Annie's Virtual Pre-Grouping, Grouping and BR Layouts & Workbench

[Annie]

And I'm always glad to receive advice about any UK prototype Jim.  Living as I do on the other side of the globe I know I'm likely to make mistakes with representing any UK railway so I always appreciate it when someone points something out to me.  As an example I built up a small coal mine on a layout recently and posted a picture of it on NGRM and a forum member there gave me some very useful advice about coal mining in the north of England as well as pointing out some errors I'd made.  All very appreciated as coal mining was done differently here in New Zealand so it wasn't surprising I'd got some things wrong.

[Marly51]

And I'm always glad to receive advice about any UK prototype Jim.  Living as I do on the other side of the globe I know I'm likely to make mistakes with representing any UK railway so I always appreciate it when someone points something out to me.  As an example I built up a small coal mine on a layout recently and posted a picture of it on NGRM and a forum member there gave me some very useful advice about coal mining in the north of England as well as pointing out some errors I'd made.  All very appreciated as coal mining was done differently here in New Zealand so it wasn't surprising I'd got some things wrong.

Just been to Stoer on the west coast today, Annie! But too busy transporting an exhibition display to stop and take some landscape photos! Absolutely scorching and the sea looks almost Mediterranean! Certainly Caley Jim, Ben Alder and many others on the Forum are the folk to advise on Scottish/Highland prototypes. You have already drawn my attention to a few areas of steam history, which I am now trying to read up on in more detail!

[sem34090]

 

 

OUT NOW! New Caledonian Railway 721 Class "Dunalastair I"! Go and grab Scotlands most successful Express engines ever produced here - http://digitaltraction.co.uk/mainsite/p ... lastair-i/

 

This loco pack comes with:

- Quickdrives

- In-depth Scenarios

- New Custom sounds recorded from the LMS Crab at East Lancs Railway

- Advanced Scripting, Particle Effects, Lighting & Performance Mode

- Realistic Westinghouse Pump physics & particles

- Authentic CR Lamp & route markers taken from a 1915 CR guidebook

- External Animations

- Custom Cab with Extensive Controls

- Multiple Camera Views

- Fully Animated Valve Gear

- Custom Crews

 

Id like to thank everyone for your support and I hope you enjoy it and I hope to bring you even better content in the future.

 

- Kris

 

 

[Annie]

That's interesting Sem.  A very fine looking digital model it is too.  Edh6 on the Trainz forums has only just made his McIntosh Dunalastair IV available complete with working bowtie semaphore markers.

 

[Annie]

Something different.

 

[Annie]

As a part of sorting out all my trainsets and getting them working again on 'Deeper Thought' I did a little visit to the 3ft gauge layout I was working on a while ago.  When 'Deep Thought' suddenly became indisposed and had to be sent off to be mended work stopped on this layout for obvious reasons, but now I'm looking at it again.  I had a little play about and ran some trains.  The Beyer-Peacock tank engine seems to be ideal for this line, but I'll have to get the 3ft gauge versions of the wheelsets for it from Paulz Trainz as it's running on 3ft 6in gauge wheels at the moment.

Leaving Friars Stumble station behind as the test run begins.  Coaches are Irish County Donegal ones.

Hobbs End station.

And heading off again.

Abbey Road station.

 

And here the pictures stop because the stations & etc further along the line are still very WIP.  I had a go at trying to get this layout which I've named 'Light Railway Dreams' to work on my new clean install of TS2009 version 3.1, but it won't so I'm having to stick with the original TS2009 version 3.3 installation.  There's some odd buggy issues with this installation of the simulator though so I think I'm going to have to do a clean install of that too and then put the backed up layout files into that.  All good fun, but at least 'LRD' seems to be fine which I'm very pleased about  

[Skinnylinny]

Something different.

 

 

Oh, that's rather nice... I love the narrow-gauge clinging to the sea wall, and that terrace of cottages with a vennel/ginnel/alleyway (delete according to location) - so many lovely details! Is this a route that is on the DLS by any chance?

[Annie]

It's one of the 'Dearnby' series of routes for TANE (Trainz: A New Era) Linny; - and yes it is on the DLS.  The one in the picture is the BR Western Region/2ft gauge one.  There's a BR LMR/2ft gauge one as well and a further enhanced and extended Winter version.  The 2ft gauge line meanders around the town linking up the various small local industries as well as a small station at the canal basin.  It's a very nicely put together layout, - not at all large, - and quite a lot of fun to have a play about with.

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

I finally got the 'onscreen help' junction markers turned off.  In actual fact they are little help at all and in a large and complex yard you can't see a thing because of all the 'help' that's being displayed.

 

I'm still getting 3ft gauge bogies and wheels sorted out with Paul from Paulz Trainz, but amongst the things he sent me were two of these little 3ft gauge engines.  Plainly enough the prototype was intended for working in the 'colonies' and hot ones at that with its wooden cabside shutters and cabfront ventilators.  However I've decided that my little railway took advantage of a failed export order and purchased them.  The other one is in a brightish red livery which I'll keep, but I'm going to tone it down a couple of shades before putting it into service.  I haven't fitted the large kerosene head and tail lamps yet which are perhaps not a very British attachment for a UK light railway, but it does get dark out in the rural countryside at night so the company has opted to fit them.

 

 

Under way and heading for Hobbs End.

 

Hobbs End station. Still a bit bare and further detailing needed.  I like the look of these Australian rural railway station buildings that are on the layout and they really do fit well with the light railway theme, BUT unfortunately they have crowd sound files built in and these include some very off-putting Australian crude language which I find quite offensive.  I'm going to see if I can either kill the sound files or if I can't remove the sound option change the sound files for something a little more seemly. 

Under way and heading for Abbey Road.

Abbey Road station.  As you might have guessed I still need to adjust the settings on the magic platforms so that passenger numbers are a little more believeable.

On the way to Bramley and passing the engine shed and workshop.

Arrival at Bramley station.  Must be a market day or something going by the passenger numbers.  I'm going to put a loop in at Bramley which will help a lot with the way I want to operate the line.

And that was as far as i went on this test run.  The little 0-6-4 behaved itself well and looks like it's going to be a really useful engine.  Paul has these engines listed as being built by Manning-Wardle, but I've not been able to find any details about them on-line so far.  

 

•  
•  

Edited July 11, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

Another ancient wee engine from the bundle of stuff I got from Paul of Paulz Trains.  I've adjusted its paintwork and lining to match the other engines I'll be using on the line and I gave it a better engine sound file, but otherwise it's perfectly fine and runs very nicely.

 

 

Watching the outside cranks in motion is a real delight.

 

The wooden bridge over the river still needs its support pillars putting in place and the steel bridge in the background is going to be replaced with a wooden bridge as well.  The steel bridge carries the branchline to the interchange yards of an unspecified mainline railway company.  In actual fact it leads to a portal track which represents those interchange yards.

 

I have some other snaps which I'll sort out and post later.  I did quite a bit of work at the terminus station and at least now it looks like the kind of station to be found on a line such as this one.  It's workable now, but there's still lots to do.  I essentially deleted what passed for the town which was all pretty horrible so that will be a job for the future.  I'm going to revive the station names I was going to use on the 1:55 layout I was planning ages ago.  I already have Friars Stumble and the terminus station and large town is going to be called Bishops Tenpenny.  I'm thinking of changing Bramley station's name to Pennyworth which I think will suit that small station and the village it serves just fine.  Abbey Road can stay as it is since the name fits reasonably well and I'm a bit indecisive about Hobb's End as that name seems to suit as well and I can't think of anything else that would be a match from the planning I did for the 1:55 scale Little Mulling in the Marsh branchline.  

[Annie]

A friend on NGRM did a little research for me on the elderly Manning-Wardle 4-4-0T I'm using on my 3ft gauge layout.

 

 

The 4-4-0T:

There are several MW products very like this,  but none pictured in an identical condition. 

The nearest are three for the metre-gauge Bracanca Railway in Para Province of Brazil in 1883-84,  named "Braganza",  "Siqueira Mendes",  and "Dom Antonio". 

Four very similar machines were supplied in 1875 to E. Clark,  Punchard & Co,  contractors,  of Buenos Aires,  Argentina,  but I don't know their gauge.

For the 2ft 5.5in gauge Fayoum (or Fayoud) Light Railway  in Egypt,  five similar locomotives were supplied in 1889.  These lacked the picturesquely-flared outer wrapper to the smokebox.   Another four locomotives were purchased in 1900.  They are said to have been in service in 1945.

 

 

As far as I'm concerned the 'none in an identical condition' aspect won't be a problem as plainly my 4-4-0 Manning-Wardle was specially ordered by my little railway.  There's going to be a second one on the line too as I've been working out the engine roster and I've decided that the 'failed export order' colonial 0-6-4WT's and the 4-4-0T's will be the two types of engine on the line.  There will be three of the 0-6-4WT's on the line as they are proving to be really useful engines.

 

 

Just to make it interesting one will be red (pictured above), one will be light green (like the 4-4-0T pictured above) and one will be in lined dark green.

 

So far no-one has been able to identify these 0-6-4WT engines.  Their driving wheel spacing is very similar to that of some Manning-Wardle saddle tanks which raises the possibility that these are essentially a similar series of engine, but with an added bunker and well tank supported by a bogie in order to reduce their axle loading.  I don't really mind that they are mystery engines as they are a good match for what is needed to run my little railway.

[Annie]

 

 

[Edwardian]

Very much enjoyed catching up on a narrow view.

 

I love those little colonials, and I just want to model in 3D that whole scene with the L&B loco.

[Annie]

It's my 3ft gauge layout James, - the Sumwheir District Railway.  I'm presently doing quite a lot of work on it which of course involves playing trains rigorous testing to make sure it all works properly.  It's not a very long line of railway, - only around 5 scale miles from end to end, but it handles a wide variety of traffic and some very interesting operation is possible.  Engines are all various colonial types made by Manning-Wardle and Beyer-Peacock and I've digitally fettled them so they run in what I consider to be a reasonably realistic manner.  The rolling stock is all either Irish or IoM and I'm going to have a big re-lettering session ahead of me very soon so that everything has 'SDR' on it instead of the lettering of its former owners.

 

The pride of the line.  No.7 the 2-6-4 Beyer-Peacock has just received a proper set of 3ft gauge wheels from Paulz Trainz so it's looking much better now.

 

 

No.3 a Manning-Wardle tram engine heading away along the wharf branchline.

 

 

The wharf branch is still WIP, but functional.

 

 

These elderly Manning-Wardle 0-6-4 well tank engines are very much maids of all work on the line.

 

 

No.5, - the red engine, - in charge of a train of goods vans on their way to the wharf at Bishops Tenpenny.

 

[Annie]

A biggish project more or less completed.  There is now a proper wharf at Bishops Tenpenny (or in actual fact about 1/2 a scale mile away from the town), one and a half miles of coastline to provide a decent looking seascape and a new village.  All in all about 12 hours work, but I'm really pleased with how it has all turned out.

 

 

 

The wharf cranes were the latest thing during the 1880's so the SDR either must have a brilliant maintenance program in order to keep such important pieces of machinery in working condition or else they are just too plain miserly to want to replace them.

 

 

 

The wharf branch also has some truly ancient signals.  Yes I'm a signal junkie.  I've had these models for a while and I decided that the wharf branch was the perfect place to use them.

 

 

 

Tenpenny Wharf station.  I am gradually working my way through re-lettering wagons, but with around 80 wagons needing to be done progress is slow.  Progress isn't being helped by all the wagons being individually numbered, - because I'm just sad like than and don't like all the wagons in a train having the same fleet number.

 

 

 

And that's about it for now.

[Annie]

I gave my 19th century engines a chance to stretch their legs on my WIP test track layout.  It's just five and a half miles of a double track line through very hilly countryside with portal tracks at each end.  It's somewhere I can try out scenery ideas as well as run some of my engines and rolling stock that don't often get used on my other layouts.  The scenery is still very much roughed out and some of the track needs replacing with proper bullhead track, but it makes a useful background for taking snaps.

 

Beyer-Peacock single.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hurst 0-4-2WT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I finally got myself some first class coaches.  That 6 wheel coupe coach is definitely something that's a bit different.  I have three in different states of weathering, but that's most probably more than I need as I don't think these coaches were all that common.  There's a couple of other second class coaches and a luggage second that I may get at some stage, but first I really do need a proper layout for all my mid-19th century models to run on.

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

One of my Stockton & Darlington Bouch 4-4-0's gets a run.  Note the double buffers.

[Northroader]

I reckon the ones with white smoke look much more natural than the black smoke ones. Is there a smoke capsule you can change in your computer firebox?

[Annie]

Smoke colour, density and volume can be changed by editing their scripting in their config files Northroader.  I'm still getting the hang of doing this and I do agree that some engines do need their smoke scripting seeing to.  My best victory to date is a tram engine that lived under a incredibly dense black cloud even when it was standing still and now its smoke levels are much more sensible.  I'm going to be doing further work with sorting out my 19th century engines as some of them have engine spec files that aren't very good and sound files that stutter at certain speeds.  Most of that is because they are older digital models that are still using obsolete resources that have now been replaced by better ones.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

The original idea behind the test track layout was to just have it with no stations and only the double track line itself, but it didn't take too long before I realised that some holding sidings for extra engines and rolling stock would be a good idea.  So I've done that and generally dressed them up a bit to make a small station and goods yard out of them.  At this stage the detailing as been left simple since it's only meant to set the scene and not be a fastidious model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sem34090]

I am quite happy with recent train simulator developments:

The K appears to be taking shape nicely! As does this... not able to be put into a pre-grouping livery yet (Side-Window cab as used on the Stainmore Route) but nonetheless beautiful:

[Annie]

Definitely some nice engines there Sem.

 

Aaaaaaaand back to the early North British Railway.........

 

 

Testing of new engines.  This 2-4-0 saddle tank looks as if it's going to be a really useful engine.

 

 

 

Hurst 0-4-2WT again on a local mixed train.

 

 

E&GR No.6 with a train of first and second class coaches.

 

 

 

 

Waiting at signals for a clear road.

 

[Edwardian]

A biggish project more or less completed.  There is now a proper wharf at Bishops Tenpenny (or in actual fact about 1/2 a scale mile away from the town), one and a half miles of coastline to provide a decent looking seascape and a new village.  All in all about 12 hours work, but I'm really pleased with how it has all turned out.

 

 

 

The wharf cranes were the latest thing during the 1880's so the SDR either must have a brilliant maintenance program in order to keep such important pieces of machinery in working condition or else they are just too plain miserly to want to replace them.

 

 

 

The wharf branch also has some truly ancient signals.  Yes I'm a signal junkie.  I've had these models for a while and I decided that the wharf branch was the perfect place to use them.

 

 

 

Tenpenny Wharf station.  I am gradually working my way through re-lettering wagons, but with around 80 wagons needing to be done progress is slow.  Progress isn't being helped by all the wagons being individually numbered, - because I'm just sad like than and don't like all the wagons in a train having the same fleet number.

 

 

 

And that's about it for now.

 

Wonderful stuff Annie, and I love that steam coaster.

 

 

I gave my 19th century engines a chance to stretch their legs on my WIP test track layout.  It's just five and a half miles of a double track line through very hilly countryside with portal tracks at each end.  It's somewhere I can try out scenery ideas as well as run some of my engines and rolling stock that don't often get used on my other layouts.  The scenery is still very much roughed out and some of the track needs replacing with proper bullhead track, but it makes a useful background for taking snaps.

 

Beyer-Peacock single.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hurst 0-4-2WT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I finally got myself some first class coaches.  That 6 wheel coupe coach is definitely something that's a bit different.  I have three in different states of weathering, but that's most probably more than I need as I don't think these coaches were all that common.  There's a couple of other second class coaches and a luggage second that I may get at some stage, but first I really do need a proper layout for all my mid-19th century models to run on.

 

 

Glorious Victoriana!

 

 

I am quite happy with recent train simulator developments:

The K appears to be taking shape nicely! As does this... not able to be put into a pre-grouping livery yet (Side-Window cab as used on the Stainmore Route) but nonetheless beautiful:

 

Very impressive.

 

Were the Ks ever in umber?  I had thought one entered service in lined photographic grey and the rest in black lined vermilion?

[sem34090]

I highly expect that you're right - but it looks so good in umber!

[Caley Jim]

Definitely some nice engines there Sem.

 

Aaaaaaaand back to the early North British Railway.........

 

Touch of the 'Mary Poppins' there?

 

 

Testing of new engines.  This 2-4-0 saddle tank looks as if it's going to be a really useful engine.

In that case you'll have to paint it blue and name it 'Thomas'!  

 

Jim