Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

Tonight I had a spare hour so, while I was in the mood, I restored the images to another 20 pages of the topic. I'm back to page 231 now and I think there are about another 40 pages to go before I've restored everything that was sunk without trace earlier this year.

 

If anyone else who posted images on pages 192 to 255 inclusive would like to restore them then please feel free!

Edited June 20, 2022 by St Enodoc

[Woodcock29]

And belated best wishes from me. I've just started to contemplate the idea of a couple of 'tea trays' over my hidden storage loops to facilitate changing locos as one way to reduce the number sitting in the loco yard (excessive congestion so it looks like its always a Sunday) and also to extend the operating sequence.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Woodcock29
Typo

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

And belated best wishes from me. I've just started to contemplate the idea of a couple of 'tea trays' over my hidden storage loops to facilitate changing locos as one way to reduce the number sitting in the loco yard (excessive congestion so it looks like its always a Sunday) and also to extend the operating sequence.

Good idea. It will cut down the amount of scenery you need too.

[Barry O]

The one on Chapel en le Frith slides up and down. Handy if you can't reach a vehicle which is in distress.

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

The one on Chapel en le Frith slides up and down. Handy if you can't reach a vehicle which is in distress.

 

Baz

In theory, mine are capable of that but I won't be doing it except in dire emergency.

[Woodcock29]

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Good idea. It will cut down the amount of scenery you need too.

Not really as they're hidden anyway so no scenery there - must be one of my favourite parts of the layout!

Edited June 21, 2022 by Woodcock29
Typo

[Tallpaul69]

Hi John,

Can I be cheeky and hi jack your thread for a minute on the subject of shipping things from UK to Melbourne?

 

Normally I only ship things I sell on the Bay to UK. A guy from Melbourne has asked me if I would ship a loco (if he wins it!) to Melbourne.

I have no problem with doing this now and again, but wondered about you(and others) experience of shipping times and good or bad couriers from the uk? Also anything else I should consider?

 

Many thanks

Paul

 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Hi John,

Can I be cheeky and hi jack your thread for a minute on the subject of shipping things from UK to Melbourne?

 

Normally I only ship things I sell on the Bay to UK. A guy from Melbourne has asked me if I would ship a loco (if he wins it!) to Melbourne.

I have no problem with doing this now and again, but wondered about you(and others) experience of shipping times and good or bad couriers from the uk? Also anything else I should consider?

 

Many thanks

Paul

 

 

 

Paul, most of the stuff I order from the UK (from retailers, generally - I've pretty well given up buying on eBay due to the exorbitant Global Shipping Program) comes by Royal Mail International and I've had virtually no problems. Transit times are variable. Pre-Covid about 2 weeks was typical but now it can be up to two months and occasionally more.

[45568]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Paul, most of the stuff I order from the UK (from retailers, generally - I've pretty well given up buying on eBay due to the exorbitant Global Shipping Program) comes by Royal Mail International and I've had virtually no problems. Transit times are variable. Pre-Covid about 2 weeks was typical but now it can be up to two months and occasionally more.

G'day Paul,

                    I can echo all of the points John raised above. Ebay has made trade with the UK very difficult post-Brexit, charging 20% VAT on the transaction, including postage, to UK purchasers at point of sale. Similarly, any purchase from outside Australia attracts 10% GST paid by the purchaser, whilst not refunding the 20% VAT!! I do wonder how much of this 'tax' money collected is actually seen by the government? I used to have a nice little trade listing items available cheaply here in Oz, with specific UK interest on UK Ebay, going to keen buyers in the UK. This has all but stopped now. I recently listed some Hornby Trout wagons in the UK, but postage and other charges made them very expensive to eventual buyer. All my Ebay UK purchases now go to an address in the UK, where they are collected until a parcel just under 2kg is possible, then sent out to Oz. The 2kg limit is apparently the limit for Royal Mail International parcels. Usual transit time is 2-3weeks but as St. E said above, it can be longer. Tracking/signed for should be applied to the parcel. I have waited 3+ weeks for a parcel from the Eastern States to WA!

 If possible, contact the would-be purchaser outside of Ebay, perhaps through RMWeb pm, and email each other contact details etc. then conduct the sale privately. It will save you both money in the long run.

Hope this helps.

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.

 

[Neal Ball]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Paul, most of the stuff I order from the UK (from retailers, generally - I've pretty well given up buying on eBay due to the exorbitant Global Shipping Program) comes by Royal Mail International and I've had virtually no problems. Transit times are variable. Pre-Covid about 2 weeks was typical but now it can be up to two months and occasionally more.

You have my sympathies here.

 

I don’t think it’s been worse post Covid19, but it hasn’t made the post Brexit situation any better. Parcel deliveries to me in Spain used to be 2 weeks (when the UK was inside the EU) Now we are talking a minimum 7 or 8 weeks…. With duty added on to everything, including magazines in some cases.

 

Magazines, used to take a week from publishing, it’s now 5 weeks 🙁

 

I am still waiting for a orders from Modelu; YouChoos and the 3rd Western Times magazine, all from the last week of April 🙁🙁

[16Brunel]

On 19/06/2022 at 17:49, St Enodoc said:

The numbers are fine. I just put the tray in place back-to-front!

To prevent repetition, perhaps write/label "THIS SIDE TO WALL" on the wall side of the tray?  Do it ugly enough and you'll never want to see that side again!

[St Enodoc]

9 minutes ago, 16Brunel said:

To prevent repetition, perhaps write/label "THIS SIDE TO WALL" on the wall side of the tray?  Do it ugly enough and you'll never want to see that side again!

Might be worth a try - thanks. Perhaps I'll follow the style of those old bumper stickers - "If you can see this, it's back-to-front".

[aardvark]

Or the one on the back of motorcyclist's jackets: "if you can read this, she* fell off".

 

*phraseology toned done for RMWeb

 

[Oldddudders]

Or, on the car, "If you can read this you're too close!"

[Regularity]

Even within the UK, eBay’s GSP is poor: expensive, and difficult to track because of the courier they use - and that applies to imports from abroad, too.

I have had problems with Parcelforce: letter requesting VAT payment not delivered, and package returned to sender. He has had this happen twice this year and won’t ship to the UK anymore.

Best service I have had has been with UPS. Never had a problem, and clear tracking.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

Or, on the car, "If you can read this you're too close!"

That's the one I had in mind.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

I am still waiting for... the 3rd Western Times magazine, all from the last week of April 🙁🙁

My most recent Transport Treasury Publishing order took just 12 days from order to delivery and at a very fair postage cost too. Highly recommended (as are the books concerned!).

 

Usual disclaimer.

[St Enodoc]

Does this work?

 

Actually it does, because...

 

 

Ta da!

 

The locos at the front are those that are used in the current sequence. Those at the back are spare at the moment.

 

I then went back to the lever frame and did some more marking-out on the lower tappets (not quite finished because, later, I found a couple of errors)...

 

...replaced the locking bars and fitted the upper tappets...

 

... and marked out the upper tappets.

 

I'll check this all again over the weekend then start filing.

[Tallpaul69]

My thanks to everyone who responded to my query about shipping from the UK to  Australia.

My potential buyer has now asked me should he win, to ship to his sister in UK. 

So problem solved!

Best regards

Paul

 

PS

John, I may have missed the answer to this in your earlier posts, in which case, my apologies, but how do you access the reserve locos at the back on your storage tray?

[St Enodoc]

12 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said:

John, I may have missed the answer to this in your earlier posts, in which case, my apologies, but how do you access the reserve locos at the back on your storage tray?

Paul, they're only about 700mm away but I usually stand on a plastic step from Ikea (other retailers are available).

[St Enodoc]

A good session with the needle files today.

 

Starting with the lower tappets, I checked the marking for every notch before scribing and filing. I'm glad I did, because I found one (so far) that was wrong. After filing each tappet I placed it back into the frame temporarily and rechecked the action for each notch - not that there's much that I could do now if it's wrong, except make another tappet. That's possible within reason as I have a couple of spares left from Porthmellyn Road and I could also use one of the blanks that belong to the spare levers (1, 2 and 3).

 

Anyway, I've filed nearly half the notches now and should get through most, if not all, the rest tomorrow depending on what other jobs are found for me to do.

 

Time for a glass of something now I think!

[5BarVT]

That’s interesting!

I can see that the Vs are ordinary notches: what are the square ended ones and the 2 small square ones?

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

6 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

That’s interesting!

I can see that the Vs are ordinary notches: what are the square ended ones and the 2 small square ones?

Paul.

The notches with one square and one angled end are part of the conditional locking (the associated locking bar pins are forced into the notch by a spring on the end of the locking bar). Not entirely sure about the small square ones. All part of Harold's very clever design.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The notches with one square and one angled end are part of the conditional locking (the associated locking bar pins are forced into the notch by a spring on the end of the locking bar). Not entirely sure about the small square ones. All part of Harold's very clever design.

Anyway, Paul @5BarVT, you're the (retired) signalling engineer, not me! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to see if you can work it out from the tappet notch data and the lever leads (hint: I can't...).

 

St Enodoc SB diagram v5 20190907.pdf

 

SE lever frame tappet notch data.xls

 

St Enodoc lever leads v5 20190907.xls

You'll need to use the Modratec number, not the (layout orientation) lever number of course.

Edited June 25, 2022 by St Enodoc

[5BarVT]

I’ll accept the mission, though it may not be quick.  What I really need is the locking table which I thought we discussed but I can’t find it at present.  When I get round to it I’ll make one up which should help a bit . . .

Paul.