Phil Copleston
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Posts posted by Phil Copleston
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Half-a-dozen photos of 'Wadebridge' at the Farnham (Aldershot) show last weekend. To be honest I didn't take many, mostly people this time as I was too busy operating 'Wadebridge' and helping Mark Fielder with his 2mm scale narrow gauge layouts, 'An Clár' and 'The Pizza', across the aisle!
Anyway, here they are:
And while the boys were away (at the 2mm Association AGM in a side hall on the Saturday) - the girls did play!
Edna Greenwood (on the left) and Kim Clifford ('Mrs Queenssquare') take control...
And that's it. While it was cool outside, in the halls it was sweltering. But we did enjoy ourselves. And the Nepalese Gurkha curries on both evenings were exceptionally good!
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Chris,
Having now seen your list I can narrow it down to the following:
LMS
2 x P3 non-corridor brake third D1907 or D1964
1 x P3 non-corridor composite D1921
GWR
1 x Collett E147 Brake Composite non-corridor
David
Blimey, David. I'm shocked. You do realise these are not goods wagons but people vans, don't you?
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Hi Chris,
I'd be interested in any number of your GWR Toplight coach kits (or parts thereof) if you still have some snuck away somewhere. Any length will do, but particularly the 57-footers. Any chance?
I've been after some for a while as I missed out on the original batch. Do let me know either on here or PM me please. I shall also be at the AGM and operating 'Wadebridge' that whole weekend at the Farnham show. Thanks.
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For some reason I appear to have omitted to upload my own pictures of our outing with John's 'Wenford Branch' last weekend. Sorry 'bout that folks. So here they are:
The whole caboodle! Nearest is the familiar scenicked 'Wenford Bridge Goods Depot' with its working gantry crane and road vehicles - a proper functioning rail-head. Beyond that, Wenford Dries (china clay kilns), then Tresarrett Quarry loader and siding, and in the distance between John and Jerry, is Helland Wharf and road crossing. Round the corner (out of sight behind John) is Dunmere Siding. In all, plenty of 'shunting action' as the train proceeds on its journey down the branch alongside the River Camel. Just my sort of layout. Most inspiring.
Looking back to the terminus, and (bottom right) the cut out which will accommodate a section of river and adjacent tracks in the woods. The temporary scenic jolt is quite startling!
The real location: Wenford Bridge terminus (the farthest point from Waterloo) taken on 1st August 1935. In this photo are Mr Cawsey (Station Master at Wadebridge), Clerk Martin (Wenford), R.S.Manning (Acting Guard), the Driver and Fireman of Well Tank No.3314 (later BR No.30585), and the travelling shunter from Wadebridge. [photo St Breward History Group]
The old 'Bodmine' layout's Dries as rescued from a decade or more stored in a damp outhouse. Still, with a bit of tidying up they will make a decent stand-in for the real Wenford Dries (which are way too big anyway). To the rear is the cut-out in the foam for the pans (settling tanks), and on the hillside above, possibly a mica-drag will be included (a zig-zag series of sluices and settling troughs to separate out the mica in the clay - an important by-product of china clay working. I keep encouraging John to include this vital part of a china clay dries 'suite' of processing infrastructure, but he may yet ignore me!
The fire or stoke-house end of the Dries. T'other end of the Linhay (drying house) needs a chimney to complete the under-floor flue. The roof's eves are a bit wiggly after the storage abuse this building got, but I think this can be fixed. And besides, it has bags of character!
The real location: Beattie Well Tank No.30585 shunts Wenford Dries in the 1950s [photographer unknown]
Tresarrett Quarry loader. John originally had the loader on the far side of the mainline (as per prototype, I think), but changed his mind and swapped positions. And I think it looks much better this way round. You can see the scar on the baseboard of the former trackbed. The vertical conveyors to fill the hoppers will be served by a narrow gauge 'tub' line between the main and the siding.
The real location: Wharfinger Mrs Smith, standing beside a brake van and wagons, during shunting at Tresarrett Siding on 1st August 1935. [photo St Breward History Group]
The famous photogenic Helland road crossing on the branch. The Wharf (siding) lies behind the cottages.
The real location: Helland level crossing with the Wharf beyond, on 1st August 1935. [photo St Breward History Group]
And finally, a look back along the whole branch from Helland to Wenford. This certainly is "a whole railroad you can model", as our American modelling cousins would have it, and this is certainly what inspired John and is the basic concept behind the whole master-planned Bodmin & Wenford/North Cornwall layout of which this forms a part. Jerry's hands are creeping into the scene on left as he grabs a few shots at the end of the show.
And that's it! We had a really enjoyable time operating the complete branch on its first public outing, and the visitors seemed to appreciate it too - a whole branchline to view, not just a station. Thank you John for kindly inviting me to play. And to Jerry for the good-humoured banter and joshing throughout the day. And very importantly, thanks to Edna Greenwood for the yummy homemade cake!
Next outing will be John's 'St Blazey Roundhouse' (as appeared at the Warminster show back in June) on Sunday 5th November (a one-day show) at the Cornwall Model Railway Exhibition, Carn Brea Leisure Centre, Station Rd, Pool, Redruth, Cornwall TR15 3QS, open 10:00-16:00.
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I was brought up never to touch someone else's models unless given express permision to do so. Same with layouts or anything else. By all means show your models, even let trusted individuals handle or closely inspect them. But the rule is "only touch if I give you permision". Simple. Anything else and they get a rocket!
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I'm still leaning towards simplifying the feeds for a single controller (or DCC), I think. If its foxing me now, that doesn't bode well for future maintenance etc, I guess.
Justin
Hmmm... I can see your problem. But having operated a fair number of DCC layouts over the years - from simple to complex - I find the wiring convolutions and constrictions of old DC layouts now seem quite baffling, antiquated and unnecessary.
From your description of how the layout is intended to operate (from a train movement point of view) it would seem to me you'd be best off in the long term stripping out all this over-complex wiring and either put in a system YOU understand... or converting the whole layout to DCC. Then you can concentrate on running the trains, not worrying about which section switch has to be on or might conflict with another section. Or if the old wiring goes wrong, how on earth you can fix it.
It's a personal choice, of course, and you may feel you want to retain as much of Bill's work as possible. But on the other hand, you've gotta live with it!
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And this is the current Lea Siding.
And Gauge 3 in a cameo too! As appearing in the current August BRM, p.82-84. Very unusual for such a large scale and rather spiffing!
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Indeed, Chris. I'm 66 and remarked that the Wells show clientele make me feel postively youthful!
David
Same for me (I've just turned 63) as for David. Though I have no concerns for the future of our hobby. I believe it has just changed its catchment base (no longer starting with trainsets for young boys), which is perhaps a revertion to a pre-war appeal to adult incomers looking for a craft-based hobby. And possibly attracting a greater ethnic and gender diversity (which we need). I do hope so anyway!
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Try this: http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/98971
What a delightful film! Full of railway and personal charm. I wonder whether she ever received her inheritence?
Edit: A Quick internet search shows that her real name (on her death certificate) was Carmen de Tesca von Dembinska, Princess of the Royal House of Lothringen-Rawicz. She had a son, Prince Adam von Dembiński who claimed he had won his legal case against the Polish government but had never been paid. This was an hereditary title of Count of Galicia from Emperor Josef II on August 2nd 1784. The title is now extinct. Just a little non-railway background!
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The roof was built using some scratch - aid etches from Bill Bedford. There are more details and several pictures of its construction starting on page 3 of this thread.
The original roof was plasticard which, as well as being less accurate and detailed as its replacement also went very brittle due to the UV getting at the plasticard which I never got round to painting.
And Phil's almost correct about the dogs - but it was two that jumped on it rather than one that sat!! I'd loaded the roof on the jig board it was built on into the back of the car ready to go and give a talk. A series of events conspired such that the back of the car and the back gate to the house were open. The dogs spotted this and came charging out and leapt into the back of the car thinking it was time for a walk - landing squarely on top of the roof which promptly took on the shape of a twinV engine. I could have cried. It wasn't the dogs fault it was mine as I hadn't got round to making a carry box for the roof - a hundred hours or so work up the Swanny :-((
It wasn't a total disaster as I still had all the jigs it was built in so I could unsolder all the bits, straighten them out, and put them all back together - and make a strong, dog proof carry box!!
Lesson learnt !!
The guilty parties - left right - Mr Pooh (who played no part in the roof insident), Jelly and Jazz
Jerry
Thanks for the clarification, Jerry. I suspected I probably hadn't got the details - only the jist - of the story right! Lovely shot of the guilty parties (plus an innocent Mr. Pooh) too, even though it wasn't really their faults. More animal and veg garden pics on this thread please!
BTW, I keep my Millie Pooh and Tilly Pooh well away from my modelling efforts... even though Millie often kips on my workroom swivel chair. Awww bless.
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Indeed magnificent. I believe that Jerry scratch built it Grahame.
John,
I understand that Jerry scratchbuilt his original 'Mark 1' overall roof out of plastikard. It was good. But not quite good enough for Jerry. So years later he replaced this with a much more finesse version fizzed up from specially commissioned etchings - as per the one you see in my photo.
Potential disaster struck when a year or two ago one of Jerry's labrador dogs sat on it, but fortunately the damage wasn't terminal (pun intended!) and he was able to effect repairs. Also, Jerry has had the roof support cast-iron columns cast in whitemetal copied from the originals. Superb!
All-in-all this is quite magnificent work by Jerry. I am inspired every time I am ushered in to take a peek at recent progress on this 2-mil magnum opus.
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Thanks John. The frightening thing is that the station building was one of the first things I made for the layout over twenty five years ago!
Jerry
Here's a snap I took of Jerry's imposing Bath Queensquare station building last weekend (during Larkrail) to illustrate the point. It may be over twenty five years old, but it is a magnificent model and "certainly sets the whole scene and purpose for making the rest of the layout".
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No, I don't have it to hand. I've still got to finish several parts of it, add tabs, lay it out, find room on part of a sheet, wait two months, find out the tiny errors that creep in, repeat the above steps two or three times, then there is something 'to hand'. And still there are massive sandboxes, a firebox, dome, chimney, safety valve, cab backhead to be thought about.
Whereas the 3D print will probably take about another day to finish it.
Chris
Well, thanks anyway Chris. I appreciate there is a lot to sort out with etchings. All I need is the flat etched parts for a Dean Goods, not a complete and perfect "kit". All the rest I can sort out myself. Seems I will have to design and get my own etched.
Personally, I find no satisfaction in a 3D printed model. Horrible material too. I like scratchbuilding, kit building and good old-fashioned model-making.
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Having had some (correctly sized) Dean Goods etched artwork sitting around for a number of years but frustrated at how long it would take to test etch, test build, repeat, add castings, get criticised for not designing it carefully enough
etc, and then to only sell a handful, Chris,
Ooooo... you have a 2mm Dean Goods etch artwork to hand? I'd prefer that to any 3D printed job - far more satisfying to make! Just the etch would do me, the round bits I can make myself. I'd be interested in a couple of sets. Please consider making these available as a set of 'scratch-aid' parts.
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Just a quick post to say that the provisional date for the next MMRG Warminster show is June 8 2019. I will confirm this as soon as I can but get it in your diary now.
Jerry
Righty-oh! It's now flagged in my electronic diary (really). Can't wait!
BTW, I really think you should invest in a LARGER exhibition banner... punters might miss the existing one.
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Here is the Wigan coal wagon in red oxide. I may ponder for a couple of days before making a decision on its fate.
It looks good to me (on screen). I'm very inspired by your work.
But I'd say the critical thing about scratchbuilding is keep your standards high. If you're not happy with the result, then reject it and start again. With scratchbuilding, costs are usually low (apart from time), so not a lot is lost. The real pleasures come from, a) the process of making it yourself, and b) being in control of the standard of the model (all aspects).
Keep up the inspiring model-making!
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Jerry,
Good choice. Here's a photo of more red on the S&DJR. Another one for your bucket list...
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Didn't Gary Glitter get himself into trouble for saying something like that?
Not to mention Stuart Hall, Owen Oyston & Bill wotsit from Coronation Street . . . .
Who? I just like Asian food. Yum yum!
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Do they have any spicy little Thais or Vietnamese in Lanson?
Sadly not. Major cuisines only in this small town.
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I moot
You moot
He, she or it moots
We moot
You moot
They agree that a Chinese meal is the way to go next time
Practice your declensions all you like CK, it's still just a 'moot' point!
Personally, a nice winter-warming Chinese would do me fine... as would a spicy little Thai or Vietnamese. Depends what's on offer...
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5046 was just the first go at Clifford Castle. 5071 was named Clifford Castle when built in June 38 before being renamed Spitfire in September 1940.
5098 was built in May 1946 and did keep the Clifford name until withdraw, in 1964.
I've never seen a picture of either 5046 or 5071 before they were renamed but if anyone has ......!
Jerry
Edit to say that Chris beet me to it!
Whoops! I thought there was something wrong with my rationale. Oh dear. Thanks Jerry.
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The GWR changed tenders often, sometimes twice a year. Some
nerdone out there will probably know the complete sequence of tenders that ran with 5098. And the date the double chimney was fitted.Chris
Achem! Re. Castle tenders, see 'Locomotives of the Great Western Railway' Part 8: Modern Passenger Classes, page.H16, top right paragraph!
But you only have a short modelling timeframe Jerry, as 5046 ‘Clifford Castle’ (built April 1936), was renamed ‘Earl Cawdor’ just 15 months later in August 1937...
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Excellent news, I had resigned myself to having to scratchbuild a Hawkswoth tender for Clifford Castle.
Jerry
I thought the 'tender' for Clifford
TowersCastle was your work shed... -
On behalf of SWAG and DRAG members l would like to cordially thank our dear Obergruppenführer for organizing our annual 'curry night out' at a new venue which was a splendid experience.
Excellent food and service.....and free gifts! There was talk of another one in six months.
The Captain with his free toy. Struggling to open it and to release the scary spider within.
Hear, hear, John. Here are my pics from last night's group nosh...
The Good Captain with his new eggy (ice cream) friend.
A good time was had by all. Now lookin' forward to our next curried soirée in six months time!
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Bath Queen Square
in 2mm Finescale
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Not to fret, Tom. Mr Greenwood still has a nice King Arthur in special North Cornwall SR 'gold livery' to keep the 'never finish anything' faith alive.