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

[Hroth]

6 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.

 

What a wonderful layout, using "found" objects like the chair to represent a tunnel!  All you need is the family dog chasing madly after the loco.  Its bad news when they catch it, I know.

 

My only concern is that the carpet pattern reminds me of that used in pubs of a certain era...

 

[RedGemAlchemist]

On 12/07/2020 at 18:44, Annie said:

it makes a great deal of fuss over doing not much at all

Sounds like me on my day off work.

 

On 12/07/2020 at 18:44, Annie said:

it is a pretty little thing.

That it is.

 

7 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.

 

 

 

 

Reminds me of playing with ERTL Thomas toys with my older brother on my grandparents' living room rug as a kid. Memories.

Great, now I'm thinking about how much I miss my Grandad

Edited July 15, 2020 by RedGemAlchemist

[Annie]

I've shown some of these pictures over on the Trainz forum with very much the same response with forum members relating memories of their own childhood trainsets.  I've made other Trainz layouts, -some of them serious pre-grouping layouts, - but it's been this tinplate 3 rail layout on a carpet that has  had more responses than any of them.

31 minutes ago, Hroth said:

My only concern is that the carpet pattern reminds me of that used in pubs of a certain era...

It was actually quite tricky to skin that floor model with a carpet texture that would seamlessly repeat.  I may do some others, but this one was done with the intention of making a carpet model with an old fashioned pattern.  I don't know much about the carpets in pubs so I can't really comment on that Mr Horth.  The only thing that ever drew me into entering a pub was if they had Guinness on tap which excluded around 90% of the pubs here in NZ that only sold some kind of weak watery tasteless brown fizz.

 

More of 'Rugton'.

 

I have another version of this engine that I fitted with a faux clockwork keyhole.  The coach artwork is based around photos of Bing coaches from the 1920s.

 

 

 

 

[CKPR]

I do like 'Rugton' station - are the buildings based on an actual station ? 

[Annie]

9 hours ago, CKPR said:

I do like 'Rugton' station - are the buildings based on an actual station ? 

Atherstone station in Warwickshire opened by the LNWR in 1847.  Designed by John William Livock.

There is a Wikipedia page, but it essentially says no more than that with the rest of the page being filled with modern error garbage which interests nobody.

It's one of my favourite station models in Trainz.  The other station on the layout is from Clapham North Yorkshire and was opened by the ‘Little’ North Western Railway (NWR) on 30 July 1849.  Another of my favorite stations.

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Annie
added a picture

[Annie]

A little more 'Rugton'.

 

No.2240  now with keyhole.  It also has its steam and smoke files removed and a very quiet sound file of gears meshing.  I've also configured the rear radial axle so it moves as a radial axle should which makes it track much more nicely through the tinplate points I'm using.

 

 

These 'shortie' MET coaches are old Trainz models now, but I like them because they have the look of the better quality type of tinplate coaches available during the 1930's.  I also have some exquisite 'finescale' MET coaches that I use on my serious pre-grouping layouts (no smiling allowed) so as a result the older 'shortie' coaches have now been transferred to my tinplate railway projects (smiling permitted and encouraged).

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Annie
Um.... words and things of that sort

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

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

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Malcolm 0-6-0

[Annie]

Now that is the one advantage with running virtual clockwork engines Malcolm, - no fluff in the mechanisms.  I had enough of cleaning out vintage carpet fluff from the old 'clockers' in my small collection.

 

There is a story I heard about clockwork engines and carpet though.  A collector when very young decided he would see how many circuits of the track he could obtain with his clockwork engine so he lavishly oiled the mechanism.  The running distance was greatly increased as a result of his experiment, but he got into a good deal of trouble for the oval shaped oil stain that was now present on the living room carpet.

[Compound2632]

On 15/07/2020 at 09:36, Northroader said:

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

 

Examination of the gallery demonstrates that that's an exception; it's also post-nationalisation. One has to be cautious in extrapolating from one period to another. Webb's 4'6" tanks were very much intended as engines for ordinary passenger trains, as seen in the LMS period photos.

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Examination of the gallery demonstrates that that's an exception; it's also post-nationalisation. One has to be cautious in extrapolating from one period to another. Webb's 4'6" tanks were very much intended as engines for ordinary passenger trains, as seen in the LMS period photos.

Awwwww........  Well yes you are quite right Stephen and I should not let my childish spirit overwhelm my historical knowledge of how railways were run during the pre-grouping era.

 

And back to childhood.  I ran some tests on 'Rugton' with two trains running at the same time and all worked well with the signals doing their job perfectly.  I'm fussy about signals and their proper placement.

When I used to help out at Hornby Collectors Association exhibitions I was notorious for moving signals to their correct location and was aghast when told that normally they get placed where they look nice.

 

 

[Northroader]

Quoting from Edward Talbot “An Illustrated History of LNWR Engines”:

”Because their brake power was restricted by poor leverage for some reason, the ‘Coal Tanks’  (4’5” 0-6-2T) were often used on passenger work rather than unfitted goods trains, and when shunting often ran coupled to a large fitted van for extra brake power. The ‘4’6” 2-4-2 Tanks’ were preferred for goods work as they had powerful steam brakes. Bowen Cooke Improved the vacuum brake on the ‘coal tanks’ but many never received the modifications  and, thanks to running lower mileages, survived longer, the preserved no. 1054 among them.

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Quoting from Edward Talbot “An Illustrated History of LNWR Engines”:

”Because their brake power was restricted by poor leverage for some reason, the ‘Coal Tanks’  (4’5” 0-6-2T) were often used on passenger work rather than unfitted goods trains, and when shunting often ran coupled to a large fitted van for extra brake power. The ‘4’6” 2-4-2 Tanks’ were preferred for goods work as they had powerful steam brakes. Bowen Cooke Improved the vacuum brake on the ‘coal tanks’ but many never received the modifications  and, thanks to running lower mileages, survived longer, the preserved no. 1054 among them.

 

I stand corrected. I have Talbot's book but didn't check it.

[Northroader]

Way back, when I was much younger, I got in a trip on a local branch, passenger train behind a ‘Coal Tank’. There it wasn’t so much brakes, as a three mile grade, 1in 50 at best, 1 in 31 at worst. After dark, sticking my head out of the window, sparks flying, dim oil lamp signals, great fun.

Remember the 4’6” 2-4-2T were rebuilds, to start with, of the “Choppers”, and ten of these stayed as 2-4-0T configuration to work the Cromford and High Peak, most definitely a goods job. Wonder if I’ll ever manage a model of one?

[Annie]

More train set madness.  A fellow member of the creator group I belong to is making models for creating 'G' scale garden railways in Trainz so I've been doing some testing by building a garden railway using the new models.  I decided to build the line to 3ft gauge which gave me the excuse to dig out my 3ft gauge engines and rolling stock.  The engine is an export order Manning Wardle 0-6-4WT, but I don't know where it was exported to.  Somewhere a bit warm judging by the wooden louvers fitted to the cab. 

The coaches, brake vans and van have been borrowed from my 'Sumwheir District Railway' layout and are retextured Irish models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by Annie
more to say

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

 

 

 

 

 

With that alignment, the greenhouse would make a wonderful terminus!

 

[Annie]

3 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

With that alignment, the greenhouse would make a wonderful terminus!

 

Funny you should say that Mr Horth since I have been looking at the greenhouse and wondering what I might do with it.  I would need to put in another 'removable' bridge so the door could be closed, but that wouldn't be impossible to do.

[Annie]

No joy.  The greenhouse is too short and there is no way to get any kind of useful track alignment inside it.  The creator group member who made these models is presently working on a longish list of new items that have come about from my testing experiments so if I go and ask him to make the greenhouse longer he'll most probably chase me off with a stick.

[Jake The Rat]

When I saw the clockwork loco with the keyhole, I thought this couldn't be topped, but now that I see this, I'm not so sure anymore. This is totally weird in a very positive way. I believe, Chekhov would be proud of you.

Maybe you could fit part of a station into the greenhouse? Isn't it quite normal, that the roof doesn't cover the whole length of the platforms? At least the door seems to be wide enough for 2 tracks.

 

Compared to this, my 'Rhye on Sea' project looks like boring routine, but I like it & I'll stick to it.

I thought it would be nice if trains could change direction, so I built a triangle. Then I found out that now trains could change from clockwise to counterclockwise, but not vice versa, & it took me a while to understand why this is necessarily so & not because I did something wrong.   So I had to build another triangle, & now everything seems to work fine... except for the interactive goods shed. Why  5 or 10 waggons are dispatched without any problems, but then the train won't go on, is beyond me. (Maybe that's why it's called a goods shed, because the train stops there for good. )  I think I'll replace it with something that works...

 

Many thanks to Northroader, Compound2632 & Annie for the information on the 4'6'' 2-4-2T. So if I get it right, these locos were originally built for passenger trains, but later found quite useful for goods work too.

 

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Jake The Rat said:

I believe, Chekhov would be proud of you.

I hope so.  Creative silliness is good.  Some might think stupidity is the same thing, but it's not and only stupid people might think that is so.

 

You stick with devising new iterations of 'Rhye on Sea' Jake.  It's a great little layout.

Is the goods shed using a 'multiple industry new' (MIN) interactive track?  They are well known to be difficult to set up and are buggy resulting in anything running over them being captured by the loading scripts and then being not released again (ever).  I always delete them if I find them on a layout I've downloaded.  BI2, Lars or ProtoLars interactive tracks work far better, - or even the now ancient plain old 'multiple industry' interactive track before they made it 'New' and 'upgraded' it  is a better choice.

[Hroth]

7 hours ago, Annie said:

No joy.  The greenhouse is too short and there is no way to get any kind of useful track alignment inside it.  The creator group member who made these models is presently working on a longish list of new items that have come about from my testing experiments so if I go and ask him to make the greenhouse longer he'll most probably chase me off with a stick.

 

It needs to be wider, a bit longer and you need another door at the side for access.  You might as well try, It'll be just another thing on the list.... 

 

4 hours ago, Jake The Rat said:

Maybe you could fit part of a station into the greenhouse? Isn't it quite normal, that the roof doesn't cover the whole length of the platforms? At least the door seems to be wide enough for 2 tracks.

 

As a "just for now" it sounds a good idea!

 

 

[Annie]

4 minutes ago, Hroth said:

It needs to be wider, a bit longer and you need another door at the side for access.  You might as well try, It'll be just another thing on the list.... 

 

4 minutes ago, Hroth said:

As a "just for now" it sounds a good idea!

 

If I'm going to ask him to alter anything I'd be tempted to ask that the wooden shed be made bigger with a hole through the wall so that trains can enter and exit through that without having to get the door involved in any heroic solutions.  A wooden shed as a part of a garden railway is just about an icon whereas a greenhouse would be a terrible choice really since the humid atmosphere would be seriously detrimental to engines and rolling stock.

When i was still involved in messing around with old cars I met a chap who'd parked a car in a friend's greenhouse thinking it would be safe place to store it when he had to go overseas.  By the time he got back the car had just about collapsed inwards on itself due to terminal rust.

[Edwardian]

14 hours ago, Annie said:

More train set madness.  A fellow member of the creator group I belong to is making models for creating 'G' scale garden railways in Trainz so I've been doing some testing by building a garden railway using the new models.  I decided to build the line to 3ft gauge which gave me the excuse to dig out my 3ft gauge engines and rolling stock.  The engine is an export order Manning Wardle 0-6-4WT, but I don't know where it was exported to.  Somewhere a bit warm judging by the wooden louvers fitted to the cab. 

The coaches, brake vans and van have been borrowed from my 'Sumwheir District Railway' layout and are retextured Irish models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying development of the carpet empire, but this G Scale set -up is also quite special and huge fun.

 

Bigger shed swapping position with the greenhouse for a insider terminus?

 

Do you use the station name 'Much Mulling' anywhere in your virtual empire?  If so, may I please borrow it for my test track?

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

A wooden shed as a part of a garden railway is just about an icon whereas a greenhouse would be a terrible choice really since the humid atmosphere would be seriously detrimental to engines and rolling stock.

 

Sadly I 'd agree with you there, it was just the "idea" of a terminus-like overall roof that caught my imagination.  A wooden shed would be much more sensible...

 

36 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Do you use the station name 'Much Mulling' anywhere in your virtual empire?  If so, may I please borrow it for my test track?

 

Its a good name, with hints of "Much Binding in the Marsh"!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh

 

[Jake The Rat]

33 minutes ago, Annie said:

I hope so.  Creative silliness is good.  Some might think stupidity is the same thing, but it's not and only stupid people might think that is so.

 

You stick with devising new iterations of 'Rhye on Sea' Jake.  It's a great little layout.

Is the goods shed using a 'multiple industry new' (MIN) interactive track?  They are well known to be difficult to set up and are buggy resulting in anything running over them being captured by the loading scripts and then being not released again (ever).  I always delete them if I find them on a layout I've downloaded.  BI2, Lars or ProtoLars interactive tracks work far better, - or even the now ancient plain old 'multiple industry' interactive track before they made it 'New' and 'upgraded' it  is a better choice.

Agree, thanks, informative/useful, craftsmanship/clever, friendly/supportive... I could have clicked all of these, but only one is allowed, so I gave it a standard 'like'.

 

The goods shed I use has two tracks, one for 'goods in' & one for 'goods out', & that's why I choose it. But if there's no hope to make it work properly, i will replace it with one or two of your recommendations & a non-interactive building.

Update: The 'BI2 General' track seems to have the same problem, at least when loading. Next try...

 

2 hours ago, Annie said:

When i was still involved in messing around with old cars I met a chap who'd parked a car in a friend's greenhouse thinking it would be safe place to store it when he had to go overseas.  By the time he got back the car had just about collapsed inwards on itself due to terminal rust.

Was it a French car?

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Enjoying development of the carpet empire, but this G Scale set -up is also quite special and huge fun.

 

Bigger shed swapping position with the greenhouse for a insider terminus?

 

Do you use the station name 'Much Mulling' anywhere in your virtual empire?  If so, may I please borrow it for my test track?

Thanks James.  I am having a lot of fun with this 'G' Scale layout.  Being a new and experimental format for Trainz I didn't know what to expect, but it really does have a lot of potential and has given my 3ft gauge engines and rolling stock a whole new lease of life.  They really do look like big 'G' scale models instead of being small engines in the usual simulated 'real world' that people expect with Trainz.

 

Much Mulling is a destination represented by a portal track on my 3ft gauge Sumwheir District Railway layout.  My plan was to eventually take the line through to Much Mulling and then finally the somewhat damp and dreary terminus at Mulling in the Marsh, but I got horribly bogged down with building the cathedral town of Bishops Tenpenny and the project stalled.  I will go back to it soon, - hopefully with fresh eyes and a more clear mind, - and finish it as it is an enjoyable little railway.

 

And yes by all means borrow the name for your test track since it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Much Mulling could also be served by a standard gauge railway since it is supposed to be one of the larger towns on my much hacked about map of alternative Norfolk.

Edited July 18, 2020 by Annie
can't spell for toffee