Helston Revisited

[Andy Keane]

13 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

Definitely only one running-in board.

 

However, all of the lamps would probably have had a piece of blue glass at the top with the station name.

 

At Henley, it was only in BR days that running-in boards were provided, but I decided it didn’t look right!

Neal, yes indeed, now looking through my two volumes of Karau covering in all ten BLTs there was only ever one board.

As to lamp tops that will be beyond me I think!

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Andy Keane

[BWsTrains]

10 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

What I find interesting is that it looks so good without static grass. I too am a beginner at scenery construction and I sometimes wonder if people overdo the static grass. But I guess it may not be easy to blend the two methods together convincingly.

 

Also, I went the beginner's route with the stream. Upper section and falls were with Woodland Scenics Ezy Water over foil, surface run over with a disposable fork while still hot to give structure then given white caps with a thinly wetted brush of thick acrylic. Flat section was just clear silicone sealant similarly applied. Again results were very satisfying and look the part.

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by BWsTrains

[Andy Keane]

Playing trains this morning - I have a few chums coming round.

[Andy Keane]

So some progress on the embankment end. I started with a layer of water colour artists' paper and glued it down:

Then I stapled on some aluminium mesh:

Then a good layer of two part epoxy to set it hard:

and then a layer of fine fibreglass tissue:

I will go over the top of this with a brush coating of water based polyurethane to set it before some foamcoat to merge it in.

It is already pretty rigid and was quite clean to apply.

[Andy Keane]

If anyone is going to ExpoEM tomorrow in Bracknall (Bracknell Leisure Centre, Bagshot Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 9SE) please stop by and say hello - I am helping man the Missenden Modellers site tomorrow. Its a nice exhibition with some very high quality layouts.

[Andy Keane]

After my visit to expoEM I have gotten back to thinking about signals and how to link them to JMRI. So I have started a new thread if anyone is interested on this rather arcane topic:

 

[Andy Keane]

On 14/05/2023 at 17:36, Andy Keane said:

After my visit to expoEM I have gotten back to thinking about signals and how to link them to JMRI. So I have started a new thread if anyone is interested on this rather arcane topic:

 

I now have JMRI able to display and drive my signals so I am quite pleased - many thanks to Nigel Cliffe for zoom tutorials!

Next working on suitable graphics for better icons:

Edited May 18, 2023 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

So I now have my JMRI panel working with the new icons linked to the real layout and vice versa:

I could set up interlocking inside JMRI but my plan is to actually have an Ardunio or RaspberryPi built into the layout to enforce that along with a proper lever frame.

Edited May 20, 2023 by Andy Keane

[Andy Keane]

The embankment is now pretty much finished - all eight feet of it. It just needs another coat of foamcoat to harden it off and some emulsion.

I am quite pleased that the transition from ply embankment top to foam radius bottom and to mesh and fibreglass end is fairly seamless.

I am now debating if I might lay down a layer of fibreglass tissue with polyurethane resin over all my foam structures so that when I come to plant trees, or fence posts or lamps there is a more solid top layer to fix into. The foamcoat is quite good but it is only really a plaster shell designed to prevent accidental knocks denting the foam underneath. I know from club layouts how vulnerable anything sticking up is to an arm stretched out to reach an item of rolling stock that has derailed, etc. Another solution would be to use brass tube running right through to the main ply baseboard as mountings points since I will have to do that for any lamps anyway.

[Andy Keane]

So following the foamcoat I painted with emulsion and the skinned the foam areas with fibreglass tissue set in water based polyurethane resin:

Then further coats of emulsion all over. This is now ready for decoration, laying of roadways, kerbs pavements etc.

 

[Andy Keane]

At the same time between coats of paint and resin drying I have built up an approximation of the end-loading ramp that was part of the back siding and goods platform at Helston. I don't have any photos so this is really guesswork. From what I can tell these were always a bit higher than the goods platforms themselves and when I check buffer heights they certainly seem to need to be so to fix the stop beam at the correct height:

One problem I had not anticipated though is that the couplings on my rolling stock prevent items getting right up to the ramp as they would have needed to carry out end loading. I am now wondering if I should hack a pocket into the wall below the stop beam or just accept that the rolling stock never gets to where it should do. Not sure what others have found or done?

[Neal Ball]

Pretty sure I have left a recess under the dock @Andy Keane

[BWsTrains]

Just a thought, if end door wagons are unloading wouldn't the flap dropping down have bridged the gap? Buffer heads and stops have still got to still be in situ so a gap needs to be bridged. For end loading vans surely the same would apply, unloading ramp needed. 

 

Interesting (and unexpected) advantage of using Kadees, these won't be a problem as they'll move to the side even if tight against the buffer stops!

 

Colin

Edited May 27, 2023 by BWsTrains

[Andy Keane]

1 hour ago, BWsTrains said:

Just a thought, if end door wagons are unloading wouldn't the flap dropping down have bridged the gap? Buffer heads and stops have still got to still be in situ so a gap needs to be bridged. For end loading vans surely the same would apply, unloading ramp needed. 

 

Interesting (and unexpected) advantage of using Kadees, these won't be a problem as they'll move to the side even if tight against the buffer stops!

 

Colin

Colin, for sure there would be a ramp of some sort but how big a gap is less obvious. And I do plan to shift to Kadees over time  (most of my locos are done but few of the goods items). So I best go check what happens when I roll a Kadee fitted van into the end there. With a standard hook type the hook hits the wall well before the buffers which feels most unsatisfactory. If I am to make a recess it will best be done now before that end dock is glued down.

Andy

ps No doubt someone somewhere has put a decoder and small servo into a van to allow the end to open but currently I have no such plans, but I would like the van to be up tighter than a hook currently allows.

[MrWolf]

I would think that running the buffers up against the stop and applying the hand brake would be the way. Loading docks would have some kind of ramp or ramps that went over the buffers. In the case of a Van such as a MOGO you have a door which drops down just over the buffers for unloading. CCTs are much the same.

[Andy Keane]

30 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I would think that running the buffers up against the stop and applying the hand brake would be the way. Loading docks would have some kind of ramp or ramps that went over the buffers. In the case of a Van such as a MOGO you have a door which drops down just over the buffers for unloading. CCTs are much the same.

Yes thats what I think too, so I need whatever couplings I have to be able to allow that and standard tension locks don't - on a normal buffer stop the hook happily goes below the stop beam but not on a loading dock.

[Neal Ball]

Evening @Andy Keane, this was my solution to the coupling issue.

 

The platform at the dock is raised slightly, plus there is an cut-away underneath to allow the couplings space etc.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

I've just realised there are no buffer stops - I need to add some planking....

[Andy Keane]

13 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Evening @Andy Keane, this was my solution to the coupling issue.

 

The platform at the dock is raised slightly, plus there is an cut-away underneath to allow the couplings space etc.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

I've just realised there are no buffer stops - I need to add some planking....

Yes that seems a good idea. Perhaps stupidly I just followed a photo I found of a GWR end ramp in my model and of course it just had a vertical wall with a stop beam on it.

[Neal Ball]

2 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

Yes that seems a good idea. Perhaps stupidly I just followed a photo I found of a GWR end ramp in my model and of course it just had a vertical wall with a stop beam on it.

 

Hopefully its an easy fix to change - or of course build it out to give the recess underneath.

[Andy Keane]

So a brief bit of butchery and I have created a small hole below the stop beam and now my truck comes nicely up to the end. Not very pretty but it hardly shows.

[Graham T]

Looks like an excellent solution to me Andy.  Effective and not over complicated!

 

[Andy Keane]

Having fixed the end loading ramp has made me think about other stop beams. I am not sure what would be on the back wall of the stone engine shed (where we know the rear wall did once get demolished by a loco) or the wooden carriage shed (which sat on the top of a steep embankment and where any accident would have been spectacular). I am guessing the loco shed just had a stop beam on the rear wall but the carriage shed probably enclosed a proper buffer stop - the photo in Jenkins's book is a bit fuzzy but I think I can make one out. Clearly we don't want any accidents!

Edited May 30, 2023 by Andy Keane

[MrWolf]

IIRC loco sheds often have small metal stops bolted to the rails which at low speeds prevent the locomotive getting anywhere near the back wall.

[Andy Keane]

I have been busy making up the Mainly Trains cast brass buffer stops (MT247). These are a bit fiddly but rather nice and much better than the plastic Peco bullhead versions. But I will use a Peco one down the back of my carriage shed as the brass ones come in pairs and there are only two exposed ones at Helston.

 

One thing I have not decided on is what the floor would have been inside the carriage shed - I doubt it was standard ballast but also not sure it would have been sleepers set in concrete either. And I guess the same goes for the goods shed. Does anyone know what GWR practice was inside such shed in the 1930s?

 

[Nick C]

Lanarkshire models do a whitemetal GWR bufferstop if you want another non-Peco option.