Helston Revisited

[Mike_Walker]

15 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Have just spent 30 minutes reading old magazines in my local tyre depot while getting a couple fitted. There was an interesting article on rabbits and historic rabbit shoots. The key point though was the annual harvest of rabbits in England in the 1930's was typically around 40 million! no wonder Helston had a specialist van - I bet there were many others dotted around the country for similar traffic.

I think I have that number targeting my garden!

[Pete Haitch]

Just caught-up with the sheep. Reminded of my very young days when someone would pop to the chemists, put a cross in the poisons book and come back with some arsenic to rinse the show sheep to make their fleeces a little whiter in sunlight. By the time I was doing this we used a washing powder so that in UV on a  sunny day the fleeces would shimmer.  Hence, pictures of show animals of any type in a show ring rarely provide good reference - I like the image provided by @Gilbert, and @BWsTrains comments about the backend of the sheep is so true, especially if they've just been moved on to better quality grazing by the station - although this probably would have meant more pocket money for me, earned by dagging the ewes to avoid fly-strike.

Last time I painted some sheep , I used a very light waft at distance from a Games Workshop 'Zandri Dust' rattle can over the undercoat. 

Edited September 11 by Pete Haitch

[Andy Keane]

This is where the sheep (and two Suffolk Punch horses) have now gotten to. What do people think? As yet I have not applied any powders, nor the final matt coat of sealer. The horses will be left a bit glossy as they do have slightly glossy coats.

Andy

Edited September 11 by Andy Keane

[Gilbert]

Looking good Andy

I'll trot out my normal advice - leave them a few days and have another look then...and possibly do nothing...

ChrisH

[Pete Haitch]

Love those sheep - well on the way to being a 'proper job'.  I really like the way that the things that you are doing now identify where the layout is, and give purpose to the various trains that you may run.  Looking forward to seeing the Victoria at the station - is it there to pick up one of the Tremayne boys on their way home to Constantin; or perhaps Peter Treloar on his way to Godolphin with part of a secret stash of South African gold; or even Sir Courtenay (Vyvyan) the local baron going back to Trelowarren to see how the rabbit business is going.

Edited September 11 by Pete Haitch
P.S. The above were real people.

[Annie]

Now they look like sheep.  Very nicely done Andy.

[Fair Oak Junction]

Those look great, you've nailed their colouring!

[BWsTrains]

8 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

This is where the sheep (and two Suffolk Punch horses) have now gotten to. What do people think? As yet I have not applied any powders, nor the final matt coat of sealer. The horses will be left a bit glossy as they do have slightly glossy coats.

Andy

 

Those look superb!

[Gilbert]

Out of interest....what do they look like on a green field?

I'm in now in the "stop now" camp unless they don't work in a grassy setting...

[Andy Keane]

8 minutes ago, Gilbert said:

Out of interest....what do they look like on a green field?

I'm in now in the "stop now" camp unless they don't work in a grassy setting...

Yes, that is today’s plan. I moved them off the spray stand for the last photo and that very much changed how they look so a grassy base is the next check.

[Andy Keane]

So this is what they look like tucked up in their field just off Station Road. I think leave them as they are?

[Nick C]

They look fantastic, I'd definitely say leave as they are - you can always come back to them later on if any aspect bugs you...

[Tim Dubya]

Top stuff, as others have said, they look perfect as they are.

 

Although, I'd say you're only missing this character...

 

 

...but you'd need to have watched "Twin Town" to appreciate him in his full "glory"😁 

 

 

[Pete Haitch]

Absolutely Brilliant.

[Andy Keane]

Next up are the pigs. As these needs to be Cornish Large Black the most limited research shows their ears as being a key feature. So I am going to have to tackle that by hand since as far as I can tell there are no ready to use models with these large floppy ears covering most of the face. @Pete Haitch has suggested fag paper. I will conduct some experiments and report back. Again all suggestions most welcome.

[Pete Haitch]

Using fag paper and saturating it with super glue so it dries rigid, can have consequences.

[Andy Keane]

On 11/09/2024 at 17:52, Pete Haitch said:

Looking forward to seeing the Victoria at the station

Pete, here you go. Old Tom has just dropped the master off for the mid morning service:

While the station master is a bit worried it may be running late:

[Pete Haitch]

I've just had a quick play with a pig and replacing one of its ears. I found that a piece of cheap (i.e. not too thick) post it note is easier to use  than fag paper. Once it had hardened from the superglue I put a drop of black paint on it (and which has subsequently transferred to my fingers).  I should have put a smidge of filler where the edge of the paper meets the head. I look forward to seeing your efforts which I'm sure will be superb.

[Andy Keane]

2 hours ago, Pete Haitch said:

I've just had a quick play with a pig and replacing one of its ears. I found that a piece of cheap (i.e. not too thick) post it note is easier to use  than fag paper. Once it had hardened from the superglue I put a drop of black paint on it (and which has subsequently transferred to my fingers).  I should have put a smidge of filler where the edge of the paper meets the head. I look forward to seeing your efforts which I'm sure will be superb.

Pete, that is looking very good. I have started with some cast whitemetal pigs and this is my first attempt on the ears plus some gloss black paint (I prefer to work in gloss when I can and then matt at the end - it seems to be better for adding washes).

Andy

[Tankerman]

On the subject of all non locomotive coal being brought in by ship. In the Falmouth/Penryn area, with a few exceptions, it certainly was. The reason being that the local coal merchants and the Falmouth Gas works all had private wharves.

 

In Falmouth the Gas Works were at the back of the shops in Church Street, which has been a car park since the advent of North Sea Gas.  Harris' Coal yard was at the Penryn side of the landward end of Prince of Wales pier, which is now private housing.

 

in Penryn, Annear's coal yard, which like Falmouth, was built on quite some time ago, was immediately up river from the public Quay at the bottom of Quay Hill. Both of the coal merchants had travelling cranes with grabs for discharging the coasters.

 

It's a very long time ago, but I can remember a small coal merchant using the short siding at the west end on the Docks side of Falmouth station and another small one occasionally receiving a 16 ton load in Penryn goods yard, which was discharged by hand into a tipper truck.

[Andy Keane]

One of the questions I have regarding coal deliveries to Cornish gas works is how the coal got from the station yard or wharf to the gas works. The options seem to be horse and cart, steam lorry or diesel lorry, possibly all three in turn as technology evolved. I have purchased an Oxford Diecast Tate and Lyle Sentinel steam lorry I plan to repaint for this role, as I once helped operate such a beast that was owned by a friend. It seems a bit brutal to overpaint the lovely T&L livery but such is modelling. But I have absolutely no evidence of this happening in real life - just the thought that given an abundant and regular supply of coal, a coal fired lorry would have made sense. I wonder if there an photos out there of coal arriving by road at a Cornish or indeed any other gas works in the 1920's and 30's?

Edited Sunday at 10:19 by Andy Keane

[Pete Haitch]

Hi @Tankerman I wasn't trying to cast any doubt over the fact that Cornwall received a lot/majority of coal by sea - just that some still came by rail.  A few years ago I read a paper by an academic the name of whom I cannot recall now that gave the following reasons for that. He was mainly referencing the traffic across the Bristol Channel of mineral ores in one direction and coal in the other.

 

He had calculated that the time of the maximum number of steam pumps at mines and with the growth of heavy engineering, coal consumption in Cornwall would have been greater than could have been supported by the available coastal shipping alone.  He claimed the Bristol Channel trade apparently could be halted for a day or more at a time due to Atlantic storms sweeping westerly gales and big seas in through Sole, Fastnet , Lundy; and whilst Fremington may stay open, places further west like Portreath were shut and going around Lands End would take time and result in coal not being  where it was expected.  In these circumstances it was easier to send the potential cargo by rail especially if there was an obliging railway company eager to demonstrate the 'advantages' it could offer!

 

Other reasons given included:
the costs of load handling (rail to ship to rail) started to increase at a time when the rail network had become reliable and relatively speedy;
the ease with which rail could deliver different types of coal for different uses from different sources;
if there was a surge in demand for ore and it was required promptly and a coastal vessel could empty its hold, bunker and run on an ebbing tide, it could be back in North Cornwall quickly using minimal fuel, and ready for the next better revenue earning load of ore/mineral whatever.

 

I think the above refers to certainly pre ww2.

 

In the 1940s/50s my late Father in Law sailed on tankers out of Falmouth - The last trip we took him on in 2006 was to Falmouth, and particularly to look out over the Carrick Roads which, it became clear, to him represented safety and a sense that all would be well.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 11:00 by Pete Haitch

[Tankerman]

10 hours ago, Pete Haitch said:

Hi @Tankerman I wasn't trying to cast any doubt over the fact that Cornwall received a lot/majority of coal by sea - just that some still came by rail.  A few years ago I read a paper by an academic the name of whom I cannot recall now that gave the following reasons for that. He was mainly referencing the traffic across the Bristol Channel of mineral ores in one direction and coal in the other.

 

He had calculated that the time of the maximum number of steam pumps at mines and with the growth of heavy engineering, coal consumption in Cornwall would have been greater than could have been supported by the available coastal shipping alone.  He claimed the Bristol Channel trade apparently could be halted for a day or more at a time due to Atlantic storms sweeping westerly gales and big seas in through Sole, Fastnet , Lundy; and whilst Fremington may stay open, places further west like Portreath were shut and going around Lands End would take time and result in coal not being  where it was expected.  In these circumstances it was easier to send the potential cargo by rail especially if there was an obliging railway company eager to demonstrate the 'advantages' it could offer!

 

Other reasons given included:
the costs of load handling (rail to ship to rail) started to increase at a time when the rail network had become reliable and relatively speedy;
the ease with which rail could deliver different types of coal for different uses from different sources;
if there was a surge in demand for ore and it was required promptly and a coastal vessel could empty its hold, bunker and run on an ebbing tide, it could be back in North Cornwall quickly using minimal fuel, and ready for the next better revenue earning load of ore/mineral whatever.

 

I think the above refers to certainly pre ww2.

 

In the 1940s/50s my late Father in Law sailed on tankers out of Falmouth - The last trip we took him on in 2006 was to Falmouth, and particularly to look out over the Carrick Roads which, it became clear, to him represented safety and a sense that all would be well.

 

 

Hi Pete,

 

I wasn't trying to show that you were wrong in saying that towns in Cornwall didn't get coal imports by rail, both via the GWR and SR,  obviously all those towns which weren't close to the sea would have had coal yards of a suitable size. I was trying to highlight the peculiarity of coal deliveries to Penryn and Falmouth in that they were almost completely by sea.

 

Truro gas works also had its coal delivered by coaster to Lemon Quay for many years, but at some time in the 1950's/60's the deliveries were transferred to a siding off the Newham branch.  

 

Shipping is my main subject of interest, Cornish railways are a secondary interest. although those around Truro. Penryn and Falmouth are particularly interesting to me as I was born in Penryn and served my electrical apprenticeship at Falmouth Docks: which in the 1950's and '60's had a quite extensive railway network.

 

It's interesting that you father in law sailed on tankers out of Falmouth, at that time I would think that they would be mainly BP, quite a few of which I worked on between 1962 to '67. In 1968 I became an Electrical Officer with Trident Tankers, part of P&O, but by then it was a case of flying to various countries and joining the ship there.

 

Regarding Carrick Roads, up until fairly recently it was a designated Port of Refuge. In the late 1950's a bulk carrier named Mitera Marigo, IIRC was in a collision in the English Channel, was brought into Carrick Roads where she sank.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 21:19 by Tankerman
System of coal deliveris to Truro incorrect

[stevel]

14 hours ago, Tankerman said:

On the subject of all non locomotive coal being brought in by ship. In the Falmouth/Penryn area, with a few exceptions, it certainly was. The reason being that the local coal merchants and the Falmouth Gas works all had private wharves.

 

In Falmouth the Gas Works were at the back of the shops in Church Street, which has been a car park since the advent of North Sea Gas.  Harris' Coal yard was at the Penryn side of the landward end of Prince of Wales pier, which is now private housing.

 

in Penryn, Annear's coal yard, which like Falmouth, was built on quite some time ago, was immediately up river from the public Quay at the bottom of Quay Hill. Both of the coal merchants had travelling cranes with grabs for discharging the coasters.

 

It's a very long time ago, but I can remember a small coal merchant using the short siding at the west end on the Docks side of Falmouth station and another small one occasionally receiving a 16 ton load in Penryn goods yard, which was discharged by hand into a tipper truck.

Thanks for this information, I had not been able to find anything on coal supplies, in my research, so I won't need any coal wagons other than Loco coal.

 

Stephen

[Andy Keane]

6 hours ago, stevel said:

Thanks for this information, I had not been able to find anything on coal supplies, in my research, so I won't need any coal wagons other than Loco coal.

 

Stephen

Stephen, where are you modelling. I am anlways interested in a fellow modellers work.