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

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

The Edwardian Archive has not let me down.

 

Here is the plan in full, taken from a 1957 RM. It differs significantly from the second version plan you posted, and with which I was unfamiliar, so the plan below was, for me, the classic Craig, before it became too crowded. 

Thank you very much James.  That is exactly the plan I was looking for and the one I always think of when anyone mentions Craigshire..  The second version is a bit crowded as you say and I think the layout was starting to be pushed too far past its original concept.

The pictures you have posted will be useful too and to my mind they share more than a few similarities to those made by John Ahern for the Madder Valley Railway.

[joppyuk1]

10 hours ago, Annie said:

Postage prices wanted by Ebay traders for the April 1980 copy of Railway Modeller are insane, but on searching the on-line archives for the Railway Modeller (I have a subscription) I found the April 2015 copy of the magazine has a review of what has survived from Craigshire and it has a map of the final version of the layout.  The on-line archive doesn't go back to 1980 unfortunately, but the April 2015 article is an adequate substitute.  What I would prefer though is a plan of Craigshire before the standard gauge started to dominate the layout.

There is an online company here in the UK called Magazine Exchange, that sells or acts as agents for sellers, of all kinds of magazines. Their model railway selection is extensive, with magazines listed by year and often with a short index of contents. Prices are usually quite reasonable though the issue wanted may not be available at the time. A quick look at the site can lead to hours of browsing.

[Annie]

29 minutes ago, joppyuk1 said:

There is an online company here in the UK called Magazine Exchange, that sells or acts as agents for sellers, of all kinds of magazines. Their model railway selection is extensive, with magazines listed by year and often with a short index of contents. Prices are usually quite reasonable though the issue wanted may not be available at the time. A quick look at the site can lead to hours of browsing.

Thank you very much, I will certainly have a look and see what I can find.

[dunwurken]

Annie

I did not think my query a few posts back about anyone putting together a virtual Craig would start this.

I am the author of that 2015 article in RM and the custodian of the ELMRC PDH Collection.  Aside from the physical remains of Dundreich, Craig Castle and many of the Craig buildings I retain some of the original b&w photos and all the colour photos of Craig including a 1955/6 colour photo which recently found its way onto P D Hancock - Craig and Mertonford Railway in the narrow gauge modelling section of RMWeb.  I have both editions of the book, all his articles scanned and indexed so I might be able to save you time and trouble.

Malcolm

PA to Lord Craig (i.e. current dogsbody!)

[Annie]

I have fond memories of Craigshire from reading articles about the layout in RM when I was much younger than I am now so when you asked if anyone had made a virtual model Malcolm it was the spark that set me off on the path towards seeing if I could do something about it.  Even though I have built a good few virtual layouts I haven't built one in the Trainz Model Railway format before so this is going to be a bit of a learning curve for me.

Your offer of access to archive materials in the PDH Collection is a very welcome surprise since I no longer have any of the RM magazines that contain articles about Craigshire; - though a forum member, Mike Oxon, has just sent me a PDF scan of the April 1980 Craigshire in Colour article which will be helpful.  I have a copy of the book on its way to me though I don't know which edition it is so I would guess that once I've been able to have a read of it and have had a chance to absorb all I've found out so far I might have further question I want to ask you Malcolm.

[dunwurken]

You're welcome Annie.  Look forward to hearing from you as and when.

In the meantime or whenever you have your first question pm me and I'll forward my email address.

As I think you are aware there have been threads on NGRM relating to the C&MR though much of that concerns the recent history, i.e. post 2011.

Malcolm

[Annie]

As a practice piece to learn these new techniques with the Trainz Model Railway format I thought I'd start with something simple.  That way I won't scare myself off to hide under my bed and not want to come out.

So I chose a plan by A.R.Walkley devised in 1925 for 00 gauge and he called it his 'Portable Goods Yard'.  Essentially it's a slightly lengthened Inglenook plan and its purpose was to prove that a practical working layout was possible in 00 gauge.  The layout is 6ft X 1ft, but I will be adding on another six feet for the fumble fiddle yard.

If all goes to plan I will report back as to progress, but if it's a howling failure I'll deny that I ever started and hide the evidence.

 

 

[dunwurken]

If you do find yourself hiding under the bed remember to take a torch with you so you can read Narrow Gauge Adventure when it arrives.

Malcolm

 

[Annie]

Walkley Sidings.  Still WIP with a lot to do.

 

 

 

If i'm going to have a fiddly yard I'm going to have one that can do just about anything I can think of while playing trains.

 

 

Snaps taken earlier while building things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hroth]

Its looking good!

 

As a simulated model of a real(ish) layout, how about making it L shaped, so the fiddle-faddle yard is within "easy reach" of the scenic section?

 

 

Now to get it on a baseboard and off the floor......  

 

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Hroth

[MikeOxon]

On 10/06/2020 at 13:10, dunwurken said:

...

I am the author of that 2015 article in RM and the custodian of the ELMRC PDH Collection.  Aside from the physical remains of Dundreich, Craig Castle and many of the Craig buildings I retain some of the original b&w photos and all the colour photos of Craig including a 1955/6 colour photo which recently found its way onto P D Hancock - Craig and Mertonford Railway in the narrow gauge modelling section of RMWeb. ...

 

Many thanks for the references - I had completely missed that P.D. Hancock thread

Sadly, it also serves as a reminder that cloud storage is far from eternal, with many broken links but I was pleased to find the still-working collection of photos in the Google archive at https://get.google.com/albumarchive/112904466287746079405?

[Annie]

18 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Its looking good!

 

As a simulated model of a real(ish) layout, how about making it L shaped, so the fiddle-faddle yard is within "easy reach" of the scenic section?

 

 

Now to get it on a baseboard and off the floor......  

 

 

The next stage is to lower the floor down below baseboard level.  So in effect the layout is already at the correct height and on a baseboard since I will be separating  the floor from the baseboard edge by a strange esoteric process that I'm still not all that sure about at the moment.

 

True enough an 'L' shaped layout might be an improvement, but since this is my first attempt at this format I thought I'd keep it simple.

[dunwurken]

Mike

I do not think you missed too much with the broken links.  The unobtainable google picassa photos were all moved onto the Google archive file.  When I gat a moment I'll go through the thread and update as required (and 009 and NGRM).

Malcolm

 

[Hroth]

34 minutes ago, Annie said:

The next stage is to lower the floor down below baseboard level.  So in effect the layout is already at the correct height and on a baseboard since I will be separating  the floor from the baseboard edge by a strange esoteric process that I'm still not all that sure about at the moment.

 

True enough an 'L' shaped layout might be an improvement, but since this is my first attempt at this format I thought I'd keep it simple.

 

I've never used these digital simulation systems so I wasn't familiar with the direction of construction, but I enjoy the results.

 

Fingers crossed for the separation process!

 

[MikeOxon]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Walkley Sidings.  Still WIP with a lot to do. ...

 

That was quick!  Perhaps you could write a bit about how you create something like that in Trainz - or point to an article that describes the process.

 

Mike

[Annie]

18 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

 

That was quick!  Perhaps you could write a bit about how you create something like that in Trainz - or point to an article that describes the process.

 

Mike

What I didn't show Mike was this.  It's a basemap generated by a clever piece of software that can take the original 1925 trackplan and make a Trainz compatible map set to the correct size for the scale I want to represent.  Some basemaps can get quite complicated especially with those that are for multiple levels, but Walkley Sidings is about as simple as it gets.

There is quite a bit of information in the Trainz Model Railway section of the Trainz forum including an instructional video and that's what gave me enough of a push towards having a go myself.

 

[MikeOxon]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

What I didn't show Mike was this. ...

 

 

Perhaps I should make a computer sim of North Leigh - it would save a lot of time cleaning and searching out the reasons why a point won't work or an engine always sticks in a particular place

[Schooner]

Looks like you're off to a great start, looking forward to seeing it develop  Basemapz is a godsend!

 

Excellent taste in saddle tanks and 'boxes by the way

[Annie]

3 hours ago, Schooner said:

Looks like you're off to a great start, looking forward to seeing it develop  Basemapz is a godsend!

 

Excellent taste in saddle tanks and 'boxes by the way

Yes if you're going to have a small goods yard somewhere that's the property of either a very minor minor railway or light railway a second hand LSWR 0330 is a good choice.

[Annie]

6 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

 

Perhaps I should make a computer sim of North Leigh - it would save a lot of time cleaning and searching out the reasons why a point won't work or an engine always sticks in a particular place

A computer sim does have a lot  going for it Mike.  If you wanted to try out some new idea on your physical real world layout you could try it first on the simulated version before hacking about your layout.  The only problem I had with the basemap when laying out Walkley Sidings was that the old original hand drawn track plan was a bit optimistic about the space needed for pointwork, but I got there in the end.

[Annie]

Further progress.  I did more matchboarded timber walls and uploaded them to the DLS and I also made this door for the shed which houses the model railway.  Plainly recycled from somewhere else and not exactly pristine I had a lot of fun putting it together and doing my usual smoke and mirrors stuff on it to give it a more 3D appearance.

 

[Northroader]

Keeping ferrets?

[Annie]

Getting there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2020 by Annie
fumble brain

[MikeOxon]

Amazing progress   I think you should have a large glass and a bottle of NZ wine, rather than just a mug.

[Edwardian]

wow, Annie