Leaderboard

Just before the line enters St Petrock Station it crosses Tredinnick Creek on two girder bridges. Photos of the bridge over Little Petherick Creek on the Padstow branch were studied carefully. It's a well-photographed spot, especially since it became part of the Camel Trail; here's one of my own photos. Whilst my model wasn't intended to be a copy, I wanted to get the 'feel' of the bridge - especially those metal cylinders that support the structure in mid-stream. I started by building a couple of Dapol girder bridge kits. These were being sold by Airfix when I was a kid (which was a long time ago) and have stood the test of time quite well. However, the trusses on the top are like nothing I've ever seen and are surely structurally unsound. Perhaps they were made that way to clear the old Tri-ang overhead wire system. I replaced them with something a little more authentic from the Plastruct range. The supporting cylinders were made from 22mm plastic tubing - somewhat undersize as the originals were 8ft in diameter (=32mm in 4mm/ft scale). I couldn't get anything suitable from my model shop, so bought a length of plastic pipe from the local DIY shop. Though doubtless perfect for plumbing, I quickly discovered that it's made from plastic that can't be glued with modellers' polystyrene cement, so I wrapped each cylinder with thin plasticard, held in place with Evo-stik. The bits between the cylinders are Plastruct again. Photos of Little Petherick bridge in operational days show boarding down the middle of the track. There were also safety rails to keep trains on the bridge in the event of a derailment; in my version these are lengths of flat-bottomed rail, mounted upside down on C&L chairs. I think they help to give the bridge a nice chunky appearance. Finally, the old bridge had handrails to guard the workers from falling in the drink.

A couple of friends have encouraged me to post this, an extract from my blog stpetrock.blogspot.com. I hope some of you find it interesting. Once upon a long time ago I was privileged to be a regular operator on Peter Denny's famous Buckingham model railway. My station for the best part of 37 years was Grandborough Junction, where one of my important jobs was to communicate with the signal box up the line at Quainton Road... except that there wasn't a Quainton Road on the model! To simulate this station, Peter built an amazing electro-mechanical computer that ran the timetable, controlled the clock, set points in the storage sidings and communicated with the 'up' block instrument at Grandborough. Hitherto, the 'Quainton Road' storage sidings had been operated by Peter's youngest son Crispin, but sons don't stay at home for ever. The computer that replaced him was therefore known as the Automatic Crispin. Peter wrote an article about it for the Railway Modeller and I well remember the title - "Buckingham Goes AC". It will therefore come as little surprise to friends and followers of the St Petrock saga that my station should also have a computer to simulate the signal box up the line. However, time and technology move on, so rather than building it from plywood and Meccano, I've used a Raspberry Pi single-board computer. In honour of its illustrious ancestry, though, it too is known as the Automatic Crispin. Mine has a slightly simpler job to do as I don't have points on my storage sidings, but I did want it to display operational notes and the timetable for the St Petrock operator. My first task was to learn how to instruct the Raspberry Pi to perform to my wishes, so I spent several weeks teaching myself Python, then writing a program. Here's a little bit of the code that checks the St Petrock bell button and trip rail near the storage sidings, and displays the 'hours' value. It would probably turn expert programmers to drink, but it works and I'm actually rather proud of it. def get_button_push(after_push_time): GPIO.output(12, GPIO.HIGH) while True: if (GPIO.input(20) == GPIO.HIGH): time.sleep(0.1) else: GPIO.output(12, GPIO.LOW) time.sleep(after_push_time) return() def get_storage_exit(): while True: if (GPIO.input(16) == GPIO.HIGH): time.sleep(0.1) else: time.sleep(2) return() def display_clock(hour,clockhr,minute): if (minute == 0): rect = Rectangle(Point(377,10), Point(417,50)) rect.setFill('black') rect.draw(win) if (clockhr)>9: txt = Text(Point(397,30),clockhr) else: txt = Text(Point(407,30),clockhr) txt.setTextColor('white') txt.setSize(30) txt.draw(win) The screen is an Elecrow 5 inch LCD display that plugs directly into the Raspberry Pi and sits on top of it. Here's a close-up. You'll see that the operator has a couple of instructions to carry out before train working No.2 can depart for Tregarrick North at 6.40am. Now the M7 has been attached to its auto coaches and waits at platform 2. A light beneath the bell-push reminds the operator that the clock has stopped – trains at St Petrock never run late! After checking that the rotating storage sidings are set to road 5, the operator presses the bell once (call attention). The signalman at Sladesbridge responds with one beat on the bell. The St Petrock signalman (or frequently signalwoman) sets the points, then pulls off signals 15 (platform starter) and 12 (advanced starter). The Gas Street crossing keeper also obediently opens the gates. St Petrock now rings '3 pause 1' – 'Is line clear for a stopping passenger train?' Sladesbridge responds by turning the block instrument to 'LINE CLEAR' (green). The M7 then sets off with its train. As the train passes the signal box, the signalman observes that it has a tail lamp (and therefore hasn't left its tail behind) and rings 2 bells (ding...ding... train entering section). Sladesbridge turns the block instrument to 'TRAIN ON LINE' (red). As the train enters the storage sidings it crosses this trip point (two breaks in the nearside rail) that momentarily energise a relay, instructing the Automatic Crispin to ring '2 pause 1' (train out of section). The clock restarts and the Gas Street crossing gates close once more. The sequence is complete.

A brief diversion, just to keep boredom at bay.

Yes it's another Tank and I'm not going bore anyone with a blow by detail build - it's a Shake and bake kit. The kit was introduced in 2018 as part of Tamiya's 1/48th Scale Military Miniature Series (No.94). It's gives the option to build either the Crocodile Variant or a standard Mk.VII Churchill. The box-art, instructions, frames, etc. Part One of the build. Though I follow the instructions for the most part, I do make sure I get all the bits fitted to the lower hull before painting it. This went together in an afternoon and evening, a couple of minor niggles, and a little filling was needed.. Till Part 2 TTFN James

It was gloomy yesterday so I turned the layout lights on and tried running a few trains in the dark. Daft, but oddly fun. Anyway, a few random pics of variable quality. The station in general, I need to lightproof the roof more next time it is off. This is a lucky pic. I cant really see the from of the station building so its just done by point the camera at the mirror on the end of the layout and hoping. The resultant image is then reversed in preview. Through a window. Atmospheric, a bit....

I've been experimenting with backscene materials, I finally decided on use of 3mm PVC foamboard. Unlike wood this has a very smooth finish and takes spray paint well, this was glued to the wooden frame with contact adhesive and kept it's subtle curves. Track weathering was carried out with a dark brown powder pigment applied to each rail side, this was then faded in with a broad fan brush. Once happy this, along with the road/yard weathering was sealed with a matt varnish. Fish plates were picked out with black powders to simulate grease. Experimentation now starts with tree placement.

Well well well, after finding a bit of time to do some modelling for once i have just about got something nearly finished! A long while back, i had a spare lima 50 and deltic and set about hacking them up to create a 'super deltic' as outlined in the the 'deltic locomotives of british rail' book. It started pretty well but as time is always at a premium, playing trains has taken over from building trains. Anyway, for this entry i thought id go back to the start with some pics of how the build went. It all started when i started to look at possibilities with lima deltics, one day i just chopped the roof off a lima deltic with an idea to fit it onto a redundant 50. Looking at the profile it was a half decent match so the cutting discs started to appear to attack the 50 and a very smashed up western for some extra grilles e.t.c Having the line drawing in the book helped to get things roughly in the right area but as its a made up it didnt really matter too much The 50 grilles were cut and rotated 90 degrees to go length ways and a couple of grilles were chopped off a western for some variety so after some frenzied chopping and gluing this was the pile of scrap left. The next and most time consuming stage was the filling and blending in of the mish mash of body parts now glued together, i forget how long it took but it was a while before i was any where near happy with the bodyside, but looking back on it over the past year or so perhaps a bit longer could have been spent to get it that bit more flat but hey ho, sometimes i think lifes a bit too short, especially on a mishmash 'might have been' It was about then that this little project stalled, for reasons i cant remember it sat on the shelf waiting and waiting...... Last summer it was brought down again and given a coat of blue to see how it looked, reasonable enough but still the inspiration wouldnt come. By January it was still there and just by chance i found some DAve Alexander class 37 white metal bogie over lays, Hmm looking at the bogies i thought this could give it the impetus to get things going again with this. The lima sideframes were cut back and the white metal ones firmly glued on in place, the wheelbase is all wrong but you can barely see the wheels so it looks ok to me, also at theis point i chopped off the 50 tanks & boxes on the chassis and added the cut down deltic tanks, it was begging to take shape again. A couple of weeks back i sent off for a few craftsman bit and found the class 50 detailing pack including the bogie steps, once thes arrived the 'Thing' as it has become known has progressed nicely. So, pretty much 2 years in the making, just about ready to number it i realise im dangerously low on transfers so a quick order to Fox for some plates and numbers for another project duly arrived, (excellent service as always from them, couldnt reccomend them enough.) A trip to my dads tonight some me crack out the transfers eager to crack on, then it hit me, what number should it be? After a bit of a think and a read up i took a punt at D700, i thought it would be a bit different to letter it without the D prefix and add in the early data panels just like the 50s. So as of tonight, nearly 3 years in the making im please to unveil the one and probably only super deltic in existance!. It was supposed to have 2 super charged deltic 18 engines creating something like 4600 hp! Apparantly it was very close to being built with BR asking for quotes for 50 & 100 in 67/68 so just imaging what the east coast could have had. Anyway heres some shots of it tonight after putting it back together and giving it a run, next job it to give it some varnish but that will have to wait for better weather, whatever that is these days! Its a great feeling to see something that was in your head for so long come into existense, and i couldnt resist blue tacking a spare kestrel plate i found on the side! Its by now means an accurate representation of a proposed disign but to me it looks the part and i hope it looks ok to who ever will read this and if it encourages any one to have a go at something id love to some other might have beens appear, after all, they are our railways and well build and run what we like! Thanks for looking in, please excuse any spelling/gramar mistakes, its geting late so i spose i best get some sleep. Hopefully some more moddeling time will be comming soon so ill try clear the decks and see whats next on the production line. All the best James