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


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Some snaps from testing.  Much of my Cornwall layout is still a mess, but if I'm patient and take it a small area at a time I should be able to get it sorted out.

 

The short tunnel at the end of Truro station yard.  For such a short tunnel it was right pain to get done.

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The tunnel I did today.  To my great surprise all was fine with everything nicely aligned with just a couple of small adjustments needing to be done.

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On the Penwithers viaduct.  I took some other snaps, but I didn't like them much.

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A new wooden engine shed at Truro.  If I take my glasses off it looks like the one that was at Truro in the 1880s.  And yes I know I've got an implausible collection of engines on shed, but sometimes I like to be implausible.

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Edited by Annie
can't spell for toffee
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15 hours ago, Annie said:

Back working on my 1880 Cornwall layout again.

 

 

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Good stuff!

 

Just like its done with real model railways.

  1. Lay track
  2. Site portals
  3. Position chickenwire
  4. Cover with Modroc/papier mache to taste
  5. Paint and flock

Tahh-Dah!

 

I hope there's going to be some sort of bus on the bridge....  :jester:

 

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33 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I hope there's going to be some sort of bus on the bridge....  :jester:

More than likely a farmer's cart Mr Horth.  There are couple of large farms not far away so that would be the usual traffic on this road.

 

36 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Just like its done with real model railways.

  1. Lay track
  2. Site portals
  3. Position chickenwire
  4. Cover with Modroc/papier mache to taste
  5. Paint and flock

Tahh-Dah!

In many ways working on a digital model railway is the same as working on a real world one it's just that the tools are different.  With the plus that there's no mess to clean up to clean up afterwards.

 

2 hours ago, Schooner said:

Top stuff Annie, those tunnel portals are just the thing :)

Those tunnel portals are very close to being the same as the ones on the Cornwall Railway and most importantly they are perfectly sized for Broad Gauge railways.  They really were a lucky find.

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Book Corner:

 

Railway Archive No.32.  Lightmoor Press.

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My interest in this issue of the Railway Archive is that it contains a very good article on Gooch's Broad gauge 'Standard Goods' 0-6-0s by the Rev Canon Brian Arman.  His article in Railway Archive No.46 led to me commissioning a B&ER Vulcan Foundry 4-4-0ST and I hope to be able to do the same with a Gooch 0-6-0 once I've saved up my pocket money a bit.

An excellent article with a good many nice clear period photos most of which I've never seen before.  I don't know about you, but I find it really annoying to purchase a book and find it contains the same tired old dozen or so photos as every other book on the subject.

 

Great Western Railway - Broad Gauge Story.  Edited by DC Robinson.

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This is a Kindle book. 'A History of the Great Western Railway- The Story of the Broad Gauge' by GA Skelon 1895, edited and arranged by DC Robinson.

Not particularly great on pictures which are all small and grainy, but the most valuable thing about this very interesting book is that it was written by someone who was actually there at the time.  I'm still working my way through it and it's certainly not a dry read since the original writer was very much an enthusiast for the Broad Gauge.

 

Saltney Carriage and Wagon Works by Tony Wood.

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I'm in several minds over this book.  Primarily it's a comprehensive history of the Saltney Works which is fine and good.  However when it comes to covering what the Saltney Works actually built there are very few photos and only ONE drawing which is of a brake van.  The rest is all description of the various lots built at the works with a list of assigned GWR numbers in an index at the end of the book.  To my mind without a better range of photos (which I admit might be scarce) and no drawings (save one) to give context the author might as well have copied out the telephone book.  No doubt to those who may have laboriously searched the available GWR archives and possess the necessary drawings this book would be very useful, but to a newcomer to modelling the 19th century GWR such as myself it's not a great deal of use.

 

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Unfortunately my railway library is still only a fairly modest one, but I do have all kinds of boring sociology and psychology texts left over from when i was studying for various cleverness certificates that you could read.

 

'Lynborough' now has been properly set into a '0' gauge sized room and it's suddenly become enormous.  Either a model railway club with plenty of funds would have built something like this or else an '0' gauge enthusiast with very very deep pockets.

Anyway I'm pleased with it and it's a nice layout to play trains on with interesting operational possibilities.  I'm considering doing a Broad Gauge version as well.

 

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9 hours ago, Annie said:

Unfortunately my railway library is still only a fairly modest one, but I do have all kinds of boring sociology and psychology texts left over from when i was studying for various cleverness certificates that you could read.

 

'Lynborough' now has been properly set into a '0' gauge sized room and it's suddenly become enormous.  Either a model railway club with plenty of funds would have built something like this or else an '0' gauge enthusiast with very very deep pockets.

Anyway I'm pleased with it and it's a nice layout to play trains on with interesting operational possibilities.  I'm considering doing a Broad Gauge version as well.

 

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Wow, Annie.

 

Oh for such world enough and time!

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Thanks James.  Don't worry I'm still a bit stunned by what I've built myself.  Having started off with a very basic idea and beginning with building the town at Lynborough it all sort of took off from there.

The trouble is after creating 'Lynborough' I'm at a loss what to do next.  Perhaps I'll just play trains for a while until another good idea pops into my head.

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Not quite a book corner topic, but I've ordered all the BGS data sheets to do with Broad Gauge goods wagons neatly written onto a USB key.  Ordering something akin to a small telephone book to be sent to me in paper format would have made my wallet scream so I'm very pleased that there was an alternative option.

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Being at a bit of a loose end today I cloned 'Lynborough' and converted it to the Broad Gauge.

There's a considerable amount of earlier era models available for the Broad Gauge and while they are quite old now and fairly simple, they are reasonably accurate so I used those.  The worst part was adjusting all the platform clearances and at Lynborough I had to slightly shift some of the platforms to get clearance which was a bit tedious.

I couldn't change the glass over roof at Lynborough for a Brunel roof since the very nice one I have wasn't wide enough.  A slight disappointment, but with everything else having converted over just fine I can't really complain.

 

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On 07/08/2020 at 01:37, Annie said:

Saltney Carriage and Wagon Works by Tony Wood.

pVvr75Y.jpg?1

 

I'm in several minds over this book.  Primarily it's a comprehensive history of the Saltney Works which is fine and good.  However when it comes to covering what the Saltney Works actually built there are very few photos and only ONE drawing which is of a brake van.  The rest is all description of the various lots built at the works with a list of assigned GWR numbers in an index at the end of the book.  To my mind without a better range of photos (which I admit might be scarce) and no drawings (save one) to give context the author might as well have copied out the telephone book.  No doubt to those who may have laboriously searched the available GWR archives and possess the necessary drawings this book would be very useful, but to a newcomer to modelling the 19th century GWR such as myself it's not a great deal of use.

 

 

Sorry that didn't work out for you. I've been pouring over the handful of photos intently - any information on the physical appearance of wagons of the 1860s and 70s is to be grasped with both hands. The telephone directory aspect - the lot by lot entries - I also found very useful, in part for revealing the amount of information that does survive in the Great Western wagon registers and largely glossed over by the "bible" of Atkins et al. But then I'm a bit of a numbering obsessive. I rather enjoyed the potted biographies of engineers associated with Saltney, which was something of a roll-call of Great Western "greats" of the 19th century, from the Armstong brothers and William Dean to Frank Marillier of cattle wagon fame. Now I could really do with companion volumes on the Great Western wagon works at Worcester and Paddington!

 

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Don't get me wrong Stephen, - as a history of the Saltney Works the book is fine and is an interesting read.  Such photos as there are are useful and certainly add to to what little is known about wagons from the 1860s and 1870s.  Even the lot number descriptions have their use since I now know that 1 plank wagons were built in larger numbers than I thought.  The lists of wagon and coach numbers would certainly be a useful research tool when used in conjunction with other surviving information, but all that does is point out what is missing from the book which are drawings/sketches/artists impressions of the wagons from each lot.

I'm not regretting my purchase since it does add another piece to the puzzle, but it would have been nice if it had added a few more.

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12 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

roll-call of Great Western "greats" of the 19th century, from the Armstrong brothers and William Dean to Frank Marillier of cattle wagon fame

From recent discussion elsewhere, it seems that F.W. Marillier, when he was the Manager of the Carriage and Wagon Works at Swindon, patented what was later known as the Instanter coupling.  In 1907, so yet another Edwardian innovation.

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13 minutes ago, Tom Burnham said:

From recent discussion elsewhere, it seems that F.W. Marillier, when he was the Manager of the Carriage and Wagon Works at Swindon, patented what was later known as the Instanter coupling.  In 1907, so yet another Edwardian innovation.

 

The Saltney book list Marillier's numerous patents, all of which are clearly C&W related. These include three from 1907 described as "improved couplings" and one with C. Champeney, Marillier's successor at Swindon, "3-link couplings", dated 1917.

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Shamelessly not pre-grouping.  I happen to have an early BR layout that despite strange abuses of geography and unsuspecting coastlines purports to be set in the Border regions somewhere on the west coast.  It's a much modified copy of a very old Trainz route named 'Middlevale' which also greatly abused the British landscape, but far more than I did because I removed the 'English' half of it in the process of making my own version.  It's a very big layout and it's huge fun to play trains on.  It's also where I keep all my ex-Big 4, now in BR livery engines and rolling stock, - like.........

...... Ex LMS Garratts.  I only have four of them, - do you think that's a bit too many, -or should I get another one?

 

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I think, that's a matter of taste. For my taste even one Garratt would be too many. :mocking_mini:  I could never understand the whole concept of Garratts, & to me they look like monsters from another world. :pardon: I like conventional large heavy goods locos like the BR 9F, the LMS 8F or, a little smaller, the LNWR 7F. Your layout, your Garratts - my layout, my Super Ds... :)

 

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This month I don't have much time for Trainz, because the NHL playoffs have started. Hockey (i.e. ice hockey) in august is a once-in-a-lifetime experience & on some days means watching 5 games from 5 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. :crazy_mini: (I'm a nightowl anyway). Fortunately there are lots of 15 min. intermissions; time to play at least a little Trainz & make some minor changes on Rhye on Sea.

My LNWR session is still not perfect, but most of the time the 12 trains behave halfways reasonably, & sometimes it takes a few hours before they screw up.

 

 

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I have Fowler 'Austin' 7Fs and Super Ds as well Jake.  And ex-WD Riddles 2-10-0s and 2-8-0s. My layout is supposed to be an ex-LNWR secondary line at the edge of the Border country pre-1954 and the ex-LMS Garratts never actually worked in that area.  But sometimes, once in a while, I like to move very large quantities of coal with very large engines that are like monsters from another world that make the ground shake.  It makes me happy and it cheers me up.

 

We are all different and very individual in our tastes (thank heaven).  As an example I have never understood team sports and was horrified when i was in school by teachers' attempts to get me to join in.  Eventually I did become a reasonable distance runner, but I could do that on my own (which was very important), - my skills no doubt honed by doing my best to avoid the horror of being dragged into playing team sports.  Even now I wouldn't have a clue what NZ team was playing who and what season for what sport it is and i don't much care.

 

Nice to see Rhye on Sea again by the way.

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I'm presently watching the Edwardian Farm series on the Absolute History channel on Youtube.  There is just sooooo much useful information in this series and also the Victorian Farm series that I can see myself coming back to them again and again.

 

Edit:  As an example, lime kilns and lime burning.  Up until now It has been so difficult for me to find out anything about this and the second episode of Edwardian Farm covered the subject really well including close up filming of two historic lime kilns.

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In addition to running huge earth shaking locomotives working loooong coal trains running passenger services with push-pull sets also cheers me up.  I have a very bad tendency to slide into doomscrolling and spending too much time reading webpages about human and political stupidity regarding COVID-19.  And before I know it the black dog is scratching at the door.  If I play trains I can't doomscroll so don't judge me over which trainset I choose to play with.

 

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Dukedog on the East Cornwall Railway.  I downloaded this layout today full in the knowledge that the builder is good at landscapes and scenic work, but utterly terrible when it comes to track laying as well as very much tending to fudge stations and station layouts.  I have his North Cornwall Railway layout as well, but only run trains on the Bodiam-Wadebridge-Padstow section and I ignore the rest because it's taken me long enough to get just that section knocked into some kind of shape.

 

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The Moorswater viaduct and Liskeard beyond.   I was curious about this part of the layout since I spent months trying to build the Liskeard & Looe Railway and failed miserably.  As I suspected Liskeard was a Readers Digest like fudge with most of the details left off and Moorswater was buried in trees and what was there wasn't even close.  Perhaps I should give up on searching old maps and studying photos and just fudge everything and leave out all the tricky bits.  95% of Trainz folk wouldn't know the difference anyway.

 

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This is a good section of track.  Further on it's a roller coaster and passengers would be bouncing out of their seats and hitting their heads on the roof of the compartments.  I had to reduce speed 20mph below the posted limit at one stage because the trackwork was so poorly laid.  I did have hopes that the layout might be good enough to repair and put right, but I don't much fancy having to relay the entire mainline between Liskeard and St Austell including reforming all the gradients.

 

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My updated version of Great Western Way has arrived!  There is joy and feasting in the land!  Candles and incense have been lit and choirs are chanting the April 1875 edition of the Great Western Railway timetable as I write this.

I have been despondent and my heart was sore, but now I have seen the true light and I am privy to the wisdom of the ancients.   Truly I am blessed this day.

 

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EDIT: Snuff out those candles and shut up choir!  I've just discovered that my 150 anniversary edition of 'Great Western Way' lacks appendix 13 which has the information I need concerning GWR tarpaulins/sheets.  I thought it did which is why I purchased it.  It's the 2009 edition that has appendix 13 and NOT the 1985 edition.  Please excuse me while I go and have a good scream and after that I'm going to play with my LSWR trainset.

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8 hours ago, Annie said:

If you don't have much space and you want something simple Godshill is the station for you.

 

It would have to be one of those Iain Rice style Cameo Layouts, precisely modelled to the n'th degree. Ideal for P4 work too, plain track with a single point.

 

But dull in an operational sense, a Terrier and a couple of coaches once in a while, and a Down pickup goods in the morning with the corresponding Up service in the afternoon.

 

You could enhance it with some ambient sound...

 

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, Annie said:

Dukedog on the East Cornwall Railway.  I downloaded this layout today full in the knowledge that the builder is good at landscapes and scenic work, but utterly terrible when it comes to track laying as well as very much tending to fudge stations and station layouts.  I have his North Cornwall Railway layout as well, but only run trains on the Bodiam-Wadebridge-Padstow section and I ignore the rest because it's taken me long enough to get just that section knocked into some kind of shape.

 

AsL0Igp.jpg

 

The Moorswater viaduct and Liskeard beyond.   I was curious about this part of the layout since I spent months trying to build the Liskeard & Looe Railway and failed miserably.  As I suspected Liskeard was a Readers Digest like fudge with most of the details left off and Moorswater was buried in trees and what was there wasn't even close.  Perhaps I should give up on searching old maps and studying photos and just fudge everything and leave out all the tricky bits.  95% of Trainz folk wouldn't know the difference anyway.

 

ExRw4U9.jpg

 

This is a good section of track.  Further on it's a roller coaster and passengers would be bouncing out of their seats and hitting their heads on the roof of the compartments.  I had to reduce speed 20mph below the posted limit at one stage because the trackwork was so poorly laid.  I did have hopes that the layout might be good enough to repair and put right, but I don't much fancy having to relay the entire mainline between Liskeard and St Austell including reforming all the gradients.

 

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A lovely, if unlikely, combination of a 1936 loco in post-WWII lettering with pre-1927 lined coaches and post-1927 yellow signal arms!

 

The viaduct is beautiful.

 

Will you be taking the line backwards in time? 

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