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

[Annie]

'Hendy' on page 362 of the Marconi-Galvanic version of the RM May issue is also worth a look.  An 'O' gauge 8ft X 1ft BLT that's really quite delightful.  The author of the article says that he built 'Hendy' from what he had to hand during lockdown when all the shops were shut.

 

[Annie]

Testing of my motor train/push-pull coaches is on-going.   I tried out my faux interior window texture set on these coaches and what a difference it made.

They are essentially just 'smoke and mirrors' litho coaches built on a simple set of body meshes from the early days of Trainz, but despite that I'm very pleased with how they have turned out.

 

 

 

Driving trailer.

 

Composite luggage brake.

[Annie]

Motor Train testing in TANE.  I'm gradually working on transferring my Norfolk layout over to TANE since TS2012 struggles more than a bit with trying to run it.  Normally I wouldn't give single driver tank engine No.7 a passenger service like this one, but I haven't transferred all my Affiliated (Imaginary) Railway Co. engines over to TANE yet and No.7 has been officially deemed to be Motor Train converted, - though perhaps not with so many coaches all at once.

 

Moxbury.

 

 

Nodding Keep.  (I had to miss out Muddle Junction because the camera woman was being hopeless and couldn't take a decent picture of the station for toffee.)

 

Lodge.

 

Hayward.  And then it's a return trip back again to Moxbury.  I can't do a passenger run to Brenton Woods or further on to Barrow Hills yet because some trackwork adjustments have to be made to permit traffic movements through Brenton Wood I never originally allowed for when I set up the station.

 

[Annie]

A forum member over on the Trainz forum has just told me about the Mangapps Railway Museum at Burnham-on-Crouch.  http://www.mangapps.co.uk/index.html

 

What an amazing museum and their restored GER, MSLR and MGNR buildings are wonderful.

[auldreekie]

Annie,

 

Forgive this irruption from an entirely inappropriate context.  However,  in leafing through past contributions in another place (prior,  I hope,  to being able under relaxed Covid restrictions to rejoin the Wee Reekie layout),  I was reminded that you like large tank engines,  particularly those of a British build for colonial railways.

 

Well,  here  is one recently completed as part of a four-month, five-and-one-part-completed Lockdown Locomotive building spree.

 

 

Its original was by Bagnalls of Stafford for the CF Amboim in Mozambique,  at a time when their usual German supplier (Henschel,  perhaps?) was off-limits as a consequence of a little local difficulty,  namely World War 2.  You know where to find more similar,  if interest is piqued.

 

My apologies also to other aficionados of Annie's splendid virtual railways.

 

auldreekie

[Annie]

Very nice work auldreekie.  Your Bagnall certainly is an impressive tank engine, - I very much approve.

I've been mixed up in various projects lately, - mostly ones where I'm trying to complete rolling stock that's been half finished for far too long.  And that's not been helped at all by me getting involved with rebuilding old 'Litho' coaches from the dawn of Trainz and falling asleep in the middle of things far too often.

 

I will try to come and visit your pages fairly soon.

[Annie]

A snap taken at Minehead on my 1890s Minehead Branch route in TS2019.  I was very relieved to be able to take that snap as I had a near disaster with almost losing my TS2019 SP1 Trainz install.  Fortunately I had backups of the route and its assets and an older basic backup of the SP1 install itself so I was able to piece everything back together.  N3V/Auran have released TRS19 SP2 and are now in the throws of releasing an SP3 'update' so it's now impossible to get the older version if you failed to back it up and archive it somewhere.

Not exactly a very welcome way of spending an afternoon, but I'm pleased that I didn't suffer a total loss after all the work I've done on Minehead.

The environmental lighting still needs adjusting properly as it has just a touch too much green in the mix.

 

[Edwardian]

That's beautiful, Annie. Glad you didn't delete it!

[Hroth]

14 minutes ago, Annie said:

The environmental lighting still needs adjusting properly as it has just a touch too much green in the mix.

 

Very nice!

 

I quite like the lighting, it has that "the calm before the thunderstorm" quality...

 

[Annie]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

That's beautiful, Annie. Glad you didn't delete it!

I'm awfully glad I didn't lose it too James.  It was one of those stupid mistakes I sometimes make when I'm sleepy.  I was deleting the unwanted trial version TRS19 SP2  install I had on my computer and I deleted the SP1 data files by mistake.  I didn't realise what I'd done until it was far too late to do anything about it and it was then that I thought I'd lost everything for good.  

It was February last year that I'd done a data file transfer between Deep Thought (Win7 HP Xeon) and my present computer (Win10 i5 CoolerMaster) and while the file was a bit light on content it was a genuine and unsullied SP1 file (Alleluia!  Alleluia!).  I was reasonably certain I could restore the missing content from recent backup files, - it was just going to take a while to do it.

 

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Very nice!

 

I quite like the lighting, it has that "the calm before the thunderstorm" quality...

 

Thanks Mr Hroth.  It's certainly close to how it was before if I compare it to my earlier pre-foolish deletion TS2019 screenshots of Minehead.

 

 

 

[Annie]

Looks like rain.  Testing my 1880s Cornwall Railway route in TANE.  I'm trying to make up my mind whether to go with rebuilding the route in TANE or do it in TS2019 instead.

 

[Martin S-C]

On 08/04/2021 at 05:18, Annie said:

'Squeeeee!'  on-line May edition of Railway Modeller 'Railway of the Month', - 'Norwich Central' (7mm) by Peter Thompson.  A joint GER and Midland & Great Northern station in 7mm scale.

It's all absolutely sooooooo wonderful.  

 

And once again I find myself going to sleep on April 8th and waking up to the May edition of RM.  This is terribly confusing for somebody like me who has narcolepsy.

This was at Warley in 2019. I took gazillions of photos and put them up on my Nether Madder thread.

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Martin S-C

[Annie]

Thanks Martin, I'd forgotten that you'd posted your excellent photos in your own layout thread.

[Annie]

 

Book Corner:

 

Most intrepidly and resolutely delivered this morning by the aeronaults of the Aerial Postage Service.

I have mentioned these books at a previous time or else they were mentioned by others here within this forum thread, however I wish to mention them again.

 

 

How I wish I was a woman of means because I would give this book to a skilled 3D digital modeller and tell them, - 'One of each please my good man (woman)'.  When I unpacked this book this morning I found it in perfect condition, - I doubt that it had ever been opened.  It's previous owner must've purchased it, placed it upon their bookshelf and never so much as once brought it to mind again.  This is a terrible thing for who could not have their pulse quickened by the thought of the Great Eastern Railway.  My Broad Gauge volume in this same series of books arrived in good condition, but plainly much thumbed and handled by someone who appreciated it which is exactly as it should be.

 

 

I am doubly and wonderfully blessed this morning by the arrival of this book.  It's former owner must have greatly appreciated it because while it has been fitted with a clear plastic dust cover it shows much evidence of having been handled and read.  And also much enjoyed which is again exactly as it should be.  And I must report that there are many excellent and clear photographs within its covers as well as maps, - wonderful clear large maps!

The line is well described, but for myself with my less than best eyesight due to the effects of narcolepsy I found the text difficult to read without the aid of my large magnifying glass.  This of course is neither the fault of the author nor the publisher.

 

I should also mention that a copy of the June 1976 Railway Modeller also arrived this morning.  'The Tollesbury Light Railway'  built by Rathbone Holme is the Railway of the Month in this issue so I was very glad to find a copy in the care of the magazineexchange.co.uk in Derbyshire.  I cannot speak too highly of this wonderful on-line enterprise and their postage charges are very reasonable as well.  As to the magazine's condition it's in much the same as myself in that it made the distance from 1976 with all parts intact, - though perhaps a little more worn around the edges than one might like.

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

Just as an addition to my previous post I have to say it's wonderful to read an article in an old copy of RM where somebody is actually making things from raw materials and what they have to hand instead of plonking down what they've just taken out of a box.  'The Tollesbury Light Railway', - Railway of the Month for June 1976, - is definitely my kind of layout in every way.

 

Along the way with restoring my TS2019 install after almost losing it for good I rediscovered this little engine, - the K&ESR's  'Northiam'.

I had done a good deal of work on this older Trainz model and it did a lot of running around on Angela Haliday's K&ESR Trainz layout from TS2004 that I'd rebuilt to work in TS2019.  The sobering truth was I'd almost lost 'Northiam' as well as I didn't have of the files from when I repaired it and it was only that it happened to be in an old backup file from February last year that I found it at all.

This afternoon I gave it a bit more of a tidy up and fixed a couple of small things I'd missed AND then I made sure I backed up its files so I wouldn't risk losing it again.

 

[Caley Jim]

Annie, saw this and thought of you!

 

 

 

Just completed in P4 by a friend of mine.

 

Jim

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

Annie, saw this and thought of you!

Just completed in P4 by a friend of mine.

Oh that's lovely Jim.  It's so tiny it's almost dwarfed by its numberplate.

Thanks very much for posting the video clip.

 

[DonB]

What a lovely little Model !  Also the slow running , particularly the slow start , were an indication of the quality of the build, and the quality of the electronic control equipment. 

I assume that the model had a form of springing of the axles ? 

[Annie]

Ex-LNER G5 No. 67322 shedded at 30A Stratford and then later at 31A Cambridge.  It was one of the push-pull fitted G5's to be transferred into GER territory by BR and was photographed several times back in the day lurking about on the Saffron Walden branch.   Thanks to the wonderful railuk.info website I was able to find out which G5's were push-pull fitted and where they were transferred to in the early BR era.  https://www.railuk.info/steam/getsteamclass.php?item=G5 

One of Cameron Scott's nice BR G5 models found itself being edited into a GER area G5 this morning and I may do another one (or two).

 

 

Edit: Now with additional strengthening luggage composite fresh from my digital workshop.

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Annie
added a picture

[Annie]

Apparently, - according to the Disused Stations website, - the three G5's used on the Saffron Walden branch were not much liked.  Their push-pull apparatus was difficult to control and the push-pull sets were rebuilds of elderly GER coaches.  Much of it seems to have been down to aging equipment in not very good condition.

 

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/saffron_walden/index2.shtml

 

I've posted this picture of one of the two Saffron Walden driving trailers before, but I like it so you will have to put up with seeing it again.  They were originally built in 1897 for the Liverpool Street-Cromer service and converted to push-pull driving trailers for the Palace Gates service in 1920 and 1924.  The layout is, - driving compt (former passenger compt); two passenger compts; vestibule; passenger compt; luggage compt; two passenger compts.  Originally they were 1st-2nd class composites divided by the vestibule, but became all 3rds after conversion.  I haven't been able to find out much more about them and the only photos I've seen are the usual end on three quarter views that aren't all that useful.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[CKPR]

On 12/04/2021 at 21:54, Annie said:

I'm awfully glad I didn't lose it too James.  It was one of those stupid mistakes I sometimes make when I'm sleepy.  I was deleting the unwanted trial version TRS19 SP2  install I had on my computer and I deleted the SP1 data files by mistake.  I didn't realise what I'd done until it was far too late to do anything about it and it was then that I thought I'd lost everything for good.  

It was February last year that I'd done a data file transfer between Deep Thought (Win7 HP Xeon) and my present computer (Win10 i5 CoolerMaster) and while the file was a bit light on content it was a genuine and unsullied SP1 file (Alleluia!  Alleluia!).  I was reasonably certain I could restore the missing content from recent backup files, - it was just going to take a while to do it.

 

 

[Annie]

 

I have joined the Great Eastern Railway Society.

 

And now I'll most probably get thrown out for making digital 'litho' models of GER coaches that are only representational at best.

 

WIP 50ft 6 compt brake 3rd.

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Annie
more to say

[Annie]

Book Corner:

 

 

Railway Modeller December 1953; - a bit older than I am by a handful of months.  Rumoured to contain the GER coach drawings that were used as a reference to make the 'litho' coaches that I'm presently working on.  I purchased this old copy of RM from a bookseller in Great Yarmouth which seemed quite appropriate to me.  The price and postage wasn't too bad either considering that postage to New Zealand tends to be a lot more expensive these days.

 

 

 

 

Railway Archive No. 42:  I have known of the existence of this particular copy of the Railway Archive for some time now.  It contains a lengthy article with many photographs of the Liskeard & Caradon Railway.  Having spent some months trying to build a digital model and getting largely nowhere, - despite some of the areas I'd modelled being immediately recognisable  for what they were, - I gave up much disheartened and vowed to never consider the L&CR ever again. 

So it's been a struggle between wanting to buy issue No,42 and wanting to expunge all trace of its existence from my memory forever.  So far it's been on my bedside table for five hours and I haven't yet consigned it to wood stove in the sitting room so there's an outside chance I might actually read the article and learn more about the L&CR.

The issue with me attempting to build a digital model was that I'd not long been working with digital railway simulators and I'd bitten off far more than I could chew when it came to the L&CR.  I needed to do a lot of research and while I'd found a sizeable amount of material on the railway I got myself horribly lost in it all trying to piece together a landscape that had had been largely obliterated by postwar vandalism development.

Perhaps this time around I might get somewhere and be a little more successful.

 

 

[Annie]

 

 

So is anyone actually here?  It seems ever since the plague descended upon the world folk have been gradually giving up on their hobbies and interests at a time when they actually might be a help maintaining some measure of a healthy mental equilibrium.  It's noticeable on other forums as well with less people being active and posting about their projects.  On the Trainz forum we had formerly sensible folk suddenly start spouting conspiracy theories about Covid-19 being fake resulting in the moderators having give them severe warnings about not bringing that nonsense into the forum.  At least we haven't had that here in the pre-grouping forum.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Annie