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

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

It's a bone of contention that the GER Society permits the publication and discussion of anything railway-like in GER territory right up to the present day and no doubt beyond and into the year 3025.  There's little enough researched and known about the some aspects of the GER without non GER material clogging things up. 

 

Pretty well all the pre-Grouping line societies encourage the study of all periods of the railways in their "territory", from the constituent companies through to contemporary developments. Remember that many of the members (and deceased founding members) will have been or are railway employees and enthusiasts who got to know the company's lines in the BR steam and early diesel eras.

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Pretty well all the pre-Grouping line societies encourage the study of all periods of the railways in their "territory", from the constituent companies through to contemporary developments. Remember that many of the members (and deceased founding members) will have been or are railway employees and enthusiasts who got to know the company's lines in the BR steam and early diesel eras.

(sigh)  Yes I do understand and accept your point Stephen.  It's just really annoying to find drawings of GER locomotives & etc in the society archives that are post-grouping and not pre-grouping and basic information such as the livery details of a GER horsebox took a stupid amount of digging on my part to find.  The society does have an open and welcoming policy towards non-members, but despite that much of the original material they have is held in places that aren't exactly easy to access even if you do happen to live in Britain.

 

(sigh) Don't mind me, I'm just feeling really grumpy due to my eyesight and being sleepy all the time.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

places that aren't exactly easy to access even if you do happen to live in Britain.

 

That's East Anglia for you.

[Annie]

After crashing out and sleeping with a head full of weird dreams for a few hours I played trains on 'Ashington' for a while to cheer myself up.  After all the work I'd done a while ago on signalling and improving the MPDs and goods yards 'Ashington' does exactly what it says on the tin and works perfectly; - all of which makes it good for giving some of my older legacy Trainz models a darn good run.

 

'County of Berks'  I first saw a picture of a 'County' in a back copy of MRC when I was a teenager and I've had a liking for them ever since.

 

Standard class 4MT tank engine drawing into Castleton station on a suburban service.  For an older Trainz model this is a surprisingly nicely made digital locomotive.  It's still in 'out of the box' condition and I haven't done any fettling on it yet.  This isn't an 'Ashington' engine I'm just making use of Ashington's mainline for testing and fettling purposes.

 

[Annie]

Broad Gauge cheer up picture:  Rover class "Bulkeley" at Chippenham.  Not the best print, but all kinds of interesting details to be seen despite that.

 

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, Annie said:

Broad Gauge cheer up picture:  Rover class "Bulkeley" at Chippenham.  Not the best print, but all kinds of interesting details to be seen despite that.

 

 

A feature of the convertible brakes I'd not noticed before is the extra-sticking-out ducket but with two sets of panels to minimise the work needed in cutting back for standard gauge clearances. Interesting bit of antique point rodding, too.

Edited November 22, 2021 by Compound2632

[Annie]

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

A feature of the convertible brakes I'd not noticed before is the extra-sticking-out ducket but with two sets of panels to minimise the work needed in cutting back for standard gauge clearances. Interesting bit of antique point rodding, too.

Yes the extra wide duckets were devised for convertible brakes so the guard could still see down the train if non-convertible vehicles were coupled to the brake van.  I don't know much about point rodding, but I thought the rodding in the photo looked a bit unusual.

[Annie]

I got fed up with not feeling well so I gave myself a reskinning/texture project to keep my mind off things.  An unsuspecting Furness J1 'Sharpie' was set upon and has become the latest locomotive to be inducted into the Affiliated (Imaginary) Railway Companies.  It certainly was interesting to work on and a wee bit tricky at times to get the texturing how I wanted, but overall I think it hasn't turned out too bad.   I hummed and harred about the livery, but decided that there wasn't any reason why a small 'Sharpie' shouldn't be dressed up in ultramarine. 

With that tall chimney it's just as well that I'm working on increasing the clearance height of the overbridges on the BH&FER section as the new Holden GER arrivals could only just squeak under some of the bridges.  There were a few strange things the model's original creator had done which I've now attended to and it's looking like No.065 is going to be a useful little engine.  As you might expect its axle loading if fairly light so it will have a high route availability.

 

 

 

[NeilHB]

Sacrilege Annie, that poor unsuspecting Furness locomotive! I must admit though it does look good in blue. 

[Annie]

1 hour ago, NeilHB said:

Sacrilege Annie, that poor unsuspecting Furness locomotive! I must admit though it does look good in blue. 

Neil, I prefer to think of No.065 as being a species of  'small Sharpie' rather than being a repainted Furness locomotive.  It really is an ideal engine to add to the roster as there's a fair bit of my alternative Norfolk layout that falls into the lightly laid trackwork category where larger engines are simply not allowed to go.  No.066 might soon join No.065, but I'd want to make sure No.065 is properly fettled first before adding another small Sharpie into the mix.

I've not been all that happy with running GER R24 0-6-0's as GER E22 substitutes and I'd much rather invent a new chapter in the Affiliated (Imaginary) Railway Companies history and replace the out of place R24's with 'small Sharpie' 2-4-2 tank engines. 

It would be very nice of course if I could commision an E22, but I've got a lot of boring house repairs that need doing so I can't.

 

GER R24 as is presently used on my (Alt) Norfolk layout. (Picture courtesy of the GER Society)

 

GER E22 as is not used on my (Alt) Norfolk layout even though I'd like to.  (Picture courtesy of the GER Society)

Edited November 23, 2021 by Annie
Um.........

[MikeOxon]

16 hours ago, Annie said:

Broad Gauge cheer up picture:  Rover class "Bulkeley" at Chippenham.  Not the best print, but all kinds of interesting details to be seen despite that.

Curiously, there were two Broad Gauge 'Bulkeley's: the Rover class engine you illustrate and a member of the 'Sir Watkin' class 0-6-0T.  I found that out after I read that my wife's great-grandfather brought 'Sir Watkin' into collision with 'Bulkeley' at Bullo Pill in 1870.  Both engines were described as 'Sir Watkin' class in his disciplinary record!

[Annie]

3 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Curiously, there were two Broad Gauge 'Bulkeley's: the Rover class engine you illustrate and a member of the 'Sir Watkin' class 0-6-0T.  I found that out after I read that my wife's great-grandfather brought 'Sir Watkin' into collision with 'Bulkeley' at Bullo Pill in 1870.  Both engines were described as 'Sir Watkin' class in his disciplinary record!

Now that I did not know Mike.

[Compound2632]

If you're in the mood for salivating, take a look at the first few photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/144381574@N05/albums/72157720173370422/page1; by @nickd.

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

If you're in the mood for salivating, take a look at the first few photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/144381574@N05/albums/72157720173370422/page1; by @nickd.

Yes those two Armstrong convertibles were mentioned on the Farcebook 19th century railways group along with a couple of photos.  They really are a magnificent pair of models.  The rest of the models on that page are seriously nice too.

[Annie]

I'm carrying on with the digital-model-railways-as-a-way-to-cheer-me-up plan and it seems to be working.  I'm still having sleep crashouts, but at least with a digital layout there's little harm that can be done should I fall asleep while working on it as I take great care to take a backup copy whenever I save anything.

I'm presently working my way along the section of landscape that contains the Tenpenny branch and the Foxwood branch.  I did intend to carry on with working on the new section that connects the BH&FER mainline onto the GER-GCR joint line, but I decided that I should really finish all the miscellaneous tasks that I've been meaning to do for ages along the Tenpenny branch before striking out and doing something else.  Sorting field boundaries and gates, tidying up crop ground textures, replacing trees & etc...........

But one job that really did need sorting out was the goods branch connection between the joint line and Tenpenny Wharf.  What was there did work more or less, but it was all pretty awful since it was a right old patch job.  So taking a deep breath I deleted it all and relaid it properly.

Something I did want to do was use a plainly more lightweight type of track on the tramway and light railway sections instead of the mainline type bullhead track I had been using.  I'd tried out a lightweight flatbottomed type of procedural track* that used 60lb rail on the Hopewood and Windweather Tramways and had devised new textures and normal maps to represent sandy and gravelly ballast for the track mesh library.  I'd certainly considered that track conversion job a success, but what I needed was a track with a ballast type that would be a close match for the bullhead track so I could join them together with the ballast looking reasonably continuous.

 

*Procedural track is cunningly devised with strange magical incantations so that point blades, frogs and check rails are automatically generated when laying pointwork.  Or they do provided proper care is taken and you hold your mouth just right.

 

So I did the texture creation and normal map thing again to make lightweight track with dirty looking ballast and I had a successful result as you can see in the two pictures below.  Now I just need to relay the trackwork on the Tenpenny branch with this new track and I'm wondering if I should do the Foxwood branch as well.

 

A view looking towards the north of the flat rail crossing with the Foxwood branch at Bleak Cross (such a cheerful name).

 

Bleakhorse Road crossing also looking northwards.

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

I'm carrying on with the digital-model-railways-as-a-way-to-cheer-me-up plan and it seems to be working.

Nothing to with railways, but I have found listening to Queen, ELO and the Travelling Wilburys quite uplifting of late.

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

Nothing to with railways, but I have found listening to Queen, ELO and the Travelling Wilburys quite uplifting of late.

Recently I've been purchasing ambient music from a small independent on-line website named 'Bandcamp' that provides a store front for indie musicians to sell their music.  My daughter calls it my weird music, but I like it.  It sooths all the knots out of my brain and helps me to relax when I'm having a not so good day.

[Annie]

Former GER lines cheer up picture:  Aldeburgh railway station, and eastern terminus of the Saxmundham to Aldeburgh branch line, receives a visit from Norwich Thorpe-allocated Holden Class E4 2-4-0 No. 62789 with what appears to be 2-coach local passenger service either from Ipswich (via Sax) or Saxmundham itself. Photo was taken on Friday 11th July 1952.

And look at all those barrows!  It goes to show just how much parcels traffic was handled by the railways even at a village the size of Aldeburgh.  That brick goods shed is an absolute delight as well.

(Photo: Neville Stead Collection)

[Jake The Rat]

I like Blues, but I wouldn't claim it's particularly uplifting.

 

 

[Annie]

14 minutes ago, Jake The Rat said:

I like Blues, but I wouldn't claim it's particularly uplifting.

Plainly an acquired taste.

[Annie]

Sparrowcam view over Lockes Soak looking towards the north west.  I have the view distance set to one and a half kilometers so as not to punish my elderly graphics card too severely.  My last session with bringing this part of the layout up to scratch involved planting hundreds of poplar trees, laying out yet more hedges along field boundaries and planting lots of coarse grasses around the shores of Bleakmere.

I decided against relaying the Foxhollow branch with lightweight track, but I will go ahead with doing it on the Tenpenny branch.  After that I'll see about populating more fields with sheep and cattle which will be about as exciting as planting poplar trees.  (Makes note, - GER wool wagons needed.)  

 

 

After seeing how much agricultural land I created in this area perhaps I'm going to need some fruit vans as well.

(Drawing from MRC Datafile Jan 1986)

[Annie]

Broad Gauge cheer up picture:  In November 1872, the Broad Gauge 4-4-0 saddle tank No 85 was built by the Avonside Engine Co for the Bristol & Exeter Railway.  When the Great Western Railway absorbed the B&ER in 1876 this locomotive was renumbered 2048 as shown in the photograph.  Some folk call these engines ugly ducklings, but I think they are wonderful.  Originally designed for passenger work they proved that they could carry out any task that was put before them. 

As the former B&ER lines were converted to standard gauge during the 1880s these locomotives gradually migrated westwards to former South Devon Railway and Cornwall Railway lines which remained loyal to the Broad Gauge until 1892 and that fateful weekend.......  

 

[Compound2632]

13 hours ago, Annie said:

And look at all those barrows!  It goes to show just how much parcels traffic was handled by the railways even at a village the size of Aldeburgh. 

 

Or maybe not, given how neatly they're all lined up against the fence, even though the train's in. 

 

Interesting feature of the goods shed - not how the floor is sitting on transverse joists resting on the brick wall - is that to provide a well-ventilated space underneath, so that sacks of grain etc. wouldn't be standing on a cold, damp surface? Or is it just that the floor has been raised from its original height? The wooden doorframe to the rail entrance is unusual for such a structure, I think.

[MikeOxon]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

Some folk call these engines ugly ducklings, but I think they are wonderful. 

I've come round to your way of thinking too

Mike

[Caley Jim]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Or maybe not, given how neatly they're all lined up against the fence, even though the train's in. 

Not being familiar with the area, I'm wondering if there was a lot of seasonal fruit or veg traffic which went by passenger train and the barrows were there to transport it between the carts and the train across the platform?

 

Jim