Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

My "John is in the country" sensor was working then!

 

Hope the jet lag gets sorted asap

Baz

Yes it was, well done. Only Scotland this time though.

 

We find that Melatonin is the key to getting over jet-lag quickly. By tomorrow, everything should be back to normal (?), which might mean that I can get into the railway room and fit some point motors.

[St Enodoc]

I picked up the DCC Concepts right-angle adapters, together with a box of more point motors, from the Post Office this morning. Very timely, as I started building the next double slip last night.

[St Enodoc]

A couple of hours in the railway room today saw Porthmellyn Road 19A and 22B points (the double slip) motorised and connected to the control panel.

 

This took a little longer than I had expected, as the relationship between the motor and the equalising lever needed a little bit of adjustment to ensure that the blades threw smoothly and fully. It is quite fascinating watching the lever at work, as one set of blades invariably moves before the other. I haven't got a YouTube channel so I can't show you but when Charles is next here I will ask him to make a short clip.

 

Here they are, with both ends lying Normal. This provides trapping protection to the Up Main from Platform 3, the Loop and the Up Sidings.

 

While we were on holiday in Scotland, I had decided that the temporary mimic panel wasn't the best way to control the points, as it is quite difficult to see the true relationship between both ends of a crossover, especially when these are formed by a slip. I therefore built a new temporary lever frame with just the point levers for Porthmellyn Road. This will keep things going until the Modratec frame is ready for use - although with no signals as yet.

 

That meant, of course, that a signal box diagram was needed, so I ran off a print of the latest sketch (see page 24) and stuck it to the wall in line with the lever frame.

 

Tomorrow I plan to install the droppers, then connect the frogs and power feeds followed by reinstating the temporary track into Platform 3. That will see the layout ready for the next running session in four weeks' time. If I have time between now and then, I will lay the permanent track for No 1 Spur and a temporary goods siding. I will also carry on with the second double slip (22A and hand points A). If it is ready in time I will lay that too, although I very much doubt that I will have it commissioned for the running session.

 

Edited to punish a rogue apostrophe.

Edited July 20, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Andrew P]

Lovely pointwork and it will be interesting to see a video of them in operation, Jason T  / Bacup, of this parish made my curved Single Slip for Bitton and that was a piece of artwork in itself, so I know the amount of work you've put into these.

[St Enodoc]

Just finished watching the third Bledisloe Cup match from Brisbane. What a cracker, especially the second half. Anyone who thought this would be a lifeless dead rubber will have had to think again.

[St Enodoc]

I had a few more productive hours today. Wiring up the new track, which forms the first section of the layout to be connected to the Yard power district bus, didn't take long at all and neither did connecting the frogs to the two point motors.

 

After reinstating the temporary track for the Branch (Platform 3) I still had some time to spare, so I laid in a temporary Up siding - just a yard of SMP track - and also the permanent track for No 1 Spur, which I also wired up to the Yard bus. I then tried shunting some goods wagons in and out of Platform 3 and the Up siding. This went reasonably well, although a couple of wagons bumped and derailed when being pushed. I found that these have Gibson wheels so it is quite possible that they have gone out of gauge. I will check another day and possibly change the wheels for Hornby ones.

 

Here is a view of progress looking in the Up direction. The alignment of the Loop, next to the Branch, is finalised but I will decide the exact position of the two Up sidings later, once the next double slip and the point that forms the two sidings are laid. Two Hornby-Dublo buffer stops are prominent in this view...

 

...as is this one at the end of No 1 Spur, which is firmly screwed to the baseboard to prevent any nose-dives. In due course it will be replaced by one of the Dave Franks kits that I bought recently. No 1 Spur is just under six feet long so it will allow for some coach storage as well as acting as a headshunt for the Branch.

 

There will be a dummy trap point at the other end of No 1 Spur but I haven't decided yet on the exact location. It will depend on a couple of factors, such as the exact length of any coaches stored in the spur, the fouling point at the double slip and the easiest place to install the associated ground signal, taking into account the position of point motors, wiring, baseboard members, etc.

 

It might be wishful thinking, but Porthmellyn Road now seems to be starting to look a little bit like Par.

 

After all that I fished around in some boxes for my Hornby Pressed Steel single railcar, which now won't ever get converted to a Gloucester version, so that I could recover the decoder for use in another loco - probably a Bachmann pannier.

 

I've now gone as far as I can without laying the next double slip, so finishing that is the next task for what little spare time I have at the moment.

Edited July 20, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Andrew P]

Trackwork looking really lovely, and as for Par, well I did fancy doing that before I started KM, but felt I wanted to move out of Cornwall this time for a wider range of Stock and operation.

 

It's looking superb mate.

[Michael Edge]

If they are old Gibson wheels a lot of them were very loose on the axles - re-set them and put a drop of loctite or superglue on the wheel back. Present production (Oldham address on the packets) doesn't do this.

[St Enodoc]

If they are old Gibson wheels a lot of them were very loose on the axles - re-set them and put a drop of loctite or superglue on the wheel back. Present production (Oldham address on the packets) doesn't do this.

Yes, they are all old (Norfolk) stock Mike. Getting the back-to-back right is easy enough but I struggle to get the wheels an equal distance from the centre line, so sometimes the wagons crab along which might be part of the problem. I've also found a number of wobbly ones where the tyre has come loose.

 

Edit - when I buy new wheels these days I tend to go for Hornby as they're about 20% cheaper than Gibson. If I tag a pack or two on to a larger order from a box-shifter they are effectively post-free too.

Edited October 22, 2017 by St Enodoc

[The Stationmaster]

Very Par if I might say so.

[Legend]

Hi , sorry if I missed it but might I ask what underlay it is you are using?

[St Enodoc]

Hi , sorry if I missed it but might I ask what underlay it is you are using?

For plain track it's DCC Concepts foam, which comes in 3 mm thick strips about 2 ft long, ready chamfered with a half-cut slit up the middle so you can curve it easily.

 

For pointwork I use good old 3 mm cork.

[St Enodoc]

Not much time for trains this weekend but I did snatch an hour or so this afternoon.

 

I set out various combinations of coaches and locos on No 1 Spur to see how close to 19A/22B points they came. The coaches I used were 60 ft E140/E145 B Sets (Airfix/Dapol) and 57 ft BR non-corridor seconds (Bachmann). The locos were small prairies.

 

With two B Sets and two locos, there was plenty of spare room in the spur.

 

 

With two sets of three coaches, the coaches stood right up to the fouling point for the connection from the Branch to the main lines.

 

In this photo you can see the position of the ends of various combinations, namely from the left:

 

1. two two-coach sets

2. two two-coach sets and one loco

3. one three-coach set and one two-coach set

4. two two-coach sets and two locos

5. one three-coach set, one two-coach set and one loco

6. two three-coach sets (at the fouling point)

7. one three-coach set, one two-coach set and two locos (beyond the fouling point)

 

21 disc controls the exit from No 1 Spur with the (dummy) trap point (23) about six scale feet in advance of the disc. With the disc at position 6, although it will maximise the useful length of the spur and so give the most flexibility regarding where to stable coaches - noting that No 2 Spur and both Chapel Sidings will also be available for stabling - I think that it will look as though it is too close to the converging track and therefore wrong. I therefore plan to place 21 disc somewhere between position 5 and position 6, roughly level with the vee of 19B points. This will place the trap point itself at or near the fouling point, which I think will look better. It will still allow No 1 Spur to be used to run round a train in Platform 3 even when five coaches are stabled in the spur.

 

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions will be welcome, as always.

Edited July 20, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Stubby47]

Would a second siding be an option ? You would lose some length with the extra point, but should still fit four coaches in each and still have room for the loco run round ( on the point itself).

[St Enodoc]

Would a second siding be an option ? You would lose some length with the extra point, but should still fit four coaches in each and still have room for the loco run round ( on the point itself).

Stu - yes, there's going to be another siding, No 2 Spur, which will run parallel to No 1. See the signal box diagram in post #1154. No 2 is primarily the headshunt for the goods yard but there should still be room to stable two or three coaches against the buffers. There are also the two Chapel Sidings at the other end of the station, which I haven't set out yet so I don't know exactly how long they'll be, but they should each hold at least three coaches and probably more.

 

I need quite a lot of coach storage as the truncated length of the branch means that some sets spend longer at the junction and terminus than they would have done in real life. The Saturday branch service will use five B Sets plus three extra coaches, total 13.

[The Stationmaster]

The trap toe needs to be level with the point at which the two tracks start to converge at the very worst (if doing it in what appears to be typical GWR siding style) but really for safety's sake it should be set back further than that - although some very definitely weren't in the real HGWR world.  However as you're stabling stock in the siding you should push the toe back as far as you can - which would have been the case where there was potential for a runaway.

[Stubby47]

Would there be trap points if the siding was flat, or dropped away from the point?

[St Enodoc]

The trap toe needs to be level with the point at which the two tracks start to converge at the very worst (if doing it in what appears to be typical GWR siding style) but really for safety's sake it should be set back further than that - although some very definitely weren't in the real HGWR world.  However as you're stabling stock in the siding you should push the toe back as far as you can - which would have been the case where there was potential for a runaway.

Thanks Mike. That would put the toe somewhere around position 4 in my photo. However, given that at the real Par the disc controlling exit from No 1 Spur was actually level with the toe of the double slip - although the spur was very short and only used as a headshunt for running round as far as I can tell - this might be another case of compromise between authenticity and practicability. I think I will leave things as they are until we've had a few running sessions using No 1 Spur before making a final decision.

[The Stationmaster]

Would there be trap points if the siding was flat, or dropped away from the point?

 

Yes.

 

The gradient of the siding is to some extent irrelevant - if it connects to a passenger line then it has to be trapped although in some cases a worked wheel stop might be acceptable (but very unusual).  What would vary - on the GWR/WT if nowhere else - would be whether a single tongue or double tongue trap was used.   Note here that 'St E' has - rightly - used a double tongue trap at the exit of the Down Loop where there is a potential for an engine to run away or be pushed through the trap by its train whereas most sidings - as in this case - would only have a single tongue trap as that would be sufficient to deal with a vehicle making its errant way out of the siding.

[St Enodoc]

A parcel from Queensland arrived today, containing three EEMECKs for electric lever locking on the Modratec lever frame. These will provide Line Clear Release on the Porthmellyn Road Up Main, Down Main and Down Branch Advanced Starting signals.

I got home this morning from another excellent rugby weekend in Singapore and on catching up with RMweb I found a discussion on Mallard60022's SOSJ topic about white stripes on red signal levers. That sent me searching for the Par signalling diagram and, sure enough, the real-life equivalents of these three signals were indeed fitted with line-clear block releases - so in this regard we are following the prototype arrangement. I will have to remember to add a stripe to levers 6, 9 and 49 at Porthmellyn Road.

[St Enodoc]

I received the proofs for the Porthmellyn Road signal box number plates from Narrow Planet this week.

 

Actual size will be about 6 mm x 5 mm each. They look rather fine so I have approved them and with luck they will reach these shores within a few weeks.

 

Then I really won't have any more excuses not to start the lever frame. Possibly a task for the Christmas break.

[St Enodoc]

We had an excellent running session yesterday, with the introduction of the railbus shuttles a great success. Not quite such a great success was my last-minute decision to do some rudimentary shunting at Porthmellyn Road. I set out half-a-dozen wagons in the temporary goods siding and when the 0400 Class K Truro - Tavy Junction arrived I asked driver Alan to swap them with the first six wagons on the train.

 

It wasn't a total disaster, but a few wagons derailed when propelling along the straight roads of the slip, which is of course the worst case due to the difficulty of providing adequate checking at the elbows in 16.5 mm gauge. The episode confirmed to me that I need to a) fettle the elbows on the double slip a little; b) check and adjust if necessary all the back-to-backs on my goods wagons; and c) make sure that the DG couplings are properly aligned. We will get there.

 

We had a guest operator yesterday, an old colleague and friend (now retired - boo, hiss) and his wife from Crewe. David and Sue are on holiday in Australia and as luck would have it they had a free afternoon in Sydney, which meant that they could come over and join in the fun. Later in the evening we enjoyed a very good meal at a local restaurant before pouring them on to a train back to the city. The afternoon brought back lots of memories both of BR days and also operating sessions on our mutual friend's model of Whitchurch on the Crewe - Shrewsbury line (which still take place at least twice a month). I hope it won't be another 20 years before we catch up again.

 

Before we started the session, Charles took a short video of the double slip equalising lever in action, so when he has finished editing it I will post it here.

 

Finally, England v Australia rugby (spoiler alert - scroll down for Honest John's match analysis...)

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A very wet afternoon at Twickenham always meant that England were likely to have the upper hand, due to the Wallabies' relative inexperience in such conditions, and so it proved - topped off by two clever momentum tries where the ball carrier slid several metres on the wet grass before grounding the ball in-goal. To answer John Dew's question that he raised on John Flann's Hintock thread earlier today, having lived in Australia for 13 years and been a dual citizen for the last eight of those, my loyalties are of course divided. However, the decision on who to support is made easier when the Wallabies coach and the Australian media persist in finding any excuse for losing, except the fact that they did not play as well as the opposition. Today the referee (the easiest target of course) was blamed, both for handing out two yellow cards to Australia and also for disallowing a try due to obstruction. My local compatriots are well-known for complaining about whinging Poms. All I can say is that it takes one to know one.

 

Roll on the Ashes!

[Barry O]

Proper rugby weather... And yes the Coach and some of the players were not at all gracious in defeat.

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Here's the video of the double slip equalising lever in action - I hope it's self-explanatory.

 

 

Many thanks as always to RudderC of this parish for making, editing and uploading this.

[The Fatadder]

Very nice,

I think I will have to give it a go when I get round to rebuilding my troublesome slip!