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

[auldreekie]

Can we work in a reference to Great Snoring,  please eg as a horse bus destination).  It most definitely IS in Norfolk,  and it seems as if it might fit in quite well.......

 

One way and another.....

 

auldreekie

[Annie]

Great Snoring?  I like it.  I haven't really looked at the texturing on the horse buses that I have, but I guess it won't be too terribly difficult to edit them.

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

The GER bus nag looks particulaely downtrodden....

 

But that K2 telephone box behind the wall...   A K1 would be more appropriate, and just pre-grouping to boot!.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_telephone_box

 

Yes that horse doesn't look very happy at all.  It's strange really since all of the other horse bus models made by Steve Flanders are drawn by healthy looking well groomed horses.  

 

There's no model of a K1 telephone box made for Trainz, but perhaps if I ask nicely at the creator group I belong to somebody might make me one.  I knew the telephone box wasn't right, but it's the oldest type that's available with the rest being horrific modern things.

[Annie]

Little Sudden.  Everyone's idea of a sleepy little branchline.

 

[Annie]

More Little Sudden.  Much testing as I work out the timetable schedule for the push-pull set on the branch line to Great Sudden.  It's a simple schedule really; - the push-pull set arrives from Great Sudden via a (non sparkly) portal which represents the rest of the branchline and arrives at Less Sudden at platform 2, takes on passengers, waits for a bit and heads for Eastlingwold station on the mainline where it arrives at the down platform.  After the passengers mill about for a bit and finally get into the coaches, say goodbye to their friends & etc the train heads off running wrong road for a short distance and crosses over to the goods relief line that runs between the up and down lines.  This keeps the push-pull set clear of the  up and down passenger lines as it travels the quarter mile or so back to the branch junction.  Slow goods trains using the relief line are fairly infrequent so it's easy to work the push-pull working in between them.  Then it's an easy run on the branch with the push-pull set arriving at platform  1 at Little Sudden.  After that the train leaves for Great Sudden out in the great somewhere beyond the portal that's about a quarter of a mile from Little Sudden.  The portal is partly hidden around a curve and also by a road overbridge without a bus on it.

 

However you would not believe the number of 'go this way you idiot' track marks I had to put in place to get 'Eastlingwold's AI driver to follow where they were supposed to go.  The Trainz AI has a thing about crossovers.  If there's a crossover on their route they'll use it even if they end up running wrong road and going a long way from what could be considered to be the most direct route to their destination.  It's like some awful digital addiction that infests what passes for their brain.  Having no facing crossovers spoils their fun, but they'll still try to do all manner of daft things so they can satisfy their addiction.

 

 

The push-pull set has been strengthened by the addition of a teak 6 wheel composite which gives a total of  seven 3rd class compartments and four 1st class compartments.  Possibly a bit of a posh ratio for a branch line train, but the well heeled folk at Great Sudden complained when there was only one 1st class compartment in the train.  I think the extra coach makes the set look a lot less like a penny pinching solution to a providing services on a line that's barely breaking even.  The main problem was the branch train having to run around at Eastlingwold which caused delays to traffic on the main line.  With the push-pull set the branch train can arrive and be gone again in a lot less time.

 

 

'Eastlingwold' has been tamed and now runs steadily along the branch.  Terrier habits of sudden acceleration aren't quite so good on a line with rising and falling gradients and a few tight curves thrown it for good measure as the passengers were arriving at their destinations all jumbled up and not in a very good mood.

 

[MikeOxon]

16 hours ago, Annie said:

...........The Trainz AI has a thing about crossovers.  .............

 

Perhaps that explains why my Cornish Riviera Express, after leaving Penzance, insists of crossing on to the wrong line for a considerable distance!

[Annie]

30 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

Perhaps that explains why my Cornish Riviera Express, after leaving Penzance, insists of crossing on to the wrong line for a considerable distance!

Exactly that Mike.  It's like a strange obsession with the AI that it can't stop using crossovers even if doing so will put a train on the wrong track or through a network of sidings when the line ahead on the correct route is completely clear and unobstructed.

The only way to stop it is to use direction markers or 'go-this-way-you-idiot' track marks.  Direction markers are the simplest solution, but need to be used with care since they can prevent legitimate traffic movements that you might want to happen along with the dopey AI movements you don't want.

[Annie]

More snaps from the Great Sudden branch.

 

Yet another snap of Little Sudden station.  This time with the newly installed awning on the station building.

Since I haven't heard any screams of protest yet from a certain section of the pre-grouping community I'll continue to keep quiet about the origins of the station awning models I use as the company's standard awning on the Eastlingwold & Great Mulling.

 

'Barrow Hills' on push-pull set duty.  'Eastlingwold' and 'Barrow Hills' are the two engines assigned to the Great Sudden branch.  With the engine shed and works at Great Mulling now 99% complete and fully functional E&GR engines shedded elsewhere on my rambling little railway empire have finally been able to go home which means there's been much revision of engine allocations over all the lines that are a part of my little empire.  The Terriers have certainly featured in the new engine allocations and if I didn't have them I would have been a bit stuck to find enough engines with a light enough axle loading to work over some sections (mostly those sections that have rickety old wooden bridges).

 

The wharf at Little Sudden.  Very much a shunting puzzle and I'm still working out all the nuances of ending up with a goods train with the brake van at the right end that I can send on to the holding sidings at the other end of the branch to be collected by a trip working from Great Mulling to be taken to it's final destination.

[Annie]

More from the Great Sudden branch.

 

I put together a halt for the small community of Sudden by Sea.  It's a long walk to Little Sudden and an even longer walk to Eastlingwold so a station of some kind seemed appropriate.

Mrs Dawkins the signalman's wife looks after the halt.  She sells tickets, collects parcels and mail to pass onto the guard of the branch passenger train and generally keeps everything tidy.  The halt is very much her project and she bothered the railway's head office at Great Mulling with endless letters until they provided some better signage for the halt.  Her next project to to get some weather protection for her passengers.

'Are you looking to have a fine glass roof like the one at Great Mulling Mrs Dawkins?' asked Thomas the branch train guard.

"Are you looking to have a fine clip round the ear Thomas,' was her reply to that.

 

A snap of the halt which cruelly shows that I haven't furnished the interior of the signal box yet.

 

From the other direction.

 

'Barrow Hills' tests out the halt platform.  There's no interactive magic platform whatsit active interface that will fit these platforms so I'll most probably decorate them with a few small crates and boxes with a cat sitting on them and just pretend there are passengers.  Trains are stopping at the halt though and don't just chug on past.  Anyway I'll think about and see what I can come up with.

 

'Barrow Hills' again.  No other engines I have can make such a meal of going 15mph like the two Terriers on the branch can.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by Annie
fumble brain

[Edwardian]

On 07/01/2020 at 05:17, Annie said:

More Little Sudden.  Much testing as I work out the timetable schedule for the push-pull set on the branch line to Great Sudden.  It's a simple schedule really; - the push-pull set arrives from Great Sudden via a (non sparkly) portal which represents the rest of the branchline and arrives at Less Sudden at platform 2, takes on passengers, waits for a bit and heads for Eastlingwold station on the mainline where it arrives at the down platform.  After the passengers mill about for a bit and finally get into the coaches, say goodbye to their friends & etc the train heads off running wrong road for a short distance and crosses over to the goods relief line that runs between the up and down lines.  This keeps the push-pull set clear of the  up and down passenger lines as it travels the quarter mile or so back to the branch junction.  Slow goods trains using the relief line are fairly infrequent so it's easy to work the push-pull working in between them.  Then it's an easy run on the branch with the push-pull set arriving at platform  1 at Little Sudden.  After that the train leaves for Great Sudden out in the great somewhere beyond the portal that's about a quarter of a mile from Little Sudden.  The portal is partly hidden around a curve and also by a road overbridge without a bus on it.

 

However you would not believe the number of 'go this way you idiot' track marks I had to put in place to get 'Eastlingwold's AI driver to follow where they were supposed to go.  The Trainz AI has a thing about crossovers.  If there's a crossover on their route they'll use it even if they end up running wrong road and going a long way from what could be considered to be the most direct route to their destination.  It's like some awful digital addiction that infests what passes for their brain.  Having no facing crossovers spoils their fun, but they'll still try to do all manner of daft things so they can satisfy their addiction.

 

 

The push-pull set has been strengthened by the addition of a teak 6 wheel composite which gives a total of  seven 3rd class compartments and four 1st class compartments.  Possibly a bit of a posh ratio for a branch line train, but the well heeled folk at Great Sudden complained when there was only one 1st class compartment in the train.  I think the extra coach makes the set look a lot less like a penny pinching solution to a providing services on a line that's barely breaking even.  The main problem was the branch train having to run around at Eastlingwold which caused delays to traffic on the main line.  With the push-pull set the branch train can arrive and be gone again in a lot less time.

 

 

'Eastlingwold' has been tamed and now runs steadily along the branch.  Terrier habits of sudden acceleration aren't quite so good on a line with rising and falling gradients and a few tight curves thrown it for good measure as the passengers were arriving at their destinations all jumbled up and not in a very good mood.

 

 

Lovely coaches, Annie, they make a great little train

[MikeOxon]

On 08/01/2020 at 02:42, Annie said:

More snaps from the Great Sudden branch...........The wharf at Little Sudden...

 

 

Are those Sentinel steam waggons in the distance?  I remember as a kid watching out for them around Liverpool docks in the mid-fifties.  As I recall, they were rather dark and grimy looking - certainly not bright yellow!

 

Having been sensitised by earlier posts, I do feel the bright red telephone box stands out too much.  Perhaps, better just deleted.  I suspect people used a local shop for phone calls in the early days (as they did in France until relatively recently)

[Annie]

The steam wagons are Claytons Mike,  I do have various steam wagon models and I think some might be Sentinels.  I'll have to check since I'd like a few more steam wagons and lorries on my layout.

 

I'm not happy with the telephone boxes either since they really do stand out as being wrong for my time period.   Most got placed while I was in a state of blithe ignorance and a bit later I placed them because I thought they'd do until I could find an older type, but they are just plain wrong so they'll have to go.  I'll go round and delete them all over the next couple of works sessions on the layout.

 

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Lovely coaches, Annie, they make a great little train

Thanks James.  They are of course NER coaches re-textured and lettered for the E&GR.  I particularly like the models because of their older appearance as compared with other pre-grouping rolling stock.  I'm resisting getting anymore NER bogie coaches since I really do want to stay with using 4 and 6 wheel coaches on my imaginary railways.  The driving composite would have been a bit of a radical experiment on the E&GR's part and I seriously doubt that they would have been able to get their hands on any more than just the solitary example now in use on the Great Sudden branch.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

I'm not happy with the telephone boxes either since they really do stand out as being wrong for my time period.   Most got placed while I was in a state of blithe ignorance and a bit later I placed them because I thought they'd do until I could find an older type, but they are just plain wrong so they'll have to go.  I'll go round and delete them all over the next couple of works sessions on the layout.

 

You could always have a sign on a station building indicating that there is a public telephone on the premises, which is the way things were done before purpose-built external boxes were provided.  Prior to the GPO taking over the network in 1911, telephone services in the UK were provided by the National Telephone Company so signs often had their logo.  There is a photo of a Liverpool Overhead Railway station with such a sign on it in a book about Liverpool, but I can't find the photo online.  However a simple sign such as the one below might be useful!

 

source ebay...

 

[Annie]

That is exactly what I need Mr Hroth.  Thank you very much.  I should be able to put together a sign like that one without too much trouble.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

A quick Goggle around the interwebs and..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wilson 'Pattern A'

 

NTC 'Norwich Pattern'.

 

NTC 'Birmingham Pattern'

 

K1 Telephone Box

 

[Annie]

Sudden by Sea Halt; - now with shelter from the weather for intending passengers!

The little 1870's 4 wheel coaches I have are made up of lots of separate bits so I was able to take just the coach body alone and configure it as a scenery object instead of a rail vehicle.  The footboards are attached to the coach body so I had to contrive to hide them, - which I think I've managed to do.  I left the 3rd class coach body in its old E&GR red-brown livery with the company crest still in place and class numbers on the doors since I would imagine this would have been a quick job to stop Mrs Dawkins burying the mail room at head office with all her letters. 

One small job I have to do is change out the upholstery in the coach compartments for wooden seats which would be a lot more serviceable.  These 3rd class coaches are still in use on the E&GR's mineral branch to Grimwold, but I guess that there would have been a couple of older ones with wooden seats hanging about spare that hadn't been blessed with better seating so their bodies were quickly removed, loaded on a flat wagon and sent off with the workshop's crane to Sudden by Sea.

 

 

[Edwardian]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

Sudden by Sea Halt; - now with shelter from the weather for intending passengers!

The little 1870's 4 wheel coaches I have are made up of lots of separate bits so I was able to take just the coach body alone and configure it as a scenery object instead of a rail vehicle.  The footboards are attached to the coach body so I had to contrive to hide them, - which I think I've managed to do.  I left the 3rd class coach body in its old E&GR red-brown livery with the company crest still in place and class numbers on the doors since I would imagine this would have been a quick job to stop Mrs Dawkins burying the mail room at head office with all her letters. 

One small job I have to do is change out the upholstery in the coach compartments for wooden seats which would be a lot more serviceable.  These 3rd class coaches are still in use on the E&GR's mineral branch to Grimwold, but I guess that there would have been a couple of older ones with wooden seats hanging about spare that hadn't been blessed with better seating so their bodies were quickly removed, loaded on a flat wagon and sent off with the workshop's crane to Sudden by Sea.

 

 

 

Great use of grounded bodies.  Often modellers use coaches that are too modern.  IIRC Colchester had a variety, including GER 1870s 4-wheel bodies in use into the BR era.  

[Annie]

22 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Great use of grounded bodies.  Often modellers use coaches that are too modern.  IIRC Colchester had a variety, including GER 1870s 4-wheel bodies in use into the BR era.  

Thanks James.  I have some 1850's 3rd class 4 wheel coaches (with roofs) as well, but I thought that might be going a bit far and the good people of Sudden by Sea might have complained.

 

No.23 with a train of GER 6 wheelers leaving Oakmarket.   When engines were changed when this passenger train left GER territory and their nice blue 'modern' GER engine departed some of the passengers must've been very surprised when No.23 coupled onto their train shortly afterwards.  Of course old hands at making the journey to Great Mulling had seem it all before.  One or two enthusiasts on the train quietly readied their stop watches wondering how No.23 would do on the long fast run to Hayward this time.

(No.23 is still burning old oil soaked socks for fuel, - another little thing for me to fix)

 

 

And at the other end of the scale, - the Grimwold branch passenger train.  Ever since I set up the passenger schedule for the branch some months ago this train has run its schedule perfectly without any problems.  It has never needed me to come and sort it out unlike some other passenger services on my layout.  So a small 'Huzzah!' for the Grimwold branch train.

The branch has been a bit neglected lately so I need to spend some time fixing one or two things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

Hicks 0-6-0 on a empty coal wagon train working on its way to Great Mulling.

 

[Annie]

Latest news;  I have been able finally buy the later and upgraded model of the old monster of a HP dual processor Xeon workstation/server computer that I'm presently using and has been my rock solid and reliable computer for the past year.  Despite being reliable 'Deeper Throught' had a problem.  Its galvanic computational components were ancient and could not run Windows 10 and with Windows 7 being deemed at an end and cast out into the darkness this month by Microsoft I needed a replacement computer if I wished to continue to explore the interwebs.

 

However not just any computer would do.  No tinker toy ordinary store brought computer would do it had to be a Xeon and it had to have two quad core processors.

And today I found the Xeon computer of my dreams.  Isn't it beautiful, - i think I'm in love.

 

[Northroader]

Just make sure you’ve got it standing upright before you put the toast in.

[Hroth]

Its a ZX80?

 

Eeek!

 

But yes, I'm running Win7 Pro and when that falls off its perch, this computer is going to become a Linux box.  I've a couple of Win10 laptops that'll deal with stuff that only exists for Windows.

 

Will your new one have to be installed on a mezzanine floor for the cable runs, in an air conditioned room like one of these?

 

 

 

 

[RedGemAlchemist]

On 06/01/2020 at 13:52, Annie said:

Great Snoring?  I like it.  I haven't really looked at the texturing on the horse buses that I have, but I guess it won't be too terribly difficult to edit them.

Indeed, our part of the country does have some fantastic place names. 

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Its a ZX80?

 

Eeek!

 

But yes, I'm running Win7 Pro and when that falls off its perch, this computer is going to become a Linux box.  I've a couple of Win10 laptops that'll deal with stuff that only exists for Windows.

 

Will your new one have to be installed on a mezzanine floor for the cable runs, in an air conditioned room like one of these?

 

 

 

 

Fortunately no Mr Hroth, but I bet one of those in your picture would run Trainz a treat.

I'm slightly addicted to these steel bodied Xeon monsters; - this one will be my third.  I seem to have the knack of picking them up at a very good price as when I had a look around at some of the other computer dealers/reconditioners  here in New Zealand they were wanting anything up to three times the price that I paid for the exactly the same computer.

 

If Trainz would run in Linux I'd be running Linux like a shot.  I used Debian Linux for a good while on various laptops and I really liked it, but unfortunately when it comes to running computer games and simulators Windows is still the only game in town (And yes I do know that some game titles will run under Linux now).

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Northroader said:

Just make sure you’ve got it standing upright before you put the toast in.

With all the cooling fans it's got inside the case it would be hopeless at making toast.

But I do agree it does have the air of a Deco styled toaster about it.