autocoach

Now I understand why Meg Whitman's political ambitions were snubbed last November....too many unhappy Ebay customers in California.

I was notified this morning (US West Coast Time) that my Tintagel Castle has been duly packed and shipped by Hattons and my credit card charged. Now comes another long wait. Packages without anything electronic are taking over 3 weeks. At least Hattons does not ship by Royal Mail and have the package wind up in a storm tossed container again on a slow boat from Liverpool to Jacksonville Florida.Then trucked 3,000 miles. It will get a good work out on the long dog bone (about 100 feet each way) at my local hobby store. "And now for something completely different" from the land of Monty Python. (Differnt from 5 unit GE lashups with 50 identical coal cars extending forever.) ken

One of the primary reasons I model Padstow is the operational possibilities. Not a branch line terminal. Somewhat sleepy midweek in winter with no fish catch. But only one platform track that has to be cleared for local traffic between the express and other mainline traffic. You can't leave the rakes in front of the station. I have yet to identify the sets and coaches in the sets used 194x-1947. All of the reference material seems to focus on BR days. The down ACE is only 3-6 coaches by the time it reaches Padstow depending on the season and day of week. But it all has to be turned and re-arranged for an up train. I haven't identified a coaling facility so a west country could only be turned at Padstow but would have to run light to Wadebridge and back for coal. Water was available from a very high mounted tank. That will be another project. I can play time lord and backdate the post 1947 WR traffic to GWR days so there are Bodmin Road B sets in addition to the Bodmin SR local passenger t Other goods traffic. The Fish Sheds, two different wharf tracks, a small but busy goods shed. In addition I can imagine china clay being shipped in bag to small steamers. Coal being unloaded. Boat building traffic. Inbound potatoes for the fish and chips. A couple of daily short goods trains will do. raffic. My immediate post-war setting (1946 Summer) allows some military traffic with troop specials and military vehicles for the local army camps and airbases. No traces of US stuff. All British. I have some new Airfix Bedford QLT's and QLD's coming to become flat car loads.(that sounds too American?} And did I mention the fish. A holdover from my previous fixation with the Brixham branch. The fish sheds were long and the shed track used for passenger switching when no fish loading going on. Nothing else going on to report except I was notified today that the GWR liveried Tintagel Castle arrived at Hattons and has been duly shipped to me. Only 18 months on order. Another month for shipping. A visitor to be sure with absolutely no basis in reality (The North Cornwall Riviera?}. After that just a trophy in the case. ken

Working on goods shed again... Getting etched Padstow goods shed windows from Bill Bedford, although the most accurate will be a long process. In the meantime, I obtained some HO Grandt line 24 pane windows (6X4 panes) and trimmed them to fit in curved window top. Not really wide enough so I had to build them up with some strip styrene. I have not done all the brick and window corner trim as on the St Merryn version. Maybe in another life. In the meantime, I had the urge to play with trains. I ran an operating scenario today set on a Saturday the summer of 1946: West Country (21C108 Padstow of course) arrived on the platform track with a down ACE consisting of 6 Maunsell's in 2 sets (BCK+BTK and BCK+TK+CK+BTK) and a Van C. M7 #42 (The answer to the question "what is the meaning of the universe and all that?") deputizing for the BWT or O2 that have not yet arrived from Eastleigh (Kernow) removed the Van C and switched it to the goods dock for unloading baggage as the platform is not long enough with 6 coaches. After all the arriving passengers had left the coaches, 21C108 reversed and propelled the coaches back far enough that it could clear the crossover and moved forward so it could use the run-around path direct to the turntable. Once on the turntable, the crew left for tea and a bite (Rick Stein is far far in the future so it would just have to be a local sandwich of some sort. Besides an engine crew could probably not afford the current culinary delights of Padstein) #42 now had to re-arrange the ACE coaches for the up train. The BCK+BTK set is in Bullied green so for aesthetic reasons it has to go next to the West Country in Sunshine green. The BCK+TK+CK+BTK has to follow. Note that these sets are not the numbers on the ends of some of the coaches. I have not gotten around to that element of fidelity. There followed several confused shunting moves as there is no fiddle yard and the length of track in the Wadebridge direction will allow only the M7 and two coaches at a time. #42 now retrieved the Van C freshly loaded with the baggage of those returning home from holiday and attached it ahead of the BCK+BTK set. The 21C108's crew returned from their summer afternoon repast and turned the light Pacific on the barely long enough turntable (The turntable has a long history being started 25+ years ago on a long departed representation of the Oregon California and Eastern for turning Southern Pacific 4-6-0 and 2-8-0's in the OC&E Klamath Falls yard.) Suffice to say it is 11 inch pieces of Atlas snap track on a scratch built bridge with small diameter brass tubes soldered to the rail and take a piece of bent brass wire in matching brass tubes on the soldered approach track as a locking mechanism and electrical connection. 21C108 then moved smartly to exit the turntable and backed first onto the run-around and then forward onto the main, before backing onto the platform track to attach to it's train. The up ACE upon receiving clearance for the line to Wadebridge from the Padstow starter signal (the only visible signal at Padstow), started on it's journey. The up ACE got about 2 feet and ran out track. One of these days I will have to move the layout to a room where there is enough space to lengthen the main line over little Petherick creek and into a proper fiddle yard. (The GHOM - giant hand of man will have to remove the ACE to a storage box so the two coach train from Bodmin can arrive.) Now back to the goods shed.... I know this is more of a blog than a construction article, but I refuse to blog. ken

2 SR O2's on order already, Now for what goes behind them from Padstow to Bodmin......This is a blind act of faith that the BWT will be so good it will even navigate Peco long radius insulfrog switches and the O2 likewise.

Not much happened in February. I have been working on a Smallbrook LSWR 10 Ton Brake Van. Bachmann announced their SR 25 Ton brake van after I had purchased two kits from Cambrian. Oh well. The Bachmann version is probably a long way off in the future. I have the Smallbrook 20 Ton van kit as well for a future rainy weekend. I have to order the Padstow Goods Shed windows from Bill Bedford. Other good news from Bachmann is the return of SR Class N's with a DCC chassis. I really can use only one more in addition to the one I bought last spring. By 2012, the real steam roster will be complete with 2 BWT's, 2 O2's, 2 N's ,2 T9's and 2 West Country light pacific's. Anything else I should add for the SR for this neck of the woods? I already have 3 GWR 45xx tanks for the Bodmin General and Bodmin Road services. Maybe some GWR clay hoods from Parkside? And also a couple of Chivers 10 Ton LSWR Vans if/when they appear.

Little done this past two weeks. I have received the Allottment kit from Busch (1223) and am planning on planting the station master's garden. Cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. An area of lawn towards the front of the living quarters where it borders on public areas. I am going to rebuild the back fence along the road to the goods shed with a more prototypic 4 wires. I cut a new plastic base so the existing barren dirt stationmasters garden area will remain until I am satisfied with the new garden being grown "off line". Royal Mail delivery to North America is, I understand, somewhat in chaos over the the new security rules. I am hoping that is the reason my Hornby Torrington has not arrived. The only other bundle from Brittain in the post is prototype Southern Railway buffers stops from Ragstone models. Will have see if they do the job. more later......

Chris(2manyspams) has started with his tales of the origins of Treneglos. In imitation, I thought I might add a few words on my own journey from being a sporadic but devoted GWR addict with my Little Brixham in the works to a spam canning Southern convert. In late 2008 or early 2009 I received my oft delayed copy of the Great Western Railway Journal with a lovely color cover photo of ex-GWR prairie 4574 standing in Padstow station waiting to traverse Southern region rails through Wadebridge and onto GWR metals at Boscarne Junction, Bodmin General and Bodmin Road. It is a clear blue day and the Hotel Metropole stands in the background on the higher ground back of the station. In April of 2009 I was able to include the Bodmin and Wenford in a lightning run through Cornwall before returning to my cousin's place in the Cotswolds. The weather was unfortunately the reverse of the cover photo, pouring or drizzling all day. The next day on my drive up the A39 (Lands End to Minehead) I did stop for a brief lunch in Wadebridge and then on to Tintagel Castle (I am still waiting for the Hornby version, I haven't completely lost my appreciation for Swindon green.) Returning home to the US, I read, re-read that GWRJ and anything I could find about the North Cornwall and the withered arm. I added a Hornby T-9, an out of place M-7 to my collection and then and equally out of place S15 (Etarre), Schools (Dulwich), an N class mogul and it kept on going with 15 Maunsell coaches, Cambrian 25 ton brake vans and hopefully racing neck to neck for arrival with Tintagel Castle, the Beattie Well Tanks and then Adams O2's, and so on. It is like living in a RTR fantasy-land. I am not a great scratch builder, but I love doing it anyway so I have focused on the buildings in the Padstow station area. The St Merryn book has given me more new inspiration. I have expanded my time frame from the summers of 1938-39 to include summer 1946 so I can shortly add 12C108 Padstow to the list of engines that appear. And it all started with that GWRJ article. GWRJ No. 65 - Winter 2008. best..

Upcoming projects for 2011 include Rebuilding a Hornby Torrington into 12C108 Padstow. The station master's garden (the Busch tomato plants are on order.) Building the rock wall cutting at the back of the station now represented by crumpled aluminum foil. Re-ballasting the sidings (What the picture shows but the eye overlooks.) A compressed version of the fish sheds A possible extension in the front to include the wharf trackage Finishing the Goods shed, but not to the detail of St. Merryn. An eventual move to another bedroom where I can add the fiddle yard so trains can "get out of town" along with the bridge over Little Petherick Creek. Getting a new camera so I can bore you all with this detail Long range I hope to replace the Wadebridge version of the LSWR signal box with a scratch built version and the mockup of the Padstow station with a carved plaster version. That plus playing with trains and the usual maintenance of the growing fleet of engines. (2 T-9's, an N, and M7 and interlopers I like such as an S15 and Schools Class that may make magical appearances. Oh and GWR visitors in addition to my fleet of 45xx, 57xx, 87xx, 14xx (48xx) and Tintagel Castle if it ever arrives.) It's a lot and I have a day job too. Will update as the mood arises.

I am not attaching too many pictures as my old camera has disappeared and I am using my phone camera which does not have the greatest resolution for closeups.

I finally decided I would start my own electronic niche and describe my attempt to recreate Padstow pre-1948 in somewhat compressed version. Let me first comment that contrary to the conceptions of most UK modelers, many of we Californians are forced by the high prices of real estate to live in more modest townhouses. I currently have available only a 12 foot by 2 foot area in my office/third bedroom. No room even for a fiddle yard. This layout is the successor to my aborted attempt to model Brixham pre-1948. Note that I am staying pre-grouping even though I have no memories of anything in 1947 when I was only three and lived much of the time at my grandparents house in Penge. In late 1949 my father and I relocated to Pasadena California and though I have been an avid model railroader (note spelling) all my life, it was not until 1985 that I re-discovered an interest in UK railways to go along with my extensive efforts on the Southern Pacific (1950's last of Steam and Black Widow diesels). I have nothing personal against British Railways/nationalization and once had a layout based on a fictional through joint MR/WR station in the heart of Cheltenham set in the late 1950's. It's just not my cuppa tea. Anyway, Padstow on the Pacific started about 18 months ago after after a visit to the Bodmin area created an interest in what lay down the track beyond Boscarne Junction. The availability of RTR and easily modified steam locomotives and coaches has spurred me on. I have open orders for BWT's and O2's with Kernow and am interested in their cryptic comment that hints at suitable coaching stock for the earlier pre-Maunsell Padstow-Bodmin services. On with the fun..more topics to follow.

I will second a request for Semi-random packed stone (eg North Cornwall Railway buildings and in similar). I have just about finished a mock up of Padstow station building using Random Ashlar TX46. Ok but a little on the brownish tint. And the Quoins were way to big. But then this is the mock up study for a future building if I can ever find the right plastic random packed stone. Wills doesn't cut it. And Slate roofing.

And now the former CEO of Ebay wants to become governor of California. Wants to put the whole state for sale to the highest bidder in a retirement community in Arizona or a trailer park in Oklahoma.

Excellent topic..I have just started a highly subjective and compressed version of Padstow in 2 X 11 space and set loosely on Summer 1938. Nothing yet repainted Bullied colors. Basically a fiddle yard for models I collect and build. Will start my own Layout area subject when I get better pictures than a cell phone camera. The tale of how Brixham morphed into Padstow is a fishy one.

I was not quite awake yet when I titled the thread Rivit instead of Rivet.

I just saw a review of the Archer Scale Models rivet strip which is resin details cast onto clear decal film. The review is in the February Railroad Model Craftsman. I have my order in and will report later. I may now get the rivets on my scratch built S12 and Cooper-craft modified S2 Fish vans which have been in danger of falling apart without proper rivets. Archer Scale Transfers started making details for military models. They have recently expanded into model railway products. The nominal scales are HO and North American 0 (1:48) but the rivets come in multiple sizes. See http://www.archertransfers.com. You can download a PDF file of the rivets to determine your needs. I am in no way affiliated with this company. But the product seems to fill a real need for scratch builders. The products seem a little expensive and I do not know if there is a UK outlet. One of their military lines is UK Armor markings in 1/35 so they may be known to UK modelers.

We (the US) spawned that??? And no handrails along the sides.