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


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46 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

They gave you a cup of tea?!?

 

Result.

Oh yes they are proper civilised in our little village James.  Most of the volunteers helping out the official Dept of Health COVID folk were ladies from various local community organisations so they understood that a good cup of tea should be provided.  They had nice looking biscuits as well, but with my Woolworths metabolism I have to be careful about such things.  

 

The Olympics is going to be a major concern with 80 infections already identified last I heard.  Our athletes are going to be coming back with all manner of delightful variations on the Delta strain of COVID-19 which we definitely don't want getting loose here.

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Very civilised.

 

And, yes, the Delta Variant, you don't want that.  Spreads like wild fire. Definitely one to lock-down for. Unless you're a populist-nationalist leader obsessed with your own popularity and frightened by what the right-wing press and your own loony-libertarian MPs* say. Then, then you go full Mayor of Shark City.

 

* ''absolute morons'', according to, admittedly insane, but at least not stupid, Dominic Cummings

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I understood that a key factor in the replacement of Brunel's timber viaducts was that it became impossible to obtain high-quality slow-grown Baltic pine in sufficiently large pieces at an economic price. I'm not sure where I got that from, it might be Rolt's biography of Brunel.

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5 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I understood that a key factor in the replacement of Brunel's timber viaducts was that it became impossible to obtain high-quality slow-grown Baltic pine in sufficiently large pieces at an economic price. I'm not sure where I got that from, it might be Rolt's biography of Brunel.

 

Which is interesting, since I don't think the Baltic timber trade ever really slackened off through the east coast ports.  

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Just now, Edwardian said:

 

Which is interesting, since I don't think the Baltic timber trade ever really slackened off through the east coast ports.  

 

Maybe not quantity, but the quality declined as the Baltic forests were felled. The best timber got cut first.

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3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Maybe not quantity, but the quality declined as the Baltic forests were felled. The best timber got cut first.

 

Brunel viaducts; victims of non-sustainable forestry!

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One depot I was at had a long building put up by the TVR in the 1880s. The main roof supports were done in big beams of pitch pine. You’ve never seen such timber, knot free, with an amazingly straight grain. I gather similar stuff was used by the GWR on the viaducts, if you’re used to going to the orange shed and picking out the least banana shaped bits of 2 x 1for a layout it’s a fantastic contrast.

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5 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I understood that a key factor in the replacement of Brunel's timber viaducts was that it became impossible to obtain high-quality slow-grown Baltic pine in sufficiently large pieces at an economic price. I'm not sure where I got that from, it might be Rolt's biography of Brunel.

I'm fairly certain that I read something like that in one of my GWR reference books too Stephen.  I'm not sure which one it was though.

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5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Very civilised.

 

And, yes, the Delta Variant, you don't want that.  Spreads like wild fire. Definitely one to lock-down for. Unless you're a populist-nationalist leader obsessed with your own popularity and frightened by what the right-wing press and your own loony-libertarian MPs* say. Then, then you go full Mayor of Shark City.

 

* ''absolute morons'', according to, admittedly insane, but at least not stupid, Dominic Cummings

Some noddy on Twitter was claiming that the Delta variant was less infectious than the original Alpha variant.  The trouble is there's an awful lot of not very bright folk out there who will believe such garbage.  As for those in the Uk who are braying that infection rates are falling I'm still seeing horrifyingly high daily infection counts that are nothing short of disturbing.

Our Health Dept is telling us that the vaccine will lower the risk of becoming infected, but sensible precautions should still be taken.  COVID-19 has shown itself to be a highly adaptable virus and we have no way of knowing how long the vaccine will remain effective.

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44 minutes ago, Annie said:

Some noddy on Twitter was claiming that the Delta variant was less infectious than the original Alpha variant.  The trouble is there's an awful lot of not very bright folk out there who will believe such garbage.  As for those in the Uk who are braying that infection rates are falling I'm still seeing horrifyingly high daily infection counts that are nothing short of disturbing.

Our Health Dept is telling us that the vaccine will lower the risk of becoming infected, but sensible precautions should still be taken.  COVID-19 has shown itself to be a highly adaptable virus and we have no way of knowing how long the vaccine will remain effective.

 

Idiots.  England's infection rate is going bonkers, largely via all the people too young to be vaccinated.  HMG is just banking on the vaccination to keep the NHS from being overwhelmed and the older population (now double-jabbed) from becoming seriously ill or dying.

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Well, I've just done two weeks' supply teaching in a local secondary school with up to around 30% of pupils in some year groups at home as their bubble has included a pupil with a positive test. So I'll let you know in a couple of weeks... 

 

All being well, by then we should be heading north for our usual fortnight - missed last year of course.

 

1124851815_P1020864compressed.JPG.cf21bf73a9fddc7b88d50b2e8d749e95.JPG

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BBC 'Morning Live' program were interviewing 20 somethings asking their attitude to vaccination. One plonker, who claimed to be an 'Instagram blogger' (whatever that is?), said he wouldn't be getting it because, among other things, 'they can track what's in your bank account!'. Huh? 

 

Jim 

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1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

BBC 'Morning Live' program were interviewing 20 somethings asking their attitude to vaccination. One plonker, who claimed to be an 'Instagram blogger' (whatever that is?), said he wouldn't be getting it because, among other things, 'they can track what's in your bank account!'. Huh? 

 

Jim 

I think I'm fast losing all hope for the human race.

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2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Well, I've just done two weeks' supply teaching in a local secondary school with up to around 30% of pupils in some year groups at home as their bubble has included a pupil with a positive test. So I'll let you know in a couple of weeks... 

 

All being well, by then we should be heading north for our usual fortnight - missed last year of course.

 

1124851815_P1020864compressed.JPG.cf21bf73a9fddc7b88d50b2e8d749e95.JPG

 

They're going to need an awful lot of concrete here when the time comes.

 

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1 hour ago, Adam88 said:

 

They're going to need an awful lot of concrete here when the time comes.

 

 

The Lune Viaduct was restored in 2007 by BRB (Residuary) Ltd at a cost of £600,000, so is, I hope, safe from that for a good while. The adjacent culvert carrying the Crosdale Beck under the embankment was in a bad way after Storm Desmond: 

 

1616028436_P1010740compressed.JPG.86efe0db17f9d677656974754170e74b.JPG

 

Washed out for five or six yards upstream of the outer arch. That's partly down to Locke & Errington underestimating the maximum flow rate of the beck under storm conditions when they engineered the line in the 1850s. There's the danger that if the culvert failed completely or became completely blocked (filling it up with concrete would definitely be a Bad Idea!), it could take the embankment down with it which could destabilise the southern abutment of the viaduct.

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11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Well, I've just done two weeks' supply teaching in a local secondary school with up to around 30% of pupils in some year groups at home as their bubble has included a pupil with a positive test. So I'll let you know in a couple of weeks... 

 

All being well, by then we should be heading north for our usual fortnight - missed last year of course.

 

1124851815_P1020864compressed.JPG.cf21bf73a9fddc7b88d50b2e8d749e95.JPG

That is one beautiful bridge.

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I moved my Lickey Bank route from TS2012 over to TRS19 and the trackwork got completely trashed so I moved it into TANE SP4 instead and all is good.  I also purchased Cameron Scott's new L&Y Class 27 0-6-0 as well as his new release of L&Y goods wagons, - so as you might have predicted I tested my new engine by running it about on Lickey.

It was really disappointing to see the mess TRS19 made of my Lickey layout, but at least I had backup copies.  Apparently something was done in either the SP2 or the SP3 update that altered the spline characteristics of some kinds of trackwork which pulled already laid trackwork all out of shape.  I have no idea what the idea behind that 'upgrade' was, but it annoyed a lot of Trainz folk including me.  There's supposed to be fix up patch going to be released soon, but who knows when that will be.  In the meantime Lickey is working fine in TANE.  I did a lot of work on this layout as some of you will remember and it's a lot of fun to operate.

Post anti-COVID jab my arm was sore yesterday and I was more sleepy than usual, but I seem to be doing better today.

 

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Oh that really made me smile James, - thank you.  

 

I have been told that the L&Y was able to bring freight into Norfolk via the Isle of Axholme Joint Line and then onto the GER-GNR Joint Line at Haxey Junction.  The setup at Haxey didn't really allow for trains to run through, but wagons could be exchanged.  I think it would be too much a wild stretch of the imagination to have a L&Y engine running into Moxbury, but certainly mysterious sheeted L&Y wagons and the like could find their way there.

 

Bd44iim.jpg

 

I was much intrigued by the Isle of Axholme Joint Line, but I'm really am going to have to do my best to ignore it for the time being since I'm back doing things in Cornwall again and I don't want to be distracted.

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I've ordered a book on the Isle of Axholme Joint Line and perhaps in a month's time when it has arrived I'll be able to think about doing something based on this very interesting light railway.

 

I'm having an uncomfortable amount of joint pain today so it's nice to be able to blob out and play trains on Lickey.  I haven't really set the environmental lighting up properly yet so it all looks a bit like it's a few seconds away from a downpour and I also need to sort out some of the trees on the layout as well.  But it all runs fine and the schedules I wrote for the layout in TS2012 are working without a hitch.

 

My Claughtons are now very old legacy models, but I look on my older Trainz engines like they are the coarse scale 'O' gauge engines I would have loved to own so I don't mind their basic simplicity.  Lickey doesn't really give them much of a run, but it's good to get them out of my digital trainset box and I like seeing them at work.

 

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Hmmmm....... slightly tempted to join (or rejoin) the 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers Association.  But that means I'd have to post in another part of the forum and they might not like me and think I'm silly.

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On 25/07/2021 at 04:32, Annie said:

Apparently something was done in either the SP2 or the SP3 update that altered the spline characteristics of some kinds of trackwork which pulled already laid trackwork all out of shape. 

Not for the first time, I have a wonderful broad gauge map, I can't remember if it's Restormel or Turk's Castle, but in one of the TS10 or TS12 SPs all the Brunel viaduct splines collapsed, leaving the track broken on the terrain. It took me some fixing and was one of the issues that has made me reluctant to go to TaNE or anything post-2012.

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14 hours ago, AdamsRadial said:

Not for the first time, I have a wonderful broad gauge map, I can't remember if it's Restormel or Turk's Castle, but in one of the TS10 or TS12 SPs all the Brunel viaduct splines collapsed, leaving the track broken on the terrain. It took me some fixing and was one of the issues that has made me reluctant to go to TaNE or anything post-2012.

Ah yes the amazing collapsing bridge splines.  I remember those 'updates'.  TANE seems to be basically alright these days.  Right before the notice that TANE would be no longer supported was given out the final SP4 update was released.  It does work well and it seems reliable enough, but the only thing about it is that anything built in it can't be used in earlier versions and the old trick of editing the build number doesn't work anymore.  Moving earlier content into the SP4 version is fine though.

N3V's problem as always been that they are a small team that has taken on a complex and difficult job with building a railway simulator.  And then by attempting to push the software into having the visual eye candy and features that other larger game studios are building into their products they've ended up annoying their customer base by asking them to pay money for a buggy product.  Folk like me who have owned several versions of Trainz and know how to either fix or work around these problems manage Ok, but newcomers to Trainz are likely to end up utterly frustrated and deleting the simulator and vowing never to buy anything from N3V again.

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