TrevorP1

Message to Command. The front line is undertaking special familiarisation training. Innovative thinking is taking place to make fullest use of the new locomotive. Personnel understand that the task of Command is not an easy one. Nevertheless, they have full confidence in your devotion and skill to create a piece of equipment that will instil pride in its operation. The (model) world is watching. May the forth be with you.

I just wondered if anyone would be interested in these bushes which I’m soon going to install on the layout. Made from string, static grass, various flocks and a bit of patience. No credit due to me for the method but by following Boomer Diorama on YouTube. Link below. Bushes

Yes, Garsdale Road was at Central Hall. We spent ages watching it too. The gauge 1 live steam is about the only other thing I can remember. (Unless you count Dad taking me into the Irish pub along the street to enjoy his lunchtime pint!).

Re the conversation on layouts featured in the press ‘back in the day’. It was Garsdale Road that caught my imagination. Reading about it in RM and the standing with my father watching it at the London show. Most of my magazines from those days are long gone but I saved the two copies of RM and still have them.

Yes, that sounds familiar. What a weekend...

Yes I think you're right. I believe as a result of an accident involving Rubens Barichello...

I remember it like yesterday. Watching the qualifying live on Eurosport. It was obviously very serious and I just had a gut feeling that it was fatal. John Watson and Allard Kalph (sorry if that's the wrong spelling) were doing the commentary from the same feed. The pictures kept coming and I remember JW almost pleading with whoever was in charge of the TV to cut the feed... Senna too but was out at the time and only heard later.

Bledy automistake. That’s how rumours start!

Hic... Before I collapsed a fellow grocer told me they were kept with the strategic reserve of Grange 4-6-0s in that siding inside Box Tunnel.

Thanks for the tip. I’m off down there in a couple of weeks so I’ll make sure to take the proper camera and record one for posterity.

I saw it too…. 🍺

A quick update on the point rodding. At one end I've now soldered two lengths of N/S wire onto the cranks and threaded on some Modelu rollers. All good so far, especially when I remembered to use low melt to fix the wires! Having been undecided on whether to use Modelu compensators or make up the Wizard ones I had a go at assembling the Wizard ones from the etch. Mmmm.... I might try again but I found this bit too much. Thinking cap on about this. As this small section was a bit of a try out I didn't purchase the 3-roller frames for the other direction but now I feel the job is a 'goer' I'll do this and order a pack of Modelu compensators as well. A pack of Evergreen strip is due to arrive soon for the roller bases so I'll be getting on with this next. Meanwhile, I'm looking for a 'bigger' job to tackle! Ah yes, the lawn needs mowing...

The Southern had half a dozen at Exmouth Junction. They were normally used in the Salisbury direction but one strayed over the North Cornwall line and got lost in the sidings at Delabole. By the time it was found, the boat for France had gone. Shame to waste a good engine...

At the limits of my eyesight, soldering skills and S&T knowledge! The first stage in point rodding. It’ll probably make an S&T engineer cry so luckily most of this will be hidden from any normal viewing angle. The main thing is it’s a secure start for the rest. Soldering on some n/s rodding wire and threading on the Modelu rollers is next. I have some scale size plastic rod to go under the track. Slowly going cross eyed…

At the moment I've bought the rodding rollers from Modelu and the cranks from Wizard/MSE. My idea being that I can solder the rodding to the brass cranks and then just thread the rollers onto the rodding. Just a small number of parts to see how things go. My signalling diagram is based on Port Isaac Road but I've had to work out the rodding layout. So far it's enjoyable but time consuming. A voyage of discovery! First I want to install the equipment that is at the side of the platform wall so that the second platform can be built. A lot of Burngullow Lane was built during the various Covid lockdown situations. I bashed on too quickly and one of the things I didn't take into account was the point rodding.

Excellent! Looking forward to seeing it in position. I’ve walked across the real thing but I don’t care to remember how long ago!

Road overbridges can be a problem. To fix or not to fix! If all goes to plan I will need to face that problem this summer.

I can get a homesick for my native county of Hampshire but the county I love is fast becoming more developed and busy. By coincidence we were in Buckinghamshire a few weeks ago visiting Carol’s sister and the area around Aylesbury is becoming developed out of all recognition from the place I knew as a young man. Sadly, sometimes the memories are best…

I can’t speak for Captain Corelli but I completely agree about the Tolkien films. I much enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, being remarkably how I’d visualised events from the book but I gave up after the first Hobbit film and never bothered to see the others.

I had this idea about installing scale point rodding…. Perhaps I should be working in 7mm scale! Nothing like a challenge!

I’m immediately thinking of the average TV add and some of the ‘reality’ shows (in which I have no interest whatsoever!). Has society become used to garish artificial colours? I love bright colours and wish I had the nerve to dress like Michael Portillo but I find this lurid artificial reality quite awful.

Yes, it’s a borrowed tender in order to get 6880 running and earn some hire fees. As far as I know the plan is still to finish building the Collett 3500 gallon tender. It had been hoped to get 6880 running much earlier in the year but the excessively damp weather we’ve all had put paid to finishing the paintwork any sooner.

Thank you John! Do be careful with the buses though... As we know from the famous photo, buses got to the north side of the bridge but I'm not sure about over it! On the south side there is an impossible (for a bus) hairpin turn or a lane that becomes pretty narrow and tight even in car. There again, Cornish bus drivers are pretty intrepid fellows. 😀

Weirdly, even though I've owned and enjoyed a Lotus that thought never occurred! 'My' Chapman hailed from Bude and studied engineering at Camborne College. If something needed repairing or making from metal Dick - always Richard to his wife - was your man, and if he couldn't do it then you really were in trouble! Interestingly son worked for McLaren and raced his own home built car. For the motor racing followers among us there was Williams and Chapman Haulage contractors in Delabole. (I'm not sure where this photo came from so if it causes problems I'll remove it).

I thought I'd pop up a few photos to show progress. I'm trying to be organised in that I'm first working on areas that are behind the running line. The station approach area is a fair stretch and some of this was built on a small 'tray' and secured into position after the donkey work was done. Please be aware that none of this is finished and you will see lines at the base of buildings, dust etc. Apart from the goods yard, none of the track is ballasted as I want to put in the bases for point rodding rollers etc before this is done. So. Every country station worth it's salt has a nearby garage and my long suffering Bachmann product now serves as part of the premises of Chapman and Healey, Vehicle and General Engineers. Visitors to Burngullow Lane will recognise the cottages in the background and the extra accommodation behind the garage is from Scale Model scenery. The 'Chapman' part of the name is from a much valued Cornish work colleague who is sadly no longer with us and of course 'Healey' is from Donald Healey another proud Cornish engineer. I couldn't believe my luck when KMRC introduced the North Cornwall goods shed! So here it is with a modified Oxford Rail cattle wagon parked nearby. I've standardised on a faded looking green from the Humbrol range as I feel it better represents a well worn Southern green. The KMRC product has therefore been refinished in this shade. Next up is the traders store. I've based this on structures from various photos and it is combination of Ratio bits and Slaters corrugated iron - plus coffee stirrers for the small platform. The box van is an old Bachmann (I think) product but I have so many vans now - old, new and kit built - that I've lost track! I've become a fan of 'Boomer Diorama' YouTube and the road surface was done using his methods. Briefly this involves layers of 'earthy' colours applied very wet, randomly and unevenly rubbed down, sealed with varnish and repeat until you're satisfied. It looks an absolute mess while it's being done but it works! There are a lot of very good ideas in his films - thoroughly recommended. The Pendoggett, St Teath and Delabole Victorian Society have apparently arranged for this strange machine to visit... It was left in the loading dock today. Moving swiftly on... Port Isaac Road once had a camping coach at the end of the headshunt and a Hornby clerestory and Coopercraft GWR hut serve as placeholders. The gorse seems to be doing well this year! There is a scene on one of the Southern websites of a family sitting on a sleeper in front of the vehicle and this is what I hope to do here, A winter project I think. I think the correct coach is available as an etch but whether I go to this bother or just put a normal roof on the clerestory remains to be seen.