RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 7, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 7, 2015 "The Hong-Kong mafia" comes to mind? Didn't Carolyn Griffiths have time there, and maybe Martin Brown, AM at Brighton? About four hours too far North Ian. I was in Singapore for three years. Carolyn had been there, not HK, in the 80s or 90s, but you are right about Martin. Saw him in Sydney a few years ago looking very hale and hearty. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post St Enodoc Posted January 10, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted January 10, 2015 Our first home in Sydney was a rented unit (flat). The spare bedroom was fitted up with bookshelves along one wall, which left a space of just over 9’ x 7’ in old money in which I decided to build a layout. Obviously this was too small for any sort of decent main line layout, but it was a nice size for a simple oval. I therefore started work on exactly that, the third St Enodoc, which is a through station with a trackplan based on Bugle albeit with single track instead of double at the Up end. The Carbis branch leads to the off-stage china clay dries. Nicktoix of this parish might recognise some elements of his old Buckden layout in the design. During my furlough from active modelling I had been following the development of DCC and after joining the North Shore Railway Modellers’ Association (NSRMA) I was able to get some hands-on experience, the club layouts being powered by NCE equipment. At last I could see a simple way to separate the roles of driver and signalman on a layout, so I decided that my own new layout would be powered by DCC from the start. As a digression, I had previously worked out a way of connecting analogue controllers to different track sections without the use of manual switches but by routing the power through the point and signal controls, using PO key switches with their eight sets of changeover contacts. I called it Cascade Section Switching, and the idea was that depending on which points and signals were set the track would be connected to the correct controller at the receiving end of the movement. It worked on a trial set-up but would have been fearsomely complicated for an actual main line layout. In parallel with building the layout, I started chipping my existing loco fleet. This was by no means as hard as some people had led me to believe, even with old-style chassis where the wheels were only insulated on one side. Fellow members of NSRMA and of the British Railway Modellers of Australia (BRMA) provided, and continue to provide, valuable advice and support for this and many other aspects of the layout’s development, not least in making up the operating team. They also provide suitably caustic comments when things do not go exactly to plan during running sessions… Once the layout was operational, I suddenly had a sort of crisis of confidence. If, as I hoped and planned, I were to build a larger and more complex layout in the future, was there any point developing this version of St Enodoc any further if it was going to have to be scrapped at some stage? Resolution came after a lot of doodling, when I worked out that given a reasonably sized layout room I could incorporate St Enodoc station itself into the branch line on a future layout. Armed with this assurance I carried on (I recall reading that the late David Jenkinson went though some similar thought processes with regard to Garsdale Road and the Little Long Drag). The easiest way to describe the layout in detail is to quote the description I wrote for the NSRMA website: “St Enodoc represents a station on the British Railways Western Region Newquay branch in Cornwall in the 1950s, modelled in 4 mm scale 16.5 mm gauge (00). It is the third layout to bear the name St Enodoc - the first was a simple branch terminus, and the second a double-track main line junction. St Enodoc was in reality a Cornish saint whose church lies half-buried by sand dunes opposite Padstow on the Camel estuary, and which is the resting place of the late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman. The layout is based on the real-life Bugle station, with its passing loop and branch to the local china-clay works. This is one of those relatively rare locations in Great Britain where express passenger trains can be run legitimately over a single-track branch, Newquay being a popular holiday resort with through trains on summer Saturdays to and from all parts of England and Wales. At the back of the layout are two dead-end fiddle yards linked by a single through track for continuous running. The entire layout measures 2.8 m x 2.2 m with a central operating well and can be dismantled, which allowed the room in which it used to be sited to be used as a spare bedroom. Baseboards are made from ply, with 1/8 inch cork as a trackbed. The track itself is SMP, with hand-built points using printed-circuit board timbers and operated by SEEP point motors powered through DCC Concepts Masterswitches. The ballast is from Chuck’s Ballast. St Enodoc is fully signalled with the signals being built from Ratio kits fitted with Scalelink etched brass arms. All the signals, including the ground discs, are operated by memory wire actuators built using Bic Clic ballpoint pen parts. St Enodoc signal box lever frame is made up from 30 ex-Post Office key switches, which provide full electrical (although not mechanical) interlocking between points and signals. The rolling stock is a mixture of kit built and modified ready-to-run items, and is fitted with DG delayed-action autocouplings. These are operated by home-made electromagnets consisting of fine enamelled wire wound on sewing machine bobbins. Structures and buildings are made from plastic kits or scratchbuilt from plastic sheet, but landscaping is yet to be started. The layout is operated by DCC using NCE equipment, allowing the roles of driver and signalman to be separated. Operation follows a sequence timetable derived from the real-life working timetable for a summer Friday in 1952. Goods trains are run using a system based on playing cards and dice to determine the destination for each wagon on the layout. St Enodoc has recently been re-erected following a house move, and will form part of a new larger layout including the main line junction and branch terminus as well.” That “new larger layout” will be the Mid-Cornwall Lines themselves. To close this episode then, here are some pictures of the current St Enodoc in its old home. The fiddle yard tracks have been laid and are waiting to be cut at the baseboard joins. This shows clearly the arrangement of the two dead-end fiddle yards – Up on the left, Down on the right, with the linking crossover in the middle. In the background are the two china-clay works sidings. The curve at the Up end of St Enodoc towards the Up fiddle yard. Ballasting was done “in the usual way”. A job that I dislike and which seems to take forever – not sure which is cause and which is effect. All the signals are standard Ratio GWR products fitted with a selection of Scalelink arms. Memory wire motors operate all of these, including the ground signal. The lever frame is built up from three banks of ten PO keys ready wired and mounted in steel frames. These were salvaged from a telephone exchange when it was converted to digital. The diagram is drawn in Microsoft Word. This ground disc is the only signal not operated by memory wire, but by a Viessmann damped solenoid. These are superb, but too expensive to use for all the signals on the layout. The trap points are dummies, before anyone asks, and the dabs of yellow paint on the rail mark the location of the uncoupling magnets. This condensed version of Bugle station building is scratchbuilt from plastic sheet, with Peco canopy valances. My partner Veronica thinks that the lady sitting on the bench looks like the Queen. Who am I to argue? 21 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 Non standard colour markings for magnets....shouldn't they be white? Then it looks pike misplaced China clay! And of course V is right! Baz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 In later years the AWS track magnets were yellow and with a little clever positioning can be used to mark uncoupling magnets. But in this era if there was any AWS at all it would have been the GWR raised central rail system. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 10, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 Non standard colour markings for magnets....shouldn't they be white? Then it looks pike misplaced China clay! And of course V is right! Baz Up early this morning Baz? I used white in the fiddle yard to mark the fouling points on each track, so I had to use a different colour for magnets. As they are activated by yellow push buttons, that seemed to be the obvious choice. With regard to your last point, as we all know there are just two rules. Rule 1 - your other half is always right. Rule 2 - if she is wrong, see Rule 1. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 Rule 1 always applied west of the Tamar and still does. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 10, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 In later years the AWS track magnets were yellow and with a little clever positioning can be used to mark uncoupling magnets. But in this era if there was any AWS at all it would have been the GWR raised central rail system. Thanks Rick. On the new layout there will be a (dummy) ATC ramp for the Trewoon Junction Up Distant, just where the Up main line enters Tremewan Tunnel. But I'm getting ahead of myself... Rule 1 always applied west of the Tamar and still does. Applies everywhere if you know what's good for you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted January 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 10, 2015 yep early start as I have a bit of a problem in my shoulder/arm which should be fixed next week with another injection... white for magnet markers started on Victoria (or even earlier on Wallgate/Denroyd....) ...although I seem to remember a problem caused by a passing sparrow deposit in the corn exchange where there was a white mark but no magnet... Baz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post St Enodoc Posted January 19, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted January 19, 2015 I have now just about reached the present day, but before describing the new layout (largely because it isn’t built yet) I thought I would set out some of the philosophy behind it and some of the thinking that went into its planning and design. If you have followed this topic so far you will probably have realised that my primary interest in railway modelling is operation rather than building things. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy building things, but my main objective in buying or building anything for the layout is to add to the opportunity to operate trains reasonably realistically within a reasonably authentic setting. I am more than happy to buy something ready-made, if it meets my needs, in order to save time that I can use to build the things that I cannot buy. Hence, the layout has a lot of ready-to-run stock but also kits, and a number of scratchbuilt buildings as well as kits and a few ready-to-plant structures. So, what do I actually want from the Mid-Cornwall Lines? First and foremost, I want to be able to run the layout to a sequence that simulates the operation of the Cornwall main line and the Newquay branch on a summer Saturday in the 1950s. I want a continuous run for main line trains but with plenty of storage tracks off stage. I want a junction based on Par (from the second St Enodoc), and a decent length of the Newquay branch, which needs to incorporate the existing passing station (from the third St Enodoc) and the china clay dries (from the first St Enodoc). This must lead to a representation of Newquay station including enough carriage sidings to hold the coaches needed to run the sequence. You will recognise that a number of these elements have existed on previous layouts in one form or another, and this is my chance to bring them all together. On top of that, I want to be able to turn locos on the Tolcarn Junction triangle and also to run trains to and from the Chacewater line. This also gives me the chance to resurrect the fictitious Southern connection from the first Pentowan layout. Finally I would have liked to have a small port where china clay would be unloaded into coasters, but try as I might I just couldn’t find a practicable way of fitting this in. It might emerge as a static diorama one day. So much for my operating aspirations – what about other design criteria? Well, the railway is going to be 00 gauge as were all its predecessors and I want a minimum radius of 750 mm, apart from the china clay branch which might come down to about 600 mm. The visible areas will be laid with SMP track, but Peco code 75 will do offstage – although all points will be handbuilt. DCC is here to stay but sound is not on my current agenda for several reasons, which I might discuss in a future post. None of us gets any younger, and to that end I want walk-round access as far as possible with only one lifting section to get in and out of the railway room itself. There will be no duck-unders, while gangways will be at least 600mm wide and ideally 900 mm in areas where people will have to congregate or pass each other. I don’t want gradients as steep as on the second St Enodoc, but shallow gradients of not more than 1 in 80 or so will be fine to give visual separation (again, the clay branch might go steeper than this). No track will need to pass over or under another. Passenger trains will be up to 10 coaches long and in some cases double-headed, as on the prototype. Baseboard height will be determined partly by comfort and ease of reaching across, but primarily by the need to store lots of stuff underneath. More on that later. All this needs to fit in the double garage, which to fit the space available and get through the development approval process here could not be larger than about 7 m x 6 m internally. I am aware that this sounds enormous in UK terms, but believe me I know of many layouts here in Australia that are housed in considerably larger spaces. After a lot of doodling, including dumbbells to provide clear access (but putting the rear tracks out of reach) and USA-style multiple levels including helices, the basic plan coalesced into a fairly conventional double track oval round the walls, with a branch snaking its way up and down the middle until it reaches the terminus after three 180 degree curves. I had thought about the operating sequence in considerable detail during the fallow years, and decided this will cover a summer Friday and Saturday in the 1950s. Even by cutting out quite a few of the trains, and by applying my general rule that passenger trains should have 60% of the prototype’s number of coaches, rounded up, this means well over 200 coaches to run the full sequence. To store all these trains on the layout, rather than manhandling them on and off (although some will be remarshalled by hand) led me to fill not only one long wall but also one short wall of the room with the storage loops. The junction takes up the other long wall while the fourth wall, which includes the lifting access, is purely scenic. I have never had a viaduct on my previous layouts, and there are plenty in Cornwall, so this stretch of line will cross such a structure before disappearing into a tunnel and thus off stage. The real Par and St Blazey area is too complex for my model, and I had in my mind’s eye being able to run long clay trains behind 2-8-0 tanks up the branch and on to the main line without reversal, so I have taken great liberties with the railway geography of Cornwall by moving the junction to Burngullow, although the track plan is still based on Par. The branch therefore follows the route of the Newquay and Cornwall Junction line picking up the real alignment at St Dennis Junction. This time the terminus layout is based on Newquay itself but in mirror image, while the triangle is merely that, with single tracks and no sidings. The whole thing will look something like this: In for a penny, in for a pound, and so that the clay trains don’t have to run up the main line all the way to Par or Lostwithiel I have upgraded the Pentewan Railway to standard gauge and connected it to the main line somewhere between Trenance Junction and Burngullow. Finally, the Southern line comes in via an extension to the Ruthern Bridge branch via Withiel and St Wenn to join the branch somewhere near St Columb Road. A South to East chord at Wadebridge Junction means that the Atlantic Coast Express can run to Newquay rather than Padstow. All this re-imagining of history and geography means that it would be unrealistic to keep the real names for stations and locations on the layout, so following my usual practice these have all been camouflaged. The second St Enodoc was a junction but because I am already using St Enodoc for the branch passing station I needed something else. At one time Tremewan was contemplated, Burngullow being in the parish of St Mewan, but I have reverted to Porthmellyn, this time with the suffix Road as in Bodmin Road, Grampound Road, Gwinear Road and so on. Tremewan is too good a name to waste so after crossing Nancegwithey Viaduct the main line disappears offstage through Tremewan Tunnel. The branch to the docks is all offstage, leaving the main line at Trewoon Junction and running to Tregissey, the camouflaged name for Pentewan (Mevagissey isn’t far away, and there is a hamlet nearby called Tregiskey). Moving down the branch, the passing station is St Enodoc as now, and the clay branch leads to Wheal Veronica dries, named for my partner. The line then passes a small halt, and here I haven’t so much fictionalised the name as blatantly stolen a real one, Indian Queens, and moved it several miles West to the Quintrell Downs area. “Indian Queens Halt” will look wonderful on a GWR-style nameboard. After the triangle at Treloggan Junction the line swings round to terminate once again at Pentowan. The branch from Treloggan disappears straight into a fiddle yard called Polperran. I think Agatha Christie coined this name in one of her stories, and to me it sounds just right. This fiddle yard also serves as St Dennis Junction where heavy clay trains start and finish, and as the Southern link. This link would without doubt have had a station at St Columb Major, so I have backdated the real St Columb Road to its original name of Halloon. Here’s how it all fits together in my “real” Cornwall, those locations actually modelled, including the storage loops and fiddle yard, being highlighted in yellow: and here’s the layout block plan again, this time with the names of the locations: Does all this matter? Probably not, in the overall scheme of things, but to me it is an important part of setting the scene and facilitating the suspension of disbelief that allows us to see that train coming out of the tunnel not as a Bachmann Warship hauling any old rake of chocolate and cream Mark 1s, but as the Cornish Riviera on the last stages of its journey West, or those repainted Airfix LMS coaches with a Hornby Grange and a Mainline Mogul on the front, and a Traction Scale Models (remember them?) Collett bow-ender on the back, as the 7.25 pm Fridays Only from Pentowan to Manchester London Road. 18 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
westerner Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Shall follow this GWR Cornish empire with interest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
70021 Morning Star Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 (edited) St Endoc, I've just stumbled across your posting #25. That's my loft ! Fantastic. I was wondering about building a layout in the A-frames. Now you've shown me how to do it. Cheers, Rick Edited January 19, 2015 by 70021 Morning Star Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianusa Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Cornwall will never be the same to me again! Brian. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 19, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 19, 2015 (edited) On 20/01/2015 at 06:01, TrevorP1 said: Interesting plan - good luck! You may already be aware of this but, for interest, this is the original Burngullow station. [link deleted] Thanks Trevor - I don't think I'd seen that picture before. Edited March 15, 2020 by St Enodoc Bad link deleted Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 19, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 19, 2015 St Endoc, I've just stumbled across your posting #25. That's my loft ! Fantastic. I was wondering about building a layout in the A-frames. Now you've shown me how to do it. Cheers, Rick Rick, the key was the steeper pitch of the roof. If I hadn't been able to stand up and walk around without stooping, I don't think I would have built the layout there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted January 19, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 19, 2015 From all of the above it looks as though Cornwall in Australia will have another very worthy and sizeable layout. All the best with it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium acg5324 Posted January 20, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 20, 2015 Looking good John. I think part of the enjoyment of building a model is the research and the "bigger story" behind what you are doing. I did misread part of your locations and wondered why you were renaming Newquay after the music hall artist who used to play tunes by farting! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 21, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 21, 2015 Looking good John. I think part of the enjoyment of building a model is the research and the "bigger story" behind what you are doing. I did misread part of your locations and wondered why you were renaming Newquay after the music hall artist who used to play tunes by farting! Ah yes, as memorably portrayed on screen by the late, great, Leonard Rossiter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted January 21, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 21, 2015 Is there anywhere on the plan where you can hide a black pannier?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 21, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 21, 2015 Is there anywhere on the plan where you can hide a black pannier?? Actually yes, but you won't be able to find it by tipping the board on its end (sorry folks, Leeds MRS in-joke). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 24, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 24, 2015 Cornwall will never be the same to me again! Brian. In a good way I hope Brian? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 25, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 25, 2015 As well as being the railway room, the garage also has to serve as storage space for all sorts of old files, model and prototype railway magazines, luggage, and the rest of the paraphernalia that we have accumulated over the years and which might come in handy one day. The layout will have plenty of floor area underneath for storage, but to make sure that the underside of the baseboards is accessible to work on I decided that everything stored under them should be able to be moved out of the way easily. I have used three methods to achieve this. First, and most obviously, some things such as suitcases are already on wheels and so can be rolled around without difficulty. Secondly, most of the old files, books and papers of various kinds (Veronica calls it all, rather unkindly I feel, “junk”) are stored in removalists’ cardboard boxes. Some of these have travelled around with me for seven moves on three continents, and the older boxes were getting a bit decrepit. The first job, then, was to put everything into good-quality uniformly-sized boxes left over from the last move. This also gave me the chance to sort the stuff out and actually throw some of it away (but not too much…). I decided to put the boxes on top of trolleys fitted with castors, rather like the dollies that removalists use. In fact, I was going to buy some of these ready-made from a DIY warehouse, but they were discontinued just before I was ready to get them. Instead, I used plain sheets of 17 mm plywood. Each board will carry four boxes when stacked two high. Although the DIY warehouse stocked castors, I found a better deal from IKEA, who sell castors with a capacity of 45 kg each and an overall height of less than 70 mm at a very reasonable price. Four of these castors were bolted to each board to make the trolleys. The overall height of a loaded trolley is about 960 mm so this became one of the design criteria governing the eventual baseboard height. The third method was used for storing magazines. IKEA provided the answer again in the shape of their Kallax (previously Expedit) range of shelves with square-shaped openings. I had already used one of these for storing LPs and decided to use the 2 x 2 shelves for the magazines. Again, these are mounted on castors but I didn’t trust the integrity of the shelves on their own so I used 17 mm ply again to spread the load and add some strength. A sheet of 3 mm MDF stops the magazines falling out of the back as well as adding more rigidity to the shelves. The overall height of a shelf on castors is about 845 mm, which became another design criterion. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 28, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 28, 2015 To make sure I could move the trolleys and shelves easily I decided that there should be a minimum of 100 mm clearance between the top of a loaded trolley or shelf to the lowest part of the baseboard structure. The general idea for the baseboards is to use L-girders to support joists and the ply track base. The exception to this rule is St Enodoc, where the existing station baseboards will sit on the joists. The current St Enodoc sits on legs that are themselves 1200 mm high, so as to allow reasonably easy duck-under access. With the 98 mm depth of the all-ply boards this gives a baseboard top height of 1298 mm. This, frankly, is just a little too high for comfort. I am 1800 mm tall and the top of the boards is almost at armpit level, making it a little awkward to reach across to the furthest tracks. The Paddington and Penzance loops boards will be 700 mm wide as compared to St Enodoc’s 600 mm, so I decided that the new baseboards should be a little lower all round. I built a trial L-girder frame using 42 x 19 mm wood for both the web and the flange. This did not seem to be quite rigid enough over a 2 m length between legs, so I decided that a deeper flange was necessary and built a replacement using 64 x 19 mm timber for the web. This is a lot sturdier and will therefore become the standard, with 42 x 19 mm joists and 9mm ply to form the track base. This photo shows the difference between the trial and standard L-girders: The result of all this was that if St Enodoc was going to have trolleys under it the baseboard top height would be 960 + 100 + 64 + 19 + 42 + 98 = 1283 mm, which is almost as tall as the existing boards. However, if only shelves are stored under St Enodoc the minimum top height comes down to 845 + 100 + 64 + 19 + 42 + 98 = 1168 mm which is much better. On the other hand, the trolleys will now have to be stored under the main line boards. Will this work? Well, the minimum top height would be 960 + 100 + 64 + 19 + 42 + 9 = 1194 mm. This works out at about chest height for me, which is quite satisfactory for leaning across. I mentioned in post #35 that I want some shallow gradients for visual effect and my starting point for these was to plan them not to be steeper than 1 in 100. This gives a decent tolerance for error and for the vertical transition at the start and end of each gradient. The distance between Porthmellyn Road and St Enodoc is only just over a metre, so a gradient of 1 in 100 giving a 10 mm height difference will be just enough, I hope, to give an impression similar to the Newquay branch dropping away from Par towards St Blazey. This means that the St Enodoc baseboard top height will be 1194 – 10 = 1184 mm and the clearance to the top of the shelves will be 100 + 1184 – 1168 = 116 mm. So far so good, but what about Pentowan? I want the branch to drop more or less continuously from St Enodoc to Treloggan Junction so that trains on the stretch through Indian Queens are concealed at least in part from the St Enodoc signalman. The length of run is about 5 m so at 1 in 100 a vertical separation of 50 mm would result. Now, if the L-girders for Pentowan, Treloggan and Polperran are all at the same height as those for St Enodoc (which will simplify construction considerably) the standard configuration would give a baseboard top height of 845 + 116 + 64 + 19 + 42 + 9 = 1095 mm. This is too low, as the gradient would have to be (1184 – 1095)/5000 = 1 in 56. For a while I couldn’t see how to solve this, but in the end the answer turned out to be to double the height of the joists by adding an extra piece of wood, making each joist 84 mm deep and bringing the top height up to 1137 mm. The drop from St Enodoc to Treloggan is now only 47 mm giving a gradient of about 1 in 105. This will also help when scenery comes along, as I want the curve round from Treloggan to Pentowan to run beside the seaside, so the extra 42 mm joist will allow a low sea wall to divide the railway from the beach. So, in summary, the main lines will run (level all the way) on baseboards with a top height of 1194 mm. The branch will leave Porthmellyn Road, dropping at about 1 in 100 to St Enodoc at a top height of 1184 mm, then drop further at about 1 in 105 to Treloggan Junction. The top height for Treloggan Junction, Pentowan and Polperran will be 1137 mm with level track at all three. A bonus is that Down trains on the branch will indeed be going downhill while Up trains will be going uphill. This will make it easier for operators to remember which direction is which. The final element to consider is the Wheal Veronica branch. This will only be worked by an 0-6-0PT and about half a dozen wagons, so the gradient can be steeper. The plan is for it to rise from St Enodoc, alongside the falling Pentowan line, so that the clay dries themselves are roughly level with the road that crosses the bridge at the Down end of St Enodoc station. The detailed design will be worked out later, but the gradient will probably end up at around 1 in 50. The boxes on their trolleys will, therefore, be stored under Paddington, Porthmellyn Road and Penzance, while the magazines on their shelves will be stored under St Enodoc, Indian Queens, Pentowan and Polperran. In post #48 and this post I have gone into the planning process in some detail, to show how the user requirements were developed into design criteria and then into a concept design for the vertical alignment of the railway, resulting in (literally) a bottom-up solution. If you have stayed with me this far I hope it was all of some interest. Of course, if you gave up before this point you won’t be reading this bit anyway. To end this post, here are some photos of the first completed L-girder frame in place. This will carry the Down end of the Penzance loops as they swing round and join the Up end of the Paddington loops at the bottom right of the block plan in post #35. The frame stands clear of the garage roller door to allow it to be opened if necessary, and also to allow some form of backboard and possibly shelves to be fitted later if I decide to do so. 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium acg5324 Posted January 29, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 29, 2015 Looks like your timber is much better than the crap that our DIY stores sell. Can't see a single knot on those planks and nice and straight too. If you'd got that from B&Q you'd have a sturdy boomerang! I've had to go to the timber merchants to get anything remotely useable for Olympia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted January 29, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 29, 2015 Reminds me of the build the strongest bridge from balsa at Uni. Coming on well, when will it be finished? As in completely operable? May provide a target date for a visit for an operating session..... Baz From snowy Leeds Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted January 30, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 30, 2015 Looks like your timber is much better than the crap that our DIY stores sell. Can't see a single knot on those planks and nice and straight too. If you'd got that from B&Q you'd have a sturdy boomerang! I've had to go to the timber merchants to get anything remotely useable for Olympia. Andy, it came from Bunnings, which is the equivalent of B&Q. I went through the racks to get the best lengths - probably rejected 4 out of 5. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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