Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

On 27/06/2022 at 22:17, St Enodoc said:

Sorry to say that Leuralla closed a month or so ago:

 

https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/7744067/end-of-a-beloved-toy-story-as-leuralla-toy-and-railway-museum-closes/

The Leuralla auction starts next weekend.

 

https://www.davidsonauctions.com.au/include-home-upcoming.html

[St Enodoc]

On 03/10/2022 at 21:53, St Enodoc said:

The Leuralla auction starts next weekend.

 

https://www.davidsonauctions.com.au/include-home-upcoming.html

To save folk searching, the Beeson locos are lots 124 (Flying Scotsman), 125 (Sandringham) and 126 (J39).

 

Lot 22 would be nice, as would lots 355 and 3282 - but I don't think I've got anywhere to put those...

[St Enodoc]

This weekend I started to build the casing for St Enodoc lever frame. As at Porthmellyn Road, it will be made of ply and finished with a stained varnish. Unlike Porthmellyn Road, I thought about how I would build the casing while I was working out the baseboard design, so there is rather less bodgery this time round.

 

The casing consists of six main parts - two sides, fixed to the joists that support the frame itself; a front and a top (front), which are permanently joined at 90 degrees; a top (rear) which covers the interlocking; and a bottom, which protects the innards for accidental damage.

 

The two sides have strips to attach the combined front and top (front), so that this can be removed for access.

 

The front also has strips to attach the top (front)...

 

...which hooks round the ends of the lever guide rails, while the top (rear), which I haven't made yet, sit behind them.

 

My woodwork sessions wouldn't be complete without some parts cut to the wrong size, or holes drilled in the wrong place, and today was no exception. Unfortunately, the extra holes are in the side piece that will be visible so I'll either have to fill them before varnishing or, more probably, add two more screws to fill the holes that won't actually do anything.

 

Next weekend should see the basic construction complete, after which the casing will be ready for varnishing and fitting the electrical parts.

Edited October 9, 2022 by St Enodoc
correct terminology

[St Enodoc]

On 06/10/2022 at 21:19, St Enodoc said:

To save folk searching, the Beeson locos are lots 124 (Flying Scotsman), 125 (Sandringham) and 126 (J39).

 

Lot 22 would be nice, as would lots 355 and 3282 - but I don't think I've got anywhere to put those...

Lot 124 sold for $4500, 125 $7000, 126 $2500.

[Gedward]

21 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

My woodwork sessions wouldn't be complete without some parts cut to the wrong size, or holes drilled in the wrong place

 

Ah, so I'm not the only one then.

 

[St Enodoc]

I completed the basic construction of the St Enodoc lever frame casing today.

 

Unfortunately, the Roman woodworms were still around, so I now have more holes to fill before varnishing.

 

Here's the signalman's-eye view. The frame in its casing is a lot neater than its mate at Porthmellyn Road.

 

Next, I drilled the 12mm holes for the two Line Clear Releases on 3 and 25 signals. As at Porthmellyn Road, these are push-buttons with a built-in annular LED. They're just loose in their holes at the moment.

 

I've stuck the pulling list, temporarily, on top of the casing. It will have to move eventually, because the baseboard fascia will sweep in a curve across the back of the frame in due course. I might blank off the three spaces on the right, either with a piece of very thin ply or some styrene sheet imitation planks - not sure yet.

 

Tomorrow, I'll finalise the position of the Line Clear switch and LEDs from Porthmellyn Road, and the rotary switch and LEDs for the FCFSTB to Treloggan Junction, after which I can dismantle the whole casing for hole-filling (good old Plastic Wood) then varnishing.

[acg5324]

Looks very neat John.

[Mulgabill]

More good work there, John.

 

At first glance, I thought you'd got hold of a

1950s Brock-ly crate.

 

All the best

 

TONY

[Sharky]

Very nice!
Just missing a block shelf, a duster & an armchair with the box cat curled up on it by the fire.

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Sharky said:

Very nice!
Just missing a block shelf, a duster & an armchair with the box cat curled up on it by the fire.

Ha, ha! The "block shelf" will be incorporated in the front of the panel; I have a duster but no armchair (the folding stool from a Swedish homeware emporium will have to do) or cat; and if there's a fire I'll be in big trouble.

[St Enodoc]

Today I drilled the remaining holes in @Sharky's simulated "block shelf".

 

The two large holes at the top are for the Line Clear Release buttons, which we saw yesterday.

 

The holes on the left are for the Line Clear signal to Porthmellyn Road. From the left they are for the red LED, the SPDT switch and the green LED.

 

The ones on the right are for the FCFSTB section to Treloggan Junction. The top row is for the green From and To LEDs, the second row is for the corresponding yellow LEDs and the larger hole at the bottom is for the rotary switch.

 

One I'd finished these, I dismantled the casing and filled the unwanted holes on the side panels with plastic wood. It will need another application before sanding down and varnishing.

 

After all that, I started to work out the detailed wiring arrangements for the switches and LEDs. More on that another time.

[St Enodoc]

Not much action today other than applying some more dollops of plastic wood, as we had other things to do (on a lovely spring day, which was nice) in the City.

 

More progress next week with luck.

[John Besley]

Stunning work

[Barry O]

Looks like it should be all done when I next come along to create havoc!

 

Great work!

 

Baz

[5BarVT]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Looks like it should be all done when I next come along to create havoc!

 

Great work!

 

Baz

That’s the whole point of the frame - to prevent the creation of havoc!  Won’t stop you stitching yourself up, mind.

:-)

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Looks like it should be all done when I next come along to create havoc!

 

Great work!

 

Baz

St Enodoc should be pretty well complete operationally. I don't think the head of nickel-silver will have progressed very far towards Pentowan though.

[St Enodoc]

I started to varnish the St Enodoc lever frame casing today.

 

Here are the parts after applying the first coat. This water-based stained varnish only needs two hours before applying a second coat, so I did that later as well. Tomorrow I should have time to sand the surface before applying the third and final coat.

 

While the varnish was drying, I did some preparatory work for wiring up the Porthmellyn Road Line Clear and Treloggan Junction FCFSTB arrangements, in particular working out the connections to the 12-way choccy block plug-in connectors - some of which are for the lever frame and some for the casing, so that I can remove these separately if necessary. I think I know where I'm going with this but I'll check again before I start soldering bits together.

[Oldddudders]

I keep thinking FCFSTB needs a Direction Of Flow indicator... Yes, such things do exist in the modern prototype. 

[5BarVT]

52 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I keep thinking FCFSTB needs a Direction Of Flow indicator... Yes, such things do exist in the modern prototype. 

Not just the modern prototype, certain railways/regions used token instruments that had a “train going to/train coming” from indicator and WR 1970s Reversible Working had direction arrows on the panel.
 

For FCFSTB the LEDs give Direction of Flow don’t they?

 

Paul.

[St Enodoc]

15 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Not just the modern prototype, certain railways/regions used token instruments that had a “train going to/train coming” from indicator and WR 1970s Reversible Working had direction arrows on the panel.
 

For FCFSTB the LEDs give Direction of Flow don’t they?

 

Paul.

Essentially, the rotary switches will do that. If both switches are synchronised correctly, then the corresponding LEDs are also lit.

[St Enodoc]

On 09/10/2022 at 17:46, St Enodoc said:

The casing consists of six main parts - two sides, fixed to the joists that support the frame itself; a front and a top (front), which are permanently joined at 90 degrees; a top (rear) which covers the interlocking; and a bottom, which protects the innards for accidental damage.

The sharp-eyed among you might have noticed that I haven't made the bottom. That's because I've decided not to. The extra depth of the St Enodoc casing compared to that at Porthmellyn Road, plus its smaller footprint, means that the the chance of body parts coming into contact with lever frame parts is much reduced, so for the sake of simplicity I've decided that the bottom isn't really needed. Time will tell...

[Nick C]

39 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

certain railways/regions used token instruments that had a “train going to/train coming” from indicator

There's one at the Mid-Hants, albeit not in use, that has a three position indicator with the labels in French...

[Oldddudders]

2 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

WR 1970s Reversible Working had direction arrows on the panel.

Yes, it was the 1970s I was thinking of, the new box at London Bridge 1976, where I was a temporary Traffic Regulator. The seven lines between North Kent East Junction and London Bridge were 1 Down, 2 Reversible, 3 Up, 4 Down, 5 Down, 6 Up and the Up Passenger Loop. The panel had a direction of flow indicator for 2 Reversible, which road was basically used for the fast trains to/from Cannon St, which only ran in the peaks - up in the morning, down in the evening, of course.

[The Stationmaster]

4 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Not just the modern prototype, certain railways/regions used token instruments that had a “train going to/train coming” from indicator and WR 1970s Reversible Working had direction arrows on the panel.
 

For FCFSTB the LEDs give Direction of Flow don’t they?

 

Paul.

And on lines worked by acceptance lever the 'box diagram included a white 'Accepted By' indicator - same size and shape cutout  as the WR diagram standard track circuit occupancy light cutout.

 

I've an idea that direction indicators might have been used on some single line sections on WR panels prior to reversible signalling coming in.

[St Enodoc]

14 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Yes, it was the 1970s I was thinking of, the new box at London Bridge 1976, where I was a temporary Traffic Regulator. The seven lines between North Kent East Junction and London Bridge were 1 Down, 2 Reversible, 3 Up, 4 Down, 5 Down, 6 Up and the Up Passenger Loop. The panel had a direction of flow indicator for 2 Reversible, which road was basically used for the fast trains to/from Cannon St, which only ran in the peaks - up in the morning, down in the evening, of course.

Typical. You SE types are all the same. You've missed out the four Central running lines - continuing from where you left off the Down Main, Up Main, Down South London and Up South London, making a total of 11 running lines between London Bridge and Blue Anchor.

 

Fortunately, I never needed to go there, as our on-call area ended at South Bermondsey Junction (inclusive). I did have some fun times at New Cross Gate though (that's a sentence you don't see very often).

Edited October 23, 2022 by St Enodoc