Chuffnell Regis

[Graham T]

29 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

So compensators are those double crank things that reduce the throw but also reduce the effort needed to move the whole length?

The best photo I have of rodding at Helston is this one:

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/uploads/7/6/8/3/7683812/7449369_orig.jpg

Its post-war but I don't think the rodding would have been much different in 1930 (assuming channel section). There are dips in the various runs which are I assume some sort of joint? But I don't see any compensators?

The really long run goes the other way to the carriage shed point which runs the whole length of the platform and a bit (you can just see its end in the photo) - I am not sure I will do more than simple runs perhaps with these joints.

Andy

 

 

I just measured my rodding (ooer missus!)  A three-rod run of the Wills stuff is about 4mm wide, so the six-rod run you have at Helston might look a bit odd.  Perhaps take a look at the Modelu stuff instead?

[longchap]

50 minutes ago, Graham T said:

I just measured my rodding (ooer missus!)  A three-rod run of the Wills stuff is about 4mm wide, so the six-rod run you have at Helston might look a bit odd.  Perhaps take a look at the Modelu stuff instead?

 

I’ve hopefully collected sufficient Wills' packs to install point rodding at Newton Regis and intend to follow the advice (here or YMRC, not sure where) when preparing the overscale rodding lengths by running a straight blade along the lengths to thin them a little. I've successfully use this method with plastic building components and it works well.

 

Hope this helps.

[Andy Keane]

1 hour ago, longchap said:

 

I’ve hopefully collected sufficient Wills' packs to install point rodding at Newton Regis and intend to follow the advice (here or YMRC, not sure where) when preparing the overscale rodding lengths by running a straight blade along the lengths to thin them a little. I've successfully use this method with plastic building components and it works well.

 

Hope this helps.

How will you make the roller assemblies narrower? The runs of rodding would need to be closed up if you pare them down.

[Graham T]

Good question...

 

As Eric M was known to say, "Get out of that!"

[Andy Keane]

Graham, is it ok to continue this point rodding chat here or should we start a separate thread? Don’t want to drown out CR.

[longchap]

49 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

How will you make the roller assemblies narrower? The runs of rodding would need to be closed up if you pare them down.

 

The simple answer is that I'll deal within that when I come to install the rodding, which frankly may not be too far away, all other things remaining equal! However, as I love meeting challenges and where’s there a will, there's a way, so onwards and upwards!

 

[Graham T]

27 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Graham, is it ok to continue this point rodding chat here or should we start a separate thread? Don’t want to drown out CR.

 

Entirely up to you chaps.  I'm quite happy for it to continue here if you want to - I'm sure I'll learn from it as well.

[longchap]

13 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Entirely up to you chaps.  I'm quite happy for it to continue here if you want to - I'm sure I'll learn from it as well.

 

Thanks Graham, but I'll not have much to contribute until I tackle my point rodding, in which case I'll pop it into the Newton Regis thread. Fortunately, I've a couple of ideas to work with.

 

Cheers 🙂

 

"Can I have a P please Bob?"

Edited April 26, 2022 by longchap

[5BarVT]

4 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

The best photo I have of rodding at Helston is this one:

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/uploads/7/6/8/3/7683812/7449369_orig.jpg

Its post-war but I don't think the rodding would have been much different in 1930 (assuming channel section). There are dips in the various runs which are I assume some sort of joint? But I don't see any compensators?

The really long run goes the other way to the carriage shed point which runs the whole length of the platform and a bit (you can just see its end in the photo) - I am not sure I will do more than simple runs perhaps with these joints.

You don’t need to go very far before you need a compensator (tolerance is less than 1/8” as that’s the test for a facing point lock).  There was a style of comp that could fit ‘in-line’ in a rodding run and I’m fairly certain those are what you have called ‘dips’.  If you follow the 4th from the left rod you will see a comp fairly close to the box and then another in the distance. I reckon that is the rod for the point and catch to the shed.  Note that each section has to be separately compensated, and see how short the first run is yet still needs a comp.

Paul.

[5BarVT]

5 hours ago, Nick C said:

electrical lamp detectors - using a bi-metallic strip

Known as a pyrometer in my bit of the trade. (Early 80s.)

Paul.

[geoffjacks]

12 hours ago, Graham T said:

I found a photo of a lampman, now need to find a suitable figure.  This would make a nice little scene with him wandering along towards the home signal.

 

Many years ago I had a go at replicating this scene. This is the best photo I could find (scanned from a 'proper' photo!). Sadly this layout has long since gone.

[MrWolf]

That scene reminds me so much of the layout I built just before I left home for college. The signalbox was the old Prototype Models one with a replacement roof of handmade strips of slates. 

I have a feeling that the token equipment came from Mainly Trains?

[aardvark]

11 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

How will you make the roller assemblies narrower? The runs of rodding would need to be closed up if you pare them down.

 

I have no experience, but if you're trying to be prototypical, I doubt that Wills kits are the way to go.  Good for some sort of general oh-look-he's-got-point-rodding effect, but way too chunky to be anything more than representative.

 

There's a useful Tony Wright article in the January 2022 BRM.

 

All in the eye, timescale and wallet of the beholder, of course.

[Andy Keane]

10 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

You don’t need to go very far before you need a compensator (tolerance is less than 1/8” as that’s the test for a facing point lock).  There was a style of comp that could fit ‘in-line’ in a rodding run and I’m fairly certain those are what you have called ‘dips’.  If you follow the 4th from the left rod you will see a comp fairly close to the box and then another in the distance. I reckon that is the rod for the point and catch to the shed.  Note that each section has to be separately compensated, and see how short the first run is yet still needs a comp.

Paul.

Ah - so thats what they are - I was wondering how on earth to put compensators into long runs with multiple rods - I wonder if ModelU or anyone else does such things? I will have to hunt for a photo of one, preferably GWR round rod style. maybe @TheStationMaster has some suitable images?

[5BarVT]

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

Ah - so thats what they are - I was wondering how on earth to put compensators into long runs with multiple rods - I wonder if ModelU or anyone else does such things? I will have to hunt for a photo of one, preferably GWR round rod style. maybe @TheStationMaster has some suitable images?

I have a feeling (but only that so don’t quote me!) that the in-line compensator was only a channel rodding variant.

Paul.

I wuz wrong, see next post.  Back in my box!

Edited April 27, 2022 by 5BarVT
inaccuracy

[Harlequin]

28 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

I have a feeling (but only that so don’t quote me!) that the in-line compensator was only a channel rodding variant.

Paul.

There are pictures of compensators in both round and channel rodding dropping down below the normal run level (Plates 101a and b) on page 169 of "GWR Signalling Practice" by Smith.

 

[Graham T]

I'm gradually building up a railway library, but I think that books about signalling practice might still be a bridge too far for me!

[Barclay]

Very useful articles on point rodding in MRJs 113 and 115 by Steve Hall of Halifax King Cross fame. Obviously not GWR but I can scan them to you if required?

[Nick C]

36 minutes ago, Graham T said:

I'm gradually building up a railway library, but I think that books about signalling practice might still be a bridge too far for me!

Signalling in the age of steam, Michael A Vanns, or British Railway Signalling, Kitchenside & Williams, Both are nice, concise introductions to the subject. I'd also suggest 'a pictorial record of Great Western signalling' by Adrian Vaughan - I've not got it myself, but the equivalent Southern volume is very useful for a modeller.

[Graham T]

These references are all well and good, but you do realise that they go against my "bodgeit and scarper" modelling ethos?

[Lacathedrale]

I didn't find the Southern volume very useful, a huge portion of the book is dedicated to LSWR practise.

 

I love my signalling books - still don't really understand how to figure out interlocking, though!

 

The green book is more of a pamphlet but shows you exactly how it should be done!

[Graham T]

I took a short break from work to do some wood butchery.  The platform has now been chopped out of some unsuspecting 9mm ply.  I'll trim some off the end to allow for a ramp, which I'm planning to meet ground level where the cork base layer ends.  Then I'll screw the ply to the baseboards, I think.

 

The top of the ply is about 9mm above the rail head, which (amazingly enough) is more or less what I was planning for, as I can now put a couple of layers of 1mm card on top of that.  The idea is that the first layer will project slightly over the edge of the ply to simulate corbelling, and the top layer will project a little more for the platform overhang...

 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by Graham T

[Andy Keane]

3 hours ago, Graham T said:

I took a short break from work to do some wood butchery.  The platform has now been chopped out of some unsuspecting 9mm ply.  I'll trim some off the end to allow for a ramp, which I'm planning to meet ground level where the cork base layer ends.  Then I'll screw the ply to the baseboards, I think.

 

The top of the ply is about 9mm above the rail head, which (amazingly enough) is more or less what I was planning for, as I can now put a couple of layers of 1mm card on top of that.  The idea is that the first layer will project slightly over the edge of the ply to simulate corbelling, and the top layer will project a little more for the platform overhang...

 

 

Looking really good.

Regarding overhangs have you seen the table that was originated by BRMSB for Platforms, Station Buildings and Bridges dimensions?

In 4mm they suggest the corbling overhangs the face by 4mm and the flags then hang over that.

I guess this 1 foot full scale overhang was to allow for rodding but it seems a lot to me.

Andy

[Andy Keane]

10 hours ago, Harlequin said:

There are pictures of compensators in both round and channel rodding dropping down below the normal run level (Plates 101a and b) on page 169 of "GWR Signalling Practice" by Smith.

 

Phil

could you send me scans of those plates please? I am thinking Helston in 1930 would have had round rods, which then got changed in 1935 when the head shunt / stone shute siding was lifted. Unfortunately the only photo I know of for the rodding in 1920 is not good enought for me to be sure.

thanks

Andy

[Graham T]

Operation PLATFORM marches (slowly) on.  The ply has now been screwed to the baseboard, and I've installed the facing wall on the viewer's side.  Hopefully I'll get the wall on the far side installed tomorrow.  I'm tempted not to bother putting any brick paper on that side, but I'm not sure my conscience will let me get away with that...

 

I was pleased that I managed to get the wall in without destroying any of the point rodding 🙂

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Graham T