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

[Annie]

Progress is being made on Lynborough.  The backscenes I'm using are really good, but it's frustrating getting them to fit together neatly and the color of the sky doesn't match between the two different halves of the layout.  I don't want to end up having to rework the backscenes like I did with 'Seaton' and it will be worse this time because the backscenes are HUGE.

Frustrating as well is the fact that I work for a couple of hours on 'Lynborough' and then crash out sleeping for ages before I can get back to working on the layout again.  Which leads to me crashing out yet again.

 

[Annie]

Work continues on Lynborough with it starting to get down to the final detailing now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

Work in progress snap taken of Birfield station and its surroundings.  (Trainz surveyor picture)

 

[Adam88]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

Work in progress snap taken of Birfield station and its surroundings.  (Trainz surveyor picture)

 

 

 

I see that the washing's out, it must be Monday.

[Annie]

2 minutes ago, Adam88 said:

 

I see that the washing's out, it must be Monday.

Adding in details like that takes a lot of time, but I think it's well worth it since it helps to make the layout come to life.

[Annie]

Messing about with a DWWR railmotor on 'Lynborough'.  The prototype was apparently very good at rearranging all the vertebra in your spine should have the misfortune to have to travel on it, but despite that it is a pretty little thing.

The railmotor's maker tends to set his textures up very dark to the point of detail being all but invisible.  I did have a chat to him about it and gave him some pointers for which he was grateful, but he hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.  I've still got some final colour adjustments to make before I would call it finished yet, - only I wanted to give the railmostor a run around to see what it was like.

No doubt the same as the prototype it makes a great deal of fuss over doing not much at all which is quite endearing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by Annie
added a picture

[Annie]

I finally got the railmotors sorted out.  Yes there's two of them, - No.1 and No.2.  And that's what made it harder because they both use the same coach texture pieces, but have their own specific texture pieces for the locomotive half of the proceedings.  I got the colours matched in the end and fixed some tatty numbers and lettering and now I don't know what to do with them.  They are the only railmotor models for Trainz which is a pity really, but not so surprising since branchlines/minor lines are a pretty much neglected subject when it comes to anyone making models for Trainz.

 

 

 

 

[Jake The Rat]

That's an interesting vehicle. It looks like 3/4 of a bogey coach welded to an 0-4-0 tank loco. I've never seen anything like that, the closest thing that comes to my mind is 'Drummond's Bug'. Is it real or fictitious? Anyway, as long as it's steam propelled I like it.

[Annie]

Oh they are very real Jake and the two of them were the property of the Dublin Wexford & Wicklow Railway.

 

 

Think of them as the DMU of their time and circa 1903-1914 they had their brief time in the sun.  Problems arose because the locomotive unit was often underpowered and if anything went wrong with it or if needed maintenance work doing the whole vehicle had to be taken out of service. 

In the case of the DWWR railmotors the locomotives ended up being separated from their coaches which no doubt helped to tame their rough riding, but elsewhere the locomotive portion was scrapped and the coaches were often converted to push-pull trailers.

 

L&YR railmotor.

 

 

Great North of Scotland Railway railmotor.

 

 

LBSC Railmotor.

 

 

LSWR railmotor.

 

 

 

 

[Compound2632]

On 09/07/2020 at 11:44, Annie said:

A view along Station Road at Lynborough.

 

 

 

That really is a very good likeness of the Metcalfe Models embossed card sets and paving!

 

 

[Compound2632]

36 minutes ago, Annie said:

Oh they are very real Jake and the two of them were the property of the Dublin Wexford & Wicklow Railway.

 

L&YR railmotor.

 

Great North of Scotland Railway railmotor.

 

LBSC Railmotor.

 

LSWR railmotor.

 

@Jake The Rat, @Annie has been very abstemious in not including any of the Great Western examples, which were the most numerous and one of which is preserved and operational:

Caution: when I ran this video, it was preceded by a very graphic earwax removal advert.

[Annie]

23 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That really is a very good likeness of the Metcalfe Models embossed card sets and paving!

 

 

I don't know what the origin of the original textures was that the makers of these models used Stephen, but I chose them because they did have a certain look about them that fitted with a digital version of a model railway.

 

19 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

@Jake The Rat, @Annie has been very abstemious in not including any of the Great Western examples, which were the most numerous and one of which is preserved and operational:

Caution: when I ran this video, it was preceded by a very graphic earwax removal advert.

Yes I know I was a bit naughty leaving out the GWR railmotors, but my intention was to post pictures of railmotors that followed the same format of locomotive+coach that the DWWR railmotors used.

 

Edit:  I run ad blocker software so I'm free of such horrors when I watch Youtube videos.  It is a bit strange seeing such a beautiful relic of the past in a modern error wasteland though.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Annie
more to say

[Annie]

I prefer the video of the railmotor's visit to the Looe branch.

 

 

[Compound2632]

5 hours ago, Annie said:

Yes I know I was a bit naughty leaving out the GWR railmotors, but my intention was to post pictures of railmotors that followed the same format of locomotive+coach that the DWWR railmotors used.

 

I thought that was the case but as the whole railmotor concept was new to @Jake The Rat, it seemed a little hard to omit the most successful - or at least numerous - of the type. The Midland tried out a couple of railmotors that were also of the fully coach-bodied type but, like the Great Western (and possibly before?) moved on to push-pull motor trains with a separate locomotive. Easier for maintenance and greater capacity.

[Annie]

GWR '517' class on 'Lynborough'

 

 

The DWWR railmotor lurks at the bay platform at Lynborough.  I've since done more detailing in this area with more people and with a range of boxes, parcels and hampers on the parcels platform awaiting collection.

 

[Annie]

Playing trains.

 

 

[Jake The Rat]

Be careful with Grandma's carpet! She would be furious about any stains of coal or lubrication oil.

 

Meanwhile I'm still working on Rhye on Sea. (OK, maybe 'working' is not quite the right expression. ) A new station at Bree, a 2nd rebuild of the MPD & yard at Rhye & a new bridge across the bay on the northern rim - screenshots later to come...

 

Here is a question for experts. I have an LNWR 2-4-2 4ft6 loco, later classified '1P' by the LMS; this is, I understand, an engine for light suburban or branchline passenger trains. Would it be totally unrealistic to use her for light freight trains? Or for shunting? I don't want her to haul 50 coal waggons, of course.  (Something like a Metro Peckett  or an LMS Jinty would be nice, but that's not available for the LNWR or the L&YR, AFAIK. )

[Northroader]

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p865794726/h172D6DA6#h172d6da6

[Annie]

More snaps of Rugton now I've done some more work on it.  Yes I know it's not exactly serious pre-grouping modelling, but it's a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

10 hours ago, Jake The Rat said:

Here is a question for experts. I have an LNWR 2-4-2 4ft6 loco, later classified '1P' by the LMS; this is, I understand, an engine for light suburban or branchline passenger trains. Would it be totally unrealistic to use her for light freight trains? Or for shunting? I don't want her to haul 50 coal waggons, of course.  (Something like a Metro Peckett  or an LMS Jinty would be nice, but that's not available for the LNWR or the L&YR, AFAIK. )

Mr Northroader has beaten me to it with pictorial evidence.  So the answer is very much 'Yes' for the 4ft 6in tank engines.  A very much useful engine that could be used for most duties in and around secondary lines and branchlines.  I used them along with the 5ft 3in tank engines and the 0-6-2 coal tanks on one of my layouts and very handy they were too.

 

With regard to the L&Y there is an 0-6-0 saddle tank on the DLS as well as the well known 'Pug', but I think they are in BR livery.

[MikeOxon]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

More snaps of Rugton now I've done some more work on it.  Yes I know it's not exactly serious pre-grouping modelling, but it's a lot of fun.

 

Love it   especially the chair!  It reminded me of the careful planning needed, to negotiate chair and table legs.  Your posts are bringing back long-forgotten memories of Hornby tinplate.  I had what seemed like quite a lot of track, including a right-angle cross-over which, if I remember correctly was on a bright blue base. The scenery seems more sophisticated than I remember - I think shoe-boxes with windows and doors scribbled in the sides used to feature.

 

More, please.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

That Dean Single certainly looks nice.

[Annie]

1 hour ago, MikeOxon said:

 

Love it   especially the chair!  It reminded me of the careful planning needed, to negotiate chair and table legs.  Your posts are bringing back long-forgotten memories of Hornby tinplate.  I had what seemed like quite a lot of track, including a right-angle cross-over which, if I remember correctly was on a bright blue base. The scenery seems more sophisticated than I remember - I think shoe-boxes with windows and doors scribbled in the sides used to feature.

 

More, please.

I think I've still got enough 3 rail track in boxes to build something like 'Rugton' Mike only my days of crawling around on the floor are well over,  It was a memory of threading track around furniture that led me to placing the chairs and table where they are.  I think everyone who had a Hornby trainset can relate to my screenshots.

I have been collecting photos of tinplate accessory buildings from back in the day with the intention of doing some retexture work to make a few faux tinplate buildings for Trainz.  Like you though I can well remember making houses & etc from cardboard boxes and a lot of imagination when I was much younger..

[Annie]

56 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

That Dean Single certainly looks nice.

The Dean Single was made by a very clever gentleman who made a number of exquisite locomotive models for Trainz.  Unfortunately he doesn't keep good health now so he's had to give up making locomotive models.

[nick_bastable]

Gosh that takes me back only it was a oval of system 3 ? track with a siding a Green 08 running round powered by 3 rectangular 4.5v batteries ( old house mains power ring not installed in bedrooms) sitting in the middle covered in Chicken Pocks

 

Thank you Annie for invoking the memory

 

Nick B