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

[Northroader]

Yes, Stogumber is one of those picture postcard pretty villages, the roads to it are all narrow and winding, to get to it you get off the Taunton- Minehead bus at a lay-by on the main road, then it’s over a mile walk down a country road, with the station halfway along.

Heres a nice shot of the footpath up to the back of the platform, showing the slope.

The style of station building is quite widespread, it was on the Taunton-Watchet stretch, but you’ll find it on the Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Lines, the Cornwall Railway, and some of the O W & W, mainly GWR sponsored as the money was getting tight.

[Annie]

Thanks very much Mr Northroader, - all very helpful.  Is that one of your paintings?

 

33 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Heres a nice shot of the footpath up to the back of the platform, showing the slope.

Well I got that bit right then.  When I was putting the footpath in place I was thinking to myself that I wouldn't like to come down here after a shower of rain.  I put in a metal handrail and a stile at the bottom of the hill by the road, but the 4 bar fence getting harassed by the hedgerow was about what I thought it would be like.

 

33 minutes ago, Northroader said:

The style of station building is quite widespread, it was on the Taunton-Watchet stretch, but you’ll find it on the Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Lines, the Cornwall Railway, and some of the O W & W, mainly GWR sponsored as the money was getting tight.

It's a very appealing style of station building and I wish I was better at 3D modelling than I am so I could make a decent job of them.  One of the members of the creator group I belong to made a huge number of buildings for a WHR/FR project and he's quite happy for me to pick his building collection over in search for ones that are suitable to reskin with new textures.  The resulting buildings lack surface detail, but they do create the right impression (I hope). 

I have copies of original Cornwall Railway and GWR goods shed drawings that I've been trying to find a 3D modeller to take on without any luck.  One person with 3D modelling skills who offered to help turned out to not be able to read and interpret a set of architectural drawings so that went precisely nowhere (sigh).

 

I have found a good timber built platform model of the right type, - the creator who made it makes mostly LSWR models which is a strange kind of irony.  Unfortunately it's made to the later post-grouping platform height and I'm not sure if simply sinking it lower into the ground is going to work or not.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Annie
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[Northroader]

No, me paint that well? It’s in a shower of rain, by Alexander Merrie Hardy, a gifted watercolourist. You can open an art gallery:

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Northroader said:

Stogumber is one of those picture postcard pretty villages, the roads to it are all narrow and winding

 

Soooooooo....

One of those places that TomTom (other SatNav devices are available) delights in sending you through between main point A and main point B, when there's a perfectly adequate A road between the two?

 

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

Soooooooo....

One of those places that TomTom (other SatNav devices are available) delights in sending you through between main point A and main point B, when there's a perfectly adequate A road between the two?

 

Especially if you're an HGV driver!

 

Jim

[Schooner]

Annie, just dropping in quickly to say thank you for the BG cheer-up pics and the regular updates on the dual-gauging of Crowcombe. Each a real joy, and much appreciated.

 

Keep up the good fight!

 

Schooner

[Annie]

12 hours ago, Northroader said:

No, me paint that well? It’s in a shower of rain, by Alexander Merrie Hardy, a gifted watercolourist. You can open an art gallery:

Oh, it's just that I thought it was in a similar style to what I've seen with the backscenes you've painted.

[Annie]

7 hours ago, Schooner said:

Annie, just dropping in quickly to say thank you for the BG cheer-up pics and the regular updates on the dual-gauging of Crowcombe. Each a real joy, and much appreciated.

 

Keep up the good fight!

 

Schooner

Thanks very much Schooner.  I've been having a lot of fun with getting back into Broad Gauge mode again.

[Annie]

Broad Gauge cheer up picture.  Dean convertible 2-4-0 No. 3508.  The convertibles might have been a stop gap to keep the Broad Gauge going until the final conversion to standard gauge in 1892, but I think these 2-4-0's were particularly handsome engines.

 

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Broad Gauge cheer up picture.  Dean convertible 2-4-0 No. 3508.  The convertibles might have been a stop gap to keep the Broad Gauge going until the final conversion to standard gauge in 1892, but I think these 2-4-0's were particularly handsome engines.

 

 

It reminds me of the 3001 2-2-2 class, another set of convertibles, of which WIgmore Castle disgraced itself by derailing in Box Tunnel with a broken axle due to too much load being carried at the front. These were all rebuilt as 4-2-2 3031 class singles.

 

Yet, a mere decade or so later Dean "designed"* the GWRs first standard gauge 4-6-0...

 

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_2602_Class

 

Handsome didn't come into it, though at least it didn't have the plethora of external pipework and gubbins that tended to infest Continental and US locomotives.  Though most think it had been designed using the Ugly Pencil I think it quite striking, in a Brutalist sort of manner.  A flawed design, the class didn't last long...

 

* Although there was a lot of Churchward thinking behind it...

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Hroth

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Broad Gauge cheer up picture.  Dean convertible 2-4-0 No. 3508.  The convertibles might have been a stop gap to keep the Broad Gauge going until the final conversion to standard gauge in 1892, but I think these 2-4-0's were particularly handsome engines.

 

 

An absolute stunner, though not as originally drawn!

 

3508 was one of ten double-framed side-tanks built in 1885.  

 

Half the class were subsequently converted to 2-4-0 tender engines, 3508 being one of the first three. Leading wheels 3'6'', coupled wheels 5'1''. 

 

The reason for the tender conversions was to provide locomotives to haul the new Cornishman express service between Exeter and Plymouth.  The famous single-wheelers could not cope with the infamous South Devon banks, so we may see the 3501s tender engines as one of a succession of relatively small-wheeled 4-coupled tender types introduced to get the principal expresses over those fills.  This practice continued until the ten-wheelers proved equal to the task in the Edwardian period. Perhaps the most famous class introduced for such duties was the SG Duke Class.

 

All 10 class members became tender engines on conversion to SG. 

 

This means your picture must fall within  a fairly narrow time frame: May 1890 (BG tender conversion) to August 1892 (SG tender conversion).

 

Remarkably, the 10 SG-converted 3501s became part of the well-known 25-strong SG Stella Class, with, once again, sandwich frames!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Edwardian
spelling

[Annie]

27 minutes ago, Hroth said:

*Although there was a lot of Churchward thinking behind it...

Ah, well that explains it then.  I find it difficult to get on with that kind of Brutalism in Locomotive Design school of thought.

 

34 minutes ago, Hroth said:

It reminds me of the 3001 2-2-2 class, another set of convertibles, of which WIgmore Castle disgraced itself by derailing in Box Tunnel with a broken axle due to too much load being carried at the front. These were all rebuilt as 4-2-2 3031 class singles.

However I find that I must mention that it was a standard gauge 3001 that broke its axle in Box Tunnel and not one of the Broad Gauge convertibles.  Looking at photos of the 3001 class in 2-2-2 form though they do look front heavy with that longer boiler they were carrying.  They were definitely more handsome and elegant engines once they were converted to 4-2-2's.

 

10 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

3508 was one of ten double-framed side-tanks built in 1885.  

 

Half the class were subsequently converted to 2-4-0 tender engines, 3508 being one of the first three. Leading wheels 3'6'', coupled wheels 5'1''. 

 Yes one of these.  I have to say that I would be perfectly happy to own models of these engines in both their forms.

3508 in tender engine form has that look of an engine designed to climb hills and even though it would have only worked in the final two years of the Broad Gauge I think I could cope with that.

So they became members of the 'Stella' class after conversion, - that was something I didn't know so thanks for that.

 

[Edwardian]

Great to see in tank form. Conspicuously lacking the sandwich frames claimed in RCTS Vol.2, but that makes perfect sense for a BG type and is reflected in the tender version. 

 

EDIT: Love the valance cut outs for the rod cranks! I hadn't noticed that on the tender engine picture, though they're there!

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Edwardian

[Hroth]

51 minutes ago, Annie said:

However I find that I must mention that it was a standard gauge 3001 that broke its axle in Box Tunnel and not one of the Broad Gauge convertibles. 

3021 Wigmore Castle was one of the first eight of the class which were built as Broad Gauge convertibles. Converted in mid-1892 after the final abolition of the Broad Gauge, it was standard gauge when it snapped its leading axle in Box Tunnel.

 

The tank form of 3503 looks better proportioned than the tender version.

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

3021 Wigmore Castle was one of the first eight of the class which were built as Broad Gauge convertibles.

Well they shouldn't have messed about with it then should they.  Taking away its lovely Broad Gauge axles and giving it inferior short ones. 

 

Quote by Hroth: "The tank form of 3503 looks better proportioned than the tender version"

 

I must agree, - by a slim margin I do like the tank version a little more than the tender egine.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Annie
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[Edwardian]

But you prefer them both to the 1892 rebuilds; by a broad margin.

[Annie]

11 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

But you prefer them both to the 1892 rebuilds; by a broad margin.

Oh yes indeed James, - oh yes indeed.

[Annie]

Having experienced amazingly lucid dreams last night and then waking up and deciding to write down my dreams; - spending perhaps an hour or so in doing this........ And then waking up again!  -  I'm going to refuse to believe anything else that happens today. 

 

Mind you though this dream coffee my dream daughter has just made for me is rather good.

 

 

 

[Annie]

Broad Gauge cheer up picture:  Following on from yesterday's discussion here's No. 3022 a Dean convertible 2-2-2 tender engine of the 3001 class.

(Of course I don't believe for a moment that any of this is really happening )

 

[Annie]

An update on progress at Stogumber.  All still WIP and the snaps were taken in the surveyor/editor side of TRS19.

 

I'm leaving the trackwork mods for now as much of how it will be finally be laid out will depend on what scenic assets I can gather together and reskin, modify and generally inflict alterations upon.  I re-sculpted the hill behind the station platform as much as I dared, but was limited by the very coarse structural lattice underneath the ground surface which can be difficult to shape close to trackwork, buildings, platforms & etc due to things suddenly turning into a distorted mess.  While I was about it I changed the iron handrail beside the footpath down to the road for a wooden one which seems to be what was used back in the day.

 

The placeholder signal box beside the cattle dock has been removed and something which I hope is a reasonable representation of the original B&ER signal box has been put in place on the platform.  I used a model of Pen-Y-Mount signal box from a friend's WHR/FR project as the basis and reskinned it as well as attaching all kinds of things to it that it never had to start with.  I'm still working on the window frames so that's why I'm only showing you a back view.  The corrugated iron shed next to the signal box is going to be reskinned into a representation of the timber built platform shelter at Stogumber.  I would like to make a proper model of it, but I'm still getting my nerve up to make the attempt in Sketchup 8.  The timber built shelters on the branch are an interesting collection of buildings and it would be nice if I could do them justice one day.  The timber platform model I'm using is too wide, but I'm just going to have to put up with that.

 

The buildings and cattle dock on the other side of the tracks will need to be moved into their correct positions once I get the trackwork correctly aligned.  The cattle dock isn't correct, - nothing that's available is, - but it's the cattle dock I decided I would use at all the stations along the line, working on the principle that by doing that they might look like some kind of standard design rather than just a placeholder.

Some more ground level raising needs to happen on the other side of the station boundary as well since it's all too low in height.  I've done a basic survey using the topographic map at https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/maps/vayv/West-Somerset/ which has been very useful.  Unlike some other shifty websites that try to sell you publically available information this website is entirely free to use.  When I'm feeling a little more brave I'll have a go at a spot of landscape bashing.

 

 

[Annie]

And the signal box now complete.  I'm reasonably happy with how it's turned out.

 

 

[Caley Jim]

Only one, I hope constructive, comment.  I suspect the steps would have a side rail against the wall into which the ends of the treads were fitted, rather than them being attached directly to the wall.  I'm talking here about the board to which the treads are attached, not the handrail.

 

Jim

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Only one, I hope constructive, comment.  I suspect the steps would have a side rail against the wall into which the ends of the treads were fitted, rather than them being attached directly to the wall.  I'm talking here about the board to which the treads are attached, not the handrail.

 

Jim

The steps are from something else Jim and they are just that wee bit too wide and the wall side rail had a piece that fouled the edge of the door so I had to hide it in the wall.  I tried several step models and those ones were about the best I could find.  Perhaps I should have a go at making my own set as a nice little practice piece to help me develop my 3D modelling skills.

Edited September 2, 2021 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

The latest Broad Gauge Society newsletter has the data sheet and drawing for an iron South Devon Railway tilt wagon.  Very nice, - very nice indeed.

[Annie]

So this is the timber waiting shelter done and dusted.  The shed model mesh I used is a bit lower in height than the prototype waiting shelter, but I think it will do.  The waiting shelter shouldn't have fancy bargeboards either, - only for some reason the Trainz model exporter for Sketchup 8 is refusing to compile splines properly so I couldn't make a plain bargeboard and I had to use a fancy canopy edging spline instead.  As far as I can tell I've painted the shelter as it was in the late 1890s with the door and window joinery in chocolate/dark brown and the rest of the trim pieces in dark stone with the weatherboards painted white.  There should be an oil lamp on a bracket above the door, but I haven't got anything that's suitable.  During pre-grouping times there was a stove for heating in the platform shelter, but it seems to have been removed around the same time as the signal box was taken away.  I still need to make the chimney for the stove, but I'm tired now and I need to sleep.

In case anyone is wondering the signal box windows really were obscured by the waiting shelter's roof, though with the lower roof on my model the virtual signalman at Stogumber has a better view than his real life counterpart.