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

[MikeOxon]

Love the train in your last pic above

 

Funny to think that Truro Cathedral didn't exist in the early 19th century (started 1880).  I took this photo from a Penzance - Reading train, earlier this year:

 

 

I look forward to watching your model develop.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by MikeOxon

[Annie]

Thanks Mike.  The base layout I started with was made by Bob Cooper who has actually gone on to create the line all the way to Penzance., but this version is his early one that just recreates the Falmouth branch  All I'm really using though is the sculpted landscape which Bob created using Google earth so it's reasonably accurate.  Nearly everything is different between 1880 and  the 1930's, - which was the nominal period Bob Cooper chose to represent, - so the towns are having to be reduced in size and extensively rebuilt.  As you might have guessed the cathedral was one of the things that had to be removed.  Even if I'd moved a little further forward in time to allow the the cathedral to stay it would have had to have been represented without its spire and much smaller in size and that would have been a problem since no model of the cathedral exists of it at that stage of its building

 

That part of the line in the last picture is pretty much scenically complete, but after Perranwell it all becomes very much a work in progress to a greater or lesser degree.  I really do need to concentrate on completing Truro now before I advance things any further.  Even though the 1880 town is much smaller it's going to be a big job representing it.  Fortunately most of it will be very much in the background so I won't need to put in a lot of detail in the parts that are the furthest away from the station and the viaducts.

[Annie]

I found a useful old postcard of Truro that I haven't seen before.  The photo was taken from the viaduct above St Georges Road and it gives me a good view of the houses along St Georges Road that I haven't seen before.  Since the cathedral is still a WIP the photo would have been taken before 1910, but I doubt that it's earlier than 1902 since the new Victoria Gardens is plainly in view and while the church in the centre foreground appears in pictures I've seen of the Brunel timber viaduct Victoria Gardens isn't in evidence.  The trees in the waterfall gardens in the immediate foreground are taller than in another picture I have which includes the timber viaduct so that makes me think that this is a post 1902 picture taken not long after the masonry viaduct was completed.

 

Not that it really matters anyway since neither the church or Victoria Gardens are a part of my time period, but St Georges Road and its houses are just the same in this picture as they were in 1880 and that definitely makes this postcard a great find for me.

 

[Edwardian]

On 19/11/2019 at 06:26, Annie said:

 

 The tree models that are used to represent hedgerows are of a kind that can be of variable heights due to some mesh trickery I don't understand and what is happening is that over time the tree models slowly get taller and creep closer to the line.

 

 

Creepy!

 

At one time i lived on a banana plantation, and those "trees" would move!

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

Any chance of a specific link to the Ahrons e-book? I looked at the site but I reckon I could build several model wagons in the time it would take me to find it. I am currently re-reading the Heffers book reprints of his articles on locomotive and train working in the nineteenth century, and also his articles in the Locomotive Magazine on early railways - at the moment those which became part of the West Midland Railway.Too early for Annie but great reading.

Jonathan

[Annie]

7 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

Any chance of a specific link to the Ahrons e-book? I looked at the site but I reckon I could build several model wagons in the time it would take me to find it. I am currently re-reading the Heffers book reprints of his articles on locomotive and train working in the nineteenth century, and also his articles in the Locomotive Magazine on early railways - at the moment those which became part of the West Midland Railway.Too early for Annie but great reading.

Jonathan

https://archive.org/search.php?query=the british steam railway locomotive 1825 - 1925

 

The Internet Archive has a bewildering amount of material on railways, but fortunately their search engine works very well if the right keywords can be fed into it.

[MikeOxon]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

Any chance of a specific link to the Ahrons e-book? I looked at the site but I reckon I could build several model wagons in the time it would take me to find it....................

My method is to click on 'advanced search', just below the initial search box, then enter whatever information you have into the various boxes that appear:  'creator' = author, then enter any relevant words into the 'title' box.  If you are looking for books, enter 'texts' in the 'mediatype' box.  I've downloaded lots of 19th century railway books in this way.

[MikeOxon]

On 21/11/2019 at 04:37, Annie said:

I found a useful old postcard of Truro that I haven't seen before. .....

 

For those of us who model earlier time periods, it's always good to be reminded how much the landscape has changed over the years.  I took this photo from the viaduct, earlier this year.  The elms have gone of course but, otherwise, there seem to be many more mature trees in the view now, than were in the postcard view.  I'm sometimes surprised by how bare the landscape can appear in old railway views, when compared with recent photos.  I hadn't realised, when I took my photo, how high up we were on the viaduct!

 

[Annie]

Yes indeed Mike.  All the old photos I have of the WCR and the Cornwall Railway show a very bare landscape with the only sign of green growth in the landscape being the hedgerows.  With some old photos it's sometimes possible to approximately date them by the height of the trees if they are undated.

The chap who made the base 1930s layout I'm modding back to the 1880s used Google earth as his reference for sculpting the landscape which was fine, but his big mistake was to copy the modern day tree cover onto the layout as well.  I've had to delete hundreds of trees to get the layout back to somewhere like it should be for the 1880 period and I might have to delete a good few more yet.

 

Late 19th century 25 inch to the mile OS maps actually show the position of every tree that was there in the area at the time of the survey.  I'm not going to be so compulsive as to place every single tree according to the map as that would be taking things too far, but the value of the maps is that they definitely show the places that had little or no trees as well as the exact location of the forested areas, managed woodlots & etc.  Trees were an important resource back then, so any tree hanging around going spare would have been soon cut down either for firewood or timber.  These days trees and green belts around towns and cities are protected and actively promoted in ways that would have had our rural great grandfathers scratching their heads over the idea of such a thing.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Annie
more to say

[Annie]

'Metis' running on the Minehead branch in TANE.  The Minehead branch is a steam controls only zone since I like the challenge of of properly driving an engine over its demanding gradients.

Only 'Metis' was being a grumpy little so and so and didn't want to steam.  Must've gotten out on the wrong side of the engine shed this morning.

 

 

Normally these little well tanks could steam for Britain, but 'Metis' wasn't having any of that and wasn't all keen about taking 91 tons worth of wagons up the hill.

 

 

 

Eventually I was able to bring the boiler pressure up, but until that happened it was having to coax 'Metis' along with a careful eye on the boiler level and keeping just the right level of coal in the her firebox.

 

 

 

And not much further on from here is all downhill at 2.5%.  And no cheating either, - the brakes on the engine and the scripted digital brakes on the brake van only on the descent and no touching the simulator's train brake because none of the wagons in the train have got any.  All good fun.

 

[Annie]

The 'Bogie' class 4-4-0ST's won't raise steam.  I think there's something odd about their engine spec files which is strange since it was written by a Trainz creator who is pretty darn expert at writing engine specs.

Normally if I get an engine that's slow to raise steam having another engine pilot it to Blue Anchor solves the problem.  At Blue Anchor the pilot uncouples and the train engine carries on its way.  Only when I checked 'Theocritus' at Blue Anchor it only had two pounds of steam in the boiler and that slipped away like a morning mist once 'Theocritus' was stationary.  It looks very much like I'm going to have to change out the engine spec for one that I know will make steam.  Which will involve more testing; - oh how shall I cope  

Fun fact:  When operating a line of railway using Trainz 'advanced' steam engine controls you have to spend time raising steam on any engine you are going to run and once its in steam you have to keep an eye on it even if it's just sitting and waiting for it's next turn.  The blower has to be on and boiler water levels and the state of the fire has to be watched.  None of this DCC just turn the knob and it goes lark.  Trainz doesn't do boiler explosions and dropped fusible plugs, but if I mess up and end up with what would be that situation that's that.  Tow the failed engine away to the 'works' and try to find an replacement engine in a hurry.

 

[Annie]

 

In other news my lovely daughter is now back home from hospital so there is joy within my household and my worried frown has been put away.  It turns out my daughter had an infection in her oesophagus which is not especially common, but it was causing several secondary symptoms which to an impatient doctor would look like minor complaints that did not need a hospital admission.

The surgeon who performed an endoscopy on my daughter ( a very nice man so my daughter tells me)  commented that, 'It was just as well we got this in time.'  Apparently such an infection can cause ulceration of the lining of the oesophagus and ultimately a blockage of the oesophagus which would involve surgical intervention to remove.  So my daughter is home with a significant percentage of contents of the local pharmacy's stock room and strict instructions on what she can and can't eat and the surgeon will be seeing her in a month's time to check that all is well.

 

So I feel vindicated and very glad that my daughter did finally get the treatment she needed without me needing to become further outraged.  Apparently once admitted my daughter did tell hospital staff that if she had been sent home again her fierce ex-social worker Mum would have lodged a formal complaint.

 

I might have even taken a few skulls to make drinking cups from as well.........

 

[MikeOxon]

18 hours ago, Annie said:

..................... I like the challenge of properly driving an engine over its demanding gradients......................

 

All good fun.

 

I don't know whether you have read David Joy's diaries but he wrote a lot about having 'good fun' driving early steam locomotives.  His experiences seem to have mirrored some of your own.  For example, he wrote:

 

"Locomotives of the early 1850s had little or no reserve of power:"

 

"................, I had my first go in at driving. I took No. 115 and a "cleaner "—not a stoker —and about
seven wagons of goods, and stuck fast four miles out—short of steam, hut I did not let the cleaner
know that, but had to adjust something (that was the apparent cause of stopping) till steam got up,
and then I never did it again. But these engines without "lap" and without expansion could not be
humoured any way. I could drive after that. In those days the "hook in the chimney," as it was
called, was the refuge for the destitute."

 

It's worth reading the diaries, to sense the delight of a young man enjoying his first experience of steam engines.  You can read extracts from the diaries at http://www.steamindex.com/library/joydiary.htm

There are also facsimiles of pages of the diaries, complete with Joy's drawings, in the archives of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at https://archives.imeche.org/archive/engines/david-joy/joys-journal

 

He never loses a sense of adventure even when describing accidents, which he calls "spreads", in a light-hearted way that would certainly meet disapproval from modern safety conscious officials

 

Mike

 

 

[MikeOxon]

8 hours ago, Annie said:

.......................

 

I might have even taken a few skulls to make drinking cups from as well.........

 

 

I'm pleased to hear the good news about your daughter.  Should I visit NZ again, however, I shall avoid calling in for a drink from your cups

 

Mike

[Annie]

7 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

 

I don't know whether you have read David Joy's diaries but he wrote a lot about having 'good fun' driving early steam locomotives.  His experiences seem to have mirrored some of your own.  For example, he wrote:

 

"Locomotives of the early 1850s had little or no reserve of power:"

 

"................, I had my first go in at driving. I took No. 115 and a "cleaner "—not a stoker —and about
seven wagons of goods, and stuck fast four miles out—short of steam, hut I did not let the cleaner
know that, but had to adjust something (that was the apparent cause of stopping) till steam got up,
and then I never did it again. But these engines without "lap" and without expansion could not be
humoured any way. I could drive after that. In those days the "hook in the chimney," as it was
called, was the refuge for the destitute."

 

It's worth reading the diaries, to sense the delight of a young man enjoying his first experience of steam engines.  You can read extracts from the diaries at http://www.steamindex.com/library/joydiary.htm

There are also facsimiles of pages of the diaries, complete with Joy's drawings, in the archives of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at https://archives.imeche.org/archive/engines/david-joy/joys-journal

 

He never loses a sense of adventure even when describing accidents, which he calls "spreads", in a light-hearted way that would certainly meet disapproval from modern safety conscious officials

 

Mike

 

 

Thanks very much for those links Mike.  I shall enjoy having a good read.

 

With the Trainz set of steam controls I can control the cutoff which is certainly a good thing when it's necessary to nurse along an engine, but otherwise it's getting to know whether an engine likes a thin fire or a thick one and what is the best level to keep the boiler water at.  Some of my engines steam well and some that have small grates and small boilers need a lot more care and attention than others.  And one or two are just plain sulky and need to be nursed and poked and prodded to get them to behave themselves.

A lot depends on how well the engine spec has been written of course.  This is the one 'Metis' is using at the moment which is intended for a LNER Y4, but it works reasonably well for many smaller 19th century engines.  I also use a Y7 engine spec sometimes for those engines for which a Y4 engine spec would be a bit too on the good side.

 

category-class                          "ZE"
kind                                    "steam-engine"
author                                  "Camscott"
contact-email                           "removed"
category-region                         "UK"
category-era                            "1920s;1930s;1940s;1950s;1960s"
trainz-build                            2.8

flowsize
{
  trainbrakepipe                        170000
  epreservoirpipe                       0.1
  no3pipe                               0.1
  no4pipe                               0.1
  auxreservoirvent                      0.1
  auxreservoir_no3                      0.1
  auxreservoir_trainbrakepipe           0.1
  autobrakecylindervent                 0.1
  auxreservoir_autobrakecylinder        0.1
  equaliser_mainreservoir               0.06
  equaliservent                         0.06
  equaliserventhandleoff                0.1
  equaliserventemergency                0.1
  no3pipevent                           1.5
  no3pipe_mainreservoir                 0.1
  compressor                            5
  trainbrakepipe_reservoir              1
  trainbrakepipevent                    0.06
  no3pipe_autobrakecylinder             0.1
  epreservoirpipe_autobrakecylinder     0.1
  mainreservoir_ep                      0.1
  vacuumbrakepipe                       0.1
  vacuumbrakepipereleasevent            0.1
  vacuumbrakepipevent                   0.1
  vacuumbrakereservoir_vacuumbrakepipe  0.1
  vacuumbrakecylinder_vacuumbrakepipe   0.1
  highspeedexhauster_vacuumbrakepipe    0.1
}

volume
{
  scale                                 1
  trainbrakepipe                        0.2
  epreservoirpipe                       0.2
  no3pipe                               0.2
  no4pipe                               0.2
  auxreservoir                          0.038468
  autobrakecylinder                     0.009694
  vacuumbrakepipe                       0
  vacuumbrakereservoir                  0
  vacuumbrakecylinder                   0
  mainreservoir                         1
  equaliser                             0.5
  independantbrakecylinder              0.010324
}

pressure
{
  scale                                 1
  compressor                            0.009469
  mainreservoir                         0.009469
  highspeedexhauster                    0
  brakepipe                             0.005954
  brakeinitial                          0.005603
  brakefull                             0.003986
  indbrakefull                          0.003986
  trainbrakepipe_start                  0.004408
  epreservoirpipe_start                 0
  no3pipe_start                         0
  no4pipe_start                         0
  auxreservoir_start                    0.005041
  autobrakecylinder_start               0.0049
  vacuumbrakepipe_start                 0
  vacuumbrakereservoir_start            0
  vacuumbrakecylinder_start             0
  mainreservoir_start                   0.008766
  equaliser_start                       0.004408
  independantbrakecylinder_start        0.0049
}

mass
{
  scale                                 1
  fuel                                  "6.2156e+006"
}

motor
{
  resistance                            1.7
  adhesion                              2.3
  maxvoltage                            600
  maxspeed                              13.41
  brakeratio                            55000
  max-accel                             9000
  max-decel                             28000
  throttle-notches                      16
  axle-count                            3
  surface-area                          105
  moving-friction-coefficient           0.01
  air-drag-coefficient                  0.0001
  driving-wheel-weight-ratio            0.85
}

steam
{
  firebox-heating-surface-area          9.91
  boiler-volume                         2.8
  steam-chest-volume                    0.1095
  steam-chest-max-flow                  30.74
  max-fire-temperature                  751
  min-fire-temperature                  600.799988
  initial-boiler-temperature            462
  max-coal-mass                         435
  ideal-coal-mass                       217
  shovel-coal-mass                      8.7
  safety-valve-low-pressure             1356
  safety-valve-high-pressure            1383
  safety-valve-low-flow                 0.66
  safety-valve-high-flow                1.97
  water-injector-rate                   1.09
  water-injector-rate2                  1.09
  piston-volume-min                     0.003183
  piston-volume-max                     0.066852
  piston-area                           0.14644
  burn-rate                             0.367
  burn-rate-idle                        0.00367
  speed                                 12.34
  blower-max-flow                       0.037
  piston-angular-offsets                0.1,1.6708
  firebox-thermal-conductivity          17
  super-heating-constant                100
  firebox-efficiency                    0.8
  blower-effect                         0.1
  valve-lap-percent                     0.1
  cutoff                                0.55
}
description                             "LNER Y4 Engine Spec. Created using the universal engine spec spreadsheet by Bill Fock.

Boiler Pressure:     180psi
Cylinders (2):       17ins x 20ins
Driving Wheels:      3ft 10ins
Wheel Arrangement:   0-4-0
Tractive Effort:     19225 lbs
Weight:              27t 1cwt
Max Speed (DCC):     25 mph
Power Class:         0F"
username                                "LNER Y4 Engine Spec"
kuid                                    <kuid:481183:1433>

kuid-table
{
}
 

 

[MikeOxon]

Those engine 'specs' files take me back to when I used to work on the aircraft files for the MS Flight Sim.  I had all the SDK information and became reasonably competent at making aircraft that could actually fly!  As I recall, there were masses of data that had to be entered for the engines, including all sorts of friction terms and so on.  Getting an engine to run smoothly from idle to max power was quite an art, especially as some data entries would over-ride others and cause a lot of confusion. 

 

Low-powered aircraft were the worst because the engines would stop at unexpected moments!  It seems that there are quite a few irrelevant parameters in your engine file, just as there were in aircraft files.  What on earth has 'maxvoltage' to do with a steam engine?  I used to try and use as many 'real' parameters as possible and then adjust some of the more arcane parameters to make sure the engine didn't stop too easily.  Looking at your list, I don't know what 'units' are used, as some figures look rather strange.

 

What a pity the simulators don't 'do' boiler explosions.  By all accounts these could be very devastating

 

Mike

[Annie]

Yes some of it is a bit esoteric Mike.  I think the max voltage thing has to do with running under Trainz DCC 'turn the knob' control system, but I'm not really sure.  Some of the units of measurement are a bit odd and peculiar to Trainz.  I did have some of it explained to me when I was setting up my Beyer Peacock single driver tender engines to function properly under the steam controls, but I'm by no means an expert and much of it is still a mystery to me.  I will change things like grate area and boiler efficiency which are simple to do, but have learned the hard way to leave some of the specs well alone.  One time I made a firebox-thermal-conductivity change thinking I was being a clever clogs and ended up with an engine with screaming safety valves and 3000 pounds per square inch in the boiler.  Curious I put the engine in gear and cracked open the regulator and for a brief instant the engine attained 180 mph before derailing and spectacularly crashing.  

 

I think editing Flight sim config files would definitely be a step too far for me and I'm definitely impressed that you've put successfully together aircraft that can actually fly.

 

 

[Annie]

 

Yes yes yes!  It works!  It looks like I've managed to put together an engine spec for the 'Bogie' class engines that works on the steam engine controls.  

 

I started with an engine spec file for a Fowler 2P and that wouldn't steam for toffee and was dead useless when combined with a 'Bogie' class engine so I edited the boiler, steam chest and cylinder specs with the correct data for a 'Bogie' class as well as upping the blower efficiency.  Set the safety valve pressures & etc because the 'Bogie' class maximum boiler pressure was only 60 pounds and barely daring to hold my breath I gave 'Horace' a test run with a 101 Ton load.  On checking later I discovered the 'Bogie' class was designed for a 80 ton load on the South Devon Railway's hills so I'll have to remember that in future.

 

But it worked!  I am just sooooooo pleased.  

[sem34090]

I suppose this is the Trainz equivalent to adding bits of lead shot to a loco, isn't it really?

 

Nice work!  

[Annie]

5 hours ago, sem34090 said:

I suppose this is the Trainz equivalent to adding bits of lead shot to a loco, isn't it really?

 

Nice work!  

Possibly a bit more like re-coding a DCC chip Sem.  If I want a locomotive to be heavier or lighter it's but a moment's work to do the necessary editing in the config file.  Reworking an engine spec requires much more advanced frowning to be done.

[Annie]

 

I don't know how often I'll be bothering to put up a video since it took a thousand years 2 hours to just upload 30 seconds worth.  This is still all WIP so no engine sound to speak of and while the engine is making steam it's being fairly lackadaisical about it. 

[MikeOxon]

Great to see the movement - it makes it all more real.

[Annie]

Thanks Mike.  I've also discovered that I've made a few short videos without meaning to.  I use FRAPS to take screenshots and the key for that is F10, but the one for video is F9 and sometimes when I was sleepy I'd press F9 instead of F10.  Most aren't very good since they weren't intended to be videos and I'll have to clear those out since they take up disc space, but one or two aren't so bad and might see the light of day.

[MikeOxon]

I don't know in what format your videos are created but you may find that you can compress their size by using Windows Movie Maker within Windows 7.

[Annie]

The videos are in .avi format Mike.  Knowing not a thing about making videos I don't know if that's good or not.