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

[Annie]

I had no luck with finding either Sketchup 14 or 15.  Websites either gave Malwarebytes a fit or if 'safe' any download they listed went back to Trimble and was only for the trial edition.  I wore out all my 30 day trials ages ago so none of the downloads would be functional.

 

It isn't a problem though since Sketchup 8 does all I want.

[Annie]

I wanted to make a tarpaulin/wagon sheet for my 'Brightside Imperial Matches' PO wagon as there had never been a tarp model made for this particular 5 plank wagon mesh which I'd always regarded a bit daft.  Well I gave it a go today and it took me ages and I made lots of mistakes, but I did end up with basically what I wanted.  I also had a go at fixing ropes to the tarpaulin model, but by this time my brain was functioning at the same level of intelligence as yesterday's porridge so I didn't have a hope of achieving anything.  I will come back to it though after I've done some further reading in my Sketchup 8 book and my brain is working properly again.

 

 

[Annie]

This will be the last of the Camberwick Green series of PO wagons, - or at least for now anyway.  I might take up some of the suggestions I've received for further wagons later on, but I really want to get some more GER area PO wagons done first.

 

[Annie]

 

Now there's a fine sight.  Thanks to the very kind help from a member of the creator group I belong to the coaches now track better through corners and have interactive animated brake pipes and couplings.  A clerestory 1st and a clerestory brake 3rd are next on the build list.

[Annie]

I made this GER 10 ton 7 plank wagon with a wooden underframe waaay back in December 2018 and somehow I managed to forget about it.  Shortly after making this 7 planker I made the later steel underframed version and that one did make it to the DLS along with three companions.

I feel really daft for forgetting about this wagon model because it's more appropriate for my layout's time period than the later version I made.  One benefit of rediscovering this wagon today is that the new tarpaulin model I made fits this wagon's body mesh.   A tarpaulin is somewhat essential equipment for a merchandise wagon.  I'm going to make myself some more copies of this wagon with different numbers and then I'll introduce them to my Norfolk layout.

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Annie
fumble brain

[Annie]

Passenger trains at Foxhollow.

 

 

[Annie]

And just a spot of silliness.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Annie

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

And just a spot of silliness.

 

 

 

Excellent!

 

What you need to do is set out sidings at one of the minor wayside stations as a shunting plank puzzle, place Pugh, Pugh, Barney & Mcgrew, Cuthbert, Dibble & Grubb in a random order with the challenge to arrange the wagons so they read correctly for either an up or down train in the least possible time.  And for more fun, add in a number of your GER area PO wagons as blockers and fillers...

 

Just a thought... 

 

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Hroth
Added confusion...

[Annie]

Now there's an idea.  Thank you for that Mr Hroth.  

Edited June 20, 2021 by Annie

[Annie]

I've just realised why the parish is deserted.  It's Summer where you are and you're all off outside doing Summer things.  Meanwhile here it's Winter and we've just had three days of expert level rainstorms.

 

But back to the trainset.......And the votes are in.  Mosston on Sea has been elevated to the heights of shunting puzzledom.  Truth be told Mosston's yard always has been a bit on the awkward side to shunt.

 

 

 

The puzzle as I've laid it out according to Mr Horth's guidelines.

 

 

 

Please note the awkwardly placed tramway brake van.

 

 

Mosston on Sea is a popular destination during Summertime.  Here's a view of the beach I snapped while clinging to the top of one of the telegraph poles.

 

[Hroth]

I do go and open my big mouth, don't I.....

 

Longest day today here, so everyone is overdosed on daylight. In my opinion, as seasons Summer and Winter are overrated. I prefer Spring and Autumn! 

 

Your pole-top snapshot looks more like a gorse slacks/dune system rather than a beach as such.  It would be full of lizards and grass snakes, an ecological paradise! How about a belt of pine trees to shelter the settlement from the undoubtedly stiff onshore breeze?

 

Ok, I'm starting to make Mosston-on-sea sound a bit like Formby, a small town on the coast just above the Mersey estuary, but still...

 

There are red squirrels there too, so it's well worth doing! 

 

[Annie]

 

 

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Longest day today here, so everyone is overdosed on daylight. In my opinion, as seasons Summer and Winter are overrated. I prefer Spring and Autumn! 

Ah so that's why.  Must be the shortest day here then.  I much prefer Spring and Autumn as well.  Summer here is far too hot and humid for me, - and Winter is when we get lots of rain, which isn't so bad, but it's other people's second hand storm systems that can get a bit too much sometimes (as has happened this weekend just gone).

 

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Your pole-top snapshot looks more like a gorse slacks/dune system rather than a beach as such.  It would be full of lizards and grass snakes, an ecological paradise! How about a belt of pine trees to shelter the settlement from the undoubtedly stiff onshore breeze?

 

The beach lies just beyond the gorse slacks/dune system Mr Hroth.  Just where the footpath away from the station starts to fade out of view you can just see the pale green painted public convenience (provided for the public's convenience) right at the edge of the dunes before they fall away down to the beach.  And you are quite right I really should plant a shelter belt to give the village some protection from the onshore breeze.

The Tenpenny branch along this section of coast was interesting to build up as I find 'empty' landscapes much more tricky to do effectively than landscapes that are bursting with buildings and vegetation.  And you are quite right it would be an ecological paradise.

When I was younger I spent a lot of time wandering about the coastal dune systems  'up north' here in NZ so I suppose some of that has rubbed off on the Tenpenny branch. 

My Norfolk layout is built like it's a place where I'd really want to live.

 

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

I do go and open my big mouth, don't I.....

Quite a few of the small stations on my layout have 'interesting' goods yards that require some thought to shunt effectively so it didn't take that much of a push for me to set up a puzzle at Moston on Sea.

 

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

There are red squirrels there too, so it's well worth doing! 

 

Um, - I shall have to check to see if there are any squirrel models for Trainz.  

[Edwardian]

8 hours ago, Annie said:

I've just realised why the parish is deserted.  It's Summer where you are and you're all off outside doing Summer things.  Meanwhile here it's Winter and we've just had three days of expert level rainstorms.

 

But back to the trainset.......And the votes are in.  Mosston on Sea has been elevated to the heights of shunting puzzledom.  Truth be told Mosston's yard always has been a bit on the awkward side to shunt.

 

 

 

The puzzle as I've laid it out according to Mr Horth's guidelines.

 

 

 

Please note the awkwardly placed tramway brake van.

 

 

Mosston on Sea is a popular destination during Summertime.  Here's a view of the beach I snapped while clinging to the top of one of the telegraph poles.

 

 

What a wonderful scene!

[Northroader]

It’s summer and you’re out doing summer things, she says, come to sunny Wiltshire today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-57550606

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

It’s summer and you’re out doing summer things, she says, come to sunny Wiltshire today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-57550606

Gosh!

 

Well it was nice and peaceful here.

 

[Schooner]

18 hours ago, Annie said:

It's Summer where you are...three days of expert level rainstorms.

 

Are you spying on us individually, or just checking the forecast?!

 

Glorious scenes, bringing some much appreciated brightness. Thank you! 

Edited June 21, 2021 by Schooner
WurdZ

[Annie]

7 minutes ago, Schooner said:

Are you spying on us individually, or just checking the forecast?!

 

8 minutes ago, Schooner said:

Glorious scenes, bringing some much needed light. Thank you! 

Thanks Schooner.  It's very much my happy place at the moment.

[Compound2632]

20 hours ago, Annie said:

I've just realised why the parish is deserted.  It's Summer where you are and you're all off outside doing Summer things. 

 

That was last week. We're back to normal now. We've had the heating on today.

[Hroth]

38 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That was last week. We're back to normal now. We've had the heating on today.

 

Overcast, but not that dismal here. Still more or less shirtsleeve weather, and its going to warm up a bit as we progress through the week! 

[Annie]

The weather has been dopey here as it's mid-Winter and it's more like early Autumn with regard to temperatures despite the rain.  We haven't lit the fire in the stove in the lounge at all over the past ten days or so.

 

I've been working on setting up new schedules between Foxhollow and Brenton Wood as I gradually make the change from using portals to using storage loops instead.  While under test it all worked really well despite some complex maneuvers being needed to be undertaken at Brenton Wood, - or it was working well until I made a stupid mistake right at the end.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Regularity]

12 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Overcast, but not that dismal here. Still more or less shirtsleeve weather, and its going to warm up a bit as we progress through the week! 

Where is “here”?

I mean, I have visited Newcastle in the winter, and they were wearing vests: it wasn’t cold enough for shirts…

[Northroader]

Mum used to say “where there’s no sense, there’s no feeling”.

[Annie]

Morning Broad Gauge picture.  'Tornado'  The last 'Rover' built in July 1888.

 

[Jake The Rat]

... most likely not named after a plane, unlike this 'Tornado'.

 

 

 

[Annie]

12 hours ago, Jake The Rat said:

... most likely not named after a plane, unlike this 'Tornado'.

 

I can see it's one of those narrow gauge engines that looks like it's about to fall over Jake.  Perhaps it should have stayed with being a plane.