Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[Barry O]

Happy Birthday (belated) to Veronica. She just happened to have sent a photo of the Crab Shack...

 

Baz

[SJR]

A slight geographical correction.  Mt. Victoria is at the rear of the photo. The cable car runs up to the suburb of Kelburn.

🙂

[Jack P]

On 25/04/2024 at 14:01, St Enodoc said:

No posts for the past ten days or so as we've been away, celebrating Veronica's birthday again. Where were we?

 

That should be an easier clue than last year! It was about the only railway action we saw, apart from a few Matangi trains and the Wairarapa Connection passing us along the the way during our travels. Although Wellington lived up to its windy reputation, the weather was mild, fine and sunny for five out of six days, which was an unexpected bonus.

 

 

Clearly on the day you took this, the wind was being your friend. The calm water of the harbour is a dead giveaway. 

 

Hope you enjoyed Wellington! As a resident, I'm rather fond of our 'little' Capital. 

[St Enodoc]

11 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

The photo is of course on Mt Victoria - what I thought was one of the windiest places on earth until a couple of weeks ago when I was on the top of a hill in the Lake District where if I'd spread arms with my jacket half off I could probably have flown!

 

Give Veronica my best wishes for her birthday John.

 

Regards Andrew (from Kinsale, Ireland)

Not quite...

 

1 hour ago, SJR said:

A slight geographical correction.  Mt. Victoria is at the rear of the photo. The cable car runs up to the suburb of Kelburn.

🙂

Yes. We then walked down through the Botanic Gardens and Bolton Street Cemetery, back to the city.

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, Jack P said:

 

 

Clearly on the day you took this, the wind was being your friend. The calm water of the harbour is a dead giveaway. 

 

Hope you enjoyed Wellington! As a resident, I'm rather fond of our 'little' Capital. 

We did indeed. The weather was surprisingly benign, with only one wet day while we were there.

[St Enodoc]

Since getting back from Wellington we've been rather busy and I've had little time for model railways at all. However, this weekend sees the big Epping MRC show at Rosehill Gardens racecourse.

 

https://www.eppingmodelrailway.org.au/2024-exhibition/

 

I was there today helping to operate @RudderC Charles' Uley Junction layout and generally aiding and abetting the BRMA stand team.

 

http://www.brma.org.au/BRMA Galleries/British/NSW Layout - 1156 - Uley Junction/index.html

 

http://www.brma.org.au/

 

As always, there were nearly 100 exhibits and I thought that the balance of layouts was better than in some recent years. There were still a good few Australian Standard roundy-roundies but plenty of other styles in different scales and gauges too (including my Melbourne friend @martink's linear motor-powered Dauntsey Lock and Monbulk Creek).

 

 

Good traders as well and I came away with some useful bits and pieces.

 

If you're within reach, I recommend popping along tomorrow.

[Coach bogie]

My wife and I were all set to have a weekend in Sydney for this show then discovered it was the same dates as Brisbane. Not sure how that happened.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[St Enodoc]

Well here we are at 1052 AEST on 12/5/24 (Mothers' Day in these parts) so I've decided to make my 20,000th RMweb post here - just because I can.

[BWsTrains]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Well here we are at 1052 AEST on 12/5/24 (Mothers' Day in these parts) so I've decided to make my 20,000th RMweb post here

 

Impressive though it might well be, this does on brief inspection appear to be one if not THE, least useful pieces of information available to me in the Observable Universe.

 

I've got it!  Your Topic has been taken over by an AI Bot which is the true perpetrator. Sadly, its algorithms have not been properly programmed for Causality logic.

 

With apologies to Douglas Adams, I think.

 

 

[St Enodoc]

There's been a lot of discussion on RMweb over the past few months about the Peter Lawson collection of locos and coaches, not least on Wright Writes:

I'm delighted to say that I now own, with the help of @LNER4479 and my No 2 daughter, five ex-GWR coaches from the collection. These will make their way south in a couple of weeks, when I return to Australia at the end of a short visit to England for a school 50th anniversary reunion next Sunday (no, I didn't think I was that old either). After fitting new couplings, they'll be ready to take their place in the Mid-Cornwall Lines fleet.

 

Thanks to both Graham and Tony for arranging the disposal of these items so efficiently and sympathetically.

[St Enodoc]

Following an excellent school 50th anniversary reunion today, I am relaxing in my hotel room watching a series of programmes on BBC4 commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of the former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who is of course buried at St Enodoc church.

[Tim Dubya]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Following an excellent school 50th anniversary reunion today, I am relaxing in my hotel room watching a series of programmes on BBC4 commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of the former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who is of course buried at St Enodoc church.

 

Never tire of those programmes 👍

 

[16Brunel]

I was flicking through my old Railway Modellers last night, looking for a vaguely-remembered article, when I happened upon the December 1987 edition featuring a little layout called St Enodoc...

 

Just wondering, John, how much of that version is in this one, layout or stock?  Was that the Mark I?

 

- Scott

[30368]

On 19/05/2024 at 23:15, Tim Dubya said:

Never tire of those programmes 👍

 

Metroland is classic for all time.

 

Kind regards,

 

30368

[Oldddudders]

On 19/05/2024 at 22:03, St Enodoc said:

Following an excellent school 50th anniversary reunion today, I am relaxing in my hotel room watching a series of programmes on BBC4 commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of the former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who is of course buried at St Enodoc church.

Thanks to your prompt, Sherry was able to find one of these on iPlayer, and I greatly enjoyed new bits and remembered several older clips. The film of the funeral party in lashing rain was sobering. Jon Stedall said he’d never been so wet!

[St Enodoc]

On 22/05/2024 at 07:22, 16Brunel said:

I was flicking through my old Railway Modellers last night, looking for a vaguely-remembered article, when I happened upon the December 1987 edition featuring a little layout called St Enodoc...

 

Just wondering, John, how much of that version is in this one, layout or stock?  Was that the Mark I?

 

- Scott

Thanks Scott. That was indeed St Enodoc Mark 1, which followed Pentowan Mark 1, as mentioned on page 1 of this topic.

 

None of the layout per se survives but some of the accoutrements do.

 

The drying shed, now named Wheal Veronica (it had a different name at a previous stage of my life...), is still in use but with a simplified track layout. It does need some TLC after more than 40 years. The signal box has new windows and an interior but is otherwise unchanged, while a lot of the station furniture either has been or will be put back into use. The station building and goods shed didn't survive.

 

Stock-wise, the Lima Prairies have gone but most of the rest is still in use, not least the original ten china-clay wagons. Some of it now has a similar status to George Washington's axe, though.

 

In short, I've managed to keep what's worth keeping from that layout and indeed from the first Pentowan layout too.

 

Waste not want not - or a circular economy, as we're supposed to call it nowadays.

Edited May 23 by St Enodoc
speling

[Mallard60022]

Summoned by Bells is something I just cannot ever forget as being so relaxing and yet challenging. I'd have loved to have met him in some Railway Pub. Of an age.

Phil

[Tallpaul69]

On 19/05/2024 at 22:03, St Enodoc said:

Following an excellent school 50th anniversary reunion today, I am relaxing in my hotel room watching a series of programmes on BBC4 commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of the former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who is of course buried at St Enodoc church.

Hi John,

When I attended a school reunion (here in the UK), some 10 years ago, I was surprised that two of my year had made the trip from Aus for the event. One guy, who sat behind me in class, had emigrated with his family c1962. The other, who I was never the best of pals with, emigrated, I think, in his 20s, so some time in the mid/late 70s. 

Glad your trip was worthwhile, how many of your fellows did you immediately recognise? I know I was caught out by one or two but many seemed just older!

Sadly, we don't seem to have many of the likes of Betjeman these days, or is just that I am getting old?

Best regards

Paul

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Hi John,

When I attended a school reunion (here in the UK), some 10 years ago, I was surprised that two of my year had made the trip from Aus for the event. One guy, who sat behind me in class, had emigrated with his family c1962. The other, who I was never the best of pals with, emigrated, I think, in his 20s, so some time in the mid/late 70s. 

Glad your trip was worthwhile, how many of your fellows did you immediately recognise? I know I was caught out by one or two but many seemed just older!

Sadly, we don't seem to have many of the likes of Betjeman these days, or is just that I am getting old?

Best regards

Paul

There were about 40 from our year of whom I think I recognised about three-quarters without looking at their name tag. I was the furthest-travelled and one old pal had come from Connecticut, USA. Other than that, I think there were a couple from continental Europe and the rest were UK-based.

[St Enodoc]

13 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

None of the layout per se survives

I should qualify that by saying that I sold the layout itself - baseboards, track, point motors and signals - to a colleague and fellow Brighton MRC member, who converted it to an ex-S&DJR terminus with a wagon repair works where the china-clay drying shed was. The layout was renamed Timsbury but has indeed long gone, as has my dear late friend.

Edited May 22 by St Enodoc
speling

[Barry O]

Those Kirk china clays must have got a fair few miles in!

 

Happy Times!

 

Baz

[16Brunel]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Those Kirk china clays must have got a fair few miles in!

 

Happy Times!

 

Baz

 

Barry, in the article John mentions that you supplied the Mark I's signalling, but you seem to have escaped ballast duties this time!

 

- S.

[acg5324]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I should qualify that by saying that I sold the layout itself - baseboards, track, point motors and signals - to a colleague and fellow Brighton MRC member, who converted it to an ex-S&DJR terminus with a wagon repair works where the china-clay drying shed was. The layout was renamed Timsbury but has indeed long gone, as has my dear late friend.

Who bought the layout John?

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Barry O said:

Those Kirk china clays must have got a fair few miles in!

 

Happy Times!

 

Baz

Oh yes. The original twenty - which I hand-lettered using a Rotring pen (pre-Woodhead transfers) and you weathered, of course - were built in about 1980.

 

6 hours ago, 16Brunel said:

 

Barry, in the article John mentions that you supplied the Mark I's signalling, but you seem to have escaped ballast duties this time!

 

- S.

Baz has never had the honour of ballasting one of my layouts!

 

1 hour ago, acg5324 said:

Who bought the layout John?

Our mutual ex-Merchant Navy colleague from Lovers' Walk.

Edited May 23 by St Enodoc
can't count

[Clive Mortimore]

19 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

There were about 40 from our year of whom I think I recognised about three-quarters without looking at their name tag. I was the furthest-travelled and one old pal had come from Connecticut, USA. Other than that, I think there were a couple from continental Europe and the rest were UK-based.

Hi John

 

Reading your adventure of the skool reunion reminded me of a time when one of the people who had been in my class organised a gathering. I didn't go but was polite enough to send him a letter saying why I would not. It went something on the lines of "Why should I attend when for five years of my life you were rude to me, bullied me, took the micky out of me and never showed me any respect."  For some strange reason he didn't respond to my letter?

 

I am glad you enjoyed meeting your old pals.