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

[Annie]

I purchased three of these amazing 0-6-0 mobile tea urns quite a while ago, only life happened and somehow they were forgotten and they've never been out of my digital trainset box.

 

 

The three engines had different degrees of weathering ranging from basically clean through to dead mucky.  This is the mucky one in case you weren't sure.  I updated its buffers, gave its brass a gentle tarnishing and fitted weatherboards both to the engine and the tender.  I changed the crew figures as well since the Paulz Trainz ones are a bit strange.  Fitting the weatherboards was fairly easy since there were already attachment points for them so all that was necessary was just the final adjustments for height & etc.

The Eastlingwold & Great Mulling section seems to be a bit of a home for elderly engines so I thought this old 0-6-0 could join them.  It's an Edinburgh & Leith Railway Hicks 0-6-0 of circa the 1850s in case anybody is wondering, but my one is in 1860s condition, though the self contained buffers I fitted are circa 1870.

I have some ancient round end steel open wagons which I'll show you all later and the Hicks will be used to haul trains of these carrying some lumpy mineral or another from an off stage quarry (portal) and taking them to somewhere I haven't decided yet.

[Annie]

Steel round ended wagon.  I did some re-texturing work on the body.

 

[Annie]

I've done some work at Hunstanton.  The platform canopies are now the correct type even the ones I used are actually GCR ones and I found a goods shed that is very good match for the one that was at Hunstanton.  I changed the station buildings too, they aren't correct but their roof line is a better match for the old photos I've been looking at.  The station site overall is too wide and should be narrowed down, but I can't face moving the turntable and all the station platform tracks as well as the platforms at the moment.

The trees in the background are hiding a whole pile of mistakes with the landscape and the coastline and they can stay there until I feel like doing something about it.

 

 

A feature of the station at Hunstanton was the very long lattice footbridge across the station yard.  The original layout builder had used a footbridge model that was just plain wrong and it did not look right.  I've fudged something together from lots of bits that weren't really intended to fit together and while it isn't an exact copy by any means it does look a lot better.

 

 

I've been looking at OS maps on the National Library of Scotland website and sometimes using the side by side option of modern satellite images alongside the pre-grouping era OS maps.  Of course it's all terribly depressing because usually the railway lines and their associated infrastructure have long gone and the horrid cancer of modern development has spread across the landscape. but at least they are a reasonable guide to the general lie of the land.  

[Martin S-C]

That footbridge must have been a trainspotters dream perch.

[Annie]

It certainly must've been Martin since it spans the whole yard and both the station area and the MPD are very much readily viewable from the footbridge.

 

The now chat friendly crew of No.8.  It looks like the chatty lady's twin sister isn't quite so keen on railway engines though.

 

[Annie]

West Norfolk Railway junction with the GER near Wolferston.  It's essentially just a short stub track attached to a portal hidden in the landscape since that's all that can be fitted in unfortunately.  No great science or surveying involved, I simply picked the best looking spot in the landscape between Wolferton and North Wootton that would allow for a smooth and easy connection into the GER line to Hunstanton.  Signalling is still incomplete at the time I took the snaps as I was doing some testing to make sure the  new trackwork was Ok.

Edit:  From James's map it wasn't clear if the junction should point towards Kings Lynn or towards Hunstanton so I went with Hunstanton working on the principle than a WNR engine could do the runaround its train thing there  or at Wolferston and then proceed onto Kings Lynn if necessary.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Annie
More information

[Annie]

I was a bit mean to the footplate crew on the 'Tea Urn' by making it rain.  This old engine now has a proper job of work in that it takes goods traffic through to the interchange yards with the 3ft gauge line at Bishops Tenpenny.  This is done via the Windweather Tramway which has severe weight restrictions over much of the line so this elderly engine is perfect for the job.  I'm certain there were other elderly goods engines with a light axle loading that enjoyed long lives on other light railways  with similar weight restrictions and the 'Tea Urn' is certainly up to the job.

 

 

The nice thing about sheeted open wagons is that they could be carrying anything you care to name and a lot of the open wagons in my digital trainset box have a tarpaulin attachment so they can run with or without a tarpaulin depending on how I set them up.

 

[Annie]

Having fun with the 'Tea Urn'.  I gave it a go driving it with the 'realistic' controls and while it steams beautifully and I had no trouble maintaining good boiler pressure and a good fire its brakes are in every way as bad as its prototype.  With brakes only on the tender and with none on the engine itself the 'Tea Urn's inability to stop caught me out more than once.  Speeds must be kept low and the brakes applied well in advance or it will cheerfully sail on for a couple of hundred yards past where I was hoping to stop.  All good fun though and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually.

 

[Annie]

Further to the ancient engines with no brakes to speak of issue I discovered some very clever brake van specific operating spec files made by an Australian chap that do work to make a brake van or brake coach provide a certain amount of braking effort.  Most coaches or wagons use the same operating spec files whether they are brake vehicles or not so brake vans or brake coaches end up being no more than decorations at the end of a train.  I chose the pre-1900s brake van file since it was very specifically made for use in trains that have no continuous braking and while its brake specs were a little more weedy than the post 1900s versions I decided that I'd be a good girl and not cheat.

I've applied the new spec files to the Hopewood Tramway's 1860s era brake vans as well as to the 1870s 4 wheel brake 3rds and the ex-Barry Railways (Hopewood Tramway) brake 3rds so some experimenting will be happening next time I'm playing trains undertaking serious testing on the layout.

[Annie]

 

The brake van experiment worked.  The difference with running goods trains with a working brake van is really amazing.  The 'Tea Urn' was able to actually stop at signals in a planned fashion instead of slowly and infuriatingly rolling a hundred yards past them like it was doing before.  However it still had me stumped as to why it was impossible to bring the 'Tea Urn' to a stop when running light.  If all else failed I could put the gear into reverse, but I don't think that's a proper way to drive an engine.

Further investigating things I discovered that the 'Tea Urn's tender e.spec file was the same one as all my 1860s wagons have.  Soooooo that meant that a 6 wheeled tender carrying a humongous amount of coal and water was being controlled by an e.spec file intended for a 4 wheeled short wheelbase goods wagon with wooden brake blocks on one side only.  Plainly that was never going to work.  And further to that I now understood why the tender engines I've purchased from Paulz Trainz over the past year or so have had problems with braking whereas the tank engines have been by and large just fine; - because after doing a little checking I discovered that their tenders had goods wagon e.spec files too.  In the 'Tea Urn's case it was just a lot worse because it's quite a lightweight engine for its size and it doesn't have any brakes to call its own apart from what's fitted to its tender.

 

So what to do?  While hunting out brake van e.spec files I'd found one for a pre-1900s 6 wheel brake van so I thought that since the 'Tea Urn's tender is acting as its brakes and is in effect a brake van I'd give it a go.  And YES it worked!  The 'Tea Urn' was transformed!  Suddenly I had a nicely behaved engine that could actually now shunt wagons without trying to bash them to bits and could now stop reliably where I wanted it to.  The braking certainly isn't 'snap your neck and try to hold your eyeballs in', but that wasn't what I was after anyway.  Braking is to my mind now a good representation of the prototype being just a slight touch leisurely, but still effective.

 

 

Driving the 'Tea Urn' on the 'realistic' controls is a lot of fun and also a bit of a challenge to my driving skills.  It's quite 'light on its feet' which means that it will slip and go nowhere when starting a train from rest if I don't keep a sensitive hand on the regulator and reverser.  Once underway it's fine though.

I managed to stall the 'Tea Urn' on the stiff gradient away from the 'tunnel-that-isn't-really-there' and even though it took a bit of doing with a virtuoso performance on the regulator and reverser I was able to get the 'Tea Urn' under way again.  The simulator does have sanding available with the 'realistic' controls, but since the 'Tea Urn' doesn't have any sandpipes or sandboxes that I've been able to find I didn't use it because that would have been cheating.

 

 

[Annie]

GER 1st Class compartment.  Well if one is on the board of directors why go 3rd Class.  I find this is a very good way to see if I'm creating the right impression with the scenic work I'm doing.

 

[Martin S-C]

Mm, those first class plush velvety seats look comfy. Just right for an adventurous day out to the seaside with a bottle of pop, a bag of ham sandwiches curling at the corners and a big block of Kendal mint cake.

I too found that there were things in train simulators completely unlike real 3D railway modelling that kept me fascinated and the physics of loco performance as well as train weights, braking forces, gradients, etc was one of those endlessly absorbing "new" things that 00 scale doesn't cover. On the Highworth Branch route I built there was a gradient of about 1 in 50 for a mile from the top of a bank at the south end of the Stanton estate woods down across a field and into the small station of Stanton. The real railway (and my simulated one) had one of these placed about 30 yards from the start of the downhill run.

 

 

And with the wagon weights adjusted (loaded trains went down the hill in the majority of cases), you really did need to stop your train, open up the shunting window and apply the handbrakes on about 1 in 4 or 5 of the wagons, as well as the brake van, before starting down the grade which had a 10mph speed limit.

I watched with amusement some drivers who didn't do this and found themselves with a runaway train, sailing happily through Stanton station at a steady 30 mph or so, troublesome trucks in tow, all jostling to be the one in front. I don't suppose, even with the advances in digital technology, we will ever get those kinds of experiences on model railways, at least those smaller than the engineering scales.

[Annie]

Oh I completely agree Martin.  All the engines I have on the Hopewood & Windweather Tramway as well as the imaginary GER absorbed lines I've recently constructed are purpose built and much modded to do the job of work that they are there to do.  And as well as that some of them have built in foibles and things about them that want knowing in order to get the best out of them.  Brake vans that aren't decorations at the end of a train is now the subject that has my attention and what a difference a properly working brake van or two makes to a loose coupled train.

On the H&W Tramway I could have just got another GER Y14, but I went with the 1860's 'Tea Urn' instead because it's definitely not a 'turn the knob and it goes' kind of locomotive.  I think if I went back to having a 3D real world layout again I'd be disappointed.  Even with 'O' gauge. - which was what I was into before I had to stop model-making, - I think I'd be disappointed now.

 

I love that sign by the way.  The trouble with building a Norfolk based railway like I am at the moment such a sign would never be seen at all (sigh).  It sounds like you had a great deal of fun with your Highworth branch Martin.

[Martin S-C]

It was a labour of love but I was let down by a couple of content providers who let me use their models but then withdrew permission later so it stalled for 10 years or so but finally got finished by a really supportive and dedicated team of friends who were amazing. Its available still for download with all the stock and activity packs (this is MSTS 1 remember) on Matt Peddlesden's UKTS site. I was especially pleased by the guy who wrote the activities for it. We had the entire history of the line to work from so he wrote a complete story for it - from contractors trains hauling dirt in the 1880s to the last diesel demolition train that lifted the track in the early 1960s. Nothing like that had been done before and as far as I'm aware nothing like it since.

My favourite activities are the timber trains in WWI when a company of Canadian lumberjacks were posted in a temporary camp near Stanton woods and cut timber for the war effort. Some of those trains were 40 wagons (mostly bolsters and other flats but some low side opens too) and were propelled down the branch at 5 mph. Having trains 3 times the length of the run round loops makes for some hard thinking.

We modelled the ammonium nitrate works at Swindon as well and some of the shunting activities in there were real balls of kitten-trashed wool to work out. Great fun. Like massive Inglenook Sidings puzzles but with more sidings, certain wagons that couldn't go on certain roads and of course gunpowder wagons that could not be marshalled next to the loco.

[Annie]

Wow!  That ammonium nitrate works would make a layout all on its own.

[Annie]

While driving a goods train from Windweather to Barrow Hills I was gazing across the mashlands towards the salt marsh and I decided that I don't have to do anymore to this area of the layout.  The sizeable flat emptiness of this section of the layout has been quite intimidating for me to work on since it's an empty landscape and basically half a mile of nothing, but flat boggy ground and rough grass.  Scenic work had to be done to make it look like it was supposed to, but it took a lot of work to actually create that impression of windswept emptiness.  All very Zen and one thing I know for sure is that I'm not going to model any more Norfolk salt marshes for a very long time.

 

 

Here's an amusing snap.  I have more or less period correct traffic enabled on the roads on the layout and this van played race the train along the length of the coastline until I had to slow down for the speed restrictions at Tenpenny Beach station.  A bit annoying since I was winning too.

Plainly though LMS parcel vans cannot be permitted to drop through portals and on to my GER layout so I shall have to do some config editing so it doesn't happen again.

 

[sem34090]

9 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

"I was especially pleased by the guy who wrote the activities for it. We had the entire history of the line to work from so he wrote a complete story for it - from contractors trains hauling dirt in the 1880s to the last diesel demolition train that lifted the track in the early 1960s. Nothing like that had been done before and as far as I'm aware nothing like it since."
 

This sounds a bit like what the chap who's doing the scenarios for the Railway Operating Division project is planning to do - We're going to chart the story of a GWR Engineman (A fictional one - we figured that was more sensitive to the subject matter) working out of Exeter (I think we decided, it may have been Newton Abbot). The first few scenarios will concentrate on GWR workings in the area at the outbreak of the war, going from normal traffic on 4th August (the date of the first scenario) through initial mobilisation into 1915. I think the plan is to then have him join the ROD in 1915 or 1916 and most of the next scenarios will be in France with our driver working our of Hazebrouck. In 1917 we'll reunite him with a GWR 4300 I think, and then the Spring Offensive of 1918 will see him returned home to Devon. The final scenario will most likely concern the movement of the coach in which the Armistice was signed, which is to be included with the route.

 

More can be found here: http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=361&t=150179&sid=6808106ccac12f9ab9f2e5321fa6da17

[Annie]

That's quite some project you are working on Sem.

 

My latest old engine project.  This is 'Thunderbolt' but I have 'Lion' as well.  This is a very old Trainz model and it had sound files and an engine spec file that could barely function in a more recent version of Trainz.  It also had over shiny textures and odd colour tonings as well.  Much work was done to get 'Thunderbolt' to this stage where its now properly upgraded to being TS2012 spec.  I'm still not that happy with the firebox though I don't know if I can do much more to it.  It originally used a tiny colour patch that was stretched over the firebox mesh and apart from being bright yellow it just looked wrong.  I wanted the firebox cladding to look like weathered and tarnished brass since this is supposed to be a working engine and not a polish queen.  So I made the texture patch much bigger and gave it a weathered surface based around an image of weathered brass so it wasn't just one colour and then I 'undercoated' the firebox mesh by playing with the ambient and diffuse settings.  I gave it a little muted shine as well since even tarnished brass does have some shine to it.

 

 

I have two versions.  One that slips and sulks and grunts and groans, but will pull the side of a house down if I'm willing to work the regulator and reverser in a constant dance.  And the other which is very polite, easier to drive, but a bit weedy.  They both have brake van e.spec tenders too which makes a big difference.  Neither of them are 'turn the knob' and it goes engines and I like that.  More often now I'm using the 'realistic' controls in the simulator instead of the DCC 'simple' controls and I'm having a lot of fun doing it too.

'Thunderbolt' will mostly have the role of a spare engine on the tramway and not be used on any scheduled runs.  Trip working seems to suit it very well.  Shunting can get a bit exciting, but I'm getting the hang of it now.   Yes I know my latest elderly engines are a bit of an anachronism, though some of the Hicks 'Tea Urn's did make it into the pre-WW1 era, though of course they'd been rebuilt a bit by then.  And I don't particularly care if they are anachronisms because I'm having FUN and that's all that counts as far as I'm concerned.

[sem34090]

More news from the Western front tonight...

NER T2 reskin to represent the NER Worsdell T1s, all of which served with the ROD in France and Belgium before returning to the NER post-war.The reskin has been made for us by the creator of the loco, Peter from Victory Works (a very well respected Portsmouth-based creator of TS steam locos!) Image Courtesy of Victory Works

 

A full update of all recent happenings can be found here: http://sem34090.simplesite.com/441152081 

[Annie]

Officially an old age pensioner today.  What a hoot!  

 

My daughter just came in now and wished me 'Happy Birthday' which was just as well since I'd forgotten all about it.   

[sem34090]

Many happy returns are therefore due!

[Northroader]

[Caley Jim]

Happy birthday Annie. I had one yesterday! It's a proven fact that those who have the most birthdays live the longest. 

 

Jim 

[Annie]

Thanks all for the nice birthday wishes; - and Northroader those are really lovely flowers.  At least digital flowers don't wilt because I've forgotten to put them in water which means I can come back and enjoy them any time I want.

[Martin S-C]

Happy birthday!