Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[St Enodoc]

Today was too hot for spraying - the paint would have dried as soon as it came out of the can - so we spent the day doing non-railway things.

 

Before we went out, however, I painted the Porthmellyn Road signal box lever numbers with black etching primer and after we came home I cleaned up the raised parts of the etch with the fine side of a nail sanding stick.

 

Also this morning, another icon of my railway modelling life passed into history.

 

I can't remember exactly where or when I bought this but the price of GBP 1.65 suggests that it was more than a few years ago. It might well have come from Dick Buckley's old shop at Wakefield - conveniently almost on the direct route by road between Healey Mills Depot and Wakefield Wagon Works, which was in the old LMS MPD at Belle Vue.

 

My jars of Railmatch white and black etching primer are also on their last legs. I have some black and grey replacements from an Australian firm called Railey Paints but white etching primer seems to be impossible to find round here, at least in anything less than about 5-litre cans. That's a shame, as it is extremely useful for painting etched signal arms. If anyone knows of a source in quantities more suitable for railway modelling I would be delighted to hear from them.

Edited July 20, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[DougN]

St Enodoc, have you gone and had a look at the self etch paints that are available from AutoBahn or super cheap auto... or dare I say bunnings. I have used the self etch in grey from autobahn for a few years. It even saves on the clean up as it is in spray packs!

[Mikkel]

Very nice work on cleaning up the numbers so neatly, not always as easy as it sounds in my experience.

 

 

Today was too hot for spraying - the paint would have dried as soon as it came out of the can - so we spent the day doing non-railway things.

 

While here it would have frozen the instant it left the can. Somehow I feel you've got the better deal 

[St Enodoc]

St Enodoc, have you gone and had a look at the self etch paints that are available from AutoBahn or super cheap auto... or dare I say bunnings. I have used the self etch in grey from autobahn for a few years. It even saves on the clean up as it is in spray packs!

Yes Doug, I use the grey etching primer spray from AutoOne (usual disclaimer) quite frequently - most recently on the Modratec signal levers (see post #1243) - but I haven't found it in white. In any event, I prefer to brush paint from a jar on smaller or more intricate jobs, which can save a lot of effort and time masking up, for example. My existing jars are Railmatch but they don't produce white any more as far as I can tell.

 

Edit - this seems to be available but a full litre is still rather more than I will ever need:

 

https://www.multigard.com.au/product/multi-gard-etch/

Edited December 29, 2017 by St Enodoc

[St Enodoc]

Several degrees cooler today although a wet morning. However, the rain stopped after lunch, so I put another coat of paint on the red and yellow levers. I think the red will be fine but I'll check the yellow after it dries to decide whether or not a third coat is needed.

 

Later, I added the two spurs and two Up sidings to the layout project plan now that their alignment is fixed.

 

During Thursday's running session, I was struck by how good the china clay train looked as it snaked through the reverse curves into and out of Porthmellyn Road Loop. We were too busy to video it but I will ask Charles to do so next time. In the meantime, here are some still photos of the train being brought in by 4247 and taken out again by 4206, which had been waiting in No 2 Spur.

 

 

 

 

 

The two locos are of course Hornby but the rest of the train dates back to the days of the first St Enodoc layout, the branch terminus, which was built around 1980/81. The brake vans are Ratio and the wagons are all from the original Ian Kirk kits. I modified some to represent the vacuum-braked version and fitted all of them with ABS self-contained buffers. The wagons and vans were all lettered by hand using a Rotring pen (this was before the days of Woodhead transfers) and were weathered by Barry O of this parish.

Edited July 20, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Barry O]

That train does look good.

 

I still have some of very old Ian Kirk mineral wagons built and weathered at the same time as the China clays. Your wagons seem to have stayed "square sided" much better than the 24.5T minerals.

 

Baz

[P.C.M]

Hi John, Looks like you are making good progress. Nice to see some trains running.

 

Cheers Peter.

[St Enodoc]

That train does look good.

 

I still have some of very old Ian Kirk mineral wagons built and weathered at the same time as the China clays. Your wagons seem to have stayed "square sided" much better than the 24.5T minerals.

 

Baz

Thanks Baz. Yes, they have stayed square haven't they (or as square as they were when I built them...). I hadn't really thought about that before. Some others of the same vintage haven't done quite so well, especially vans where the roofs have taken on a life of their own.

[St Enodoc]

Hi John, Looks like you are making good progress. Nice to see some trains running.

 

Cheers Peter.

Thanks Peter. Yes, running trains is what it's all about for me. Fortunately, I am gathering together a group of other like-minded folk too.

[St Enodoc]

As another year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on progress on the Mid-Cornwall Lines during the third year of their life.

 

2017 started with the installation of the first six Penzance loops, having completed the realignment of the Paddington loops at the end of the previous year. This work was finished by mid-January, which allowed us to begin the most important activity on the whole layout – operation. The first, very basic, sequence included 26 main line trains, representing a sample of the full sequence that could be operated with only half the loops installed. This was very successful, so we instituted a regular programme of sessions every two months.

 

At the end of March, I started work on a new work project which meant travelling to Melbourne for half of every week – a situation that is likely to continue for some time. This has curtailed severely the amount of work I can do on the layout in the evenings, such as point building and working on rolling stock. Nevertheless, work carried on at a slower pace, focussing on the Up end of Porthmellyn Road station. Some of this needed experimentation, such as my first use of slow-action point motors and the construction of my first single- and double-slips.

 

Gradually, work progressed to the position where we could expand the sequence to include the Down Goods Loop in July; the railbus shuttle and rudimentary shunting in September; and most recently china-clay workings terminating at Porthmellyn Road giving a total of 44 trains in the latest version of the sequence (to put this in perspective, the full Friday and Saturday sequence for main and branch line trains will include over 300 trains).

 

I have now changed focus to getting the Modratec lever frame for Porthmellyn Road signal box under way, before continuing with the Down end trackwork at the station.

 

This time last year I expressed my hope that work would be steadier but not as slow as in 2016. Well, it has certainly been steadier, with no retracing of steps or major rework, but as noted above it has still been slow. Consequently I will be more circumspect with my predictions for 2018 and will say only that I hope to have more features of the layout installed and working by the time of the BRMA National Convention, to be held in Sydney in September. These features should include some or all, in full or in part, of: Porthmellyn Road Down end trackwork; additional loops at Paddington and Penzance; ballasting the main lines; and commissioning of Porthmellyn Road signal box – with or without signals!

 

One final and very pleasing observation is that in 2017 this topic has filled 25 pages, the same as the previous two years combined, so I will take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed, whether on- topic or not, all those who have taken the time and trouble to rate my posts and all those who have just visited and read the pages. I really do appreciate all your virtual contributions and even more so the very real contributions of the operating team and those who have helped with the development of the layout in other ways.

 

So, to close, I send you all my best wishes for the New Year when it comes, and hope that 2018 continues to witness good progress on all your projects.

[Barry O]

Wishing you and V a great 2018.. c u soon!

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

Wishing you and V a great 2018.. c u soon!

 

Baz

Thanks and the same to you both.

[Mallard60022]

All the best down there. Thanks for the inspiration.

[The Stationmaster]

Happy New Year and excellent to see it coming along with some really positive progress - that clay train makes it all worthwhile I reckon.

[St Enodoc]

All the best down there. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

Happy New Year and excellent to see it coming along with some really positive progress - that clay train makes it all worthwhile I reckon.

Thanks Phil and Mike. The same to you and yours now that 2018 has arrived in your part of the world.

 

I hope that this year we continue to provide and receive inspiration from all our RMweb mates (that's daft - it's not a hope but a given). Phil, I hope especially that 2018 sees more ups than downs for you not only for SOSJ but overall; and Mike, I agree so much about the clay train. These little milestones spur me on tremendously.

 

All the best.

[Andrew P]

It's now 2018 here now as well so Happy New Year to you.

[St Enodoc]

Happy New Year everybody.

 

In between a couple of days at work, and a good day at the Sydney Test yesterday, I've managed to get a little bit of work done on the layout.

 

These two views should look familiar but can you spot the difference?

 

 

Yes, I've been round with the paintbrush and painted all the bare copperclad on the scenic area. Railmatch 402 Frame Dirt is certainly a good match. I also touched up some damaged areas from fettling the pointwork and the joints where the droppers are soldered to the rails. Everything is now ready for ballasting here...

 

I was happy with the red and yellow paint coverage on the signal box levers too, so I unwrapped the masking tape and stood the levers up in a block of expanded polystyrene until I need to use them.

 

For some reason, these put me in mind of the terracotta warriors at Xi'an in China.

 

Today I started on the lever frame itself. The first step was to identify and mark the parts to ensure that they are assembled correctly.

 

Here are the blank tappets, with the odd numbers at the top and even numbers at the bottom. The ones with the holes are for the three section signals that will incorporate the electric line clear releases. These replace three standard tappets, which are now spare.

 

The Modratec instruction manual is extremely comprehensive and is divided into discrete steps. Step 6 is the preliminary assembly of the basic frame structure.

 

Here are the parts for the first section of Step 6...

 

...and here is the initial structure assembled. The key at this stage is to get the frame corners square, which involved a considerable amount of adjustment before tightening the screws.

 

That took me through to close of play at the SCG, so I also drew stumps ready to do more over the weekend.

 

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[The Stationmaster]

So it appears that you have to cut the ports in the tappets yourself - is a jig supplied for doing that or do you have to make your own jigs?

[St Enodoc]

So it appears that you have to cut the ports in the tappets yourself - is a jig supplied for doing that or do you have to make your own jigs?

No, when you order the EEMECKS (the solenoids that provide the locking) you can order replacement tappets with the hole in them as well.

[St Enodoc]

This morning we did our weekly shop, which included a trip to the bottle shop to use up some vouchers that were about to expire. We came home with a mixed baker's dozen of shiraz and sauvignon blanc at $10 a pop. They should keep us going for a little while (even allowing for our distinguished visitors in a couple of weeks' time). When we got back, being Twelfth Night it was time to take down the Christmas decorations and put the tree outside ready to chop up for disposal.

 

Consequently, it wasn't until after lunch that I went back out to the workshop to carry on with the lever frame. Here is a tip for future Modratec lever frame builders - the tappet guides will almost certainly need filing to give the tappets themselves a sliding fit. Although the instructions hint at this, they don't say explicitly to do it before Step 6. Based on today's experience, where the (already fitted) rear tappet guides took me about an hour to file, due to the difficulty of access, but the (not yet fitted) front tappet guides only took about 20 minutes using the vice, I recommend strongly doing this before assembling either set of tappet guides.

 

Having done that, I was able to complete Step 6 so the structure of the frame is now complete, including the aluminium support bars that will mount the frame under the baseboard. More on this when I get to that stage.

 

Here is the completed frame structure with the levers at the back, which is the standard Modratec configuration so the frame protrudes in front of the layout with the signal box diagram covering the interlocking.

 

Being a contrary so-and-so I am building mine with the levers at the front so that the interlocking will be tucked under the baseboard to save space.

 

The next steps are to assemble and fit the locking bars, file and fit the tappets and fit the levers (the dreaded Step 11...) to complete the mechanical work before fitting the auxiliary switches and EEMECKs.

Edited July 20, 2023 by St Enodoc
images restored

[The Fatadder]

Loving the build of the lever frame, one day when Brent is a lot more complete It will be incredibly hard to resist.

 

Look forward to seeing the end result

[Barry O]

Her indoors is quite partial to a sauvignon blanc....

As for me... nuff said.

 

 

That lever frame looks very good and is making rapid progress.

 

Baz

[trw1089]

Great to see the progress on the lever frame, I love mine and it adds a lot to the operation of the layout, even though I’ve only got one working signal so far!

 

Cheers

Tony

[St Enodoc]

Great to see the progress on the lever frame, I love mine and it adds a lot to the operation of the layout, even though I’ve only got one working signal so far!

 

Cheers

Tony

Thanks Tony. I have a feeling that I might be the only member of my team (other than our mutual friend Graeme Lewis, who lives too far away of course to be a regular) who a) can and b) wants to operate it when it's finished!

[Andrew P]

Wow, looking at the pics and your talk through, I'm glad I didn't invest in any for Bitton (that had bitten the dust), there way ahead of my Bodgit powers.

 

Really neat job, and so organised with your neat rows of your Leaver Frame Warriors ready for action.