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

[Annie]

S.S. Canterbury built 1929 as a Channel ferry.  It almost looks plausible for my time period.  This is my latest model ship find.  There was an earlier S.S. Canterbury built in 1901 which would have been perfect.

Google was near useless when I was trying to find out further information about this ship as it 'thinks' that because I'm a New Zealander I must be asking about Canterbury subjects relating to NZ when I wasn't at all.  They've taken out the 'Advanced' option in Chrome as well and that used to be the only way to slap Google into searching properly for what I wanted.

 

[Edwardian]

18 minutes ago, Annie said:

S.S. Canterbury built 1929 as a Channel ferry.  It almost looks plausible for my time period.  This is my latest model ship find.  There was an earlier S.S. Canterbury built in 1901 which would have been perfect.

Google was near useless when I was trying to find out further information about this ship as it 'thinks' that because I'm a New Zealander I must be asking about Canterbury subjects relating to NZ when I wasn't at all.  They've taken out the 'Advanced' option in Chrome as well and that used to be the only way to slap Google into searching properly for what I wanted.

 

 

There is always Wiki

 

and more on Dover Ferry Forums

 

[Annie]

Thank you very much for the Dover Ferry Forums link James.  There's some very nice photos to be found there if you have the fortitude to dig past the modern clutter.

 

SS Canterbury is very likely to replace the disreputable 'Red Star' since it possesses Hroth's all important bow so straight it would hurt your eyes to look at it.

 

 

Plans are still being laid as to where the mail trains will be running.  The joint line is an easy choice since it runs the length of the whole layout and is laid for express running for most of its length.  The Eastlingwold & Great Mulling may get a mail train as well, but I've still got quite a bit to do to get the Eastlingwold up and running properly.  So a project for later.

The BH&FER has always been more of local railway despite its initial intentions.  The oldest section from Foxhollow to Bleakhorse Road is laid for brisk running, but after that there were issues with landowners and dwindling funds causing the section from Bleakhorse Road to Brenton Wood to be somewhat confused and not really the best that it could have been.  From Brenton Woods to Bluebell Magna things are better, but it was all laid on the cheap and then patched up later.  From Bluebell Magna to Moxbury some of the old dream returns with the track being better laid, but taken overall it's definitely not a mainline route.  After Moxbury the line runs off into the mysterious west out past (alternative) Bunbury where every child knows the wonderful lavender biscuits come from.   But despite that fact there will be no TPO service for the BH&FER.

 

[Edwardian]

That is a lovely ship. 

 

The varnished wood on the mail vans is very subtle and natural, the creator has done a really fine job on these.  You must be itching to take them for a run.

 

[Annie]

Yes I think the SS Canterbury is going to work out well.  'Red Star' would be perfect if I was doing a Victorian Sci-Fi/Steampunk layout, but I'm not so I think I'll quietly retire it to the archives.

 

Once I have the lineside equipment installed on the joint line I'll do a test run.  Rob has done a lovely job with the mail vans and his work with the varnished wood finish is superb.  I like varnished wood finishes on coaches even though it's a lot more work to do than a painted finish.

I want to do some more teak coaches for the Affiliated (Imaginary) Railway Companies as the N.E.R coaches I purchased from Paulz Trainz and reskinned into teak are not being treated kindly by TRS19's environmental lighting and with the way they are put together I can't fix the problem.  My initial experiments with reskinning Ken Green's Midland coaches into teak have worked out well so I might as well continue in that direction.

 

[Annie]

My name is Annie and I have a not so secret liking for large tank engines.

 

A GCR 1B rattles the crockery as it passes through Mirely St Marys on the joint line.

 

[Hroth]

19 minutes ago, Annie said:

My name is Annie and I have a not so secret liking for large tank engines.

 

 

Do we all have to sit in a circle to discuss this?

[Annie]

I finally managed to install the trackside TPO apparatus.  The cleverly done interactive apparatus is attached to a long activator track and herein lies a problem.  The activator track can only be fitted into straight section of track and it also has to be level.  I tried installing the apparatus near (alternative) Bunbury, but the Bunbury section is all wide sweeping curves and long subtle gradients so that didn't work.  I may come back to this later when I feel brave enough to do some track realignment.

 

The joint line is by and large mostly level, but it likes to do the wide sweeping curves thing too.  The other thing I had to bear in mind was that there needed to be road access so the Post Office chaps can get their horse and cart close to where the lineside apparatus actually is.  In the end I chose the part of the joint line where it crosses the road up to Beakys Hill near Hopewood on Sea township.  The line was straight and flat there and there was good road access as well.  Tick all the boxes, achievement unlocked, level up.

Now I just need to see if it's going to work.

 

[Regularity]

11 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Do we all have to sit in a circle to discuss this?

Only if trains are going round the circle…

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

I finally managed to install the trackside TPO apparatus.  The cleverly done interactive apparatus is attached to a long activator track and herein lies a problem.  The activator track can only be fitted into straight section of track and it also has to be level. 

 

Even more Triangesque!

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

I finally managed to install the trackside TPO apparatus.  The cleverly done interactive apparatus is attached to a long activator track and herein lies a problem.  The activator track can only be fitted into straight section of track and it also has to be level. 

 

 

20 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Even more Triangesque!

 

I was thinking more Hornby Dublo. 

 

Of course things need to be straight and level, we don't want mailbags describing graceful arcs through the air into the surrounding countryside and ending up high in the branches of Ye Olde Oak....

 

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

 

 

[Compound2632]

39 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I was thinking more Hornby Dublo. 

 

We're probably thinking of the same thing, I don't know whether the operating mail coach originated on the Triang or Hornby side of Triang-Hornby. I first encountered it in the 1970s.

[Hroth]

23 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

We're probably thinking of the same thing, I don't know whether the operating mail coach originated on the Triang or Hornby side of Triang-Hornby. I first encountered it in the 1970s.

 

I've both the HD 3 rail and HD 2 rail TPO sets (as well as Triang/Triang Hornby/Hornby examples).  HD actuated the transfer using an electrical system so the mail train could pass the exchange apparatus several times before exchanging "mailbags". Triang of course has a trigger mounted between the rails so it operates automatically each time the apparatus is passed.

 

Hornby Dublo TPO: Brighton Toy Museum

 

[Annie]

Fumble brain mistake post.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Annie
fumble brain

[Annie]

1 minute ago, Annie said:

The real thing.  I had a Triang TPO set when I was in my teens, - who knows what became of it.

[NeilHB]

6 hours ago, Annie said:

I finally managed to install the trackside TPO apparatus.  The cleverly done interactive apparatus is attached to a long activator track and herein lies a problem.  The activator track can only be fitted into straight section of track and it also has to be level.  I tried installing the apparatus near (alternative) Bunbury, but the Bunbury section is all wide sweeping curves and long subtle gradients so that didn't work.  I may come back to this later when I feel brave enough to do some track realignment.

 

The joint line is by and large mostly level, but it likes to do the wide sweeping curves thing too.  The other thing I had to bear in mind was that there needed to be road access so the Post Office chaps can get their horse and cart close to where the lineside apparatus actually is.  In the end I chose the part of the joint line where it crosses the road up to Beakys Hill near Hopewood on Sea township.  The line was straight and flat there and there was good road access as well.  Tick all the boxes, achievement unlocked, level up.

Now I just need to see if it's going to work.

 

Annie, from my experience volunteering on the recreation Travelling Post Office trains on the Great Central Railway the hut and figure are too close to the net and liable to be clouted by weighty mailbags travelling at speed! Though I realise it may be the angle of the photo and they may be far enough back. 
 

Once we’d dropped the bags on the arms out and put the net down ready it was always a case of standing well back, even inside the train, as the bags weighed a considerable amount and had a tendency to bounce quite well, particularly those being collected by the train. 
 

I must admit it was jolly good fun, and we had some memorable runs (Leander and City of Truro are the two that always spring to mind) when I was volunteering. 
 

Some lovely footage here of the GCR TPO from a few years ago after I’d stopped volunteering sadly:

 

 

[Annie]

Thanks very much for the video Neil.  It was interesting to see a TPO in operation.  On the subject of the bags bouncing around I did see something about injuries inflicted on TPO staff while working in TPO mail vans in one of the GER Journals so you can certainly see how that might happen.

Here's another snap of the lineside apparatus at Hopewood.  It doesn't seem so different from the old photo of the Ipswich mail train with regard to the layout of the lineside apparatus.

 

[CKPR]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

I had a Triang TPO set

I have a boxed one, albeit bought at a swop meet about 20 years ago. 

[Annie]

A GER 6 wheel TPO van with TWO traductors.  More excellent work from Rob Dee.

 

[Northroader]

The “Limited Mail”, Annie,— small tank engine, Yeeaaahhhh!!

[Annie]

1 minute ago, Northroader said:

The “Limited Mail”, Annie,— small tank engine, Yeeaaahhhh!!

Oh that is absolutely delightful Mr Northroader.  You've really made my morning by posting that picture.

 

GER Society Journal No.91 has quite a bit about the GER lineside TPO apparatus and I've included this interesting clip from the article.

By the way the yellow and black square warning sign in my first Hopewood photo is a LNER addition since Ed made the lineside TPO apparatus to suit his LNER TPO vans, but I think I can overlook that.

 

[MikeOxon]

I remember a photo I took of a mail exchange at Didcot Railway Centre.  It is copied from a slide, taken on a dull October day in 1980.  I don't think they demonstrate these exchanges any more.

 

 

[Hroth]

10 hours ago, Northroader said:

The “Limited Mail”, Annie,— small tank engine, Yeeaaahhhh!!

 

Amazing!

 

Looks just like this Hornby offering...

 

Or perhaps not...

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Hroth
Reduced size of my image.

[Annie]

 

[Schooner]

What an excellent little film, thanks for sharing Annie.