openTemplot/openTemplot

 

Martin.

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, martin_wynne said:

I'm happy for others to use it if they like it. Or not if they don't.

I don't and I don't.

 

Nuff sed.

[St Enodoc]

First today I stuck the track layout for Pentowan on to the draft layout plan, which is now essentially complete.

 

I then added a couple of short joists to connect Treloggan Junction to Pentowan and fastened the baseboard to these and the longitudinal joist along the edge opposite Paddington. I also placed some temporary joists under the board to give it some more support. No photos of this as it's all under the surface.

 

These jobs didn't take as long as I expected, so I made a start on foam and cork trackbeds after all.

 

 

I started by extending the trackbed from Treloggan Junction to the toe of the point to Pentowan Platform 3, then extended the outer strip all the way to the baseboard edge at the end of carriage siding CS1, except for a short section where the goods yard will lead off from the double slip.

 

 

After that, I laid four full sheets of cork, which I will cut back later once I've finalised the width of Platform 3. As I laid each sheet, I copied various key locations on the alignment to the top of the cork so that I can transfer the track plan from the plywood to the trackbed easily.

 

To finish this off, I need to lay more cork round the throat and add the inner foam strip.

 

This was a satisfying end to the year's work, which has got me keen to do some tracklaying soon, after the frustration of the last few days of design work.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by St Enodoc

[Nick Gough]

Looking forward to seeing the track in place at Pentowan.

 

Happy New Year John.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Nick Gough said:

Looking forward to seeing the track in place at Pentowan.

 

Happy New Year John.

Me too!

 

Thanks.

[St Enodoc]

As we approach the end of 2022, it's time for the latest Mid-Cornwall Lines Annual Review.

 

Last year I set what I thought were some reasonably achievable goals but, as usual, I failed to reach most of them (who was it that said it's better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit? B0ll0cks).

 

Successes: completing (operationally) Polperran and St Enodoc, including the lever frame, ballasting, signals, uncouplers and "block instruments".

 

Partial success: I started Pentowan but not only did I not finish all the track, I didn't actually lay any.

 

Failures: I didn't achieve anything on the scenic front at all, at Porthmellyn Road or anywhere else (unless you count half-a-dozen buffer stops, some installed and some not). Rolling stock wise, I managed to fit DGs to a few more wagons and to bring my late friend Graham Bradley's DJH 4270 into service as 4247 (also restoring my old Cotswold 4206 to the active list). Certainly not as much as I'd hoped, especially with regard to coaches and  vans.

 

Unplanned results: the two tea trays for Paddington and Penzance, plus five out of a possible six running sessions rather than just four in the previous two years.

 

Overall then, probably grade C, with a report card reading "must try harder not to get distracted from the task in hand".

 

So, what might we expect in 2023?

 

Well, Pentowan is now well under way, so I'd like to think that all the track will be operational and we'll be able to start running the full sequence. That's really the main target. Everything else - ballast, signals, uncouplers, etc. - will be a bonus. I do hope to get more rolling stock work done, to support the expanded sequence, and ideally some more buildings - but we shall see.

 

On that slightly downbeat but probably realistic note I will now wish you all - readers and contributors to the life of Mid-Cornwall alike - a peaceful and healthy New Year, when it comes.

[Barry O]

...and build a Shackleton??😉

 

Baz

[5BarVT]

I think you’re too hard on yourself.  Lever frame at St Enodoc needs an A, so overall B+ minimum.

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, Barry O said:

...and build a Shackleton??😉

 

Baz

Erm...

 

 

 

 

No.

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, 5BarVT said:

I think you’re too hard on yourself.  Lever frame at St Enodoc needs an A, so overall B+ minimum.

Paul.

Thanks Paul, I appreciate that.

 

The story this year has been of jobs taking longer than expected - not least the lever frame, which took over six months for various reasons. As you know, I didn't want to start work at Pentowan until St Enodoc was fully operational, so things dragged out a bit. So, I'll accept your B+ for the deliverable but I can only claim a D for the schedule I think (the last two weeks of f@rt-@rsing around with the track layout didn't help either!).

 

All the best.

[Chamby]

A happy new year from the real Porthmellyn too!  My thanks for all the inspiring and regular content throughout the year, definitely one of the best quality threads on the forum.

 

If you feel that progress is slower than you would like, I would encourage you to start adding a bit of greenery on the layout... plant a tree in ‘23.  That stage was when my own layout started to come ‘alive’.  It’s one of those tasks that has much greater visual impact, compared to the amount of work required!