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

[Annie]

 

Ah, - that's much better.  The problem is after studying some photos on the Cornwall Railway Society website I can see that I need to do a fair bit of work at Perranwell to make it much more narrowly enclosed in its cutting than it is now.  Also the landscape around Penwithers junction isn't anything like being right which could lead to a fair bit of landscape bashing needing to be done.

 

Found some nice old pictures of Penryn station though and some useful pictures of Cornwall Railway station buildings  so it's not all bad.

[Annie]

 

A very useful picture showing details of the Cornwall Railway station building at Perranwell.  Also somewhat upsetting in that it shows me just how much the eastern end of the station was enclosed by the  railway cutting.  Having just bashed a large area of the countryside around Ponsanooth into something approaching its proper shape I should be pretty much fearless about doing the same at Perranwell, but it's just annoying in that I thought I had things pretty much sorted at Perranwell.  That'll teach me to make wild public statements about Perranwell being done and dusted.  

[Annie]

Out track testing with No.5.

 

I'm still having trouble with tunnels.  It's proving just about impossible to find a decent tunnel portal that looks somewhere close to being right for the line.

 

Perranwell.  Much time was spent looking at how to shift the cutting closer to the station at the eastern end of the station yard.  Trackwork is all looking good though.

 

Leaving Perranwell.  After Perranwell the line starts to climb steadily up to Penryn and this is where the real work begins for the engines on the line.  There are some gradients between Truro and Perranwell, but not quite as steep.

 

On a newly cleared section.  The Pascoe viaduct is going to be installed a short way back behind the train. The gradient is now easing a bit so No.5 isn't working so hard.  My 'Sharpies' could steam for Britain and they are economical on coal and water as well, but No.5 used more coal than I expected on the climb up to Penryn.

 

The Jungles of Penryn.  Now thankfully much reduced, but there's still a good mile and a half of scenic repair work and general fixing jobs left to do.

[Annie]

Penwithers Junction is not all on the same level so it's been a bit of a long drawn out fiddly job getting it sorted out so the trackwork doesn't have any bumps or dips in it.  I finally finished it all off last night so I thought that warranted a snap or two.

 

 

I think I've now got the Cornwall Railway platform shelter's colours close to being correct.  This is the shelter from Liskeard, the one at Perranwell was a little longer and  had four windows and a door in one end.  If I can find a suitable building mesh I'll make a proper shelter for Perranwell.  I have a platform shelter model based on the one at Menheniot (still unfortunately in BR Blue error colours), but that was different again.

 

With my attempt at getting some locomotives commissioned turning out to have been a complete waste of time and money the 'Sharpies' are going to be back for the foreseeable future.  The 4-2-4T No.5 won't be in regular use since it's main job is finding trackwok faults, but you will see the 2-4-2T's No.2 and No.9 working on the line again.  Call them stand-ins for the 3521 class engines if you like.

 

[Annie]

Incidentally there was a model made of a '3521' back in the earliest days of the Trainz simulator and in a word it's awful.  It takes the whole concept of awful out the back of the shed and does despicable things to it.  Even if I was to spend the next twenty seven years retexturing it and using every trick I know to improve a digital model engine it would still be awful.  When I first saw it I had difficulty conceiving it to be a '3521' that's how awful it was.  I won't post a picture since catching sight of it even briefly could be injurious to health.

[Annie]

Coming up for air!  This is the eastern approach to Penryn and it has taken one huge amount of work to get it looking like this.  Still WIP and my present task is changing out all the road bridges across the line for what has become the default road bridge on the layout.  It might not be completely true to the prototype, but I do know that all the bridges on the line were essentially the same so all the strange collection of bridges the original layout builder used are being progressively replaced.

 

[corneliuslundie]

I do like the signalbox steps now. BTW making them in the real world at 4mm/ft is no sinecure either. I needed one for by Stevens box on Sarn and getting it something like straight was a nightmare.

Also, I have to agree with you about the surfeit of trees, though I think there may still sometimes be too many. But what horrors will you uncover if you remove many more?

Jonathan

[Annie]

It's been like some kind of horrible archeological dig fixing the scenery on this layout Jonathon.  All along the line between Perranwell and Penryn I've been finding earlier work by the original layout builder that he simply covered over when he changed his mind about it.  In a lot of other places when he couldn't get some scenic feature or a bridge or whatever else to join up neatly he smothered it weeds and shrubs to hide it.

I do agree about the trees.  At the moment my main focus has been on clearing and repairing the permanent way, but I will be moving out into the wider landscape and thinning back the tree cover.

[runs as required]

I've so enjoyed rooting around your heroic landscape works re-creating Brunel's broad gauge around Truro.

Some years ago I got twice yearly freebies accompanying my wife to Truro to act as external examiner of students in a new Campus of Plymouth University (this had to be over the Saltash Bridge in Cornwall not Devon in order to qualify for EU Regional Development funding!).

 

It meant I got long days free to poke around. As well as riding the branch emu down to Falmouth and getting the ferry back up to Truro, I discovered the delights of the Newham branch here you mention - the rails were still much in evidence in Newham port.

I particularly enjoyed finding its history was much lengthier and complex than the branch itself!!

The West Cornwall to my surprise, had started by annexing the Hayle Railway in Geordie Stephenson standard gauge (with Brunel engineering its timber viaducts !); it reached its terminus at Truro Newham in 1855. As far as I could gather, all of the West Cornwall (save the stub down to Newham) had a broad gauge line added in 1866 to allow through running to Penzance after the line above Truro had arrived from Bristol - all reverting to standard 'narrow gauge' up to Paddington that night in 1892.

 

Keep on with the heavy engineering

dh

[Annie]

Thanks very much RAR. 

 

As things stand at the moment the permanent way and lineside all the way to Penryn has been cleared and repaired except for where I'll be installing the Pascoe viaduct.  No viaduct installing though until I have a chance to catch my breath.

I have just discovered though that the original layout builder has placed the masonry Collegewood viaduct model too close to Penryn so there's no room for the Penryn viaduct to fit where it's supposed to go.  I think I might have to sleep on that one since fixing that situation might involve the biggest piece of landscape editing and bashing I've had to face so far.

Considering that I only started out by doing a quicky Broad Gauge conversion on this layout using the editing tools 'just to see what it would look like' I seem to have ended up with one huge project instead as the history of the Cornwall Railway and the region between Truro and Falmouth drew me ever in deeper.

 

Unfortunately mixed gauge track isn't possible in Trainz despite a good few very clever people trying their best to make it work so the West Cornwall Railway section and the Newham branch has to be to the Broad Gauge and not standard gauge or mixed gauge.  The WCR line only goes as far as Chacewater with the rest of the WCR to Penzance being represented by a portal since my main focus is on the line to Falmouth.

I think modelling the Newham branch would be interesting though, but that will be definitely something for later.

[Annie]

New engine joining the line.  I really did need a second 'Bogie' class since they will be handling all the heavier passenger trains.  I'm completely ignoring scrapping dates since this is the only Broad Gauge 4-4-0ST model available.  The weatherboard isn't wide enough, but that can't be helped and I'm certainly not going to ask a certain 'professional' model maker to widen it for me.

 

 

These snaps were taken on the last half mile into Penryn.  I'm happy with this section, but after seeing the cuttings further down the line from footplate level I can see they have some nasty folds in them from the underlying landscape mesh having been forced into creases.  Much more work needed with smoothing them out before I show you any pictures of that section.

 

 

[runs as required]

6 hours ago, Annie said:

... Considering that I only started out by doing a quicky Broad Gauge conversion on this layout using the editing tools 'just to see what it would look like' I seem to have ended up with one huge project instead as the history of the Cornwall Railway and the region between Truro and Falmouth drew me ever in deeper.

Unfortunately mixed gauge track isn't possible in Trainz despite a good few very clever people trying their best to make it work so the West Cornwall Railway section and the Newham branch has to be to the Broad Gauge and not standard gauge or mixed gauge.  ...

I think modelling the Newham branch would be interesting though, but that will be definitely something for later.

Thanks for the reply Annie. I have to admit I was disappointed to discover 'my' Newham branch I'd explored had never been broad gauge.

 

We live at the other end of England on Tyneside though some of my early years were in Cornwall (first memories were of Plymouth during the blitz).

In the days of mining there was a close bond between The Mining Institute in Newcastle and Camborne School of Mines - in the entrance hall of the Victoria building at Newcastle University there is a bronze monument to exchange students killed in a C19 Cornish tin mine disaster.

The  Stephenson's 'standard gauge' adopted by the Hayle Railway must date from those times.

dh

[Annie]

16 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

I do like the signalbox steps now. BTW making them in the real world at 4mm/ft is no sinecure either. I needed one for by Stevens box on Sarn and getting it something like straight was a nightmare.

Jonathan

Replacing the signal box steps was a right fiddle, but I'm glad I did it.  Thinking back to my own 4mm scale modelling I know I 'cheated' a couple of times by using the steps from the Airfix kit, though I do also remember an exercise in frustration involving many small pieces of cardboard.

I now face a small dilemma though in that I think I've found a peaked roof building of a much closer size  to the signal box at Perranwell.  Re-texturing it shouldn't be too difficult, but the whole assembly of misrelated bits I've used to represent the signal box's support structure would need to be re-adjusted to fit.

[Annie]

Examples of creases and folds in the cutting walls that need to be fixed.  I never struck this problem when I was modelling Norfolk railways.

 

 

Better success with re-texturing some stone bridge piers to extend the viaduct piers at Ponsanooth.

 

 

 

[Annie]

The embankment at Perranwell is supposed to go right up to the back of platform 2, but I've held off trying to do anything about because the last time I tried doing something like that at Liskeard all I ended up doing was either burying the platform or pushing the station building over because the landscape tools aren't precise enough.

This time around I used an embankment mesh made by a very clever member of the creator group I belong to.  I had my doubts about it and even though it was a fair bit of work and a right fiddle I got it done.

I'm still not entirely sure about it, but this about the only possible way to put the embankment where it's supposed to go.

The problem with this kind of mesh is that they are all one texture and while Malcolm's texture work is second to none there's no avoiding a huge expanse of grass that's all the same.  I can't add additional textures to it like I can with the landscape mesh and sowing any long grass onto it is diabolically tricky.

I think I'm suffering from landscape editing fatigue so I can't make up my mind about it so any comments would be welcome.

 

 

 

[Annie]

At Truro.  Steve Flanders has sent me the beta version of his new train shed models so I'm thinking about how to go about rebuilding Truro station.  Steve was much intrigued by the original non GWR corporate footbridge at Truro so perhaps if I'm very very good I might eventually get one.

 

 

Presently getting 'Sappho' sorted out.  On the steep gradients on the line to Falmouth they don't half burn up the coal though.

 

 

 

 

 

[Northroader]

The passenger train looks good, and I love the scenery. One teeny weeny criticism would be the telegraph poles, to me they look very American with the long arms and vee supports?

[Caley Jim]

12 minutes ago, Northroader said:

The passenger train looks good, and I love the scenery. One teeny weeny criticism would be the telegraph poles, to me they look very American with the long arms and vee supports?

Note also that in the photo the arms are alternately long and short.  A common feature in the late c19th.   This was to avoid interference in the telegraph signal if the wires in one circuit were close to those in another.

 

Jim

[Annie]

I haven't really looked at the telegraph poles yet Northroader.  In some places they are missing altogether due to scenery upheavals so that's a job for the future.  I do have quite a wide variety of telegraph pole models so it's just a case of going through them all and finding ones that are the closest match.

Doing all the scenic work with fixing things,  landscape bashing and excessive tree removal has been been my main focus lately so it will be nice when I can get to the stage of working on lineside detailing and other period details.

 

4 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

Note also that in the photo the arms are alternately long and short.  A common feature in the late c19th.   This was to avoid interference in the telegraph signal if the wires in one circuit were close to those in another.

 

Jim

Now that's something I didn't know; - thanks for that Jim.

[Annie]

This might be the best I can do with the telegraph poles for now.  These are Welsh ones from the Ffestiniog  Railway.

[Annie]

Perranwell.  Getting closer to being finished now.  The embankment on the other side has been bashed into being closer to the running lines which didn't need anything like the same degree of precision as the side I did yesterday so that meant I could use the ordinary landscape tools.

Having found a better sized mesh I will be replacing the signal box even though the thought of pulling apart the half dozen so bits that make up its support structure is a bit horrifying.

 

[Annie]

Multi-posting mania strikes! 

This is the temporary station and terminus at Penryn.  Falmouth is a disaster area so I'm staying away from it for now.  Steve Flanders asked me to test out his Brunel overall station roof models for him so as a part of the testing process Penryn got one. (Models soon to be released on Steve's website  http://www.jatws.org/ing4trainz/index.htm)

Penryn will end up being completely rebuilt back to the track plan shown on the 1878 OS survey map so everything will end up being removed and realigned/replaced, but in the meantime it's quite workable as a temporary terminal station.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by Annie
added a picture

[Annie]

Rescued from the horrors of the BR Blue error!

This is the Cornwall Railway built platform shelter from Menheniot and I think I've managed to represent the old Cornwall railway paint scheme Ok.  A content creator for Trainz made a good few items for the Cornish mainline, - it's just unfortunate that he was a BR Blue error heretic so everything needs to be retextured before I can use it.  The Liskeard shelter peeking out behind is also one of his models.

The shelter at Perranwell was very like the Menheniot one only it was longer and had four windows in the front and a door to a porter's room in one end.  I could put a door in the end of the  Menheniot shelter,  but since there isn't any sign of the necessary porter's room it would be a bit silly.

The BR Blue error version had the front windows blanked out which I reinstated, - not the best, - but they will do.  However what I don't know is if the paired arched recesses in the ends originally contained windows that BR blanked out, or if they were just decorative recesses.  I haven't found any period pictures to solve the mystery so for the present time I'll leave them as is.

 

 

Edit:  Yes, - go me!  I found a picture of the Menheniot shelter still wearing its old WR paintwork and it does indeed have windows in the ends.

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by Annie
added a picture and said more.

[Annie]

Snaps taken at Truro while I was doing stuff there.

 

Frome station building and overoofs pretending to be the ones from Truro.

 

 

Fixed the wagon turntable properly at last.  Lots still to do with the whole goods shed area.  The goods shed is the one from Didcot and is acting as a placeholder.

 

 

This older Brunel trainshed model from TS2004 days is a bit naff, but it's better than a poke in the eye.

 

 

I was talking to Steve Flanders about my use of his Moorswater viaduct model on the layout and I mentioned the height of the support piers.  A few hours later a revised model with taller piers pops into my email inbox.  I did not expect that and it was very kind of him to do that for me.  He's looking at doing some of the other kinds of Brunel timber viaduct as well.  At first glance it's easy to think Brunel viaducts are all the same, but they definitely are not and they came in quite a variety of designs and types.

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

 

Cornwall Railway platform shelter variations.  I still haven't done the arched windows in the ends of the Menheniot shelter yet.  The one at the top right is for station building fudging to make placeholder station buildings until I can get to making a proper one.

 

I was studying all my old photos of Perranwell station and I was starting to feel depressed that I still hadn't got it right.  I ended up having to give myself a stern talking to.  'Look, you're doing the best that you can with the tools that you have and if you're going to get sad and disappointed over everything you're doing what in hell are you doing it for?  - You're doing this for enjoyment aren't you? - well smarten yourself up and get back to bloody enjoying it.'

 

It gets a bit depressing with being sleepy all the time and having a brain that won't think properly with micropauses thrown in extra for free, - or else suddenly decides shut down and toss me away for hours into a deep sleep.  But I'm going to carry on and while my Cornwall Railway might not be perfect at least it's my Cornwall Railway and I can have the last word on whether it's good enough or not.