A popular layout back on YMRC

[user=11]Bob K[/user] wrote:

 Could be the Christmas header photo!!

Bob

I can supply a copy without the watermark if it were chosen.

Nice idea, the B & W shots do look good :thumbs

Could you do the last colour one in monochrome Rick, for comparison.?


Ed

Happy to oblige Ed



Not only that but I can do the very last B&W in full colour for reverse-comparison as well ;-)

[user=1753]Gwiwer[/user] wrote:

Happy to oblige Ed

thumbs:thumbs


Ed

Strange things happen at this time of year.  Reindeer might not fly here but ……



Yes, that really is a GWR pannier in London Transport livery hauling the BR inspection saloon!



And why does the line need to be inspected?  Because the next train was another GWR type though famously pretending to be a type it isn't.



That's no Castle!



And finally a third train, perhaps the most unusual of the lot, turned up in the shape of a Southern Region class 73 electro-diesel (running on diesel power) leading a motor luggage van (running on battery power) and a short parcels train conveying all the seasonal greetings.



Yes, that's definitely out of the ordinary for Penhayle Bay.



Penhayle Bay is popular at this time of year - no less than three Royal Blue coaches are parked up at the beach alongside the regular service bus.



The fleet is all in.  The lifeboat reminds us of the dedication and professionalism of the RNLI volunteer crews who put to sea in any weather when most run for shelter.  



The oddball SR train squealed around the curves and above the river mouth



Despite its headboard there was a rather mixed reception among those waiting for the regular train!



The message to all is writ large and clear.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR from PENHAYLE BAY.

Season's greetings to you and the family Rick.Have a good one.:cheers

As per the 'other' forum, wishing you and your family a very Happy Christmas and New Year too, Rick.

Merry Christmas Rick :cheers

Ed

It's been a bit quiet at Penhayle Bay this summer.  Normally this is my main running season.  However a combination of things ranging from the need to plan a bathroom renovation to rebuilding the lattice-work shade area / cat run out side the house has drawn on my spare time.  There is less of that in my job than there once was also.

The layout area had its new roof fitted and I then found a need to install an inner "skin" of shade-cloth to reduce the heat and intensity of the sun which had been shaded by the old lichen-covered roof.  

As of today the shade-cloth is 75% complete with the rest potentially do-able tomorrow before work.

Once all of that is done I can start to clear up and run trains.  The large station at Treheligan will take a bit longer to rebuild however but work is under way and I intend that it will look much as it did before the sun got to it and buckled the platforms.

I did get some track cleaned up today and ran a couple of tests with recently-arrived locos.  

The Isle of Wight O2 looks good and runs well though seems to have some oily patches on the tank sides which show through the weathering powder.  The diminutive nameplate on this is a user-fitted (but supplied) item and was fiddly in the extreme to get straight and without glue leaks.







The freshly-weathered Heljan class 33 has also been test-run to my satisfaction.





I promise more action as soon as I can get the tracks cleaned and have a couple of hours spare outside!

Apparently when this layout first appeared on MRweb I wasn't a member and I'm so glad that it's back.

A really wonderful, atmospheric and inspiring railway.

Thanks for re sharing.

Allan.

[user=1427]allan downes[/user] wrote:

A really wonderful, atmospheric and inspiring railway.

Thank you Allan.  The layout has been around on several sites for some time now though took a bit of a break from here a while back.

The most complete and continuous history, and the greatest amount of discussion, is on RMweb.  The busiest site that I have traffic figures for is the Facebook page where I display some of the better pictures and which is followed by over 1500 people with typically 3000 - 4000 viewing each image and in a few cases very many more.  The most popular image there has been seen by over 13000 people.

While I have developed and learned as a modeller over the ten-plus years Penhayle Bay has been around it is still the first layout I built and until a year ago was the only one.  I offer that as support for anyone either uncertain as to their potential abilities, just starting (as we have some beginners here), or perhaps just gazing in awe and privately thinking "If only I could ….. "  We don't know what we can achieve until we try.  My advice to anyone is to give it a go and see what you, too, can achieve.

The shade cloth has finally been fully fitted to the new roof and is successfully diffusing the worst of the sunlight and bringing a slight reduction in temperature across the layout.  It does also cause some mottling of the light at times but I can live with that more happily than I can live with ongoing blistering temperatures and warping of everything from plastic structures to the ballast and road surfaces.  Time will tell how they now hold up.
 
Currently the main lines and Treheligan sidings are open for traffic and if I cleaned the rails everything would be except for the down platform loop at Treheligan.  I can run trains tomorrow to mark St. Piran's Day.
 
For now here's a few "classic" views of a Western on china clays taken with the assistance of some spots of sunlight between today's clouds while I tested the track.

Gool Peran Lowen.  Happy St. Piran's Day from Cornwall in Australia :)

The entire roof now has its inner ling of shade-cloth.  St. Piran's flag still proudly flies above the layout.  The rebuilding of Treheligan station as a result of sun damage is in progress.



To mark the national day of the Cornish I arranged a line-up of five types associated with that part of the world.  Representing, approximately, the five decades I also offer on the layout are:

1960s : a class 42 Warship
1970s : a class 52 Western;
1980s : a class 37 (sometimes nicknamed tractors);
1990s : a class 66 (nicknamed sheds or ying-yings);
2000s : a class 57 which, because it was rebuilt from a class 47, also represents the 1970s and 1980s.  

Nice roster there Rick.

Gool Peran Lowen Rick.

[user=1935]Janner[/user] wrote:

Gool Peran Lowen Rick.

What ee said, but I suppose it's nearly over in you part of the world :thumbs

Didn't know the 'tractors' spent a lot of time down in the west country, thought they were mainly east coast and Scotland.

Learn something every day on here.



Ed

"Tractors" were staple motive power of Cornish freight for some years between the departure of the 52s and the coming of the 66s.  Bristol Bath Road and Plymouth Laira depots had allocations which meant that the sub-depot at St. Blazey became associated with the type also.

In the brief era when BR allowed some regional variation to its corporate image "Cornish Railways" was created as a unit for all things west of the Tamar and adopted a handful of class 37 locos.  These were variously emblazoned with the "Wizzy Lizzy" lizard logo and / or crossed flags of St. Piran and BR.  One, 37207, was named "William Cookworthy" after the gent (1705 - 1780) credited with discovery of the vast Cornish china clay deposits and their use in the porcelain and paper industries.

Subsequently the BR sectors named other locally-based locos with Cornish themes including 37671 "Tre Pol and Pen" from the rhyme (based on the local language and names) "By Tre, Pol and Pen ye know that we be Cornishmen"

Class 37 locos worked alongside the new class 66 type in Cornwall until very late in their lives and indeed occasionally still appear on engineer's, charter and weed killing trains.

While the type was associated in large numbers with the Eastern and North Eastern Regions significant allocations existed in South Wales and lowland Scotland.  Later in their lives a relatively small number from sub-class 37/4 are also well known for having replaced class 26 and 27 locos on all West Highland, Kyle and Far North workings.

They were maids of all work, a true mixed traffic type, and while they seldom appeared on the Southern Region they could be found almost anywhere on the BR network literally from Penzance to Wick and Thurso.

The latest Bachmann release has arrived, has been weathered and has entered traffic

47436 is seen on Darras Viaduct with a train of early Mk2 stock.  The loco has received a light weathering, apart from the roof which is much dirtier, and will replace a similar Hornby item which has an older-style motor, is less refined generally and has never been a particularly satisfactory performer.  The Hornby loco is reserved for a fellow modeller so already has a new home to go to at some future time.







In other news replacement Viessmann street lights have arrived from Germany to progress repairs to the sun-damaged road scenes around Treheligan.  The originals mostly still worked but in an effort to remove the two which didn't the wiring was damaged beyond repair and all have to be replaced.  I usually source lighting from Gaugemaster in Ford, UK, but on this occasion they were out of stock of the required and a German eBay dealer offered them from stock and cheaper as well.

I have a few afternoons free next week and hope to have a respectable amount of the rebuild under way or even complete by Easter.

The street lights are "roughed in" to use a building term and will go exactly where the old ones were, plus one new location as I now have seven available so six will be fitted with one retained as a spare.

Today I relaid the track through the down platform loop which was a casualty of the platform structure removal.  I had hoped it wouldn't be beyond recall but it would have had to move anyway making the existing rails too short by about 1cm.  So out it came and in has gone the new.

The shaped wood for the down platform island has been fixed in place and tomorrow attention will turn to shaping the up side piece.  Ten minutes with a jig saw does most of it then as long as it takes with various sanding devices to fine-tune the shape and fit.  This one will adjoin a short surviving section of plastic platform which is the base for the main building.

I had hoped to sand down the wood to include the slight overhand of the pavers but this would prove extremely time-consuming.  I had also intended to scribe pavers directly into the wood.  Gauge-testing with various rolling stock has shown this is just slightly too low for comfort and would benefit from a top surface.  Being wary of plastic after recent events I have chosen to revert to the Metcalfe card I used on Treheligan Mk2 and with brick-print card for the platform faces.  

That is all either in stock or on its way from a warehouse in Widnes.  The card will stick directly to flat pine not the previous balsa and I hope will therefore stay in place without curling up at the edges.  It was also munched by slugs on a previous occasion so this time it will benefit from application of pastel shading to vary the colour somewhat and to perhaps make it a little less appetising (not to mention harder to make progress on) for the local gastropod community.  

I can run trains on all lines even though Treheligan station remains closed and bus replacements are in operation from Penhayle Bay.  I'm working through Easter (except Good Friday) so no public running session then but hopefully in the week or two following and once the whole layout looks as it should once more.

If the Dapol signals arrive in time and are an easy install they might even be up and working by then as well.

A few shots of work in progress.

The new down island platform at the eastern (London) end with a small piece of the future printed card surface placed for effect.  The newly-laid loop track contrasts with the surviving main lines and the remaining bit of plastic base together with some of the damage it has sustained being evident.



A longer view taking in the length of the station and showing that the new platforms are almost single pieces of wood.  The down island requires a small extension at the far end while the up platform will retain the plastic so long as I can fix it securely back to the baseboard.  The plan is that with single lengths and a prepared surface the card should stick evenly without creating air bubbles.  It was small air bubbles between the plastic sheet and less smooth balsa which contributed to problems over recent years.



Finally what appears to be a complete mess but is in fact the rough-wired street lighting.  Connect yellow to yellow, connect orange to orange / brown and switch on.  They work.  The road surface cracked in the heat and has had to be stripped back.  As the wiring runs through the fine ballast used for the roadway I have to rewire first before finishing the road.  This circuit includes the LED inside the pub which is also reconnected and works once again.