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


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An ex-LNWR 'Claughton' descending Lickey with a fitted goods train (270 tons).  A certain amount of fettling has been going on to sort out my old 'Claughton' engines so they run nicely in TANE.  The sound file sounds a bit rough on starting from rest, but once properly under way it starts to sound better. (3.54 min)

TANE decided to throw a couple of pauses in the last third of the video, so apologies for that.

 

 

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Good to see the Lickey out again. But I'm a bit concerned about going down the bank with steam on, even with a fully-fitted train.

 

Ultimate pedantry: a Claughton running on the Midland Division needs to have the cab eves trimmed back to clear the Midland loading gauge...

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Yes it was a bit daring going downhill under steam, but to do the video I had to let the locomotive run under AI control.  I'd also found an engine spec file and a four cylinder engine sound file that actually seemed to want to work together for once so possibly my attention was more on listening to the locomotive than giving any thought to how fast it might be descending the bank.  There is an active speed reduction marker by the distant signal just in case as some of my older Trainz engine are a bit weedy in the brakes department.

 

Yes I know it's naughty to be running an unmodified small boilered Claughton on the Midland Division, but Lickey is such a good test track for setting up engines to run properly.  I have a Black 5 in 1930s LMS livery coming from GP Locomotives and once it arrives the Claughton can go back to its own territory again now it's running properly.

 

Here's a picture of my Fowler 4P compound on the Worcester passenger service to make up for me running ex-LNWR engines about on Lickey.

 

GAL7PP7.jpg

 

 

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Why do your four wheeled wagons make bogie sounds on the rail joints? And the cemetery at the bottom on the downside has gone, and it would be nice to see the Malverns in the distance, and what’s happened to the banker lay-by at Blackwell?

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Much of the original Lickey bank layout was a mess Mr Northroader, with the only really accurate part being the bank itself.  I used early 1930s OS maps and trackplans as a guide to relay the track at Blackwell and to reinstate missing parts of the trackwork at Bromsgrove. but I freely admit that I had to make more than a few compromises.  My choices were to either make the best of the original layout as it stood and accept that some parts of it were severely foreshortened, or to completely demolish Blackwell and Bromsgrove and rebuild them at the correct size.

I didn't know about the cemetery, but now that I've found where it is thanks to the NLS maps archive I can do something about it.  Things like backscenes can also be sorted out now that I've moved the layout into a more modern version of Trainz.

Rail joint sounds in Trainz are something that has been complained about for years and is something that I can't do anything about unfortunately.

 

VVZWd8S.jpg

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I was walking in the Bromsgrove area, and was looking for a tombstone, so went and had a ferret round by the graveyard close to the station, but didn’t find it there, because it’s in the main one by the church in the middle of town, which is quite a hike from the station. It’s to two enginemen killed in a boiler explosion at the station, but the guy doing the stone went and found the first engine he could copy, a Norris, which wasn’t the sort that exploded.

97514008-A5FC-4A3D-A464-4B13C8FEE385.jpeg.9370a6526c1f1785f78252de10b58bba.jpeg

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14 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I see your big driving wheels and raise you another pair:

 

2112273229_LNWRpostcardNo.2053GreaterBritain.jpg.71621295a58f2a1f5e6b87258aefe7a8.jpg

Very clever Stephen; - definitely gave me a good laugh this morning.

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On 27/07/2021 at 20:26, Northroader said:

I was walking in the Bromsgrove area, and was looking for a tombstone, so went and had a ferret round by the graveyard close to the station, but didn’t find it there, because it’s in the main one by the church in the middle of town, which is quite a hike from the station. It’s to two enginemen killed in a boiler explosion at the station, but the guy doing the stone went and found the first engine he could copy, a Norris, which wasn’t the sort that exploded.

97514008-A5FC-4A3D-A464-4B13C8FEE385.jpeg.9370a6526c1f1785f78252de10b58bba.jpeg

 

I think that in Red For Danger, Rolt surmised that the cause of the boiler explosion was due to the safety valves being screwed down beyond sane limits to help in climbing the Lickey.

 

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Broad Gauge cheer up picture.  'Great Britain' not long after being rebuilt in 1870.

 

bAe5QHR.jpg

 

Most unusual!  Where are the heaped giant lumps of coal that normally infest a GWR Broad Gauge tender?

 

Surely not economy measures...

 

:jester:

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1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Most unusual!  Where are the heaped giant lumps of coal that normally infest a GWR Broad Gauge tender?

 

Surely not economy measures...

The old photo isn't all that clear, but if you enlarge the image you'll be able to see that there are some fairly sizeable lumps of coal in the tender.

 

I'm still having problems with being more tired than usual after having my anti-plague jab done.  Plainly catching the virus for real is not something I would ever want to happen.  I don't really fancy doing much with railway building so I dusted off an old layout, - 'Ashington' which was originally made back in 2014 in TS2012.  It's an 18 mile long fictitious ex-GWR double tracked branchline set in the later half of the 1950s and I converted it over to run in TRS19.  It's a nicely done layout and all I had to do with it was replace a lot of trees as usual, update the signalling to use better semaphore models including banishing all the colour light signals and that was pretty much that.

The branchline makes a junction with a mainline station, - Castleton, - on a half mile stub of double track and eventually I'll add loops at each end.  The one real fault with Ashington is that despite having several industries served by the branch there's no goods yard at Castleton.  There is a modest sized MPD though with a Churchward era engine shed, but it's a bit light on loco servicing infrastructure for a working MPD.  So a couple of projects for me to look at a future time.

I've gone off building prototypical routes as all they ever do is leave me feeling annoyed and frustrated.

 

Some BR 2MT standard tanks were assigned to the Western Region for branchline work during the late 1950's so it's a perfect excuse to dust off No. 41202, - one of my old legacy engines from TS2004 days.  No.41202 was assigned to 82A Bristol Bath Road during my period of interest in case anybody is wondering.

 

OD7hMxm.jpg

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A new loco I've been working on that I thought I would show off here first, as Annie's contacts here pointed me in the direction of the relevant edition of Midland Record for the drawings. This model is of a Midland Johnson compound from the second batch with straight valances.

 

I'm not 100% certain I've got the tender livery right. If anyone has any comments please let me know!

 

1017612299_2021-07-30174702.jpg.5781c5669db3d8f8b4ba18511891d983.jpg

 

1403308935_2021-07-30173913.jpg.85a03e927a49208496e0cce5fc7ab7b0.jpg

 

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916986702_2021-07-30174950.jpg.518a1768d1bcd81eaab9e997fd23d829.jpg

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29 minutes ago, eheaps said:

A new loco I've been working on that I thought I would show off here first, as Annie's contacts here pointed me in the direction of the relevant edition of Midland Record for the drawings. This model is of a Midland Johnson compound from the second batch with straight valances.

 

I'm not 100% certain I've got the tender livery right. If anyone has any comments please let me know!

 

Beautiful. As to the tender livery, rounded corners to the inner panels; the beading around the edge of the panels was not lined out, except along the bottom, and there not to the full height of the beading. 

 

I think there should be MR on the tender rear, in the middle of the panel. (Not on the buffer beam.)

 

I was about to comment on the position of the cabside number, but from the photo I'm looking at it is correctly positioned; on 2632 (and presumably 2631) it was slightly higher up - the centre line being a fraction more than half-way up the cab side sheet. That's a detail difference I'd not noticed before!

 

The real expert is @Dave Hunt who has built a simply stunning S7 model of one of the three engines from the second batch - I forget which one.

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3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Beautiful. As to the tender livery, rounded corners to the inner panels; the beading around the edge of the panels was not lined out, except along the bottom, and there not to the full height of the beading. 

 

I think there should be MR on the tender rear, in the middle of the panel. (Not on the buffer beam.)

 

I was about to comment on the position of the cabside number, but from the photo I'm looking at it is correctly positioned; on 2632 (and presumably 2631) it was slightly higher up - the centre line being a fraction more than half-way up the cab side sheet. That's a detail difference I'd not noticed before!

 

The real expert is @Dave Hunt who has built a simply stunning S7 model of one of the three engines from the second batch - I forget which one.

 

Hopefully this a bit better.

2021-07-30 222033.jpg

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@eheaps, the trouble with seeing something this good is that one starts seeing the little things that come between it and perfection.

 

The outer end of the buffer guides should be lined out.

 

On the other hand, the photo of 2633 that I'm looking at (which is undoubtedly one you have too) shows the top of the splasher unlined.

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55 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

@eheaps, the trouble with seeing something this good is that one starts seeing the little things that come between it and perfection.

 

The outer end of the buffer guides should be lined out.

 

On the other hand, the photo of 2633 that I'm looking at (which is undoubtedly one you have too) shows the top of the splasher unlined.

 

I think the splasher tops varied from loco to loco and possibly between repaints. I've got photos with both, I thought lined out looked nice so I went with that option. This is one of the issues with digital modelling: you often want to represent multiple locos with a single model and as such you can't include all the little differences between individual locos.

 

The buffer guides are a good spot. I'll sort that one out now.

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Wonderful. :sungum: Reminds me of the Jan Reiners railway. (Official name: Kleinbahn Bremen–Tarmstedt; Kleinbahn = small railway, Bremen = half-million city in the northwest of Germany where I was born & have been living all my life, Tarmstedt = small town 25 km northeast of Bremen). It operated almost at the same time as the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway (1900-1954), but there were 2 important differences: it was 1-meter narrow gauge, & sadly it was never resurrected. Loco no.1 is on static display just 1 km from my house & has been overhauled & repainted last year.

 

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I heard this on R4Extra this morning.  It is from A.G. MacDonell's "England, Their England" and I must admit to not having read it apart from the well known description of the village cricket match.  I love the bits about not disturbing the signalmen (who would want to?) and "where the only tickets are bought by geese and ducks".  It's like a foreign country.

 

Two days later he was at Marylebone Station, quietest and most dignified of stations, where the porters go on tiptoe, where the barrows are rubber-tyred and the trains sidle mysteriously in and out with only the faintest of toots upon their whistles so as not to disturb the signalmen, and there he bought a ticket to Aylesbury from a man who whispered that the cost was nine-and-six, and that a train would probably start from Number 5 platform as soon as the engine-driver had come back from the pictures, and the guard had been to see his old mother in Baker Street.

 

Sure enough a train marked Aylesbury was standing at Number 5 platform. According to the timetable it was due to start in ten minutes, but the platform was deserted and there were no passengers in the carriages. The station was silent. The newspaper boy was asleep. A horse, waiting all harnessed beside a loaded van, lay down and yawned. The dust filtered slowly down through the winter sunbeams, gradually obliterating a label upon a wooden crate which said "Urgent. Perishable."

 

Donald took a seat in a third-class smoker and waited. An engine-driver came stealthily up the platform. A stoker, walking like a cat, followed him. After a few minutes a guard appeared at the door of the carriage and seemed rather surprised at seeing Donald.

 

"Do you wish to travel, sir?" he asked gently, and when Donald had said that he was desirous of going as far as Aylesbury, the guard touched his hat and said in a most respectful manner, "If you wish it, sir." He reminded Donald of the immortal butler, Jeeves. Donald fancied, but he was not quite sure, that he heard the guard whisper to the engine-driver, "I think we might make a start now, Gerald," and he rather thinks the engine-driver replied in the same undertone, "Just as you wish, Horace."

 

Anyway, a moment or two later the train slipped out of the station and gathered speed in the direction of Aylesbury.

 

The railway which begins, or ends, according to the way in which you look at it, from or at Marylebone, used to be called the Great Central Railway, but is now merged with lots of other railways into one large concern called the London, Midland and South Coast or some such name. The reason for the merger was that dividends might be raised, or lowered, or something. Anyway, the line used to be called the Great Central and it is like no other of the north-bound lines. For it runs through lovely, magical rural England. It goes to places that you have never heard of before, but when you have heard of them you want to live in them—Great Missenden and Wendover and High Wycombe and Princes Risborough and Quainton Road, and Akeman Street and Blackthorn. It goes to places that do not need a railway, that never use a railway, that probably do not yet know that they have got a railway. It goes to way-side halts where the only passengers are milk-churns. It visits lonely platforms where the only tickets are bought by geese and ducks. It stops in the middle of buttercup meadows to pick up eggs and flowers. It glides past the great pile of willow branches that are maturing to make England's cricket-bats. It is a dreamer among railways, a poet, kindly and absurd and lovely.

 

You can sit at your carriage window in a Great Central train and gallop your horse from Amersham to Aylesbury without a check for a factory or a detour for a field of corn or a break for a slum. Pasture and hedge, and pasture and hedge, and pasture and hedge, mile after mile after mile, grey-green and brown and russet, and silver where the little rivers tangle themselves among reeds and trodden watering-pools.

 

There are no mountains or ravines or noisy tunnels or dizzy viaducts. The Great Central is like that old stream of Asia Minor. It meanders and meanders until at last it reaches, loveliest of English names, the Vale of Aylesbury.

 

Mr. Fielding was waiting on the platform. He was a man of about sixty—broad-shouldered, pink-cheeked, white-moustached, who looked as if he spent a good deal of time in the open air and not very much time in the study.

 

He had an ancient Ford car outside, loaded up with baskets and parcels and paper-bags. "Been marketing," he explained. "It's a fixed rule of the house that anyone who takes a car into Aylesbury has to do the shopping for everyone, though who the deuce fixed the rule I'm blest if I know. It's all very nice for the women, but a fine fool I look matching ribbons." It was probably thirty years since anyone had asked Mr. Fielding to match a ribbon, but it was his stock phrase to cover any feminine commission.

 

...

 

On Monday morning another meandering train crept stealthily towards Marylebone Station with Donald among its passengers. On the journey, he read in The Times that the Bill for the Prevention of the Exportation of Worn-Out English Horses to Belgium and other countries, which had in the last Parliament passed without a division its first reading, its second reading, and all its Committee stages, and was simply waiting for the formality of the third reading, had been reintroduced into the new Parliament and had every prospect of securing a first reading within the next two years.

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