End of the Line-Padstow

[autocoach]

Over six months since I last posted to my layout thread.  Well nothing has changed other than the rolling stock. More often than not it has been a reverse "lend lease" site for switching new built HO kit equipment.  I have a huge backlog of SP flat car and box car kits to build. That and trying to bash a very cheap 2-6-0 into a reasonable resemblance of an SP M-4 for the San Ramon Valley branch.  

 

On the UK side, there is the livery work on the O2 #200. Hope my HMRS transfers are still viable. MY old supplier, Mainly Trains, has reduced his stock so not easy to get anymore.  I am also working a bit on the fish sheds across from the station building.  Lacking a drawing, I had to estimate the roof profile with an overhang that covers the track. I have also had to shorten to about 2/3 the length of the prototype buildings.  Lots of visible internal I beam roof support columns as the building was largely open in the 1940's-50's. 

 

I was intrigued by the Bachmann Scenics quay castings. The tide on the Camel estuary will always be out on my model and these seem high enough.  Unfortunately I would need about 5 feet of quay to do just the land side wall of the fish harbor basin. A bit beyond my means at the moment. And it would have been put in storage anyway for the eventual rebuild into Padstow Mark III sometime in the future.  The new pier/jetty on the other side appears to be large concrete block. I don't have room for it on the Mark I version of Padstow

 

The fish merchants office building next to the fish sheds is also in the plan for 2016. 

[autocoach]

Finally getting to the Bodmin trains running with proper power,  an Adams O2. Next year this time I should have Maunsell Rebuilds to make it even more appropriate for summer 1947.

 

 

Note the Exeter train with a class N behind. The Exeter train for the North Cornwall line will follow in about 10 minutes when the Bodmin Local is safely in platform 1 at Wadebridge. This train has the newspaper van B attached at the rear for return to Waterloo. 

Edited December 21, 2015 by autocoach

[autocoach]

Another new picture of O2 #200 at Padstow  with a Bodmin bound train.

 

 

Note the signal box is the Kernow brick box from Bude rather than the stone box that existed at Padstow. The Kernow stone box is based on Wadebridge east and the stairs are on the wrong side. I wanted the stairs to meet the platform ramp as in the prototype.  I have thought about overlaying the brick with the same random stone sheet from Plastruct which I used for my Padstow goods shed.  But the Bude box appears to be taller than the Padstow box.  Will probably have to scratch build one.

 

 

If we ever find a supplier of ready to lay reasonable British looking 16.5 mm track and turnouts from some supplier, I will get kick started to rebuild my Padstow as the new improved version with scratch built switch box.  I don't fancy building track again. Have done it in HO in the past and that was a ugly experience. I am not interested in any of the current UK style offerings so don't go on about it on my Padstow topic or I will pursue like the hound of hell. 

Edited January 3, 2016 by autocoach

[autocoach]

Padstow at Padstow.  

 

 

Yes, I know the cab is wrong for 1947 and many other items need to be added or corrected on the on the Hornby WC. Getting to them. I have a an order in transit from RT for the bits and pieces. 

 

(Wish List for Santa (not Fe))

 

I wish there were a resin casting shell for an as built WC as the modifications to the existing cab are not simple and up to my deteriorating skills.  Unless Hornby surprises us in 2017-2020 and does a new WC/BOB, this will have to do. I was totally surprised by the Merchant Navy as built in 1941 coming this year. So strange things may happen. DCC and sound version of the WC.  Yes, I know I could do this work myself but getting back to deteriorating skills.

 

Other wish list Items include Cambrian to get busy with the LSWR 1410 van and 1543 brake van. 

 

And somewhere out of the blue the Maunsell 56 foot brake third to appear.

 

And for my left coast modelling a new Southern Pacific C-9 2-8-0 with whaleback tender, DCC and Sound. Oh and lets add a left hand freight house version of a Southern Pacific Type 18 depot.

 

Yes, I know I could do this work myself but getting back to deteriorating skills.

Edited January 28, 2016 by autocoach

[autocoach]

I am looking for a yard crane that will match the LSWR 2 Ton yard crane shown in Middleton Press Branch Line to Padstow illustration 108 that was in Padstow yard. (The Middleton book lacks page numbers.)

 

The Bachmann Scenecraft 44-0036 model looks right for the mechanism but I cannot tell if the boom is hexagonal and anyway it looks too light.

 

I expect I will have to scratch the concrete pedestal that raised it what I estimate is 8 feet above the level of the yard.  I just obtained the Wills crane and unfortunately it did not match any of the illustrations. The hexagonal tapered boom is what I am looking for.  I am thinking of modifying the Wills kit by adding plastic strip to the boom and filing it to the correct taper.

 

( I actually have started on this path despairing of any responses from my earlier plea looking for a replica of the LSWR crane boom.  The Padstow crane had two wheels rather than a crank so I will figure that out and possibly cannibalize a ration GWR yard crane for parts. Getting a taper on the boom that resembles the prototype will be a challenge.) 

 

I have checked Holt Model Railways for the Mikes models and the closest is a Midland heavy crane which has what appears to be a close match for the boom.

 

Thanks to any and all who reply with information or suggestions. 

[Piskey]

A Drummond  700 will be added to the collection although I do not know if any visited Padstow 1945-December 1947. 

 

 

Nearly 18 months later ..........  it's probably been and gone for overhaul by now, but .....  

The only evidence of a 700 anywhere near Padstow I've seen is one at Okehampton in 1924!  That is on IHNCR(2) p242.

 

Peter

[autocoach]

Thanks to Ben Alder, of far north fame, I was able to identify a Mikes Models L&Y yard crane as being a very close match to the LSWR yard crane used at Padstow.

 

Now the bad news. It is out of production and none of the other Mikes Models yard cranes match. No traces on EBay/Ebay either. Google tells me there was an unbuilt kit in an estate auction in 2007. Nice to know.

 

I have resorted to bashing the Wells yard crane kit. The boom is not right even though used extra polystyrene strip and filler to try and create the six sided wooden boom. The additional wheel is coming from a small Grandt Line mine head wheel. I am also using various brass and plastic shapes to give it the spirit if not the exact look of the original.

 

The things I do for the love of model trains....

 

Anyone who might have this original Mikes Models L&Y yard crane kit (not either of the LMS cranes Holt has in stock) lying around they are willing to part with please contact me via PM. 

 

thanks in advance.

[autocoach]

Nearly 18 months later ..........  it's probably been and gone for overhaul by now, but .....  

The only evidence of a 700 anywhere near Padstow I've seen is one at Okehampton in 1924!  That is on IHNCR(2) p242.

 

Peter

Well I did obtain the Hornby 700 in Maunsell black some months ago anyway. Unlike most other steam engines I have left it in it's early 1930's livery rather than applying 1942 Bulleid livery. A ghost engine in Padstow 1947. Of course it now has North Cornwall route disks.

[autocoach]

Yard Crane progress

 

Still a lot of work. The crane itself is sort of a fanciful adaptation of a Wills crane.  The only model kit I have identified as close to the prototype is an old Mikes Models L&Y yard crane now out of production. I have scoured EBay and other sources and only turned up one reference in an estate auction from 2007.

Edited March 4, 2016 by autocoach

[autocoach]

A little progress on the yard crane. Now having to decide whether to go back and restart the railings with brass wire instead of round plastic material which is not holding the curve. 

 

Edited March 15, 2016 by autocoach

[autocoach]

And now onto the painting stage:

 

 

[autocoach]

Another St. Georges day with the only local celebration is at the local branch of the Telefèric Barcelona , a tapas restaurant that opened recently where it is Sant Jordi day. On the other hand it will be about 24 C and bright sunshine.

 

And here I missed the Taunton RMWEB event for another year.  

 

Not much UK modelling going on at moment. I have been working on the conversion of a Bachmann 2-8-0 consolidation to a fictional Southern Pacific C-13 class number 2870. The C-13 class consisted of 2 locomotives purchased from a bankrupt Oregon timber railroad in 1948 and used in the SF Bay Area on various duties including the San Ramon branch line after being adorned with various SP appliances-Pyle visored lights, number boards etc. (All a fiction because the Bachmann loco was inexpensive and is serving as a test bed as well for conversion to TCS WOW Sound when I can figure out how to get rid of the coal sounds and replace them with the sounds of an oil fired locomotive. No fireman shoveling coal but instead the sound of the gurgling bunker C being heated to flow from the tender and sprayed into the firebox. And this particular 2-8-0 would probably have had too high an axle load for the old light bridges on the San Ramon branch over Walnut Creek and San Ramon Creek.) 

Edited April 23, 2016 by autocoach

[autocoach]

Just a quarterly post to say nothing has been added or deleted from my personal Padstow since the goods yard crane. 

 

I am awaiting Hornby's Maunsell rebuilds arriving on these far distant shores some time in August. I am also considering the purchase of a box the new DCC Concepts 16.xx mm gauge bullhead flex track if Hattons will be able to ship it at a reasonable price.  I know it is LMS/BR prototype not closely resembling LSWR/SR but will still experiment with ripping up old Atlas Code 100 flex used for Padstow on the Pacific. Understand it will be a wait for the turnouts.

 

Even most Southern Pacific kit building efforts have been idled due to the general torpor that pervades my life in the periods of 39 C weather that occurs in July away from the coast in California. 

 

By September things may change.

Edited July 23, 2016 by autocoach

[autocoach]

The 2 Maunsell Rebuilds to approximate a set used in Bodmin services have arrived. Nice coaches. I have no evidence of Set 45 on the Padstow-Bodmin service. However I have seen photos of Set 44 at Padstow. However it may have been in a North Cornwall service. I have seen a photo of Set 20 at Boscarne Junction which I would assume was either going to Bodmin or horror of horrors Bodmin Road via Bodmin GWR. Set 20 cannot be modeled from the new Hornby coaches as to my knowledge it included a 56 foot ex LSWR corridor brake compo. 

 

One question on the LAV coach how did passengers get from compartments to the lavatory?

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2016 by autocoach

[Zomboid]

I think only the adjacent compartments had access to the toilets. Sure I read that somewhere...

Have you got a thread on your SP efforts? (I read this on my phone and I don't get to see signatures, so sorry if this is as stupid as it could be). Particularly interested in small SP steam locos, as I don't have space or budget for a 4-8-4 daylight or a cab-forward...

Edited August 4, 2016 by Zomboid

[Oldddudders]

Gould has a drawing of the layout which confirms only the two adjacent compartments had access to the lavatories, of which there were two. One of these two compartments was the only smoking compartment, at least if the Hornby model has its windows correctly decorated.

 

The Dia 418 Compo brake has three loos. One each exclusively for the two first class compartments, and another shared between the two third class compartments either side of it. A short side corridor links the two, with the lavatory door off this.

[autocoach]

I think only the adjacent compartments had access to the toilets. Sure I read that somewhere...

Have you got a thread on your SP efforts? (I read this on my phone and I don't get to see signatures, so sorry if this is as stupid as it could be). Particularly interested in small SP steam locos, as I don't have space or budget for a 4-8-4 daylight or a cab-forward...

I don't have a website or blog that focuses on my SP efforts. Too many very good SP modelers around here (SF Bay Area) to display my mistakes.  At present as seen in some of the photos on this thread, my HO equipment is sometimes seen on Lend-Lease to the Southern Railway in Padstow, 

 

Small SP steam are a big problem these days for me. Most of the brass moguls (M-6) Consolidations (C-9) and ten wheelers (T-28) that used to be numerous on the used market are locked up in collections that are not being sold. When they do show up they are too high priced for me and would be a pain to fit DCC on the old chassis wired electrical systems. Newer Sunset Models or similar are in the $600-700 range when you can find them.  I have the Athearn Mountain but it is for shelf display as it would not fit my San Ramon branch at all. I have a foobie (no known real prototype) bashed from an altered Bachmann heavy 2-8-0 and numbered 2870 as a class C-13 (neither existed) with the fiction that it was purchased used from a dieselized Oregon lumber line about 1950 and has slight SP alterations. I am looking for an SP medium Vanderbilt tender for this locomotive or another future foobie sister. I have a pair of MDC Harriman 4-6-0's that were re-detailed in the 1980's but are a problem for DCC and still in deep deep storage. 

 

On the good news side, Golden Gate Depot which is a part of brass importer Sunset Models has announced it will manufacture (import from China) a series of 68 and 70 foot SP Harriman passenger and baggage cars probably available next year. See http://www.goldengatedepot.com/reservationHO.html. They have already made these cars in O (US 1:48) scale so have all the research done along with feedback on all their O scale version mistakes which they promise to fix in HO. There always is a lot of confusion about the length of SP passenger cars as the class designation is based on the interior bulkhead to bulkhead measurement.  Thus a 60-C-6 chair car is actually 68.5 feet long at the buffer plate (not UK buffers) rather than 60 feet long. MDC Roundhouse unfortunately made this error in the early 1980's with their Harriman cars. 

Edited August 5, 2016 by autocoach

[railroadbill]

Your layout does capture Padstow very well imho.  When I was a child my family used to go to Padstow regularly for our summer holidays so I've actually  been there by train in steam days. My SR stock tends to be around the era of the rebuilt Bulleid pacifics - my layout is more generic than a specific station though.

 

The new Hornby coaches look very good behind your o2.

 

I was interested in your posts on the coach thread  about  railways/railroads around Walnut Creek, because we've visited friends there a couple of times as part of longer trips to the US and I have traveled to SF by the BART from there.   We also got to the SP museum at Sacramento last time which was very good.

 

The old electrified line from SF over the Bay bridge sounds intriguing. 

[Pufferazzi]

I don't have a website or blog that focuses on my SP efforts. Too many very good SP modelers around here (SF Bay Area) to display my mistakes.  At present as seen in some of the photos on this thread, my HO equipment is sometimes seen on Lend-Lease to the Southern Railway in Padstow, 

 

Small SP steam are a big problem these days for me. Most of the brass moguls (M-6) Consolidations (C-9) and ten wheelers (T-28) that used to be numerous on the used market are locked up in collections that are not being sold. When they do show up they are too high priced for me and would be a pain to fit DCC on the old chassis wired electrical systems. Newer Sunset Models or similar are in the $600-700 range when you can find them.  I have the Athearn Mountain but it is for shelf display as it would not fit my San Ramon branch at all. I have a foobie (no known real prototype) bashed from an altered Bachmann heavy 2-8-0 and numbered 2870 as a class C-13 (neither existed) with the fiction that it was purchased used from a dieselized Oregon lumber line about 1950 and has slight SP alterations. I am looking for an SP medium Vanderbilt tender for this locomotive or another future foobie sister. I have a pair of MDC Harriman 4-6-0's that were re-detailed in the 1980's but are a problem for DCC and still in deep deep storage. 

 

On the good news side, Golden Gate Depot which is a part of brass importer Sunset Models has announced it will manufacture (import from China) a series of 68 and 70 foot SP Harriman passenger and baggage cars probably available next year. See http://www.goldengatedepot.com/reservationHO.html. They have already made these cars in O (US 1:48) scale so have all the research done along with feedback on all their O scale version mistakes which they promise to fix in HO. There always is a lot of confusion about the length of SP passenger cars as the class designation is based on the interior bulkhead to bulkhead measurement.  Thus a 60-C-6 chair car is actually 68.5 feet long at the buffer plate (not UK buffers) rather than 60 feet long. MDC Roundhouse unfortunately made this error in the early 1980's with their Harriman cars. 

 

 

Hi,

 

Just found your blog and wow....I'm modelling Wadebridge SR ( 1961 ) in Scalefour.....and I know Walnut Creek...a friend by the name of Tom Howard who lives in Homestead Avenue is a member of the Walnut Creek model rail club  and I've been there on my many visits....I also know that there is a closed route very near to his home.....I also love American Railroads having bought much stuff from Joan at Just Trains in Concorde, also Chan Trains and all the local stores...I'm into N scale of the Western Roads SPAC12 I love them and GS4s and Santa Fe 4-8-4s and 2-10-4s are nice!

 

If you know Tom Howard and his wife Patti say Hi from me ( Chris in London )

[autocoach]

This is cut and paste from the Hornby Maunsell 58 foot rebuilds topic so it can stay on topic:

 

This is all way off topic. Except that my Set 45 of Hornby Maunsell rebuilds runs on my summer 1947 model of Padstow which is of course located in Walnut Creek and for the moment is the only place I have to run the HO equipment for the eventual Walnut Creek Station area layout I am planning. How's that for a loose connection. I have seen photo's of Set 44 in malachite in 1950 in Padstow. I will probably buy a malachite set to number 44 when Hornby make it hopefully next year. 

 

The old WC station site is now covered by the very large multi-story Broadway Plaza shopping center.  The depot building was moved in the 1970's about 200 yards south and 100 feet east and is currently used as a high end steak restaurant. Track was removed in early 1980's.   The right of way is now a bike/walking trail known as the "Iron Horse Trail".  The junction of local creeks just north of the station area was undergrounded beneath the shopping center and a flood bypass created.  None of the area looks like it did in 1947. The hills are are mostly covered with new growth "urban forest" put in by developers in the 1960-1990 period.  Australians would be reminded of home by the large numbers of eucalyptus/gum trees now up to 150 feet in height,   

 

The SP WC depot building is about 1.5 miles from BART station. BART does not follow the old SP line at all but does use part of the former Oakland Antioch and Eastern Railway (not railroad) right of way.  The OA&E was an electrified line that built an early 20th century tunnel through the Oakland hills. One could ride by ferries from SF to Oakland, through the hills and on to a ferry over the Sacramento river and then on to Sacramento and eventually Chico some 150 miles north as part of the Sacramento Northern Railway. For a brief period 1939-41electrified trains crossed the bay on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. It took a good 12 hour to get to Chico this way.  Also after the OA&E, arrived in Walnut Creek with a direct route to SF, SP discontinued passenger service on the San Ramon branch. The photo shows an excursion/fail fan train in 1947. 

 

I will continue this off topic discussion about the WC station and central Contra Costa County railroads and railways on my layout topic. See http://www.rmweb.co....e-line-padstow/ should anyone be interested.

[autocoach]

Hi,

 

Just found your blog and wow....I'm modelling Wadebridge SR ( 1961 ) in Scalefour.....and I know Walnut Creek...a friend by the name of Tom Howard who lives in Homestead Avenue is a member of the Walnut Creek model rail club  and I've been there on my many visits....I also know that there is a closed route very near to his home.....I also love American Railroads having bought much stuff from Joan at Just Trains in Concorde, also Chan Trains and all the local stores...I'm into N scale of the Western Roads SPAC12 I love them and GS4s and Santa Fe 4-8-4s and 2-10-4s are nice!

 

If you know Tom Howard and his wife Patti say Hi from me ( Chris in London )

Chris, 

 

Unfortunately I do not know Tom and Patti.  I have lived in Walnut Creek for about 22 years but found the Walnut Creek Model Railroad club not to my interest. The WCRR club members are primarily operators on a large fixed layout that has changed little in the last 22 years. I am primarily a modeler and tinkerer, I may have met Tom at my LHS (local hobby shop) Just Trains in Concord but to not recall the name. I am not a complete hermit.  He would be always welcome to contact me. I live just up Ygnacio on Tampico. 

 

best

[railroadbill]

Hi Ken,

 

I checked with my friends in WC and, yes, the Broadway Plaza is where their daughter used to work, so we have indeed been there.  I'm told that there is a fountain marking the spot where the creeks are now underground. We didn't go to the steak restaurant with our friends and they haven't been there either,  We did go to an excellent restaurant that had its own micro brewery, but I cant remember the name. I'll find out.

My friend says that no-one likes the eucalyptus trees (except koalas in Australia presumably).

 

And my friend says:

"You can go north of WC across the bay, if you take the train from Martinez to go to Sacramento. Done that a couple of times, as Sac train station is right by the railway museum".

Her other comment is  " You still can't go south of the bay by Bart!!! Just a miracle you can take the Bart to SFO!!! 21st century California..."

But I think BART is a good system, it worked well for my wife and myself on a couple of occasions.

 

One thing that interested me was how much different the climate is from SF itself.  But you are in a desert climate  I believe. Last time we visited we went to the summit of Mount Diablo and it was 100F.....  

It's a good place to live.

cheers,

Bill

[autocoach]

 

One thing that interested me was how much different the climate is from SF itself.  But you are in a desert climate  I believe. Last time we visited we went to the summit of Mount Diablo and it was 100F.....  

It's a good place to live.

cheers,

Bill

Bill

 

BART should be in San Jose by 2021 (funding being available) going down the east shore of the bay. But San Jose/Santa Clara County is so sprawling that getting to downtown will only be useful when you can snag a self driving electric Uber/Lyft/Google car (the light rail/streetcar system in San Jose never goes where you want it) to take you to your real destination. All new BART cars (coaches) start arriving next year. BART is a weird mixture from a time when new technology first caught the imagination. Conceived with 1960's technology. All third rail electric-they got that right. Controlled by 1970's era main frame computers with on board attendants only to take control in emergencies.  Major upgrading is being mooted but the money may not be available. Oh, and it is built to the Indian State Railways standard gauge of 5 foot 6 inches so incompatible with any other rail technology in the US. 

 

I have taken the standard diesel passenger train (CalTrain) from Martinez to Sacramento and back several times to do research in the California State Railroad Museum library. All Bay Area passenger rail services are government owned, but each by its own government agency. No franchise operators. (The US being more socialist in this aspect than the UK.)

 

As to the climate of the Creek and Interstate 680 corridor. It is said to be "Mediterranean" but I think that in summer it may resemble the African side or the Mediterranean rather than the Spanish, French, Italian coast. It can get a bit warm but it is very dry in the inland valleys of the Bay Area.  Working HVAC (air conditioning) is an essential requirement for any home. Where my son lives in the city of San Francisco it is usually 40 F degrees cooler, often damp and foggy.

 

Your visit must have been several years ago as restaurants come and go at a rapid rate. The brewpub restaurant you reference could have been Faultline or it's successor Pyramid Brewing which are now gone replaced with new restaurants. Even earlier it could have been Black Diamond brewery which became a Harley Davidson motorcycle dealer and is now a combination Bentley and Maserati dealer. Walnut Creek is getting a little too upscale.

 

best (if you want to continue this lets do it by private message.)

Edited August 23, 2016 by autocoach

[railroadbill]

Hi Ken,

thanks for that, my friends think it could have been a pyramid brewing restaurant we went to. I'll PM you soon with some more info,

cheers

Bill

[autocoach]

I couldn't resist this given my penchant for the Southern Pacific Pacifics.....

 

I assume as there was not accompanying information that this was being thinly disguised as a continental pacific for a movie shoot. No idea what movie. It is post war from tender lettering style. Now I can't say an SP locomotive never had buffers.....They did go to the trouble of removing the headlight and pilot and putting some sheet metal on the front. They should have removed the bell too.

 

I assume the tender was never in the shot or has just been repainted.

 

 

 

Lower but not lowest budget move so they could not afford to take cast and crew to Europe.

Edited September 13, 2016 by autocoach