Annie

Dunster again. I'll more than likely come back and do some more here as I want to sort out the roads properly and put in the missing drainage ditches. There's the farm buildings at either end of Station Road that could do with being improved as well. The extra 20th century buildings that shouldn't be there are starting to annoy me so they will be going fairly soon. The trackwork out to Blue Anchor needs levelling and adjusting, but apart from setting the track clearances in relation to station platform Blue Anchor doesn't need much doing to it since the whole area got a major overhaul a couple of years ago when all the 20th century buildings and trackwork were removed.

How could I. My Mum and Dad owned a lot of his records.

This is Steve Flanders's Broad Gauge Intermediate Station based on the circa 1850s proposed plans for Cheltenham Station. The NRCA were the source of the plans, but they were such a mixed up old lot of different amended versions it was difficult for Steve to tell what the GWR had actually intended for Cheltenham. Sorry for the none too clear image, but the station model is so darn big it was difficult to take a decent snap of it. It does give the idea though that a model of Paddington could be possible. I couldn't help noticing though that some of the drawings the NRCA had of the original station were more holes than drawing so it could be a wee bit of a challenge. Turned the shadows off so you can see better.

Indeed it would be a great project Mike. I know that Steve Flanders would be interested, but he has some health problems at present and has been taking time out from digital model making. Hopefully when he's feeling better I'll be able to show him your research and see what he thinks.

A question for hat experts then. Is the hat the foreman in the photo is wearing a bowler hat, - or is it some other species of hat?

Thanks very much James. As 'what-if' Broad Gauge engines they are entirely plausible in that E.B. Wilson could have built well tanks just like these if someone had paid them to do it.

Another wonderful research project Mike. Once again you've pulled together what remains in the way of fragments of information and pieced it together into an excellent article.

Afternoon Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture: Neilson Box Tank from circa the 1860s. It's history is very confused, but this photo is known to have been taken by a German enthusiast at Ponta Delgada harbour in the Azores. Possibly suggested that it was originally built for the Holyhead Breakwater. Whatever it's history I wouldn't mind owning a model of it.

One of my 'possibly could have been' Broad Gauge E.B. Wilson well tanks at Dunster. I paid for these well tanks to be specially modified for me from a standard gauge model, - only they turned out to have three small errors, - which while they aren't blindingly obvious are a bit on the disappointing side. This is why I'd love to be able to make my own digital models. That way if there are mistakes at least they would be my own. I'd love to have a go at one of the Severn & Wye's Fletcher Jennings Broad Gauge 0-6-0T's. Despite everything I like my 'what-if' E.B. Wilson well tanks and they do run well and are generally useful. Edit: I figured out how to reset the environmental lighting so the pictures of Dunster look better now. Looking towards Blue Anchor.

No apology needed, - that was wonderful!

Thanks Adrian. And yes the signal is too close to the track. For some reason the set distance to the track centreline has been measured incorrectly. It would be fine for standard gauge, but it's too close for the Broad Gauge. I've had to edit the distance in the config files on some of the other signals and it looks like I'll have to do this one too.

I was able to do some work on Dunster late this afternoon. It turned out that a lot more work than I thought needed doing as the station platform needed lowering, - which meant that everything attached to and on the platform needed lowering as well. All those milk cans and platform trolleys, lamps, fences, seats, station staff and passengers look very nice and set the scene very nicely, but having to lower them all eight or so scale inches got to be a little tedious. Sorting out the track in the yard as well as repositioning the cattle dock, goods shed and loading dock was fairly simple to do then it was just the signals left to do. Which as it happens I've got all wrong, but I can come back to sorting those out tomorrow. Very little changed at Dunster station during the pre-grouping era. The original Trainz TS2004 layout I've been reworking for the past couple of years was built on a BR era version of the West Somerset Railway which simply had its track changed for Broad Gauge track and all the people and vehicles changed out for 19th century equivalents. As you can imagine the result was not the Broad Gauge era railway and I've had to delete a lot of things that simply shouldn't be there. Dunster as it stands at present has a couple of cottages and houses that shouldn't be there, but I'm tempted to just leave them as they are for no better reason than they've always been there and I happen to like them.

A first look at Dunster for a long while. Most of what needs to be done is some work here and there with aligning and leveling the track correctly and once that is done the split post semaphore signals need to be changed for disc and crossbar signals. Like Minehead Dunster received a general overhaul with reference to the 1880s OS maps when I was still working in Trainz TS2019 around two years ago so I don't think I'm going to find very much that will need attending to.

When I was a teenager I used to look out for Crescent signals in model shop second hand bins. I thought they were wonderful things.

Actually if I make a sign saying, 'Don't bother it's all terrible', - and hang it on my monitor instead of reading the online news I could save a lot of time and use it for reading books instead.

(sigh) By the time I've answered my emails, read Radio NZ's online news and caught up with forum posts I'm too tired to read books and I just want to go to sleep.

Book Corner: I've just ordered this one. It was on discount, - so I hope it's worth the candle. I'm supposed to be not buying any more books until I've read the hundred or so I've already got that I haven't read yet. I'm such a failure. 📚

A big cheer for the large scale town OS maps. The point lever that fitter was fixing in the photo is marked on the map just to give an idea how useful these maps are to the historic railway modeller. And on that subject the Engine Shed layout is very modelable, - classic Broad Gauge, - thanks for pointing that out. The turntable was modelled on the one at Minehead according to its description notes. All of which made it the perfect choice as you would expect. It was made for the earliest versions of Trainz so some details aren't as good as they could be, but it's certainly better than a poke in the eye. As made it was set into a huge chunk of digital concrete so I had to retexture it to match the fine ballast I was using at Minehead. I built up Minehead station and the surrounding area to match the 1880s OS map as best I could with the building models & etc that I had available to me. I did quite a bit of work at Dunster and Blue Anchor as well. Some of the other stations have had a tidy up, but still need more work doing to them. It's been really nice to be able to dig out my ex-B&ER 4-4-0ST engines and Broad Gauge rolling stock I've had stored away for far too long.

Minehead snaps. I haven't been doing much because the weather's too horribly hot.

Your virtual renders of these nine wagons are a great reference resource Mike. I've considering making some 19th century goods wagons using Sketchup 8 for some time now and seeing what you have done here using Fusion 360 might just be the push I need to give it a go myself.

Oh I very much like your variations on a theme Mike. Excellent work. Edit: L.Haghe's lithograph with its idly chatting footplate crew is amusing.

The B&ER Vulcan Foundry 4-4-0ST I commissioned some time ago. And yes I know the footplate crew are standing up too high. Despite giving the maker a large amount of research material he got the cab floor height wrong and with one thing and another I didn't immediately notice and now it's too late to get it fixed. Unfortunately the model is built using the latest Trainzmesh system so I can't edit the crew's attachment points like I can with models that use the older form of mesh construction. But despite that I still think it's pretty darn corker model even though they were called ugly ducklings back in the day. These saddle tanks were maids of all work on the B&ER and were able to take on any task so it was kind of necessary that I have them if I was going to model the Minehead branch. Edit: Forgot to include this. A B&ER Iron Guards Van.

Yes the road being in the photo is a real treasure.