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

[Jake The Rat]

12 hours ago, Annie said:

 

 

 

The small ship in the background will pass the bridge easily, but the large one in the foreground won't, I'm afraid; & if, there would be only millimetres left on each side.

But that's just a minor detail, all in all the layout looks great.

 

Myself, I don't have anything to report here at the moment, because what I've been doing in the last few weeks is an American 'Lionel Lines' toy railway, which has nothing to do with this thread except for the rails & the fact that Annie's 'Bedwood' inspired me to name the forestry 'Badwood'.

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Jake The Rat said:

The small ship in the background will pass the bridge easily, but the large one in the foreground won't, I'm afraid; & if, there would be only millimetres left on each side.

But that's just a minor detail, all in all the layout looks great.

The small harbour on the river side of the swing bridge is only for small vessels and fishing boats & etc Jake.  Larger vessels like the old collier in the foreground stay in the outer harbour.

 

'Badwood', - I like it  

[Annie]

Presently working on the station building with its major reskin job.  Progress is slow because I keep wanting to fall asleep.

The street side of the building has yet to be done and that's going to be fairly horrible to do.  I am pleased with how it's coming together though.

 

 

[Annie]

I have a few things to say about doing this station building reskin for 'Bedwood' and they mainly go something like, - 'AAAARRRGGGHH!'

Figuring out how the textures are mapped on some of these old Trainz models can be diabolical and since I'm fussy about how my textures fit together it was a very slow process with making adjustments and then going and seeing how the model looked in the simulator.  But the main station building is done now with just the canopies  left to do, but they can wait for another day.

 

A South Devon policeman's bothy doesn't do a half bad job of being a pre-GPO telephone box.  In case you are wondering why the original station model had a horrible modern glass and stainless steel telephone box attached to it that can't be removed so I needed something in the way of a proper telephone box to cover it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Annie
added a picture

[Annie]

And I'm very happy to say that the Bedwood station building is now done and dusted.  Well perhaps not quite in that I have yet to do the attachment points for the chimneys and the wooden SDR policeman's bothy telephone box so it all stays together in one piece should it get moved, but that's not exactly difficult to do.

 

 

[Annie]

Due to there being a severe lack of GER push-pull coaches for Trainz  I did an update on a very old plain and simple 'litho' coach that a member of the creator group had made way back in TS2004 days as a quick way to get things up and running.  I've still got to do the other side yet, but hopefully that won't take long.  I can only work for a couple of hours before I fall asleep so it's a bit on the frustrating side at the moment.

The 'Crystal Palace' tank engine is an old model from Paulz Trainz that I cured from having Arial fonts disease.

 

 

 

[Annie]

 

Not the quite same as my GER 'Motor Train' coach, but the driving end has all the details I want.  The creator group member who originally made the coach I'm modifying has told me that he was following some articles in 1950s Railway Modellers as well as  R C Riley’s 'Great Eastern Album' when he was making this coach as well as some others.  He'd only just learned to use GMax and had been given TS2004 for his birthday so the coaches were his test pieces to see if he could make models for Trainz.

[Edwardian]

Wonderful photograph, Annie.

 

Pure GER; long commode handles, deep waist panels.

 

 

I note it still has gas lamp tops fitted, and one can quite clearly see the GER works plate on the headstock.

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Edwardian

[Annie]

5 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Wonderful photograph, Annie..........

Yes indeed James it's absolutely lovely.  As soon as I saw the photo I knew that it couldn't be anything else except a GER coach.  The waist panels, the commode handles and that works plate almost jumped right out of the photo at me.

It's a real pity that none of the skilled 3D modellers for Trainz have taken an interest in the GER.  Just about everything available including my own work are reskins of something else and aren't proper prototype models. (sigh)

 

Thank you for the detail photos.  They will be very useful, both with my current project and also against the day when I might be able to commision some proper GER coaches for Trainz.

 

[Annie]

All very interesting.  I've been poking about in the GER Society's archives and found a drawing for the original 1905 tram cars used on the line.  Six Wisbech and Upwell Tramway coaches found its way there later on, but naturally enough it's the 1905 drawing which is of most interest.  I don't know where any of this is going, but I compounded things by purchasing a mega bundle of drawings on PDF that I'm frowning over at the moment.

I should really join the GER Society with the amount of stuff I've purchased from them lately.

 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CmhXIZdL4X5jWi-D9Gmq8tN975xj0LN1/view

Edited March 17, 2021 by Annie
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[Edwardian]

Some great articles in the GERS magazine

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Some great articles in the GERS magazine

Yes I imagine there would be James.  It's a bit silly me flying the flag for the GER and not belonging to the society.

I have to say too that out of all the railway societies I've had dealings with the GER Society is one of the nicest.

[CKPR]

Peter Paye's  "The Tollesbury Branch" (OPC) has long been part of my railway library, sitting in its incongruous orange alongside more sombre tomes on the Furness, L&Y, etc. Along with Brampton Town, Clayton West and the Culm Valley, it's just so suited to being reproduced in model form.

[Annie]

3 hours ago, CKPR said:

Peter Paye's  "The Tollesbury Branch" (OPC) has long been part of my railway library, sitting in its incongruous orange alongside more sombre tomes on the Furness, L&Y, etc. Along with Brampton Town, Clayton West and the Culm Valley, it's just so suited to being reproduced in model form.

 

 

And now purchased.  That's my pocket money blown for the week.  For someone like me who likes minor lines, light railways and largely empty landscapes the Tollesbury Branch ticks all the boxes.  For a little out of the way branchline there seems to be an awful lot of photos of it, - and especially pre-WW1 photos which are of the greatest interest to me.  I have the Mersea Island Museum's photo collection to thank for that.

 

 

 

 

 

I suppose I couldn't do worse than to start at the Blackwater River and work back towards Kelvedon, but with the proviso that I can stop at anytime if I feel that there's too much civilisation pressing in on me.  I feel I must comment though that if the GER was hoping to be able to promote jolly trips to the seaside they didn't really do very well with choosing the Blackwater River.  I know WW1 messed up their plans as it did to just about all the other English light railways's hopes and dreams, but even then it would have required huge shovelfuls of optimism to pull it off.

 

Edit:  For anyone interested in the older species of GER coaches there's plenty to be seen in photos of the line since a goodly amount of them ended their days there as lineside huts and platform shelters.

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Annie
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[CKPR]

That the Kelvedon & Tollesbury served Wilkins' jam factory at Tiptree is another part of it's appeal  and if you are ever in the vicinity of Tiptree, I do recommend a visit to  Wilkins, who are still in business in their original premises. In addition to a rather good shop and cafe purveying all manner of jam and jam-related confections, there is an excellent Museum of Jam that also has exhibits and displays about the railway itself. 

https://www.tiptree.com/museum

 

"Although it has a serious purpose and is much loved by all who work at ‘the jam factory’, there is something rather reassuringly British about a museum which houses railway maps alongside images from a young photographer, an aircraft propeller and a four-legged chicken. For many years, the aircraft propeller (Sopwith Snipe) was carefully stored out of sight, in the ladies’ toilets."

 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by CKPR

[Edwardian]

 

 

[Annie]

Oooooo now that was a jammy find James  (shall I get my coat?)

 

The two leading coaches look very much like the 3rd class tramway coaches I have a drawing for which is encouraging as they seem to have been elusive creatures and somewhat camera shy.  I can't post the drawing since it's copyright to the GER Society and only for the eyes of the elect, - or else those folk like me who coughed up and purchased a copy.

2 hours ago, CKPR said:

That the K&T served Wilkins' jam factory at Tiptree is another part of it's appeal  and if you are ever in the vicinity of Tiptree, I do recommend a visit to  Wilkins, who are still in business in the original premises. In addition to a rather good shop and cafe purveying all manner of jam and jam-related confections, there is an excellent Museum of Jam that also has exhibits and displays about the K&T. 

https://www.tiptree.com/museum

 

That is brilliant Mr CKPR.  I shall sleep much better now knowing that there were sensible folk in the world who had the foresight to create a jam museum.  I shall make a note; - must build the jam factory.

 

At present I'm still working on 'Bedwood' and I don't want to abandon it and run off after shinies and build the Tollesbury branch.  Certainly if I'd stumbled across the Tollesbury branch just over a week ago I wouldn't have started on 'Bedwood', - but something tells me that 'Bedwood' could find itself with a few Tollesbury branch features as practice pieces while I get my hand in.

 

[Regularity]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

Cue "Greg Wallace" voice:

Stations don't get much simpler than that!

[Northroader]

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/01/29/the-kelvedon-and-tollesbury-light-railway/

[Annie]

Soooooo many good references for the Tollesbury branch.  BUT I need to finish 'Bedwood' first before I make a start on another project no matter how tempting it might be.

 

[Annie]

I've finally got around to sorting out the layout boards in the other half of the room.  I'm seriously considering 'borrowing' the Tollesbury branch's high level-low level junction connection at Kelvedon as a method of connecting the branch into the outside world.

 

 

And looking back in the other direction.

 

[Annie]

Kelvedon junction semi-copy mostly done.  Bedton Low Level and Bedton High Level, - though the high level station is largely going to be a background scenic piece and won't play much of a part in operating the layout.

 

 

 

I'm still making up my mind about the low level station buildings so these ones are placeholders for the time being.

 

 

The carstone station building was made some time ago by a member of the creator group I belong to and is part of a modular set of buildings based on the station at Brandon in Suffolk.  The original prototype building is flint not carstone, but I won't tell anyone if you won't.

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Annie
added a picture

[CKPR]

Re.the Kelvedon & Tollesbury in model form, if you can get hold of Railway Modeller for June 1976, a layout based on the "Crab & Winkle" was 'Railway of the Month' - I can do my usual camera phone photographs  from my copy if need be.  

[Annie]

1 hour ago, CKPR said:

Re.the Kelvedon & Tollesbury in model form, if you can get hold of Railway Modeller for June 1976, a layout based on the "Crab & Winkle" was 'Railway of the Month' - I can do my usual camera phone photographs  from my copy if need be.  

Yay me!  I found a second hand copy at the Uk Magazine Exchange in Derbyshire.  My on-line subscription only goes back as far as 2011, our local auction website didn't have one and ebay only had gold leaf edition ones printed on vellum judging by the prices they were asking.  My own back issues of RM were destroyed unfortunately when the garage flooded during a storm around eight years ago.

Thanks very much Mr CKPR for telling me about that article.

 

With my digital 3 rail 'Bedwood' layout I wanted to have a trial run at doing the junction connection since I hadn't seen a branchline junction done that way before.  My only real mistake is that I made the embankment higher than it was at Kelvedon, but that's not really a big problem and I'm not going to worry about it.

 

When I come to do the 'serious' model (no smiling allowed!) I'll be a lot more exact about it.

[Annie]

The Implausible Tunnel Company had a great deal that I simply couldn't pass up.   Yes I know I am taking maximum advantage of the old model railway 'hide the fiddle yard in a tunnel' trick, but only because getting an implausible bridge to fit was completely impossible.

Seriously though having a fiddle yard connection at that end of the high level tracks means that the junction connection can now be used in a useful way.  Trying for a tunnel at the other end of the high level tracks might be pushing it a bit far, but a hidden in plain sight type loop might be worth a go.

 

 

I wanted to try doing some of my pale yellow and green light railway buildings in the buff and maroon paintwork I used on the station at Bedwood and  have to say I'm very pleased with how they turned out.  The colours have an almost LNWR touch about them to my eyes, - what do you think?

 

 

In the old photos of Kelvedon low level station the tall lattice signals up at the high level station are very noticeable  so I decided I could do that too at Bedton.  The branchline still has its M&H slotted post signals which is exactly as it should be.

 

 

A question to the wise among you.  A particular type of point lever that I've never seen before is very much in evidence in photos of the Tollesbury branch and I'm wondering if it is a standard GER type of point lever or not.  I mostly use very nice digital models of McKenzie and Holland point levers on my Trainz layouts, but these ones in the photos look like some old length of iron bar sticking up out of a wooden box.

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Annie
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