drduncan

It's also true that the reasons for joining a club may not be the same as the reasons for staying a member!

Why join a club is perhaps the wrong question. Perhaps it should be why join the one you did? After all, there is often (but not always) a choice. In my area (say a 30 minute drive) I can think of 4 clubs, ranging from 'OO only' to 'pretty much anything', through ' finescale only'. So which one did I join and why? I joined the finescale one... Why? First and most important it had a web presence so it was identifiable as doing EM when I moved to the area. And then in no real order of importance... Second, it was the closest of the clubs that did EM. Third, it had tools and equipment available to members that I needed but couldn't afford/house. Fourth, it was friendly and welcoming. Fifth, it gave me a chance to do things I couldn't do for space and time considerations at home/as a solo modeller. One thing an established members told me when I pitched up (and still does to prospective members) is that 'we are a marmite club. You'll either love us or hate us.' He was abolsutely right, but you can go further; all clubs are marmite clubs as it is a very personal set of reasons for joining and we are not all the same. That said the attitude of just one person is enough to spoil the experience, as many of the posts above show. The lesson for club leaders is to pay attention to behaviours within the club, to break up cliques, and to ensure forceful characters (or even those with all the stock for the 'club' exhibition layout) do not overrule the interests and needs of others. Or you'll lose members.

I'd like to add another reason for joining a club: 5. To get access to tools and equipment that you either can't afford or can't house yourself. E.g. A lathe or pillar drill etc, maybe even a laser cutter or 3D printer.

Give me time and I'll try to oblige. Just need a 1890s Kelly's Directory for Cornwall...D

Yes please!!! Many thanks. And I haven't forgotten about your BR standard loco conversion either. D

He was killed at Waterloo, leaving a wife and baby daughter. It's covered in the 'twisted sword', I think. D

Not yet I'm afraid, but I'll produce one (eventually). My understanding is that Nampara is based on Perranporth and Hendrawna beach is Perranporth beach. So in my fantasy Cornwall, Poldark's branch line replaces the chasewater line from Newquay. My line would hit the route of the chasewater branch at Sheppards and follows the real railway route to Nampara (Perranporth). I'm undecided at the moment whether St Anne's [Poldark] (or St Agnes [reality]) would warrant a branch of their own, especially as the harbour at St Agnes was apparently a bit of a nightmare and extremely exposed to SW gales.

Ha ha. No it's 4mm, but the hull of a large square rigged barque in 2mm might do for a much smaller topsail schooner and save me a lot of work. On the other hand, it might not, hence me wondering what others have tried. As to it being your fault, well, it's now a tradition and the British love a tradition!!! D

So, after an acceptable amount of lurking in the wings I have decided to throw my hat into the ring....and of course, in the finest traditions of my workbench blog, this must be Gareth's fault; the trifling issue that my former partner in EM layout crimes is not even on the same continent as me now (and has defected to P4 as well) is naturally beside the point. So what is the project? The astute (or just literate) will have gathered that the layout will be called Nampara for Hendrawna. It will be Cornish, GWR and mixed gauge. Those priding themselves on their intimate knowledge of BBC costume drama may conceive of a link to the recent Poldark series . This would be incorrect (I'm too young to have seen the first rendition and too skeptical of TV adaptations of books I've enjoyed to watch the second). Those priding themselves on a knowledge of Winston Graham's Poldark novels to see a link would, however, be correct. Being an admirer of the wonderful flights of fancy that formed the basis of Iain Rice's descriptions of his North Cornwall Mineral Railway (concept modelling I believe is the correct term) here comes what, in a kind light and with eyes half closed against the glare of brazen falsehoods, might pass for the history stuff. In the early 1850s, inspired by the onrushing (sic) progress of the Cornwall Railway, Sir Henry Poldark, son of the late Sir Ross, decided that his mining and associated ventures in the vicinity of the family seat at Nampara would benefit from connection to the national rail network, especially as hopes in the area that the Treffry tramways might reach the area had been dashed. Poldark agitated and pestered until he had sufficient interest in a scheme for a branch line from the Cornwall Railway just east of Truro to reach his land at Nampara, where he undertook to develop more suitable quays for the exporting of tin, copper and china clay that across an open beach. Work started on the line in 1858 and by 1862 was open for goods and passengers, with the Cornwall Railway undertaking to work the line. The stations at Idless and then at Callestick & Marazanvose - a station that the locals joked had a name as long as the railway that served it - could pass passenger and goods trains, while there was a smaller station at Chynoweth. When the line was proposed it was opposed by the Treffey tramway (from Par to Newquay) who could recognize competition when it saw it (and later took an equally dim view of a another broad gauge intrusion, this time in the shape of the Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway which was built from Burngallow towards St Dennis but only got as far as Napean before running out of money). Happily, the Treffey trustees were unsuccessful in the face of Sir Henry's determination and his railway to Nampara went ahead as he intended. When the Treffey tramway was rebuilt as the Cornwall Mineral Railway between 1873 and 1874 a branch was authorised from St Dennis junction to meet the Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway (now part of the Cornwall Railway and the Associated Companies = GWR) and as part of the authorization it was agreed that not only would the line be mixed to St Dennis and even Newquay, but that the Treamble branch would be extended a couple of miles from the area of Shepherds to meet the Nampara Railway at a junction at Perranwell. From this point the Nampara railway would lay a narrow line to its harbour at Nampara and give the CMR running powers over the mixed portion only of the line. It was a nice bit of quid pro quo, but the CMR saw little value in actually doing their broad gauge bit of the agreement and after a salvo of lawyers had been unleashed on them in 1875 in order to get them to do something towards laying the broad gauge rail could only frustrate plans for mixed gauge from St Dennis to Newquay by laying the rail in such a way that it couldn't be used! Unfortunately for the Nampara Railway Sir Henry was a decent chap and had laid the narrow rail, making the line from Perranwell Junction to Nampara a mixed gauge line The line was, much to its promoters' relief a moderate success, and in the mid 1870s the line was extended a short distance to serve an additional new quay. To get his own back on the CMR Sir Henry did not lay a narrow rail on all parts of the new quay extension, limiting the utility of the facilities for the CMR. With the collapse of the mineral trade shortly after the new quays were completed the CMR was leased to the GWR in 1877. The date is now 1891, the China Clay and mineral trade has recovered somewhat, and within a year the line will be converted to the Stephenson's narrower gauge. Back to harsh reality.... The layout's modeled area will be 6'6" (2 x 3'3"x 24" baseboards) with a cassette fiddle yards at the left hand end and a sector plate (probably) at the right, with the cassette FY at the operating end representing the rest of the GWR network and the sector plate at the right hand end representing the 1879 new quay and its associated three sidings. [NB viewing side is from the bottom of the above trackplan] Alongside the quay will be 3 sailing vessels, all 2 or 3 masted ketches or schooners, so the viewer will be looking through or round masts and rigging to see the layout. Control will be DCC for locos with conventional 12 volts dc operating servo driven points/signals. The layout will be constructed from 50mm extruded polystyrene sheets Back to the even harsher reality of stock for the layout.... I reckon I'll need as a minimum : 1 preferably 2 SG locos. 1 preferably 2 BG locos. 3 'narrow' 4 or 6 wheel coaches: Brake 3rd, Composite, Brake 3rd (T20, U4, T38/T49) or Brake third, third, brake composite (T20/T38, S9, U22) 3 board gauge 4 or 6 wheel coaches: Brake 3rd, Composite, Brake 3rd (T51 ng body on bg frame, U20 bg body, T64 ng body on bg frames) 4 BG open wagons 1 BG closed van 2 BG china clay wagons 1 BG brake van 4-6 SG open wagons 2 SG closed vans 3-4 SG china clay wagons 1 SG brake van 2 BG 6 wheel fish trucks 2 SG fish trucks. So not a lot. Currently none of the above has been completed (although T29, U4, S9, T49 have been started and I've the etches for the T38 and T51). I'm also learning Inkscape to produce the U20 and T64 coach sides either by laser cutting or silhouette type cutter, but as yet I have access to neither. As to locos, an Alan Gibson 1076 ST buffalo is well advanced, and I've also started a Cotswold 2021ST. Board gauge will have to be a convertible 1076 (if I can find drawings) or the BGS 3501 2-4-0T kit, neither of which I have yet. Wagons: BG probably mostly scratch built (I've started on my first BG open wagon) with the addition of the BGS mink kit and David Geen 3 plank open. SG, a coupe of backdated (and corrected see Railway Modeller Nov 2016) coopercraft 4 plank opens, a couple of David Geen 3 plank wagons, Ratio iron mink (backdated of course), a David Geen wooden mink, and an ABS outside framed brake van. As to the scenery, I originally imagined it to be typical Cornish fishing village rising up from the retaining wall behind the station. However, given the amount of architectural modelling this will require I'm starting to get cold feet and instead I'm thinking along the lines of a scale compressed (perhaps to 1:87) Nampara house in the rear left corner, cliffs in the centre with mining spoil on top and a disused beam engine house (perhaps to 3 or even 2mm) peaking over the spoil. To the right as the land falls toward the sea the start of Nampara village atop the retaining wall - perhaps 3 or 4 terraced cottages in the vernacular style. This will mean I'll have more time for... The ships. This is likely to be the hardest part. 1 ketch (c 75ft) and 2 schooners/brigs (@ c100ft-200ft each). I've got drawings, and lots of photos thanks to two excellent books, B. Greenhill's The Merchant Schooners and W. Slade & B. Greenhill's Westcountry Coasting Ketches. I've started marking out the frames on Inkspace to produce a cutting file. At least I'll only have to do from the waterline up as it will be high tide on the model! I'm also wondering about whether any 1:150 model ship kits might be able to provide a suitable hull for modification. And I'm both time and cash poor, just to make things easier. But Gareth has rashly promised to make a BG loco, however, I think that means I've still got to buy the bits. So how can you help? (if you want to...) If you have turned an SG 1076 into a BG one I'd love to know who you did it. If you have any BG coaches drawn up as cutting files for a laser/silhouette cutter and are prepared to share, I'd love to talk to you. If you have any ideas on how to speed up the ship construction, or on possible (low cost) donor hulls, please let me know. If you know where I can get sheets of 50mm extruded polystyrene cheaply (I was shocked at the cost in the local DIY shop), I'll be extremely grateful.

An excellent issue. Most inspiring. I particularly liked the Nettlebridge Valley Railway; I hope to get to see it at a show. Well done Jerry! (But a bit more of God's Wonderful will always be welcome...) Duncan

Watching with great interest to see how this layout develops. Duncan

Tell us more, especially about the 2FS ideas. D

Very nice. So with P4 and 2FS will there be two entries to the cameo competition? Duncan

Try ringing David Geen rather than emailing him. I have always found him extremely helpful. Duncan

If you've got so many photos perhaps you need a photo barrow rather than a bucket...

That's a pain...

The soldering of the handles to the cross piece was very fiddly and one side did not survive someone else's rough handling at an exhibition. It's now on the repairs and alterations list! D

Duplicate post deleted

Very nice. When I did my one of 71058 I used bent brass wire soldered to a cross piece. I think there are some pictures in my workbench blog and maybe in the Nov (I think but will check) 2016 Railway Modeller. Duncan

What photo bucket mess? And what's a photo bucket? Duncan

Yes it does, so I just need the 1887 and 1923 standards for comparison. D

I wanted to ascertain the differences between the 1887, 1907, and 1923 standards. D

Does anyone have copies of the 1887 and 1923 RCH standards for PO wagons? Drduncan

I agree! Duncan

Just ordered and received transfers, within a coupke of weeks I think. Duncan