Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[Barry O]

No, a sparkly shoulder/hand bag!!!

Baz

[Martin S-C]

Health and safety would have a field day with those snow clearing workers. No hi-vis. Tut-tut.

[St Enodoc]

Health and safety would have a field day with those snow clearing workers. No hi-vis. Tut-tut.

Oh I don't know. Their essential features seem to be standing out quite well.

[acg5324]

......and not a snow shovel between them!

[Mallard60022]

Branston for me.

 

I don't like his beard...……

P

[Mallard60022]

G'day Folks

 

Sprouts, the best way to do sprouts, you boil them for about 4 hours, or until they go soft a fall to pieces, then tip them down the loo, 'Flush' to taste.

 

manna

 

PS Rather hot in Booborowie, so hot in fact I burnt my feet when I stood on some bare concrete for more than a few seconds, to day 39 c, tomorrow 42 c.

 

42* too hot? Pah! -10* here and all I can tolerate wearing here is a thong and even that makes my ar$£ #### so damp it causes a rash.

[Martin S-C]

Health and safety would have a field day with those snow clearing workers. No hi-vis. Tut-tut.

I was the worse for wear after a couple of very large G&Ts last night and while typing the above post, I discovered to my shock and awe that the letter "I" is right beside the letter "U" on the keyboard, so instead of "Tut-tut" I very nearly wrote something else and much more likely to be a Freudian slip than the above explanation which I am sure none of you will believe, notwithstanding how ridiculous this sentence has now become.

[St Enodoc]

42* too hot? Pah! -10* here and all I can tolerate wearing here is a thong and even that makes my ar$£ #### so damp it causes a rash.

In these parts people would give you a very funny look if you wore a thong on your backside - duck or not...

[Mallard60022]

Thongs for the memories......

[Stubby47]

Thongs of Praise....

[St Enodoc]

Thongs of Praise....

Thongs of Praithe shirley?

[St Enodoc]

A productive afternoon in the cool of the railway room saw the Penzance shelf sections cut to length, the cork attached and the 3 mm ply for the side and end fences cut to size. The differences between the Paddington and Penzance shelves, apart from their length, are a result of having to support the shelves on posts behind the baseboard as there is no wall to attach the brackets to. This means that a rear fence is also needed, so I cut this from 3 mm MDF.

 

I have enough timber to make the support posts, having scoured the racks at two separate branches of Bunnings to find just eight lengths of 42 x 42 softwood that were straight, so cutting these and fixing them both to the floor and the back of the baseboard is the next job.

[Barry O]

Planed softwood is not what it used to be. 2" by 1" (or its metric equivalent) which is straight seems to something impossible to do. Even Horsforth Woodward struggles to provide "straight" planes wood and ply which doesnt delaminate. Pah!

In other news, pint of Schrodingers Cat were drank at the AGM of the eating and drinking section.

Baz

Edited December 29, 2018 by Barry O

[The Fatadder]

Really like the shelf design for additional stock storage, so you intend to add some sort of dust cover to it as well?

 

Once Brent is a little further along I will try and remember to add something similar above the fiddleyard.

[St Enodoc]

Really like the shelf design for additional stock storage, so you intend to add some sort of dust cover to it as well?

 

Once Brent is a little further along I will try and remember to add something similar above the fiddleyard.

Probably not Rich. Since the garage/railway room was built four years ago I have found it to be pretty clean inside. A quick hoover every now and then for sundry creepy-crawlies, spiders and other lethal Australian fauna is all it needs. Best of all, the track hardly ever needs cleaning!

[St Enodoc]

After cutting the support posts to length - the dimension is not critical as they just have to remain below the top of the rear fence - I started on the bases for the posts. These are just short lengths of 42 x 19 (2 x 1 in old money) softwood screwed to the floor. The posts will be fixed to the bases with angle brackets and also screwed to the rear L-girder. I think this will be rigid enough.

 

Here are the first two bases in place, either side of the centre line of the shelves. This is not the same as the centre line of the garage, which is just about in line with the joint in the concrete. As at Paddington, the baseboard widths at the Up and Down ends are different, so the shelf will be offset towards the Up end to even out the reaching distance at each end.

 

The long black line behind the bases is at the rearmost edge of the baseboard structure. The bases are offset 3 mm behind that so that the posts will be vertical allowing for the 3 mm MDF fence at the back of the Penzance loops.

 

The holes for the bases have to be located by trial and error to avoid the reinforcement and/or bits of gravel in the concrete floor. The extra hole on the right is a consequence of this. There are other extra holes hidden under the two bases.

 

The piece of timber on the left had a previous life supporting the Porthmellyn Road signal box levers while the paint on them was drying. Waste not want not.

 

My target is to finish the Penzance shelf before I go back to work a week tomorrow.

Edited July 18, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[St Enodoc]

Another good session this afternoon saw the Penzance stock shelf support posts installed.

 

First I attached all the brackets to the posts, as it was much easier to do this before the posts were erected.

 

This is how the posts are attached to the bases, with a small angle bracket, using one horizontal and one vertical screw initially.

 

If you think that the back of the post looks as though it is very close to the garage door, you are right. I could be cute and say that I had planned it that way, and in a sense I did, but in fact the planning hadn't taken account of the thickness of the rear fence. As a result, instead of the clearance being around 5 mm it is in fact just about 2 mm.

 

I then clamped the post to the back of the rear L-girder and checked that it was vertical. Once I was happy, I screwed the L-girder and the post together and added the two further screws to the angle bracket before removing the clamp.

 

Here are all eight posts in place, ready for the shelf sections to be fitted.

 

You can also see that I have taken down the Penzance totem, as with the fence at the rear of the shelf this would definitely have been obscured. Once the shelves are up I'll attach it to a higher slat on the door.

Edited July 18, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Barry O]

High level layout on it's way????

Plenty of stock storage room. You can store even more stuff in the layout room...hat, coat, TTFN!

Have a great 2019!

Baz

[St Enodoc]

High level layout on it's way????

Plenty of stock storage room. You can store even more stuff in the layout room...hat, coat, TTFN!

Have a great 2019!

Baz

Charles's 0 gauge started with an Ixion Fowler on a shelf in his garage and look where that led him...

 

Seriously, stock storage is the key to the next stages of the sequence. The layout tracks will hold the longer sets, and of course will be where the complete trains are made up, but shorter sets of one or two coaches that can be picked up easily by hand will go on the shelves, as will spare goods wagons. I'm pretty sure that this will give enough space for all the stock. Don't forget that Pentowan carriage sidings will hold about 40 coaches while Polperran will be home to the three Southern trains, the 14xx plus autocoach and the Gloucester single diesel car. In addition, four branch sets will be based at Porthmellyn Road.

 

I'm still working on the loco storage solution. I went into our local art shop yesterday and, while no-one was looking, squeezed a piece of 5 mm foamboard  to see what happened. I think there will be enough 'give' for it to fit the 4 mm slots on the Loco Lift. I therefore bought a small sheet so that I can do more testing.

[Chamby]

Have you tried cutting through the outer card on just one side of the foam board, along the boundary of the part that you need to be squeezed? You’ll find that this controls the compression, keeping it to just where you need it, and it means that most of the deformation will take place on the one side of the board. You can control the deformation quite well, with this technique.

 

Phil

[St Enodoc]

Have you tried cutting through the outer card on just one side of the foam board, along the boundary of the part that you need to be squeezed? You’ll find that this controls the compression, keeping it to just where you need it, and it means that most of the deformation will take place on the one side of the board. You can control the deformation quite well, with this technique.

 

Phil

I'll try that Phil, thanks.

[St Enodoc]

There are now fewer than three hours left in 2018 so it is time once more to review the state of progress on the Mid-Cornwall Lines, which are now four years old.

 

I have still been working away from Sydney every week, which has limited the amount of time I can spend on the layout quite severely. Nevertheless, work continued with a number of major jobs completed or well under way.

 

The first third of the year was taken up almost entirely by building the Modratec lever frame for Porthmellyn Road. To be frank (Sinatra), there were times when I felt as though I’d bitten off more than I could chew but in the end, although the frame involved a lot of effort, it was essentially a relatively small number of different tasks repeated over and over (and over) again. The feeling of satisfaction when I completed the mechanical work was matched only by the feeling of relief that the frame worked exactly as it was intended to. That is a great tribute to Harold Fanshawe of Modratec, whose brainchild the whole Modratec product range is.

 

I needed a break after all that, so went back to point building and track laying, with the focus on the Down end of Porthmellyn Road. This allowed us to add the short clay trains to the sequence for the July running session bringing us up to 48 train movements so far. Although the track wasn’t finished by the time of the BRMA National Convention in September, some temporary connections meant that I was able to demonstrate the layout to a good number of visitors including the aforementioned Harold and also our guest speaker Tony Wright.

 

After the Convention I finished the Porthmellyn Road track and also about 90% of the electrical work on the lever frame. The last 10% will have to wait until I have built the section signals and installed them.

 

The final few weeks of the year saw the plain track for the rest of the Paddington and Penzance storage loops laid, along with good progress on the stock shelves at those locations.

 

So, of the three aspirations – in all honesty I can’t call them goals – I identified twelve months ago I have completed two (Porthmellyn Road track and the lever frame) and partly completed the third (Paddington and Penzance loop tracks). Adding the stock shelves and taking account of the even more limited modelling time I had in the run up to the Convention, I’m actually quite pleased with the progress I’ve made.

 

What, then, does 2019 hold? In no particular order, I’d like to finish the Paddington and Penzance loop pointwork (which will also involve conversion from H&M to Cobalt point motors on the existing loops), then get the scenic area track ballasted so that I can start the signalling installation – thereby facilitating completion of the Porthmellyn Road signal box electrical works. Although I might make a start on constructing the branch – if for no other reason than to provide somewhere to store the old St Enodoc layout boards – I really intend to do more on the operating front, including fitting permanent set numbers to coaches and vans; expanding the sequence to cover the full scope of main line services; introducing the wagon routing system; starting to add lamp brackets and therefore lamps to the trains; and maybe, just maybe, making a start on scenery beginning with Tremewan Tunnel and Nancegwithey Viaduct.

 

It only remains for me to acknowledge and thank, as always, everyone who has contributed to the life of the Mid-Cornwall Lines whether in person, on RMweb or in other ways. We have filled almost 29 pages this year and nearly reached 2000 posts here, which is a lot more than I expected even a few weeks ago but which was aided by a sudden spurt of activity during December, for which I am most grateful.

 

In closing, I wish all the best to you all for 2019, wherever you are and whenever it arrives with you, and may your modelling endeavours proceed under clear signals.

[The Fatadder]

Happy new year, look forward to seeing the layout progress further over the next 12 months.

[Clive Mortimore]

Happy new year UDJ.

[acg5324]

Happy New Year from the Haxby building site.