Gwiwer

Atten - SHUN !!! For those of a military and / or Australian - Kiwi background today is ANZAC Day. It has poured, poured and poured some more since yesterday afternoon meaning everyone out for their dawn services would have likely got soaked. Even that doesn't dampen the determination of some old souls. It's back to the painting here where top-coating around the large glazed sliding doors is in order. Meaning the job is almost done but there's s shirt-load of cutting-in to do with a 1cm trim brush. Sleep well Topside. Avagoodun to those south of the line.

Good work John. No turning back now. Once that frame is ordered and the drinking vouchers change hands the only way is forwards. I was at the point of setting up my own design for a Modratec (without interlocking) when two problems simultaneously arose. The difficulty of providing effective (or indeed any) linkage across a demountable board join and a period of ill health which affected my income and the ability to support the order. The project effectively stalled there and despite good intentions has never moved on. Penhayle proved far more enduring and popular (and I managed to keep it going through successive wet episodes) and thus Beer & Branscombe never progressed beyond the track-laying stage despite powered trains having been test-run. Those boards are now London-bound to become the basis of something very different. And still without a Modratec unless the lotto pays out

Well-remembered here. The state-wide grid behaved exactly as it was designed to do. Catastrophic damage to infrastructure caused by a weather event resulted in extreme overload on what remained which promptly tripped out as it should have done. Unfortunately for South Australia this resulted in a total power outage due to the extent of damage. Victoria had something similar some years ago when an explosion at the Longford gas facility meant there was no gas for some time. For anyone except bottle-supply users. Sad? Not at all. If we don't sometimes idly wander through the internet how would we ever find the occasional fascinating, amazing or simply bizarre material. By the by the UK's first coal-free power-generation day has not been reported here other than via internet links. It is being hailed as an example of what should be done elsewhere. Not an absolute cessation of coal generation but proof that under controlled conditions it is not always required. We burn filthy brown coal for power generation in Victoria with high levels of pollution. Australia remains one of the worst polluters per head of population on the planet.

I was hoping it might be like an alcoholic crême brulée

I had also missed that. I know nested quotes don't quote but you know what I mean. My thoughts with you Sir. There are no words which can offer real comfort at such times. Moan-day has been variously sunny and thundery. The day has passed in a haze of white paint but the upshot is that the music room has been completed. Two more days to complete the outstanding decorative jobs now which ought to be enough. Tomorrow is ANZAC Day when "true blue" Aussies would try to attend the dawn service at the nearest suitable location. I shall be quietly working away indoors so as not to offend those to whom the day is significant. Shops being closed until 1pm by law I ventured forth today to obtain the required paint and floor varnish to complete the renovations.

And Stu can model them very well. Perhaps as a cameo entry Meanwhile I shall retire gracefully to the Confused Corner still wondering why this isn't a marketing initiative.

Marathons? Yup - I ate a good many before they became Snickers. They don't taste the same now that the name reminds me of female underwear. I also ran several and still feel I might have one more in me. My best time for the London was a modest 3h 57m which is hardly world class but is acceptable for a "fun-runner" who has never even been a club member. At the peak of my fitness I managed 3h 35m on less crowded streets so if London hadn't been as packed as it is mid-field who knows what I might have achieved.

Sincere best wishes to Debs and John. Thoughts with you from afar. To sum up the past crazy-busy days which have gone by in something of a blur ..... I was surprised on Friday to be accorded the honour of a farewell party by my colleagues at the Palace. Such things are normally done only for retiring very senior staff or those with very long service. Speeches were made by our Director of Customer Experience and the Senior Station Master neither of whom would normally acknowledge a short-serving staff member leaving with more than a handshake - if even that. I have good self-control at such times but found it hard to keep a dry eye when these most senior of staff offer comments such as : "You have come in here a stranger and quickly become a friend. And you have showed us all the meaning of friendship" "Your leaving creates a void which we may never be able to fill" "You have touched the lives of staff and passengers alike; there are countless accolades on your personal file to prove it" And personally from a staff member "You have been the father I never knew; I am still alive today because of you" As well as a huge card I was presented with an inscribed gold pen - an award usually reserved for a retiring station-master. For my final day yesterday I had arranged with a friend, who is a professional cake baker-decorator, to have her create a suitable farewell cake. This I had to collect from her home, take 20 miles back to mine overnight and refrigerate, then transport safely the 35 miles to the Palace first thing. The final day therefore saw me driving to the city rather than commuting by train. Two tiers, of which the top was red velvet and the bottom white chocolate sponge, provided enough for all the three shifts across the day and night. Many more hugs were had, contact details exchanged and hands shaken. At 16.00 I was changed into civvies (having always commuted in uniform), walked out under the great dome and down the steps into the street (as opposed to boarding the train at platform 8) and took one last look back at the well-known view of the "clocks" frontage of Flinders Street Station with the thought "I used to work there". And I drove home a retired man so far as Australia is concerned.

It seems to drop right into that era and geography very nicely.

Oooh - home near as dammit. The station on the north bank is best not mentioned among those who understand rhyming slang

From a manufacturer who has the tooling and only needs to redecorate, and who need every Pound they can get in the bank, this is a sensible and sound move. For those running present-day themes even allowing for the significant cost of a full or representative set this completes the basic requirements rather than leaving a gaping hole and modellers hoping that one would be released in the future. Or perhaps not buying at all being uncertain about whether they could ever complete the set without a repainted one.

Many thanks indeed. See also my comments to Stewart above.

Many thanks Stewart. The next project will make use of the boards once intended to become a show layout here but which can be readily adapted for a different theme back in Blightly. As such the track is almost all down already and powered test runs took place several years ago!

Yes we do. See post 1669 above

The last video. Featuring a trio of typically Cornish trains including the very last to run on the Penhayle Bay Railway. Thank you, one and all, for the interest, support, friendship, comments, learning and everything which this layout has brought. With well over 10,000 Facebook followers in addition to being featured on three modelling forums it has proved far more popular and enduring than I ever expected. Life moves on. I am moving on. A new project will emerge in the future. I hope you will be around to share that with me too.

Easter Monday, 17th April, would have been Dad's 89th birthday has he lived a few more weeks. It was also the date, set some time ago, upon which the last trains ran on the Penhayle Bay Railway. In the morning there was a steady trickle of passengers some of whom seemed shocked at the state Treheligan station had been left in With the down tracks closed and the loop lifted most signals on the down side were marked out of use; only the route to the right across the diamond into the up platform remained available The footbridge remained but was fenced off on the up side to prevent unauthorised access to the now-closed down side. The hoods make their way slowly across the diamond to loop through the up platform ..... ..... before regaining the down road at the far end of the station. As can be seen this has always been a permitted and signalled move. The wreckers had certainly been at work; more signals out of use pending removal with rusted and torn up tracks. The clays ease over the western end crossover to regain double track For its last day of operation the St. Agnes branch was worked by the black-liveried Cornish promotional class 153 car, passing the glimpse of angry seas one last time And giving some idea of just how steep this gradient is. The branch was an afterthought and the need to have it clear the fiddle yard access tracks hadn't been thought through properly when the gradient went it. Waiting for the board to drop and move on into the platform; the weathering applied to the 153 is apparent in this light. There were still a few passengers for the branch trains right to the end. Most down trains were replaced by buses in order to have all rolling stock cleared from the end of the line by closure; there's always one idiot who thinks bus stops are free car parks. The final collection of vans was in the hands of a red-livery class 47 The reds of the train stood out against the sand dunes and sea of Penhayle Bay One last time a blue Western led the hoods above the beach, around the reverse-curves and through Penhayle Bay The final train from Ponsangwyn, where the shed was already deserted, was the empty milk tanks off to maybe a new working or perhaps a scrapyard. Warship 812 "Royal Naval Reserve" was in charge. Surprisingly the yard lighting was still working which allowed the weathering and the cast nameplate to be shown off. It's actually a Fox etch. A single class 37 was rostered to work the final up clay tanks, seen here on a downhill stretch across Darras Viaduct but no doubt providing a fair amount of thrash when working uphill. This train is usually a two-engine load. A group of mourners had gathered at Penhayle Bay later in the day as the class 22 struggles gamely with a long freight against a steep climb. Again the need to remove motive power before the end resulted in an under-powered train instead of a double-header The very last down train of all pulls away from Treheligan ..... ..... only to be brought to an ignominious halt at the section signal. Perhaps someone was having a laugh as there hadn't been anything in front for hours. With the road cleared there was one last opportunity to frame a train beneath Church Lane bridge amid the gorse and greenery The divisional inspection saloon conveyed some senior managers over the lines about to be closed including making a trip to St. Agnes worked by 66511, here seen pushing the saloon back to the main line. The photographers who have patiently waited for and recorded trains from the hillside at Darras all these years finally moved down to Treheligan station to record the very last trains. The maroon Western is back from Penzance for the final time. It's best not to ask how those lads got access to the closed platform! Even into the evening there were still a few passengers about though the numbers had been dwindling all day. The inspection saloon passes through Penhayle Bay where the gradient post shows the climb steepening from 1:50 to 1:37 Towards nightfall the very last shunt of clay wagons took place at Carreglyb; the duty 08 draws back one half of the train from No.2 (loading) Siding towards Treheligan station This half is then propelled forwards to be joined to the other half n No.1 Siding. Weathering work again in evidence on the Hornby shunter and Bachmann wagon. The shunter withdraws from the section; until recently it would have trundled off to the loco run-round loop alongside the St. Agnes bay platform but with that also now closed the move was simply to the branch itself and sit outside the signal to release the block on the main line The final departure from the clay dries was thus ready and led away by a green Warship One last time a string of short wheelbase clay wagons was seen threading the curves above Penhayle Bay Onwards and upwards to Nansglaw Tunnel The shunter followed as soon as the road was clear. Not one bus on the bridge but two. Just in case a crowd turned out for the very end. But both seem to be empty. The St. Agnes unit returned up-country pausing in front of the mourners One last loco-hauled train came up through Cornwall featuring a large-logo blue class 50 in a scene which typified the Cornish main line for some years The final loco-hauled working on the line Honour of being the very last train fell to a humble 2-car DMU calling at all stations to Exeter and "sweeping up" the very last passengers from Penhayle Bay. At least it seems to be decently loaded. The final station stop; the last train from Penhayle Bay Waved away by a couple of saddened locals

Oh dear. Straight reverse puts the Central in nip. Barry might not agree but I believe we have room in the game for SEVEN SISTERS

Many thanks Dave. It has been a great honour and my pleasure to be able to share a little of Cornwall with some of the best modellers around, your good self included. I just need an extra hour in the day to get the last videos sorted and I'll have the final moves posted for all to see and remember.

I am no expert on this Aussie stuff either but isn't the Daylesford one a DERM and the Healesville one a Walker? DERM being Diesel-electric Railmotor. Effectively a DEMU to us from the Mother Country

It's Musk. Funny. You will see my post is edited. I originally had it as Musk, posted, looked twice and again at the trees and my own photos and decided it was actually Ballarto. Musk is the intermediate station and terminus of the first morning service from Daylesford at least on some days.

Hi Peter The more I look at those last few pics the more i think how much they remind me of so many places in the late 60s right through almost to present day where rationalisation and eventual closure has occurred. Half-done demolition jobs, scrap left lying around and the growth of weeds and rust. I'm not sure how well that could be modelled if one set out to do it from scratch as opposed to removing what was already there as per prototype. I'll drop you a PM with my dates as there is time, but not much, for a final visit to Llanbourne which I would very much appreciate. I'll add the very last trains when I get a moment as videos take a bit longer to process. Cheers Rick

Rick from Melbourne will too. That's Bullarto isn't it? The terminus of the Central Highlands Tourist Railway from Daylesford.

A final entry from Penhayle Bay which closed yesterday having been singled, stripped of numerous items and with the down platform loop track lifted already. The one remaining platform required a crossover move by down trains ..... Meanwhile an up freight shows more of the appalling condition Treheligan station has been left in, having once been a busy junction serving two branches and a multitude of passenger and freight trains

The first few pictures from the final day. All taken at Treheligan (others will follow) where some drastic changes had taken place. What was once a busy four-platform junction with passenger and freight trains coming and going had become a half-demolished unstaffed halt. The canopies and shelters had all gone. The buildings had gone from the down platform which was closed altogether. The down main was rusty and disused but the down platform loop had already been lifted. All trains used the remaining through platform, once the up, on what had become a single line through the station. The ability to do this was built in to the layout from day one; it has always been a fully signalled move though seldom used except on winter Sundays. The sparse service on those days could easily be handled at a single platform and meant that the station could be single-manned. I had this planned but surprised myself at how realistic it looked after just a few minutes. One track was torn up, the other had wetted weathering powder "rust" applied and some new green scattered about. The signals have the requisite cross markers meaning out of use except for the bracket at the London end of the down platform which has already been cut though the scrap is lying on the ground for anyone to make off with as a souvenir. How many layouts get new work - even if it only took a few minutes - purely for their final day of operation, I wonder?

It would be quite normal retail practice to clear out the last few at cost or even less in order to make shelf space for new items and / or just to be rid of the end-of-line pieces. There might have only been one or two at the final offer price. Even though they can have their identities swapped (subject to fine detail if that matters to you) I managed to avoid a purchase this time. I'm already wondering where my loco collection is going to go in a small London flat.