Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

1021 proved a harder nut to crack. A Hornby ringfield model, it stopped working completely a few weeks ago and today was the first chance I've had to give it a once-over.

 

It still wouldn't go at all on DCC, so I disconnected the decoder and found that it would run, albeit not well at slow speed, on DC. That led me to think that the decoder was Donalded, so I replaced it and lubricated the gears and bearings.

 

It moved now on DCC but still not too well at low speeds, so I ran it for a while on the rolling road. That was a bit better.

 

However, the weak link on these locos is the slidebar arrangement, which doesn't hold the crosshead very securely, and the crosshead on one side was a bit floppy. I bent the slidebars gently to improve their alignment, which seem to have helped, but I'll need to keep a close eye on the loco in service. A new cylinder block and slidebar assembly might be on the cards.

[Tallpaul69]

On 28/05/2023 at 08:40, St Enodoc said:

1021 proved a harder nut to crack. A Hornby ringfield model, it stopped working completely a few weeks ago and today was the first chance I've had to give it a once-over.

 

It still wouldn't go at all on DCC, so I disconnected the decoder and found that it would run, albeit not well at slow speed, on DC. That led me to think that the decoder was Donalded, so I replaced it and lubricated the gears and bearings.

 

It moved now on DCC but still not too well at low speeds, so I ran it for a while on the rolling road. That was a bit better.

 

However, the weak link on these locos is the slidebar arrangement, which doesn't hold the crosshead very securely, and the crosshead on one side was a bit floppy. I bent the slidebars gently to improve their alignment, which seem to have helped, but I'll need to keep a close eye on the loco in service. A new cylinder block and slidebar assembly might be on the cards.

Tell me about it!

My County is sitting on a shelf looking at me sadly with its gear all over the place!

I think I will leave it be for the moment and see how you get on sorting yours?

Cheers, Paul. 

[St Enodoc]

On 26/05/2023 at 04:54, John Besley said:

 

DET ?

Mike hasn't broken cover on this but he has confirmed to me, separately, that it stands for Drive End Trailer, in other words what later became a DTS.

[St Enodoc]

I built a point last night, so only three more to go...

[St Enodoc]

A big day today (apart from my granddaughter Daisy's 10th birthday) - I built the last three Pentowan points, so all 119 points for the Mid-Cornwall Lines now exist.

 

As well as these four, there is a B6LH ready to lay. I built that for the previous St Enodoc layout (the oval version) more than 10 years ago, while some of the B8 curved points at Paddington and Penzance date back to 1993, when I built them for the loft layout storage loops.

 

Unfortunately, tomorrow's weather forecast doesn't bode well for spraying but at the very least I hope to gap these four.

 

On the strength of all that, I think I'll treat myself to a small tipple tonight 🍻.

Edited June 3, 2023 by St Enodoc
Speling

[Stubby47]

Congratulations on reaching this point in the layout build, it must be be satisfying to see everything turnout as planned.

 

Also congratulations to young Daisy, who shares her birthday with our son Chris (29).

 We're off to the South Devon Railway for the day.

[5BarVT]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

all 119 points

I thought my 41 was a lot.  119 is a lot of Cobalts too.

Paul.

[nest]

Congratulations on a marvellous modelling milestone!

 

Nestor

[ianathompson]

A milestone indeed!

It took me around ten years to complete a similar number of points, crossings, single and double slips for my own layout.

 

I hope that they all work okay.

Mine took a lot of "bedding in" but they were built in a more "rustic" style following scribbles lines on the baseboard surface!

 

Ian T

[checkrail]

2 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

turnout as planned.

We see what you did there!

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

it must be be satisfying to see everything turnout as planned.

Very droll.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

I thought my 41 was a lot.  119 is a lot of Cobalts too.

Paul.

It is, isn't it...

 

53 analogue, 66 digital.

[Stubby47]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Very droll.

So you missed the first pun, then ;)

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

So you missed the first pun, then ;)

Slipped past me.

[RudderC]

John, a marvellous achievement.  The next running session should be a beauty!

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

So you missed the first pun, then ;)

No but I didn't think it was as good as the second and there was no point commenting on both.

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, RudderC said:

John, a marvellous achievement.  The next running session should be a beauty!

Hope so!

[Chamby]

 

11 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

So you missed the first pun, then ;)

 

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

No but I didn't think it was as good as the second and there was no point commenting on both.

 

That must make it a tie...

[St Enodoc]

The predicted rain didn't arrive today, although there was a bit of a breeze in the early afternoon. However, that dropped later so it turned out that I could spray the points after all. I only sprayed three of the four, though, as HP B ( the one in the goods yard nearest to the double slip) needs to have a curve right through, which means I'll have to adjust the soldered joints to suit.

 

You can see why here. The future headshunt will follow the curve of the main line towards Treloggan Junction, which, as well as giving us a useful extra road, should create an illusion of double track on the approach to Pentowan, as at the real Newquay. I've yet to finalise the location of siding 2 (the middle one) to suit the Ratio goods shed that will serve siding 1 (the nearest in this view) too.

 

I rested the other three points in their respective locations, to make sure that they fitted - not that I could do much about it now if they didn't. After I'd done that, I added the operating loops, trimmed the tiebars and sprayed the points.

 

 

The last job today was to remove all the temporary track at Pentowan. Most of the coaches that were here are now at Polperran although, as you can see, two of the longer sets have found their way to St Enodoc because they didn't fit in the Polperran headshunt.

 

I'm ready to lay carriage sidings 3 to 8 now but I'll need to play around with the alignments in the goods yard first - as well as cutting and fitting a strip of ply to fill the gap between the end of the Pentowan boards and Polperran.

[Chamby]

@St Enodoc  A quick question, if I may?

 

I understand that the emphasis of Mid-Cornwall lines is on operation, and you regularly have running sessions with several people working together.  But in between these, how much of the layout and operating sequence can be run by just yourself from a single command station... or do you walk all round the layout to work the various control panels in turn?

[St Enodoc]

13 minutes ago, Chamby said:

@St Enodoc  A quick question, if I may?

 

I understand that the emphasis of Mid-Cornwall lines is on operation, and you regularly have running sessions with several people working together.  But in between these, how much of the layout and operating sequence can be run by just yourself from a single command station... or do you walk all round the layout to work the various control panels in turn?

To run anything resembling the sequence means I have to walk around to operate the points myself (I don't bother with the signals when I'm on my own). I can get trains to circulate on one of the main lines from either Paddington or Penzance without moving much, but nothing more than that.

 

As you say, the whole point of the layout is to simulate operating the real thing, so as long as we get a good turnout at our sessions that's what we can do.

[St Enodoc]

Not much free time today but still enough to set out the fettled/modified handpoint B.

 

A much better fit.

 

After that I sprayed it and, while it was drying, set out handpoints G, I and K in their final positions, ready to drill the tiebar holes.

 

All set now to lay these three points and the plain track for the remaining six carriage sidings. I should have just enough new SMP track for this...

[Barry O]

1 minute ago, St Enodoc said:

Not much free time today but still enough to set out the fettled/modified handpoint B.

 

A much better fit.

 

After that I sprayed it and, while it was drying, set out handpoints G, I and K in their final positions, ready to drill the tiebar holes.

 

All set now to lay these three points and the plain track for the remaining six carriage sidings. I should have just enough new SMP track for this...

My her indoors says 'Well done!"

 

..so do I!

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Today I laid the three remaining points in the carriage sidings (handpoints G, I and K) and a total of eight yards of track leading off them.

 

It's still a work in progress but I did take the trouble to move all the stuff out of the way before I took the photos.

 

I thought I had more new track but somehow two yards of second-hand had got mixed up with the new stuff. I do have plenty more second-hand track, though, mostly from our dear late friend Ron Reilly @nerron's estate, but that had all been pinned down, not glued, so it has small holes in a number of sleepers. I'll just have to remember to smear some glue or filler over those before ballasting.

 

As it's World Gin Day today I've just poured Veronica and myself a large Botanist and tonic (Sch... - you know who)  - well, it'd be rude not to, wouldn't it?

Edited June 10, 2023 by St Enodoc
World Gin Day

[St Enodoc]

Apropos of nothing in particular, I've just seen some photos on Hatton's website of the latest RTR 00 open wagons, which everybody seems to be raving about.

 

I have to say that, if I were paying that price, I'd expect the wheels and axles to be blackened...