Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[TrevorP1]

John, in my book you get A* for the lever frame alone. 

[St Enodoc]

43 minutes ago, Chamby said:

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!

Thanks Phil. As others know, greenery is not my strong suit, which is why it tends to take a back seat. I think that buildings will be more likely and, perhaps, a backscene to frame the eventual vegetation. I might even do something about the secret scenic feature, which may or may not be green...

[t-b-g]

1 hour ago, 5BarVT said:

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

Paul.

 

I would agree entirely. When viewed against my own snail pace progress on just about everything, the Mid Cornwall layout is coming on in great leaps and bounds and represents over achievement rather than under! 

[St Enodoc]

Just now, t-b-g said:

 

I would agree entirely. When viewed against my own snail pace progress on just about everything, the Mid Cornwall layout is coming on in great leaps and bounds and represents over achievement rather than under! 

Thanks Tony (and others). Perhaps my review seemed a little gloomy but that was only in the context of measuring achievement against aspiration. In actual fact I'm really pleased that things are progressing steadily, if not rapidly, and that I haven't had to go back and change anything significant as a result of some howler or other (so far...).

[5BarVT]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

I can only claim a D for the schedule I think

What are you - an Engineer or a Project Manager? 😄

On 29/12/2022 at 06:50, St Enodoc said:

I'm not a good project manager

Oh, you’ve answered that already!

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

(the last two weeks of f@rt-@rsing around with the track layout didn't help either!).

I know the feeling, I’ve been faffing around with baseboard design for far too long now (I’m not a good PM either).

Happy New Year in about an hour and a half (at the time of posting).

Paul.

[checkrail]

36 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I might even do something about the secret scenic feature, which may or may not be green...

A seascape backdrop?

[drduncan]

You’re being too hard on yourself. Your work rate and standards are enviable. Nampara is just 2m long and yet after 3 years ‘work’ still hasn’t got the track permanently in place (but hopefully that will change soon…).

 

Hapoy new year and I look forward to the mid Cornwall lines having a 2023 that is at least as inspiring to us lesser mortals as it has been in 2022.

 

Duncan

[St Enodoc]

7 minutes ago, checkrail said:

A seascape backdrop?

Nope!

[Oldddudders]

Good to see others rowing in with justified accolades for St E '22. 

 

As an M&E Engineer, the complexities of  signal interlocking were an unfamiliar discipline to you, but you managed marvellously. And the sweeping curves of the layout bear witness to your vision and planning skills. Those of us who plan layouts on the basis of throwing down some Peco points and seeing how long the run-round could be do have it easier than hand-laying track - with or without Templot! - but the result is rather less convincing, of course. 

 

As for the softer arts of scenery, as said a few trees here and there can make a surprising difference without compromising more grandiose effects at a later stage. Ditto the odd hedge etc. 

 

We are told Rome wasn't built in a day. Don't beat yourself up that you haven't quite hit the target on every front.

 

Happy New Year!

[St Enodoc]

3 minutes ago, drduncan said:

Nampara is just 2m long and yet after 3 years ‘work’ still hasn’t got the track permanently in place

Serves you right for choosing track with three rails (two rails, two wires - the way nature intended...).

[t-b-g]

18 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Tony (and others). Perhaps my review seemed a little gloomy but that was only in the context of measuring achievement against aspiration. In actual fact I'm really pleased that things are progressing steadily, if not rapidly, and that I haven't had to go back and change anything significant as a result of some howler or other (so far...).

 

I am not sure if it was Confucious (or some plonker on RMWeb) who said that it is better to have big dreams and struggle to achieve them than to have small dreams and achieve them easily.

[drduncan]

Just now, St Enodoc said:

Serves you right for choosing track with three rails (two rails, two wires - the way nature intended...).

True. It’s all self inflicted delays and complexity.

D

[queensquare]

25 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Tony (and others). Perhaps my review seemed a little gloomy but that was only in the context of measuring achievement against aspiration. In actual fact I'm really pleased that things are progressing steadily, if not rapidly, and that I haven't had to go back and change anything significant as a result of some howler or other (so far...).

As someone who I know follows my Bath Queensquare thread you should be thrilled with your steady progress on this fantastic project, particularly when compared with my own glacial progress. 
 

May 2023 see all us take great strides with our respective projects.

 

Jerry

[Sithlord75]

Don't worry about glacial pace - I'll be finally putting track down on a 20 year plus project in the New Year!  I may even write something for TCH about it but given it's 2mm...

 

Hopefully 2023 is a better year than the last couple - in every respect.

 

 

[Michael Edge]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Phil. As others know, greenery is not my strong suit, which is why it tends to take a back seat. I think that buildings will be more likely and, perhaps, a backscene to frame the eventual vegetation. I might even do something about the secret scenic feature, which may or may not be green...

It wasn't mine either but look at what I managed to do on Wentworth Junction - with help and tuition from Fred though.

[St Enodoc]

30 minutes ago, Sithlord75 said:

I may even write something for TCH about it but given it's 2mm...

Don't worry, I've got good glasses.

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Sainty

 

Your end of year report looks quite impressive. I think @Barry O would agree you seemed to have had time to build that Shackleton as well.

 

Happy New Year.

[acg5324]

Happy new year, I guess it already is down under.

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Sainty

 

Your end of year report looks quite impressive. I think @Barry O would agree you seemed to have had time to build that Shackleton as well.

 

Happy New Year.

Don't you start...

 

Same to you and yours.

[St Enodoc]

Normally, we go for a walk on New Year's morning but today the weather was so lousy that we didn't bother.

 

That meant I had time for another good session in the railway room, at the end of which I've finished laying all the cork and foam at Pentowan except for the goods yard. I've also marked out the track centres - if you're very sharp-eyed, you'll spot a) a couple of mistakes and b) some very minor changes at full size from the 1/10 scale plan.

 

I stuck in a pin at all the key places on the plan, such as changes of radius, the toes of the key points and the intersections between tangents for the other points. The pins will stay in place until I've painted the trackbed in the usual grot grey, so that I can transfer the track centre lines easily to the painted surface.

 

Here's the current state of play:

 

I didn't have enough different colours for full colour coding but it's easy enough to follow a route either for its whole length or until it intersects with another route.

 

The radius on the Loop (red pins) is 48" , which will let me use one of my existing B6 points for the A end of the crossover to Platform 1, with an A5 at the B end. The crossover isn't marked out yet.

 

Here you can see one of the changes from the 1/10 plan. I moved the toe of the Platform 1 point about 30mm further from the stop blocks. That now lets me have a full 50mm between the centres of the approach to Platform 1 and the outer slip road (grey foam) of the double slip, which is where parallel moves can take place. I still have just about 50mm between Platform 1 and the loco spur too, although there won't be any parallel moves there. I haven't tried to work out the radius of the Platform 1 curve - I'll just fair it in.

 

I've pencilled in some options for the goods yard too.

 

The stepped edges of the cork look a bit untidy at the moment but I'll cut them back once I've laid the track, before ballasting.

 

I go back to work next Monday. Will I have any track laid by then? Time will tell.

[lofty.ian]

Hi John, I’m a bit late commenting on your year end report. Like others, I think you are being very hard on yourself. In a different hobby we have moaned about doing as much fell walking as we would like but consoled ourselves by thinkIng we had done a lot more than some of our friends. Similarly, you might not have progressed as far as you wanted but compared to us model bodgers you have achieved so much. Don’t forget it is only your hobby and you are the boss. If progress doesn’t match the project plan, change the plan to feel better.

Enjoy 2023

[The Stationmaster]

John - a slightly belated happy New Year to you and Veronica and at least I've actually managed to catch up after my recent absence from this topic.  Talk about grade whatever  the pace of preliminary works at Pentowan alone is much nearer an A than anything lower and the complexity of what you've had to resolve with all those curves is probably no more than smidgeon short of an A*.  I look forward to watching tje gradual emergence.

 

While somebody is clearly keen to ballast a Shackleton (🤨 - why else would he wish it completed?) during his forthcoming visit perhaps you'll have some track in place 'beyind Treloggan Jcn' to justify him coming halfway round the world and get him to ballast that instead?

[St Enodoc]

20 hours ago, lofty.ian said:

If progress doesn’t match the project plan, change the plan to feel better.

Ah, now you've revealed that you are a good project manager.

 

Actually, in my experience, most projects have (at least) three plans - one for the client, one for the financiers and one that the delivery team works to. Any resemblance between these three plans is usually entirely coincidental.

Edited January 2, 2023 by St Enodoc
missing word

[St Enodoc]

17 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

John - a slightly belated happy New Year to you and Veronica and at least I've actually managed to catch up after my recent absence from this topic.  Talk about grade whatever  the pace of preliminary works at Pentowan alone is much nearer an A than anything lower and the complexity of what you've had to resolve with all those curves is probably no more than smidgeon short of an A*.  I look forward to watching tje gradual emergence.

 

While somebody is clearly keen to ballast a Shackleton (🤨 - why else would he wish it completed?) during his forthcoming visit perhaps you'll have some track in place 'beyind Treloggan Jcn' to justify him coming halfway round the world and get him to ballast that instead?

Thanks Mike and thanks for all the reactions too.

 

I have to say that the last couple of days have gone very well, as you can see here.

 

I bought some more grot grey paint this morning, which turned out to be a good move as I managed to use up the whole 250ml this afternoon. This was one of the other 49 shades, called Timeless Grey for some reason, and is a paler colour that will show up the track centre lines rather better than the previous Slate Grey Base.

 

The trick is to slop the paint on, as the cork absorbs it quite quickly. I removed and replaced each pin in turn as I painted that area of the board. After the paint goes on it forms a tiny dint where the pin hole is, so there's no need to guess where the pin belongs.

 

Before I started, I put some extra pins on the Platform 1 curve so that I can reproduce it easily.

 

I think I will indeed start tracklaying next, beginning with Platform 3, which of course only has one point to worry about.

 

 

[Barry O]

@The Stationmaster.. not ballasting.. but .weathering it! They were never very clean around the engined

 

Baz