St Enodoc

Yes - scary isn't it?

That's right, and they're all still in service, plus a few Parkside ones now too. You also did the signals for me, fitting Colin Waite arms to the Ratio posts. Plenty more weathering jobs to be done in return for free board and lodging next time you and Mrs BarryO venture South of the Equator.

Thanks Rick, sounds similar to my Epson (different model). I usually scan at 1200 dpi for record purposes or 300 dpi for web uploads. Sorry Peter, we've gone slightly off your topic here.

The only rule with the garage was that I had to leave access through the up-and-over door and from the adjacent garage, so I built another double track terminus to fiddle yard layout. It was U-shaped with the terminus along the long wall and a removable fiddle yard across the entrance from the other garage (I now realise how impracticable a removable fiddle yard was, which was one of many lessons learned along the way). The terminus looked nothing like Newquay, so I gave it the name Pentowan which was the first in the line of what I call “might-have-been” names for places on my layouts. They need to sound plausible (to my ears anyway) and have at least some connection, however tenuous, with the real locations they purport to represent. In this case, the real Newquay sits under Towan Head, and Pen is Cornish for headland. Still Peco track, and still mostly Tri-ang stock, but operationally becoming a good bit more advanced with full signalling (only hand operated though) and a timetable that included some SR trains running over a fictitious link from Grogley Junction to somewhere in the St Columb Road area. The period was beginning to settle at around the mid-1950s, which at that time (unlike today) was quite an unusual choice. When I went off to University I joined the Leeds Model Railway Society and quickly became converted to what used to be called finescale 00. One of the things I learned how to do was to build points, and as a result for about the last 35 years I have never bought a ready-made point for any of my layouts. I had ideas of building a new layout, this time an actual model of Newquay, in the same U-shaped space in the garage but the realities of the removable fiddle yard led me instead to build a small branch terminus to fiddle yard layout with a china-clay works (linhay) hiding the fiddle yard. This layout was the first to bear the name St Enodoc, and purported to be a passenger version of the Carbean branch. St Enodoc was in reality a Cornish saint whose church lies half-buried by sand dunes opposite Padstow on the Camel estuary, and which is the resting place of the late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman. The colour picture below shows how the layout could be stacked for storage and transportation, while the black-and-white photos that follow were taken by Terry Onslow of Swindon in about 1984. St Enodoc was exhibited a few times and appeared in the Railway Modeller in December 1987, although by then it had been sold to a friend. My next layout was to be a loft layout, about 16 ft x 8 ft in size. The plan was for a double track main line with a junction based on Par and named Porthmellyn Junction. Portmellon is just South of Mevagissey and in old references was sometimes spelled Porthmellin, while there is another Porthmellin on the Roseland Peninsula. The branch was intended to finish in the fiddle yard so Pentowan was off-stage this time. This layout didn’t actually get started due to a house move and it wasn’t until after a further move that I had the chance to begin again.

Ah, I thought you might have meant that after I posted my reply. It's not quite what most people mean by a ground-level garden railway.

Rick, how long does that take per slide and what file size results?

In the July 1969 Railway Modeller Julian James described timetable operation on his fictitious 00 St Mawes branch. You are right about Roseland. Two of our favourite beaches were Portholland and Pendower, and we had some good walks around St Anthony Head.

All will be revealed Brian, but essentially it will be the Newquay branch plus a bit of the main line. Watch this space!

Thanks Andy. It was good old-fashioned dyed sawdust. Not really state of the art even in 1968.

At last my new railway room is complete and in use, the existing St Enodoc layout has been set up and I am ready to start building the new Mid-Cornwall Lines, but before doing so I thought I would tell you a little bit of history to put the project in context and, I hope, explain why a little slice of Cornwall is taking shape in suburban Sydney, Australia. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. My life with model railways goes back to when I was about three or four. Not, as was often the case, with Hornby Dublo but Tri-ang 00. My Dad built a very simple but enjoyable layout consisting of a single-track oval, an up-and-over loop and couple of sidings. On one track ran a Princess Elizabeth (with smoke!) and on the other a Transcontinental electric, later joined by a BR 2-6-2 tank. I’ve no photos of this layout but after a house move Dad bought a job lot of stuff from a local enthusiast who was giving up the hobby, which was set up in the spare bedroom. There was double track on two levels, plus two loops giving the option of running as a dumbbell or two ovals, and although I rebuilt it later as a single level line that was probably more realistic, the first layout was a lot more fun. I built a separate, very small, layout called Cwm-Don for a school open day at which it was connected by a long single track around the physics benches to another small terminus called Llangogin, built by my classmate Steve Berry. At about this time, in the late 1960s, we started to go to Cornwall for our annual family holidays, and I found myself captivated by the beaches, the scenery, the weather, the china-clay industry and the railways. Dad then had a small win on the pools, which allowed me to start a new layout that pretty well filled the spare room. It was to be a double track terminus to fiddle yard, with a low level continuous single loop. In my mind’s eye the terminus was Newquay (although the track plan was derived from Cheltenham St James) and the passing station on the loop became Goonhavern Halt. The continuous loop was all that got built before Dad changed jobs and we all relocated to Edinburgh. That was the end of Cornish holidays for a while, but one good thing was that the house had twin garages. As we only had one car I was allowed to claim one garage as a railway room, and next time I’ll describe what I did with it.

Peter, when I was planning the new garage railway room, Harry Howell (BRMA Life Member of Stafford fame, whom you will have met at the 2010 Convention) insisted that I should have aircon installed. I'm glad I took his advice. It's reverse cycle of course so when we get to our perishing cold Sydney winter, with temperatures just dropping into single figures, the railway room will be cosy and snug. Sorry to rub it in for all you Northerners (actually I'm not sorry at all. It's one of the main reasons I decided to come to Australia).

Still well over 30 in Sydney. The only place to be this afternoon was my air-conditioned railway room .

1006 shirley?

Tony, I remember reading about Colin Scoffin's hand-built track in the April 1963 Raliway Modeller, but it was described there as 00. Was that a mistake, or was it an earlier layout?

Makes perfect sense Derek, and takes me back about 30 years! Any photos of the rat around anyone?

I think High Dyke was the first main line layout I saw at exhibitions that didn't have a station on it.

Tony, I do like the two elevated views along the length of the layout.

Rich, you need Russell Appendix 2. Fig 199 is a broadside works photo of the kitchen side of 9578 and fig 201 is a three-quarter view (in a train) of the corridor side of 9579, in both cases after sliding ventilators were fitted. There is also a photo of the corridor side of 9580 after conversion to a buffet car. There are a number of photos of other diagrams showing the end arrangements which should be a useful guide for you. The Hornby roof is pretty good as it is if you upgrade things like handrails and ventilators. (edited to add further information)

Yes, I was listening to the cricket on ABC while tidying up and sorting out the new garage (railway room), and they mentioned the weather quite often.

Alan, I would have been inclined to fit the T-handles and grab handles after painting and lining...

Ah, the joys (?) of living at the seaside. At least where you are you won't get too many surfers.

Sorry Alan, I don't know. I had no information at all as to the correct seat colours so just used something that looked sensible.

Looking good Alan. I did something similar to this a few years ago. I started off with the intention of just putting Comet sides on the Hornby body, but one thing led to another and I ended up replacing everything except the roof and the interior moulding, as below. Note that the gas cylinders should run longitudinally not laterally, but I can't be bothered to change mine now. I see that one of the grab handles has fallen off as well, which I will get round to fixing (eventually). Good luck. (edited to spell cylinders properly)

Tony, a separate Buckingham topic would be very interesting to me. With regard to older layouts in general there is already a topic here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67526-older-inspirational-layouts/.

I still have one pair of SJR couplings in action (well half a pair to be precise) connecting my Airfix 14xx and autotrailer :-)