St Enodoc

Baz, I like the "restricted height" signal. I used to see a couple of those at Mill Hill when I were a lad. Have you tried transfers for the stripes on the arms? Much neater and quicker than painting. Just cut a strip from one of the Modelmasters plain colour patches (chevrons take a bit more effort). There is also an outfit called Chiltern Models who sell transfers for complete arms. I've got some of their WR ones but not sure if they do LMR or not.

The K's plastic rolling stock kits weren't bad for their day. A little sparse below the solebars, but the body mouldings were quite crisp. Over the years I've built a B Set, Siphon F, Low Siphon, 40' PBV and several of the four-wheeled wagons. I know some of them weren't strictly accurate representations of any particular prototype, but with a bit of detailing and fettling they still pass muster as 'layout models' today.

Mention of Jidenco and MTK reminds me of an anecdote. My MTK 2-BIL was on static display at a Leeds MRS exhibition in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Graham Beaumont and Colin Massingham were having a look and the conversation went something like this: CM: That's a nice looking 2-BIL. GB: Well, it can't be one of yours then.

Exciting times today – although not at the Thornleigh exhibition which was, to be frank, a little disappointing. The show occupied the whole sports hall, but with less than 40 stands it all looked rather empty. Not the best show that the Epping society has put on in recent years I’m afraid. At least there was plenty of opportunity for nattering. Two British-outline layouts were on show – Bridport South Western, a dual broad/standard gauge terminus to EM standards with a multitude of working features, built by Peter Betts who is a member of both the North Shore Railway Modellers’ Association and the British Railway Modellers of Australia; and Linden Ford, a neat little scenic Inglenook built by gazmanjack of this parish. No, the excitement came from marking out and cutting the first plywood tops for the storage loop baseboards. I had had the 9 mm sheets cut by Bunnings to the right width for the straight sections of the loops, with larger left-over bits for the corner sections. First, I set out the curve of the Down Through line using the 1/10 scale drawing as a basis, and then marked a line at 45 degrees giving a clearance of 30 mm to the track centre line. I cut the corner off and clamped this board to the L-girders without fitting any joists at this stage. Next, I clamped the two adjoining boards in place and set out the curve of the Up Through line. I drew a further line, offset by 30 mm again, to mark the inner edge of the boards. I cut this curve on all three sheets with the jigsaw and placed the boards back on the L-girders to admire them and to visualise how they would look with some trains on them. This photograph was posed slightly I have to admit, to show all the setting-out bits and pieces in the shot. In the left foreground is a curve template cut from thick card, in this case 36” radius (old money). Pointing directly towards the camera is my trammel bar, which I have had for about 40 years. Unfortunately, the clamp that joins the extension bars together got lost a long time ago so today I joined two of the bars with parcel tape. There is another curve template, this time with the 36” radius on the inside and the outer edge cut to double track spacing (55 mm centres, to include an allowance for throw). I used the pair of spring compasses to set out the cutting line for the inner baseboard edge. A couple of squares, a straight edge, a measuring tape and a pencil are the only other tools I used. Here are the boards after cutting, with a (fairly) smooth curve following the line of the Up Through track. After the track is laid, I will add an MDF fence at both front and rear to act as derailment containments. The front fence might also have the point and uncoupler controls built in – I haven’t made up my mind on where to put these yet. The void at the back is easily big enough to reach though to get to the distribution board – I moved the right-hand trolley and had a go after I took this photo. Getting along the straight sides should be straightforward, and then I intend to cut the two other corners in a similar way to the first. I will probably glue the cork trackbed to the plywood boards before fitting the joists. In this regard, what is the current thinking on gluing down the cork? I have used PVA in the past, but it doesn’t dry very quickly and I am wondering about using a water-based contact adhesive instead – any thoughts?

About 20 years ago I fitted a K's Grange body to a Bachmann Manor chassis. Apart from having to widen the firebox to fit over the motor, it wasn't too bad. Fortunately Hornby brought their RTR model out before I needed to build another.

Northern or Southern autumn?

For the first time in many weeks I had a break from woodwork in the railway room this weekend, apart from fixing up a very simple cantilever bracket to hang a clock in the corner above the Down end of Porthmellyn Road. Instead, it was time to start looking ahead towards the tracklaying stage of the project. In the early planning stages, which led to the design of the garage itself, I used my CAD system – Computer-Absent Design – to develop the layout concept. This involved drawing out the key elements of the plan on graph paper then adjusting their relative positions to get a layout that met my requirements as closely as possible. The result, with the individual elements stuck to a thick card backing with Blu-Tak, looked like this: Porthmellyn Road is at the top, with the lifting flap and Nancegwithey Viaduct on the left, the Paddington loops at the bottom and the Penzance loops on the right. The Pentowan branch snakes its way up and down the middle. This plan formed the basis for cutting and fabricating the baseboard framing. Now that the framework is complete, I will work up the final design of the track plan so that I can cut and fit the baseboards joists and top surfaces – closed-top in the storage loops and stations, and open-top elsewhere. I started with the Paddington and Penzance loops. Each set of loops consists of 12 tracks, the outer ends of which are accessible from both the Up and Down main lines. In other words, the Paddington loops are accessible from both tracks beyond Tremewan Tunnel, and the Penzance loops are accessible from both tracks at the Down end of Porthmellyn Road. Two through tracks, one Down and one Up, flank the loops to allow continuous running for testing or playing trains. These through tracks also connect to the inner end of each set of loops, the Down through track feeding the Paddington loops and the Up through track feeding the Penzance loops. This sketch shows the schematic layout of the storage loops. In reality, these will stretch round two complete sides of the railway room and indeed encroach on the other two sides as well, due to the arrangement of the pointwork that feeds the loops. On the second St Enodoc layout, the one in the trussed loft, I maximised the lengths of the loops by using curved points at each end. I developed a configuration using five points to feed six tracks, the points extending almost 90 degrees round the corner. The points themselves are B8s, curved so that the inner radius is approximately 30 inches and the outer radius approximately 48 inches. This was very successful, and I used the same configuration – which I call a “standard fan” – on the third St Enodoc layout, the present single-track passing station, where the Up and Down fiddle yards each have six tracks. On the Mid-Cornwall Lines the most complex area of trackwork is where the two sets of loops overlap each other, with the Paddington loops on the outside, at the bottom-right corner of the plan. Squeezed into this corner are four standard fans, two on each set of loops, plus the two through tracks and their respective connections into the loops themselves, so this is where I decided to start. Here is the whole of the railway room in outline. As each section of track is designed and then built, I will fill in the plan progressively until the whole layout is shown. I was going to show the proverbial “clean sheet” here, but forgot to photograph it until after I had started drawing lines. This is a close-up of the bottom right corner of the plan, showing the fourteen parallel tracks on each side and the arrangement of the standard fans and other pointwork linking them. The setting-out lines show the centres of the circular curves (there are no transitions in the off-stage sections), with the radius marked against each one, and the associated tangent points. I have also noted the type of each point or group of points so that I know what to build and where to put it. All the curve centres except for two will be off the edge of the baseboard, so I will set out the curves on the top of the boards using templates cut from thick card. The triangle in the extreme corner will be an open void, allowing some rather restricted access to the roller door and to the electrical distribution box on the wall. Although I will set out all the track and pointwork on the baseboards at the start, in the first instance I will only lay the two through tracks as plain line so that I can start playing trains. I will add the points progressively as they get built. Once both sets of loops are complete I will move on to Porthmellyn Road before working my way down the branch. A couple of business trips are going to keep me out of the railway room for a week or two, so not much will happen now until after the June long weekend which of course is when the Thornleigh exhibition put on by the Epping club takes place – well worth a visit if you’re in the Sydney area.

Did you need to take the steps off? That was fun as the instructions didn't say they were in two parts. Getting the handrails back in was the worst bit - probably a lot easier in 0 gauge.

Tony, I have the 4mm version of the AC railbus which is equally impressive, except for the difficulty of taking it apart and putting it back together. I hope the 7 mm one is easier in this regard.

Tony, keeping track of such things is like herding cats. I believe that the correct designation is 18 in tank (from the cylinder bore). Those produced for the War Department were the "true" Austerities, although the picture is confused by Hunslet's purchase of a number of these from teh MOD in the late 1950s for rebuilding and resale. I'm sure Mike Edge will correct me if I've got this wrong.

Somone's started already on eBay (271875199503)...

You're going to need a bigger layout...

Don't forget that many GWR lines had wider than standard 6 ft ways as they were originally broad gauge.

Fair enough. It's an interesting arrangement, probably to save a bit of space - Par (aka Porthmellyn Road) had two in a similar situation at the exits from the branch platform and the loop at the Up end. These were both used as very short headshunts. Otherwise, normal trap points would probably have done the job just as well.

I'm in the same boat (I'm happy to say). Anyone interested in a couple of dozen unmade BSL/Comet/Westdale kits?

Thanks Peter. No, it shouldn't be long now. I will start in the storage loop area. I've got enough timber for that, so a trip to buy some cork sheet is next on the agenda. The plan is to work round the room with a plain double track circuit (no points) first, then progressively lay the storage loops themselves before moving on to Porthmellyn Road. But, as always, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I spent a few hours this afternoon finishing off the lifting flap assembly. First, I replaced the temporary ledge at the Porthmellyn end by a section of L-girder cut to fit between the flap longitudinals, which will guide the flap into place when lowering. I then fitted DCC Concepts locating dowels to the flap and the ledge, followed by the magnetic latch cut from a real estate agent’s promotional calendar. I have to say that although this seems OK at the moment I might add a more positive latch (probably another barrel bolt) if it proves necessary in future. This photo shows the ledge, dowels and magnetic strip in place, with the temporary joists and ply that I used for levelling. Here is the corresponding arrangement on the flap itself. I fitted one more dowel at the hinged end of the flap. There wasn’t room for one on the wall side, but I decided that three dowels were enough, on the milkmaid’s stool principle. The last major task was to attach the hinged end baseboard, another piece of 18 mm ply. This required a fair amount of fettling (Brighton MRC term) or adjustment (Leeds MRS term) and yes a hammer was involved. Once I’d got everything lined up, I unscrewed the two hinge mounts from the flap longitudinals and applied some glue before putting them back together. I added some more screws for good measure. At the hinged end, the geometry means that quite a large clearance is needed as the hinge mounts curl round the baseboard. This will be hidden by the trackbed, which will be 3 mm ply rather than cork in the lifting flap area. The trackbed on the flap itself should be able to overhang the hinged end baseboard. These two photos show the completed lifting flap in the open and closed positions. Finally, this week’s big news was of course Hornby’s announcement that they are going to introduce a range of Collett 57 ft bow-ended coaches. Anybody out there want some unmade BSL, Comet and Westdale kits?

Good progress gentlemen. Are my eyes going funny or is there something odd about the double slip in the first photo?

Thanks Rick. For a moment there I thought there might be some breaking news - never mind!

I'll give those both a try next time I'm down Mexico way.

The gum-suckers should consider themselves lucky that the banana benders claimed XXXX for their own. Me, I like a nice drop of James Squire's Constable - preferably from the tap rather than the bottle.

Rick, I know there's another topic on this, but how far away do you think "aren't all that far away" is? I've had one on order since September 2010. Will it arrive before the main line is laid through Porthmellyn Road so that it can work the Riviera?

Breakfast on the Mallaig was ordered by getting the bobby at Arrochar to phone his mate at Crianlarich, to pass on the number of full fry-ups required to the refreshment room. These were cooked to time precisely with the train's arrival. Lunch was always fish and chips in the Seamen's Mission at Mallaig itself.

Too much cricket in your case .

Ian, it's probably not quite as sophisticated as the steel version on which it was based (see post #81). I haven't got metalworking facilities at home so wood and plywood are as good as it gets.