Halvarras

Time is very nearly up for the long-time stored CDAs in St Blazey Yard - a clear sign that those in operation won't last much longer either - but there's hope that a dozen of them will live on not that far away. Scroll down through 27th July (the Western at Redruth is D1070 btw) to find the article posted on the 26th: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc I must get my new phone sorted, get lineside and take some CDA pictures* sooner rather than later. As mentioned above the first one 375000 is still amongst those stored, as are 375001/2, the latter currently in full view of the yard's main gate. At this time of the year the vegetation along the road makes identifying individual wagons parked on the nearest siding difficult if not impossible but many of those stored are the earliest ones - a while back it looked like only 375004 was missing from the first 20 or so, and it may just be one of those out of sight behind buildings. * Back in the days of the diesel-hydraulics this statement would have made no sense! I still remember first reading about the Japanese having mobile phones with built-in cameras, and thinking that was a bit OTT!! Now I wish I had such a thing back then.........but hey, don't we all, wherever we lived 🤔😁

You actually did one then! I too bought a Hornby 46400 even longer ago (circa 1979/80 I reckon) to have a go at this conversion, spurred on by my cherished 1958 edition of 'The Observer's Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain' stating of the 78xxx, "This is the smallest of the BR standard types and, amongst the tender classes, alone possesses a running-plate of moderate height, resulting in the best proportioned engine of all the new designs." It was destined to become one of the first projects, if not the first project, I would alas never to get around to when I realised the steam-roller wheels would have to go, and back then rewheeling a steam loco with valve gear didn't appeal to this mainly diesel modeller.......🥴!

I didn't know cargowaggons went to Moorswater either, until a week ago while reading Bernard Mills' book 'Backtracking Around Plymouth, Liskeard, Looe, Bodmin, Wadebridge and Padstow' (still reading it, got as far as Bodmin so far!) Page 37 shows 66616 at Moorswater with only cargowaggons visible behind it in May 2004. I'm wondering whether that (or those) directly behind the 66 are 2-axle twins, as sold by Kernow (IZA from memory.....) I'd also recommend a trawl of the appropriate sections of the Cornwall Railway Society website, if you haven't already - a fun way to spend an hour (or three 😉!)

87001 was the first carrier of the 'Stephenson' nameplates, from January 1976 - I saw it on an up train near Stafford two months later - got a photo somewhere...... The plates were transferred to 87101 during the Class 87/0 naming programme which followed shortly after.

I've never tried this (although I've fitted Lima motor units into the bogie frames of Hornby 25s, 29s and Hymeks) so I can't say for sure how much work would be involved. However if you'd like to explore the possibility at minimal cost Lendons of Cardiff should be able to help: https://www.lendonsmodelshop.co.uk/index.asp?search=Railways-20OO/HO-20Gauge&showorder=partnumber&check=yes&searchme=Hornby-20Spares-20--20Drive-20Units Drive units here, trailing bogies under 'Bogies and pony trucks' and underframes under 'Chassis' (not 'Underframes'!) Just bear in mind that: - Class 59 and Class 66 bogie sideframes are different (and the same is presumably true of the underframe side detail - not an expert on GMs!) - The Hornby drive units are cheap partly because they have no wiring so are not 'ready-to-run' - some soldering will be involved, to get the 'juice' from the pick-ups to the motor terminals, and from the trailing end. - Beware of trailing bogies being described as 'complete' - you get bogie frame, keeper plate and wheelsets, but no pickups! I'd suggest X6437 for the drive unit, X7335 for the trailing bogie and X9669 for the underframe. For the trailing bogie an alternative is X9668 which is wired with pick-ups but has the large clip-on coupling. Total cost should be around twenty quid (plus postage), which is why I used Lendons to upgrade a Lima 50149 and 47484 to 'Railroad' spec. Both of these use Class 66 bogies with the motor unit and trailing wheelsets swapped into the required bogie frames ordered at the same time (no connection to Lendons other than happy customer!)

This very informative website calls them 'multidoor'.... https://www.bloodandcustard.com/SR-CoachingSets-BulleidMultidoor.html

It was only a problem while I was a Cornish spotter of limited means, and of an age where I failed to grasp that anyone living elsewhere at the extremities of the rail system faced much the same situation. Looking back of course, if one was in that situation then Cornwall in the hydraulic era was the place to be - it just took a while for that to sink in!

I was prepared to do just this, using that reasoning/excuse, when a lone CK came up so I stumped up the extra readies (actually those extra readies would nearly have bought me a third BSK but what would have been the point in that?!) Two coaches is all I required and towards the end of their lives many of these vehicles became 'loose' so it's not impossible that a 'scratch' pair of BSKs could have been put together for a branch service. If this idea catches on it would help shift all that excess stock, although the prevalence of all those 'SR B Sets' on Southern layouts seen at exhibitions and featured in magazines from here on may fool a few future railway historians into thinking they must have really existed but for some reason never recorded anywhere 🤭! Not everyone will go for this subterfuge of course but at the price it would almost be a shame not to, as they're very nice models. I should mention that I have no connection to Kernow MRC other than as a happy customer 😁......

This is what I was referring to when describing green Class 31s with a lot of grey roof showing - here's 5827 at Bristol Bath Road on 28/7/73 looking surprisingly 'clean' up top considering the date: I painted up a Tri-ang model based on my photo shortly after taking it. I only discovered in a 2002 issue of Traction magazine that one month less a day earlier this loco had worked 1V76 0830 (I think) Liverpool - Penzance westward from Plymouth, caught on camera at St Budeaux - so far the earliest known Class 31 across the Tamar. It appears that it reached the end of the line OK but had a spot of bother getting back....... On 15/2/74 it would achieve fame (or infamy!) as the only Class 31 to receive a TOPS number (31294) which it only carried for two weeks, being called to Doncaster for general overhaul on 2/3/74, but enough time for me to see it at Reading. I have an Airfix body on a Hornby Railroad chassis to recreate this oddity which I really must get around to finishing (I won't admit to how many years it has sat around part-finished, it's embarrassing! But it's time to get it finished.........he says......again!) Incidentally, and veering further OT, the lower group shot above reveals that somewhere between D5525/31 and D5578 Brush made a small design change - they must have decided that the straight cab door handrails looked a little inelegant so on later locos these were curved to match the body profile, as the light picks up on the blue 'un. D5525 was actually the very first Class 31 (or Class 30?) I saw, from a carriage window while en route from Cornwall around London to reach Chingford (for the Gilwell Park scouting centre) behind D827 'Kelly' in the early hours of 25/7/67, apparently its last run in green livery. I wouldn't see another until 5825 at Derby over 2 years later, and just minutes before clapping eyes on my very first Class 37, 6807. The problem with being a Cornish spotter of limited means in the late 1960s was that yer ABC got heavily-scored on the Warship, Western and NBL Type 2 pages with pretty much s*d all elsewhere - no wonder we got all excited about Brush Type 4s. Mind you, alongside D5525 were D8202/7 and D8405, truly 'exotic' machinery to me! Even further OT now so apologies, I'll zip it 🤐!!

Maybe, yes. I did do one around 25 years ago BUT..........it's an MTK kit (with Mainline bogies and interior): Posed with my MTK D600 Warship (built 1993 on Tri-ang EM2 bogies). I now have Kernow's blue D600 'Active' so would like a blue/grey Hawksworth of matching quality!

Pleased to have been of service 😁!! Kernow still have 6 at £69.99, if anyone's still tempted (to stop me being tempted!)

I wonder what shade of grey paint was used to obliterate the white? Standard green Class 31s always seem to have had a fair amount of grey roof showing through the usual dirt/exhaust soot, unlike most classes, but D5578's roof in its 'post-white' condition always looks close to overall matt black - as in the photo above.

I've just noticed that Hattons stock of R3853 has dropped from 'More than 10' to zilch in just a few days! I wonder if..........................no, I'm sure it has nothing to do with me 😇!!

Yep, it definitely ran like that, seen some pics👍!

I admit that I have never ridden in one but would like to one day to see what all the "fuss" was about! The Plym Valley Railway now have two (142023* and 143618) and they're not too far away from me. Of course I still wouldn't get the full high-speed nodding experience🎠! *I photographed this one as a 'Skipper' working the Par - Newquay branch on 14/9/87 during a holiday, about 3 weeks before they were all banished to the Northern territories because having to reprofile their wheelsets every 3,000 miles was proving a little tiresome (and expensive). Perhaps if prototype 140001 had been more widely tested during its 1981 South West running trials the design's unsuitability for the area's branch lines would have become apparent.......

I've just checked the calendar and............no, it's definitely not April 1st 🤓! Interested to see what purpose they are put to (all three strung together on a railtour to Penzance unlikely I reckon.......!)

The problem with respraying modern coaches, especially Hornby's, is getting the glazing out (or failing that, trying to paint around it in situ). And if you do manage to get it out, it fits so tightly that fracturing of the new layer(s) of paint around the openings on reassembly is a distinct possibility. The reason I haven't repainted a Hornby Hawksworth SK into blue/grey livery, even though I could use one.......

Back in the 1980s I resprayed an Airfix model Railmatch Electric Blue which turned out looking just like yours (only bigger 😁! With metal wheels only at one end 🥴...) It was a spare one I somehow ended up with, wanted to do something different with it to help with selling it on and this was by far the least amount of work......!

Regarding the wiper pickups acting directly on the railhead - I too resorted to this on an OO Wrenn Class 08 diesel shunter, which I originally bought in 1975 but never did anything meaningful with until 1991. I discovered that its running wasn't brilliant and that this was probably due to the wheels on the outer axles not quite sitting squarely on the track (the centre wheelset, although flanged unlike the Hornby Dublo original, was unsuitable for power collection). So I replaced the plastic keeper plate with a piece of copper-clad circuit board electrically 'split' down the middle and soldered up 4 pickup 'shoes' to contact the railhead between the wheels, so two on each side. To get enough springing into the phosphor bronze strip (giving a lighter touch than the nickel-silver strip I also had to hand) I soldered these pickup arms to the cooper-clad on the side opposite the rail they were to act upon (and at an angle to clear each other), with the pickup 'shoes' being small curved squares of brass offcuts from Kings Cross etched nameplates (which had to be cut and filed to shape - I don't miss that task! - never throw anything away, you never know what's going to come in handy years down the line 😉!) I still have the loco and I believe it still works but, although a picture would help, I'm not able to provide one right now (I'm between phones!) However I hope this confirms that in some situations this method of power collection is a viable solution.

As a former resident of Playing Place (with a primary school best friend who lived in Carnon Downs, up the hill from the Devoran HQ of the former Redruth & Chasewater (sic) Railway, 1824-1915) the idea of railway stations at both locations is intriguing! The King Harry Ferry was within walking distance although a bike was faster - mine also took me to Roundwood Quay a few times too, although the last stretch of lane to reach it was bone-shaking! I wonder if you could squeeze in a halt at Penelewey - my parents were living there when I was born 😊 Although time has dimmed the memory I believe the Bishop of Truro's residence was (is) at Trelissick - my father worked on renovations there not long before his untimely passing in 1969. Your layout is a lovely piece of work in a small space - thanks for posting the pics!

Very neat work, like your yellow output! Flying Scotsman visited Cornwall on 30th April and was the first locomotive to use St Blazey's turntable since its return to working order (I think some of the paint may still have been a little tacky!) Whilst watching its manoeuvres at Par station to position the support coach at the head of the train ready for departure eastwards I clocked the vehicle's running number 35486 and it seemed instantly familiar - I have a Bachmann BR maroon BSK at home numbered M35486 (ref. 39-076C). There were 1,500 BSKs......! I believe the last 200 were built new with Commonwealth bogies - the Bachmann model came with B1s so when I had another on Commonwealths which needed B1s I did a swap which put them both right. It was this which made the number stick in the memory. Although that memory is pretty good with numbers anyway 😉!

Indeed, they have 10 versions (4 x SR, 6 x BR(SR)), all of them "More than 10 in stock". Some had dropped below 10 at one stage, but they seem to have had a 'top-up'. Even allowing for some purchasers not understanding how the real vehicles were employed and so buying one BSK and 2 or 3 CKs (First Class overkill!) there appears to have been a massive overproduction of brake vehicles - did somebody at Hornby mistakenly add a zero to the order quantities?! It makes one wonder whether a further quantity of CKs would be worth running off - possibly unnumbered or partially numbered with transfer sheet? - although if Kernow are being used as the main stock clearance of these brake vehicles the economics probably wouldn't stand up. I wonder if any of these ended up in departmental service.........🤔? They are certainly in that ballpark now. I wonder if the underframes would be suitable for any SR coach kits out there - or possibly even better, 3D printed bodyshells - for subjects that the RTR manufacturers haven't got around to yet (just asking, definitely not my field of expertise!)

Interested to see how these old-timers turn out! Card compartment partitions would obviously cost next to nothing (if plasticard) or nothing at all (if cardboard), but in case they're of any interest - it may depend on how many coaches you plan to do - 3D printed interiors for these coaches are available: https://dcresinreplicas.co.uk/product/r121-suburban-coach-seating-unit/ Only the composite (R121) is listed although I would expect the EMU power car interior to fit the suburban brake coach (I'm sure DCR would confirm if asked). I have used their products in a pair of Triang-Hornby 'shorty' clerestory coaches and they look good and fit well, as well as being chunky enough to add some useful weight. And the brown versions avoid the necessity for painting. I admit that they are not that visible through the small suburban-type windows (especially the luggage racks!) and that simple card partitions would be enough to prevent seeing through the windows at inappropriate angles (!) but, like @Enterprisingwestern above who got there first with the Replica bogies, I thought it worth bringing these to your attention...........in case you get carried away with this project 😉!

I did say your situation was highly unusual. Had you snipped off 19 bolts without trouble you have wondered that little bit more why the last one was putting up such a struggle before succeeding (albeit with a notch in your new side cutters!) As for checking that last one - magnet, or file to expose the metal. A few weeks ago I was fooled by a plated screw which sheared off while trying to tap it into a Mazak casting, that's when I found out it was brass. Naturally I had just succeeded in doing this with an apparently identical polished steel screw so that familiar LOS deflation struck again. At such moments I have to remember that I do this for fun! I reckon that running a magnet over a bunch of screws about to be employed in a project which may require some force to be exerted is not a bad idea, it may expose a lurking LOS candidate waiting to be picked up last to ruin your day😜!

The second to last one? That's highly unusual, what I call LOS (Last One Syndrome) dictates that it's always the last one of anything, no matter the task or the number involved, which knocks you back just when you think you've cracked it. Extracting those small crosshead screws, as used by Bachmann on their locos, is classic LOS territory...... It happened to me again just 3 days ago - I have a pair of Hornby Class 73s which needed their short buffers replaced with the longer Lima ones (to put the buffer heads in front of the buffing plate instead of behind it), they pulled out of the first one no problem, job done in 3 minutes - on to the second one........uh-oh, buffers glued in (why, Hornby, why?!), they came off in bits and fitting the replacements required careful drilling and filing (no drill the right size), job done in 70 minutes! LOS says there was no chance of me picking them up the other way round🤬!!