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

[Martin S-C]

On 29/06/2020 at 12:20, Decapod99 said:

Blimey! - interesting to see some of my old trainz models still running 15 years after I made them.

Looks really good Annie

 

Cheers,

Paul

 

Good heavens! Hello Paul!

[Martin S-C]

On 16/07/2020 at 10:36, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

Annie I hope you are going to render the fluff that builds up in the mechanisms from running on carpet 

 

 

 

You need another station called Fluffnhayr Town. Or maybe Lint.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Martin S-C

[Martin S-C]

On 21/07/2020 at 02:39, Florence Locomotive Works said:

This is completely random, but I wonder if someone makes a Kitson-Meyer that could run on one of your layouts? I think they made a few in 3 ft gauge, but the one below I believe is for Argentinian barrow gauge. 

Not the prettiest locos ever, but certainly the most impressive thing the Airedale Foundry produced. 

What a monster! What's it's Whyte notation? I also love the herb garden turntable, a great use of otherwise wasted space.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

18 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

What a monster! What's it's Whyte notation? I also love the herb garden turntable, a great use of otherwise wasted space.

From memory its 0-8-8-0, but it may be 0-6-2-6-2-0.

 

Douglas

[Caley Jim]

34 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

You need another station called Fluffnhayr Town. Or maybe Lint.

The first club I was a member of had a layout which had a line from a junction at Inverstoorie to a terminus at Achterchooch.  (the middle 'ch' pronounced as in Church, the other two as in loch and the emphasis on the 'oo').  Of course @Malcolm 0-6-0 is talking about oos, not stoor.

 

Jim

[Annie]

46 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

You need another station called Fluffnhayr Town. Or maybe Lint.

I have made a careful note of those names Martin since I'm very likely to do a good few more carpet layouts before I'm done.

[Annie]

Back on page 192 I mentioned that I was tidying up and improving an old 'litho' style Trainz GER 'Motor Train' coach for an elderly member of the creator group that I belong to.  The object wasn't so much as to make an accurate model, but to instead improve an old  'litho' coach to make it a better representation of a GER Motor Train coach.

The reskinning work was a bit tricky in places and especially where parts of the texture had to be done in reverse to look the right way round in the simulator, but being patient about it and taking my time made for a reasonable result.  The original coach was missing gas lamp tops on the roof and gas cylinders under the underframe which made it look a bit bare so I tried out my fledgling 3D modelling skills again and made these missing parts.  Creating six attachment points for the gas lamp tops gave my brain a workout and I had to have two goes at the gas tanks because I got their orientation wrong.  Feeling somewhat more expert I made a basic bracketed whistle for the driving end which finished things off nicely.

I think I'll give one of the old GER composite models the same treatment and that should make a nice two coach Motor Train set.

 

 

 

[Annie]

The whole point of the exercise; - I needed a motor train coach for Bedwood and with nothing suitable available I had to go hunting for something I could rebuild and adapt.  No.3 is proving to be useful as the general purpose Bedwood branch engine so that was another spot of conversion work that was well worth doing.

 

 

 

[Martin S-C]

On 29/08/2020 at 15:54, Annie said:

More L&Y.  Running trains on my friend's layout using the steam controls.  Much fettling of these old Class 23 saddle tanks has been going on and I've got them just about right now.  They're sulky grumpy old things though and a lot of fun to drive.

 

 

 

The graphics used on that bridge are superb.

[Martin S-C]

On 02/09/2020 at 14:46, Annie said:

Thanks CKPR.  Sometimes when I'm having not very good days with this illness I've got I end up thinking what I'm doing is rubbish and isn't much good so It's always good to get feedback to tell me that I'm being daft and there's nothing much wrong with my texture work.

 

Anyway I had some fun today running trains around on my Trainz Model Railway format Broad Gauge layout which was a good cheer up.

 

 

What a simply splendid model railway room, big enough to hold a wedding reception in the middle and enjoy the trains going round during the best man's speech.

[Annie]

17 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

What a simply splendid model railway room, big enough to hold a wedding reception in the middle and enjoy the trains going round during the best man's speech.

Yes it is a bit on the large side Martin.  I didn't really intend for it to be that big when I started to build it,  - it's certainly a lot of fun to play trains in though.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Annie

[Martin S-C]

On 09/09/2020 at 12:53, Annie said:

Have you tried running Windows Disc Check  Jake?  I had a crash happen here when the power went off suddenly when TS2012 was running and TS2012 wouldn't start afterwards.  After trying a few things it was disc check that fixed it.

 

That can most certainly be arranged Neil.

 

Further work has been done on the Minehead branch with now three stations completed to the standard I want for this layout.

 

Blue Anchor.

 

 

The right hand of those two cottages is (or was some years ago) a B&B and my family and I enjoyed a lovely sunny weekend there many years ago. My other half had hoped to spend time at Blue Anchor's fabulous beach and she did - but on her own as our young daughter and I spent the weekend riding steam trains. I think our daughter was only about 5 or 6 at the time and I have this fond hope that it was this weekend that got her into engineering. Before her teens she was asking me technical questions about how steam engines worked that I struggled to answer.

[Annie]

23 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

The graphics used on that bridge are superb.

Yes it's a really nice bridge.  I don't know much about it though since I didn't build the layout and I'm not sure where my friend sourced it from.

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Martin S-C said:

The right hand of those two cottages is (or was some years ago) a B&B and my family and I enjoyed a lovely sunny weekend there many years ago. My other half had hoped to spend time at Blue Anchor's fabulous beach and she did - but on her own as our young daughter and I spent the weekend riding steam trains. I think our daughter was only about 5 or 6 at the time and I have this fond hope that it was this weekend that got her into engineering. Before her teens she was asking me technical questions about how steam engines worked that I struggled to answer.

I've since reworked the landscape around Blue Anchor Martin and unfortunately the nice cottages had to go since they arrived on the scene after WW1.  I only know the area through maps and old photos, but despite that I can see it's a beautiful location.

 

I encouraged my own daughter to give things a try whether they were the kind of things girls were supposed to do or not.  My daughter used to do all her own car repairs including overhauling engines until she had to give up driving for medical reasons.  She also studied computer science when it was still very much a boy's club here in NZ and used to run her own software troubleshooting business until the pressure got too much and she had to give it up.  She still likes to work on her own code writing projects, even if she would never consider working professionally in the industry again.

[Annie]

Possibly a silly idea, but I wondered how the motor train coach would work out as a steam railmotor.

 

[Martin S-C]

On 22/09/2020 at 10:54, MikeOxon said:

According to Wikipedia "The LNER Class U1 Garratt was also tried out unsuccessfully in 1949–1950 and again in 1955. On one occasion it was banking a train hauled by LMS Garratt No. 47972 which stalled on the bank and was rescued by "Big Bertha", resulting in the formation of a train with nineteen driving axles."

My maths tells me that would be 17 driven axles, five in Big Bertha and six each on the two Garretts.

 

...or was one of the Garretts a 2-8-8-2?

Edited March 28, 2021 by Martin S-C

[Martin S-C]

On 05/10/2020 at 12:00, Compound2632 said:

Several of the passengers in the TO look as if they're wearing Cossack hats. Maybe it's just a rather strange hairstyle.

I thought they were teddy boys.

[Annie]

3 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

My maths tells me that would be 17 driven axles, five in Big Bertha and six each on the two Garretts.

 

...or was one of the Garretts a 2-8-8-2?

The U1 Garratt was a 2-8-0+0-8-2.

[Annie]

Steam railmotor under test seen at Moxbury.  I'm not sure whether to leave the passenger section as four compartments or to revise it into an open coach.  If I stay with compartments I'll add two 1st class compartments to the railmotor's driving trailer, - but I can't make up my mind about it at the moment.   Too sleepy, - I can't brain today, I have the dumb.

 

The steam railmotor certainly runs very well which is encouraging.

 

 

At Muddle Junction.

 

 

Nodding Keep.

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

Really looks the part, Annie, and I love the idea.

[Martin S-C]

On 08/10/2020 at 19:17, Caley Jim said:

You mean like this?

 

and no, that hasn't been photoshoped!

 

Jim

Awesome. Now I feel much happier at my sawn up and reassembled Tri-Ang clerestories.

 

[Martin S-C]

On 19/10/2020 at 10:48, Annie said:

 

Oh what fun C J Freezer would have had if he'd played with this software. Loving it Annie, nicely done.

[Annie]

14 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

Oh what fun C J Freezer would have had if he'd played with this software. Loving it Annie, nicely done.

Thanks Martin.  That particular layout is a nice lot of old fashioned fun, - both with building it as well as playing trains on it.

[Annie]

State of play with the amazing faux GER steam railmotor (snaps taken in TANE at Moxbury).

I spent this morning making a set of textures for a driving trailer for the steam railmotor and despite making lots of mistakes and falling asleep I managed to eventually come up with something reasonable.  

 

 

After hunting around I found some nice Fox bogies that seemed to be a close enough match for GER bogies.

 

 

 

[Annie]

Book Corner:

 

 

An elderly member of the creator group I belong to recommended this book to me, - and since he grew up in Norfolk and spent a good part of his life there and is a keen GER enthusiast as well, - gave me cause to decide that it might be a wise purchase.

It's not a difficult book to find and most second hand booksellers seem to have it a a sensible price.  I ordered mine through Biblo.co.uk and the postage charges from the Uk to the colonies were definitely affordable.  There was one bookseller who has their books delivered by their personal Lear Jet judging by the postage costs they were asking, but I definitely didn't buy this book from them!