Captain Kernow

Simon - just caught up with your thread - very interesting indeed, and I'm so glad that it seems to be going well for you. Keep it up, stay with it, and only good things can result! You know where I am if you need to chat about anything!

I thought I'd placed an 'expression of interest' with Locomotion for one of these, which I did via the e-mail system, but I never heard anything, nor has anyone asked me for any money (no credit card details were requested at the time). I know that they hadn't sold out when I contacted them. Clearly, I'll contact them again if nothing further is heard about this, but I was just wondering how the ordering process went for others, assuming that I didn't do it right at the time!! Thanks.

The motto now most associated with the Lynton & Barnstaple line after it's closure in 1935 was 'Perchance not dead, but sleepeth'...

Words fail me, Robin, there is only so much descriptive language available for 'superlative'...!

I can assure everyone that the timber trains have now resumed, having made some enquiries with the appropriate parties today. The next run is scheduled to come down on 18th December and return on 19th. The frequency will not, initially, be weekly, as it was generally previously. Edit - re St Blazey - this has never been a serious option for this traffic.

Yes, their whole approach is inappropriate, for reasons that I won't go into further right now. I've come across groups like that before. As regards the images, they can claim what they like about their own, I shall give them a few days and check to see that nothing of mine is left up there.

Actually I do mind, and I would thank you to take my photos down from your website with immediate effect. I will also go so far as to say that you should not be putting information regarding your aspirations in the public domain without proper consultation with Network Rail, who own and continue use this line as part of the national network. There are a number of statements on your webpage that are not correct, and you would be well advised to get your facts straight first, before publishing this kind of information. Personally, I also take exception to single-issue groups like yours coming onto fora like this, purely for your own ends, rather than to genuinely engage with those of us interested in the real and model railway world.

So it did, Martyn. Just checked TRUST and it went down on the 27th and returned on the 28th. This now signals a resumption of traffic, albeit (for the time being) on a slightly reduced frequency as compared with previously.

No, not at the moment, the service was suspended earlier this year, due to a change in contractual arrangements between the end users (eg. Kronospan) and the timber suppliers (ie. the plantations). Firms like Kronospan are currently taking a lot of timber from South West Wales, but there are plans to resume operations from Heathfield at an as-yet unspecified date.

There are one or two bookings for it, some firmer than others, none until 2015...!!

Yes, I meant to mention that I will be using some powders on it probably, in due course!

In the previous blog entry, I mentioned that the next job on 'Callow Lane' would be the production of a low-relief factory, based on the new Scalescenes 'northlight' engine shed kit and this has now been completed. I have previously described the construction of the Taffson Evans lineside factory, which is built in part-relief, and is partly about providing a bit of background detail in lieu of a flat backscene. This was also based on a free Scalescenes warehouse kit, albeit fairly heavily modified and with new scratchbuilt corrugated extensions. I always planned to add something else to the left of it (as you view the layout), between the factory and the road level crossing near the cottages (the photos will make this clearer), but I wasn't sure what that might be. In the end, I discovered the recent release by Scalescenes of their new engine shed kits and bought both the 'northlight' and gable-ended roof kits, as I thought they would also have potential in terms of industrial buildings. In the end, the initial part of the factory was really rather small for a premises that is purported to have once manufactured narrow gauge locos and other 'heavy engineering' products, so the extension using the engine shed prints has really increased its size to something a bit more credible, even if the new sections dominate the older bit slightly... The extension proved to be so 'low relief' as to be almost flat, although it is not quite as bad as simply pasting a photograph onto the backscene, but there really wasn't much space, as the photos will show! This is the Taffson Evans factory before work on the backscene factory extension began: Here is a typical page from the Scalescenes kit, printed out: I had sufficient room to incorporate five 'bays' of the northlight structure. The main elevation would use Dalerboard mounting card, but first I cut two and a half of the Scalescenes printed templates out and taped them together, to form a 'five bay' structure: The paper template was then lightly taped over the Dalerboard and the main shape cut out in card, including the windows. Two and a half brick paper prints were then cut out and each glued in turn to the Dalerboard. I use 'Pritt' type glue sticks for this (I read somewhere recently that the glue doesn't cause the paper to go damp). Each component, once glued, is then weighted down with heavy books and whatever other weighty stuff I can find, and left to go off overnight. Once the base layer of brick paper was glued to the Dalerboard, I needed to start matching the new structure up to the existing factory building: From the back, it all looks a bit 'Heath Robinson' (although this will eventually be permanently attached to the backscene proper): Here is the basic shell, with the base layer of brick paper attached, plus the vertical buttresses: The plinths were cut out and their respective brick paper coverings glued on. I had to make some plinth sections deeper, because the ground falls away slightly on the layout. These have only just been glued: And this was immediately followed by ensuring that they were lying flat, and then covering them with more heavy books and something else with a bit of weight in it, and leaving the lot overnight: Work continued, with the plinths and drain pipes being added, plus the window sills and a representation (in Evergreen plastic strip) of the edge of the roof. For the glazing, I used some pre-printed factory type glazing sheets produced by Freestone Model Accessories, suitably weathered with a dilute dirty enamel mix and wiped off almost immediately, Black paper was attached in behind each window. A little weathering followed, and the completed extension was again matched up to the original factory structure on the layout. Please excuse the awful green poster paint on the area in front of the factory, but I thought it would look slightly better than the bare newspaper & PVA landscape, prior to the application of some proper scenery... I have temporarily fixed a large sheet of light blue/grey Dalerboard behind the layout at this point - this is not what the final backscene will look like, nor will it be as high as this Dalerboard has been fixed, either! Some kind of water colour or toned-down photographic representation of the lane receding into the distance, flanked on both sides by industrial buildings, will need to be provided immediately behind the level crossing: The corrugated extension to the original factory has now become a small 'lean to' workshop extension: More general views: When it comes to sorting out the backscene proper, I think I will add some hint or representation of further factory structures behind and slightly higher than the 'northlight' structure, to give the whole scene a bit more depth:

Superb, thanks. May well turn out to be just what I need for a future project!

Nice one guys! Got to have one of these! Good luck with the venture!