Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

This weekend, the last when I can do what I like before Veronica gets back from her holiday, I built the last three points for Paddington Up end. I filed the blades last night while listening to the Lord's Test on ABC Grandstand and put all the bits together this afternoon while listening to the concerts on ABC Classic. It is a nice milestone to have reached.

 

I'm hosting a BRMA Sydney area meeting in three weeks' time, so I'm not going to rush to lay the nine points that I've built over the last few weeks before that. It would be nice to get them in before the November running session though.

 

I've now built and/or laid all the points for Paddington, Porthmellyn Road, Penzance, St Enodoc and Wheal Veronica. Some of these still need to be recovered from the old St Enodoc layout, which I will do closer to the time I need them. They are for the Porthmellyn Road branch crossover; converting St Enodoc to double track and changing the direction of the curve at the Down end; and the single point for Wheal Veronica clay sidings.

 

The only points still to make from scratch are the 30 for Treloggan Junction, Polperran and Pentowan.

 

Consequently, I think that a drop of red with dinner tonight is in order.

Edited August 18, 2019 by St Enodoc
Errant apostrophe

[Northroader]

Just been enjoying the video of your line, terrific selection of trains, and all running very creditably. Great job.

[Barry O]

just a drop? After all that point work some red then a small tincture would be appropriate!

baz

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

just a drop? After all that point work some red then a small tincture would be appropriate!

baz

Ha ha, funny you should say that. After listening to the cricket until lunch I decided that a small nightcap would be a good idea. Ardbeg won.

[St Enodoc]

To all my Melbourne friends, have a great weekend at Caulfield.

[St Enodoc]

I won't have to build any more points for some time now, so this weekend I did something completely different and started the conversion of my Bachmann 64xx to 7446, which was a St Blazey loco for hte whole of the 1950s. There is a nice, but undated, photo taken at St Blazey yard in the Bradford Barton book "Great Western Steam in Cornwall", which shows the loco in very clean black livery with the early emblem and red-backed number plates. That is how my model will be finished.

 

There have been several topics and blogs here on RMweb and elsewhere, and also an article in the February 2016 Railway Modeller, describing the conversion so based on a read through those I decided to do the following work:

 

- remove the auto gear on the buffer beams.

- remove the auto gear and ATC battery boxes (if any evidence turns up that 7446 was ATC fitted I can replace one of them).

- remove the front and rear cab roof lips.

- square up the corner between the cab and bunker.

- rebuild the bunker beading.

- fit the footplate handrails at the front steps.

- fit the missing top lamp brackets at the front and back.

- fit a steam lance cock

- fit the coupling hook, vacuum pipes and spare lamp brackets supplied with the loco.

- touch up the paintwork.

- fit number plates and shed code plate.

- fit DG couplings

- install a decoder.

 

Yesterday, while I listened to the Headingley Test, I completed all the removal of parts and material that I don't want. Here are some photos of this stage of progress:

 

 

 

Today I had a go at the footplate handrails but I found that I didn't have any 0.45mm handrail wire to fit the Slaters knobs, so instead I just made up some bent wire handrails. I also installed a TCS EUN651 6-pin chip and programmed the basic functions.

 

If I have time tonight I might rebuild the bunker beading and fill the holes in the buffer beams where the auto gear used to be, ready to start putting things back together.

[St Enodoc]

Current state of play with 7446:

 

- remove the auto gear on the buffer beams. Done.

- remove the auto gear and ATC battery boxes. Done.

- remove the front and rear cab roof lips. Done.

- square up the corner between the cab and bunker. Done.

- rebuild the bunker beading. Started - microstrip fixed in place, to be trimmed and filled if necessary when set hard.

- fit the footplate handrails at the front steps. Done.

- fit the missing top lamp brackets at the front and back.

- fit a steam lance cock. - Done. I found a Crownline one and two Westward ones in the spares box. The Westward castings look better so I used one of them.

- fit the coupling hook, vacuum pipes and spare lamp brackets supplied with the loco.

- touch up the paintwork.

- fit number plates and shed code plate.

- fit DG couplings. Done.

- install a decoder. Done.

 

I've added three further tasks to the list:

 

- fit crew.

- add coal.

- add lamp(s). 7446 will only run on the Wheal Veronica class K china clay trains, so I might fit a single lamp at each end. However, I dislike locos with lamps at both ends so that's still up for grabs. Either Modelu lamps fitted properly on the brackets or Springside ones with micromagnets and with office staples for brackets are the two alternatives.

 

We shall see - as, indeed, we shall at Headingley - although, regrettably, I will not as it's 2300 now and a work day tomorrow...

[St Enodoc]

Bunker beading finished tonight but that's all I had time for. It's slightly wider than the original but when it's painted black I think it will look all right.

 

Incidentally, I can't work out how to get the cab off or the plastic coal out of the bunker. Unless anyone has any ideas I'll just dump a layer of coal on top of the existing.

 

Remarkable result from Headingley and, as has been said elsewhere on RMweb, the best 1* by a no 11 for a long time. Last Friday at the office I was ridiculed when I suggested that Australia losing their last 8 first-innings wickets for 43 might be an omen...

[The Fatadder]

Looking good,

I am racking my brain and cannot recall how I removed the cab when I did my 74xx conversion.  I know you had to remove the handrails (which were very well glued in).  And if I remember rightly more of the cab came away than I expected.

 

Are you going to replace the moulded on rear lamp irons?

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

Looking good,

I am racking my brain and cannot recall how I removed the cab when I did my 74xx conversion.  I know you had to remove the handrails (which were very well glued in).  And if I remember rightly more of the cab came away than I expected.

 

Are you going to replace the moulded on rear lamp irons?

Thanks Rich. I don't want to break anything so I might just leave the cab and bunker alone.

 

I need to make and add the two missing lamp irons and fit the three spares from the detail pack. Whether I replace any of the plastic ones will depend on my decision regarding how I fit the lamps. I'm leaning towards the magnet solution, so that means replacing at least one iron at each end with a steel one (office staple).

[The Fatadder]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Rich. I don't want to break anything so I might just leave the cab and bunker alone.

 

I need to make and add the two missing lamp irons and fit the three spares from the detail pack. Whether I replace any of the plastic ones will depend on my decision regarding how I fit the lamps. I'm leaning towards the magnet solution, so that means replacing at least one iron at each end with a steel one (office staple).

I will have a look tonight and see if I can remember how I did it, from memory there is a little glue between the cab sides and the main moulding that you brake by gently prising the sides apart.  Remove the hand rails and then pull upwards and the whole cab assembly comes off.  

 

I think replacing the solid moulded lamp irons does make a big difference (be that with a scale replacement of the aforementioned steel staple).  I cant quite understand why Bachmann didn't use separate parts given there are the separately fitted loops for the fire irons just above them... 

 

I really must get a chip and some couplings fitted so that it can enter into service.

[Clive Mortimore]

The is me thinking the GWR only had two designs of loco, the Staintstarcastlehallkinggrangemanorcounty class and the cute pannier. Well my eyes have been opened, not all panniers look the same.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

3 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

not all panniers look the same.

 

'Oh yes they do'

[woodenhead]

3 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

The is me thinking the GWR only had two designs of loco, the Staintstarcastlehallkinggrangemanorcounty class and the cute pannier. Well my eyes have been opened, not all panniers look the same.

No, some had no wheels 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

I will have a look tonight and see if I can remember how I did it, from memory there is a little glue between the cab sides and the main moulding that you brake by gently prising the sides apart.  Remove the hand rails and then pull upwards and the whole cab assembly comes off.  

 

I think replacing the solid moulded lamp irons does make a big difference (be that with a scale replacement of the aforementioned steel staple).  I cant quite understand why Bachmann didn't use separate parts given there are the separately fitted loops for the fire irons just above them... 

 

I really must get a chip and some couplings fitted so that it can enter into service.

Thanks again Rich. Having got as far as I have without removing the cab, I don't think I'll risk it. If the coal looks wrong I'll just hack out the plastic stuff from the bunker, fit a false floor and try again.

 

I'll be using very small staples (the box says Size 10) so they should be OK. If they look significantly different from the plastic ones, I'll replace the lot. Are you going to fit the two missing ones on yours?

[5BarVT]

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

The is me thinking the GWR only had two designs of loco . . .

You missed out the side tank class. Big ones look good!

Paul. 

[The Fatadder]

59 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I'll be using very small staples (the box says Size 10) so they should be OK. If they look significantly different from the plastic ones, I'll replace the lot. Are you going to fit the two missing ones on yours?

 

I'd like to say that I already had, but they had fallen off in the photo, but I'd be lying, in that I had completely missed the fact that they were missing!

I will get them fitted tonight!

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, 5BarVT said:

You missed out the side tank class. Big ones look good!

Paul. 

But aren't they are only tank versions of the Staintstarcastlehallkinggrangemanorcounty class

[Stubby47]

6 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

The is me thinking the GWR only had two designs of loco, the Staintstarcastlehallkinggrangemanorcounty class and the cute pannier. Well my eyes have been opened, not all panniers look the same.

 

This from a man who models DMUs...

 

And you forgot prairies.

[Clive Mortimore]

3 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

 

This from a man who models DMUs...

 

And you forgot prairies.

How could I forget prairies I have just got in from rounding up 'orses on this one.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[St Enodoc]

11 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

How could I forget prairies I have just got in from rounding up 'orses on this one.

I think I'd classify that as a 45xx, or even a 44xx, rather than a 61xx.

[St Enodoc]

I came back from Melbourne a day earlier than usual this week, as I have some work to do in Sydney tomorrow. That meant I had an hour or so of modelling time this evening, so I made and fitted the lamp brackets to 7446.

 

I actually used bigger staples, as they were easier to handle and are still only 0.5mm wide.

 

I made six brackets in the end - from left to right there are three for the rear of the bunker; two for the top of the bunker and the smokebox; and one to go over the left-hand buffer so I can move the lamp easily from one end to the other.

 

Here they are fitted into small holes and secured with a drop of superglue.

 

 

They are slightly overscale but they will be robust and functional. When they're painted black I don't think they'll look too bad. I'll try to do the painting tomorrow night so that I can fit the remaining details and the numberplates over the weekend.

[St Enodoc]

On 27/08/2019 at 18:42, woodenhead said:

No, some had no wheels 

In this photo, 7446 certainly doesn't seem to have the right number - or sizes - of wheels:

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p687266031/h1D2DBDC6#h1d2dbdc6

 

Rest assured that mine will though.

Edited August 29, 2019 by St Enodoc

[woodenhead]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

In this photo, 7446 certainly doesn't seem to have the right number - or sizes - of wheels:

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p687266031/h1D2DBDC6#h1d2dbdc6

 

Rest assured that mine will though.

Ah the 0-2-2 Pannier experiment of 1954 for the Par docks lines

[St Enodoc]

On 30/08/2019 at 00:07, woodenhead said:

Ah the 0-2-2 Pannier experiment of 1954 for the Par docks lines

Do you think I'd get away with it?