The New Penhallick

Following ten years on the exhibition circuit Penhallick was retired to a purpose-made building at the rear of Jerry's home. Considerable re-organisation was required as what had once been a linear layout was now to become a U-shaped one. This obviously involved quite drastic alterations to the track layout in the country areas but also presented the opportunity for a new feature, a dairy, to be modelled. This is situated behind what used to be the Western Region branch, now the access to the dairy. The branch is still being modelled, though, but is now coming off the main line a little further down the line from the previous junction. Below are some photographs of the work carried out by the winter of 2012, Please return from time to time to see what progress is being made.

	Left: What was once the Western Region branch is now the siding into the dairy, with suitable gate protection. Right: The original main line is now being adapted to cater for the new branch junction, though trains won't be expected to levitate here! The curved turnout is just loosely sitting there to give an idea of where the new lines (Western branch on the left, Southern main line on the right) will go, crossing the river on bridges.

	Left: A view across to the dairy. Note things are not in their final positions so no "tunnel" will be needed through this wall! Right: A closer view of the dairy siding, plus the tracks inside.

	Left: The dairy. The line continuing beyond the gate is a headshunt from where milk tanks will be set back onto the dairy's own tracks. Right: The view from the cockpit of a Tiger Moth banking steeply to avoid the trees! The headshunt is on the right and the dairy tracks to the left.

The next few photos were taken under difficult lighting conditions.

It is now late February 2013 and the new dairy has a name - United Counties Dairies!


The new arrangement of the boards has allowed for further scenery to be modelled behind the line of the original boards, taking their depth back to that of the Penhallick station and town boards. Note the original signal controlling the junction for the branch has now been removed. This will be replaced in a new location a little further down the line.

The view looking back down the line towards the station, showing the new scenic area to the left of the tracks. Although not the same camera angle the image below from the original layout gives a good idea of how much the scenery has been improved by the addition of these extra inches:

old view


The new view looking across from the yacht club.


	An overall view of the dairy end of the layout. The next boards have now been slotted in to place (with just a few thou spare clearance) and the next job will be to build new bridges over the river so that the lines can swing round to the left and then continue towards Trecarne, now sited on the opposite side of the room!


It is now autumn of 2013 and this is the most recent view of the dairy site.


	The single line with the signal that is shortly before Trecarne Halt. On the right is the extended Western line; Mike is preparing the closure notices for this, to be posted the day construction is complete! In the background is Jerry who appears to be enjoying a yawn.


As the line curves round to the left it crosses the estuary on another bridge.


	Once the new bridge has been crossed the Western branch swings away to the right and can be seen as the further track in this photo. Ballasting the track is still in progress.


The cormorant has landed! Part of the new beach scene with a couple of the boats drawn up out of the water. These boats came from Cornwall Model Boats in Camelford and are actually to 1:72 scale, though the difference doesn't show in the slightest.


	An overall view of the new U-shaped boards. The new boards are at the far side with the boards leading up to Trecarne Halt and the traverser on the left.

By the summer of 2015 the new layout was complete. Apart from turning a linear model into a U-shape, the main difference being the increase in size of the Western side of things. The line comes up from Bodmin Road on the main line to Penznce, through Trecarne Junction (not modelled) to Penhallick where it enjoyed running powers over the Southern metals, though by the 1960s all was under the control of Paddington. A short branch divulges from Trecarne Junction to Trecarne General.

For a selection of photos of the completed new layout click on the Photos link below.

Penhallick was fortunate enough to be selected to appear in the November 2015 issue of "Hornby Magazine" for which Trevor Jones took a series of photographs. He has kindy allowed us to use them here and clicking on the TJ Photos link below will take you to them. Enjoy!