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Annie

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Posts posted by Annie

  1. My mixed gauge version of the Minehead Branch had been built up in Trainz TRS22 and for a long while I thought it was stuck there due to the considerable number of changes to the landscape format that had been made between TRS19 and TRS22.  However I recently discovered that because I'd decided to stop 'upgrading' TRS22 due to the 'upgrades' breaking more than they fixed it was still possible for me to gather up the MG version of Minehead and backdate it to the earlier version of Trainz.   So that was exactly wot I did.

     

    There was a good reason for me wanting to do this as with the aid of topographical maps I'd revised much of the landscape from Crowcombe Heathfield to Stogumber and I didn't want to have to do it all over again.  While the Trainz TS2004 layout I've been using as a basis for my project was a more or less reasonable effort at mapping out this part of Somerset, - though with some distances compressed a bit, - the section between Crowcombe Heathfield and Stogumber had large areas of the landscape at incorrect heights and levels.  It was a right old business getting it sorted and while it's more than likely still wrong in places it's one heck of a lot better than it was.

     

    I don't know if this version will stay mixed gauge or not as the attempt at making functional mixed gauge trackwork for Trainz has problems that can't be fixed despite the efforts of Steve Flanders & Co to find ways of solving them.  I got the point blades to switch over together, but there's no way to get a signal to recognise the presence of a train on both tracks.  It can do one or the other, but not both.

     

    Just a snap taken at Crowcombe Heathfield in TRS19 to mark the successful transfer.

     

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    • Like 6
  2. 18 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

    Interesting that GWR removed the cab.  Armstrong did not like cabs because he thought that fumes from the fire would make crews drowsy.

    My ex-B&ER Vulcan Foundry 4-4-0ST had its cab removed as well by the GWR and replaced with a spectacle plate.  I would have liked to have a version done in B&ER condition as well, but I couldn't afford it at the time.

     

    24 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

    Luxury!  - steps and handrails.  No sign of those in the original versions.

    I suppose one has to wonder how many footplate crew ended up being injured or worse before those luxurious innovations were provided. 

    • Like 1
  3. Latest project from Steve Flanders, - recreating the buildings and gasholders that were at Beckton Gasworks in London.  There's more buildings still to come including the octagonal roundhouse, but while i was checking the new buildings over I took the opportunity to give the largest town on 'Tristyn in Winter', - Rathtyen, - a gasworks to remember.

    Rathtyen is in great need of a goods yard and a goods shed along with some proper station buildings, - so while I'm about it I might as well do a gasworks too.

     

    SR4Aqtb.jpg

    • Like 4
  4. Afternoon Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  Pearson's No.40 again.  No date for the photo, but with having been built in 1873 and then rebuilt into a 4-2-2 tender engine shortly after 1876 when the GWR got their hands on the B&ER the window of opportunity is rather small.

     

    (Photo courtesy of the Broad Gauge Society)

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    Photo posted previously of No.40 carrying it's GWR number, chimney replaced and with the B&ER cab now removed and replaced with a spectacle plate..

    CA0pq7U.jpg

    • Like 6
  5. Very Early Morning Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  "Mogul", built by Kitson & Co. of Leeds in 1862, was one of a class of 22 engines built for use on the Metropolitan Railway.

    Unfortunately she was withdrawn after only 10 years of service when the GWR and the MET fell out with one another  bringing about the end of the Broad Gauge on the Metropolitan Railway.

    (Photo courtesy of the Broad Gauge Society)

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    • Like 8
  6. 4 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

    I think DAS is actually a form of very fine papier machè.

    I haven't used it for a while now, but when I was into tabletop miniature wargaming I used DAS for making scenery pieces such as ruined walls and towers & etc.  It's a really useful material and completely safe to use with no fumes or other nastiness to worry about.  I would sometimes mix it with a little PVA to make sure it would stick in place if I was using an underlying support former of some kind.

    • Like 4
    • Agree 1
    • Informative/Useful 1
  7. I did some work around Minehead and the line towards Dunster with generally tidying up the track and checking levels & etc.

    The area around the engine shed and turntable was a difficult proposition with the way the turntable is set into the ground, - and as well as that the interactive coal loading track between the water tower and the engine shed refused to be set down a little lower into the ground.  I've been able to do before so I don't know what is up with the silly thing.  Despite all that I ended up with a nice result with not a raw edge showing anywhere.

    I know Minehead didn't have a two road engine shed, but with nothing remotely suitable it's ended up with the ex-Broad Gauge timber engine shed from Barnstaple.  Minehead is somewhat of an engine magnet so a two road shed is practical if nothing else.

     

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    With track testing going on it was time for me to blow the dust off my 'what-if' Sharp-Stewart 4-2-4T.  Those bogies are fully articulated so if there's anything wrong with the track it's easy to see it.  Apart from that No.5 is a lot of fun to drive and she steams well.  However this evening she had the sulks and she took a bit longer than she should to raise boiler pressure.  It might have been me though because having not driven No.5 for a long while I forgot that she needs the blower well turned up to raise steam.

    I went as far as Washford because it will be the line from Dunster to Washford that I will be working on next.  I had done a far bit of work at Washford two years ago so all the station and its surrounding will need is a little tidy up.  The track between Dunster and Blue Anchor needs some fettling, but the line from Blue Anchor to Washford wasn't too bad at all.  Along the way I'll be exchanging split post semaphore signals for disc and crossbar signals.

     

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    Leaving Dunster.

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    • Like 10
  8. 8 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

    Just been catching up Annie. I trust your daughter and you are back on track after her concussion.

    Thanks for asking Mikkel.  My daughter is still having some problems with nausea as well as bright lights or loud sounds, but the good news is that she was checked over at our local area hospital yesterday and had a CT scan which showed no sign of a fracture or bleeding into her brain.  The doctor at the hospital said that it might be another week before things are back to normal again, but he thought that she was making good progress.

     

    16 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

    And thanks for the recent cheer-up pictures. Taking them all in at once has a startling effect, as if I've had a coffeine overdose.

    Ha ha, - yes I have been letting loose a wee bit.  What with all the worry I've needed a little bit of a cheer up distraction from time to time and the Broad Gauge is always good for that.

    • Agree 2
    • Friendly/supportive 8
  9. Two older B&ER models by Steve Flanders that were originally made for Trainz TS2004.  Pearson singles Nos. 41 and 44.

     

    The most obvious fault with No.44 is that the driving wheel is the wrong size.  Steve used No.41's driving wheel on No.44.

     

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    No.41 is the better model and is the one that I chose to use more often than No.44.  Neither engine would have run on the Minehead branch which is why I haven't taken them out of my digital trainset box for quite a while now.

     

    DGDmcQw.jpg

    • Like 4
  10. Morning Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  Here's another single driver locomotive designed by Pearson and built by Rothwell & Co of Bolton in the 1850s.

    The photo shows this pretty little 2-2-2 well tank as it was in October 1859.  She became GWR 2057 and was withdrawn in 1880.

    And you've guessed it, - I would love to have a model of No.58 made for the Trainz simulator.

     

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    • Like 5
  11. 7 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

    I recall being completely awe-struck the first time I saw a photo one of those original Pearson 9ft singles. 

    It was seeing a photo of one of the Pearson singles in a book in the school library when I was in my teens that was the spark that ignited my interest in the Broad Gauge.

     

    8ft 10in Pearson 4-2-4T no. 2002 (previously no. 40) at Exeter in 1876. (Unknown Author, Public Domain image, Wikipedia)

    CA0pq7U.jpg

    • Like 6
  12. 14 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

    I'm pleased to read that your daughter has recovered well from her fall.  One of the (many) annoying facets of ageing is that the risks from falls become of increasing concern.  One can be knocked off balance rather too easily and the consequences can be more severe.

    Thanks Mike, my daughter is just about back to being her old self again, but it could have been a lot worse.  We don't bounce and shrug it off so easily as we get older and that's a concern for me with having type 1 narcolepsy.

     

    21 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

    I agree that, although many B&ER engines are generally similar to GWR counterparts, they do still manage to maintain their own 'character'

    True enough even after rebuilding once they became GWR property the ex-B&ER engines still kept their own essential character.  I make no secret of the fact that out of all the Broad Gauge railways it's the B&ER that I like best.

    • Like 2
  13. Afternoon Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  ex-B&ER No.2021 seen here at Chippenham in May 1892.  Looking a little rough about the edges, but still with bit of  a shine on her.  I think I may have posted this photo before, but since it's a favourite of mine and I like it you'll just have to put up with it.

    I really like these B&ER engines and if I could afford it I would love to commision a digital model for Trainz.

     

    (Picture courtesy of the Broad Gauge Society)

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    I haven't been doing anything with my projects lately.  My daughter had a fall and hit her head ending up with concussion and a cut on her forehead that needed stitches.  With the stress of it all I haven't ended up all that well myself.  My daughter is doing better now though and she had the stitches removed yesterday.  I don't think she's going to end up with much of a scar which is good.

    • Friendly/supportive 13
  14. Afternoon Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  'Fenton' in later life as the station pilot for Newton Abbot.  Notably equipped with double buffers so she could bunt those horrible coal cart gauge wagons around.  'Fenton' was one of the "Hawthorn" class, built by Stothert, Slaughter & Co of Bristol.  Later members of her class were built at Swindon.  Along with eight of her sisters she made it to the final days of the Broad Gauge.  😭

    Edit: Possibly this photo was taken at the western end of Taunton station.

    (Photo courtesy of the Broad Gauge Society)

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    • Like 6
    • Thanks 1
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