Halvarras

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🤬!!

One can use this scenario as an excuse for all kinds of stock (within reason!) to run into a BLT for a run-round manoeuvre, maybe recessing into a siding while the regular passenger service arrives and departs.

One of these came to me in a job lot around 30 years ago - I sold it on as I had no use for it but now wish I hadn't as it ran really nicely and I currently have a DC Kits Class 205 2H kit which needs a power unit! Oh well, I've never owned a crystal ball.......🥴!

D'oh! Yes Tony, you (and Roger) are quite right - 7054 had already spent its time at Laira and had been returned to Bristol nearly 4 months earlier. I should have realised this - I've looked through my notebook for 1973 and I passed Laira on the train on 19/4/73 (behind 'Peak' 42), noting 7054/68/74, 818/21 and 1032 on the scrapline - so I saw it there exactly a week before it left. (At that point 1032 was in limbo, having been stopped at Laira since 16/1/73 with issues in both engines and one bogie but repairs were not authorised and it was officially condemned 17 days later on 6/5/73 - the first to go.) According to 'A Tribute to the Hymeks' by Chris Neill, which happens to reproduce the Swindon Works record for this particular Hymek, for 26/4/73 the entry says,"LA Withdrawn/9ZXX LA-Swindon for scrap with D818, towed by D5824 via BRD to pick up D7032 for OOC/Swindon Works for scrap". However it would appear that for some reason 7054 was swapped for 7032 at Bristol and it then remained there for some months (3 dead hydraulics too much for a '31'?!) Scrapping for all three redundant locos would take different paths since, as suggested in the works entry, 7032 went on to OOC for component recovery (it was noted there on 14/7/73 between classmates 7030 and 7031), and 818 would spend longer parked at Swindon Works than it did in traffic, not being scrapped until 1985. As for 7054, I'm not sure when it eventually made it to Swindon's Con Yard because the works record says "Swindon Works for scrap" continuously from 27/4/73 until it became the 81st Hymek to be cut up on 9/4/75!

With Hornby's Grant Rail Ruston 48DS 'GR5090' (R3853) currently available for less than £70 from some retailers how about this for an ultra-ultra-short 'train'?! (Flickr photo) The model's conflat runner wagon body could be swapped for that from a Dapol 10' wheelbase hopper wagon, maybe cut down a little and repainted to match (or a debranded Bachmann 'Cadburys' version which is already yellow!) You'd even get a usable standard conflat wagon out of the leftovers 😁 (You can tell I've been giving this some thought.......but I'm trying to resist adding yet another project to my extensive existing projects pile....!!) The real one has larger cab windows than the model and appears to be a later version (one reason to not get too hung up on the accuracy of the hopper wagon!) Until 1996 Grant Rail had been Grant Lyon Eagre, and the album 'Cornish China Clay Trains in Colour' by Maurice Dart includes a photo of a similar set-up involved in ballasting work at ECC Burngullow in which the hopper wagon, with this longer name down the side, is being propelled by a less elaborate, and considerably smaller but still yellow, motorised trolley, so this 'motive-power plus hopper wagon' formation seems to have been a standard arrangement for this company in either guise.

My mum worked in Old County Hall! Her office overlooked the railway and on one visit in 1970 I saw two-tone green Class 47 1759 entering the station on an up train - not only was a Stratford loco a rarity in Cornwall, this one's future would include a rebuild as 57601 and a garish silver and purple livery! I noticed in April that Old County Hall is currently being converted into residential accommodation. At least the residents won't be disturbed by twin Maybachs bellowing up the 1 in 60 to Highertown Tunnel 😆!!

Here's my photo of 7054, the last surviving green Hymek, withdrawn at Bristol St Philips Marsh with 7097 for company on 11th August 1973 (5 years to the day since the end of BR steam, not relevant except maybe as a reminder of how some of steam's replacements didn't fare much better, 7054 itself lasting a whisker under 10 years and 2 months in service) - my notebook indicates that beyond 7097 were 7096, Warship 824 and 7089. I would not have expected 7054's next move to be to Laira!

I've noticed that the title is at odds with the poster - although the 31st being a Monday means confusion is unlikely. Hope it goes well as it's for a good cause. Too far away for me though!

Oh yes, 15107 the oddball - I should have remembered this one as there's a photo of it actually shunting something (!) in Bristol in an old Bradford Barton slim softback book on my bookshelf......thanks for the reminder 😉!

From my observations over the past couple of years 43005 & 43041 had the large bodyside 'GWR' logos in raised cast alloy instead of the usual '3D-effect' vinyl stickers. I believe 43188 still in service (AFAIK) also has them - is, or was, there another one, to make up two pairs? Were these the 'Castle' launch PCs and was 43041 paired with 43188, as these two have (had) their running numbers unusually applied to the sliding rear doors instead of the cabsides? Just for the record......

Sorry, gone way OT lately. I wonder where those photos of the Dobwalls railway are......??

Inner end access is/was just about opposite where Penhalls Way joins Carlyon Road - from memory there was a granite block 'stile' and I think there was also one at the outer end set back from the road (wish I'd checked it was still open while I was there but never went that far up PW - something to check next time!) Once I had a bike I had no reason to use it. My younger brother also had a bike by then so we both rode to Kea school, although one morning he had 'brake trouble' coming down the hill and collided with the school entrance's right-hand granite gate post - fortunately he got away with just bruises! When I discovered railways my usual route from home to Truro station was down the long hill past the school to Calenick, up the other side across the level crossing on the Newham branch then across the top of Truro to New County Hall on the left, where I turned right into the Old County Hall grounds which provided a convenient short cut to the famous "Black Bridge" over Truro yard. Having witnessed the passing of several Warships and Westerns and a hoped-for Class 47, a Class 08 and/or Class 22 in the yard (and in the autumn of 1967 maybe blue D600 or green D603 - the other three being in South Wales - Hymeks D7029 on the down 'Cornish Riviera' and D7088 in the bay platform.......both on the same day once!) I was faced with the long bike push up the hill from Calenick, past the school and back on the level at Playing Place. Phew! Happy days though 😊

Just checked John Vaughan's 'Illustrated History of West Country China Clay Trains' (first published 1987) - the Traffic Services 'Polybulk' wagon shown on the wagon spread is not the same as the JIAs currently in service so I stand corrected. They still look older than the CDAs though, not helped by those expansive smooth sides proving irresistible to graffiti "artists" 😕.......