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

[Northroader]

I ought to give you a rating. “Amazing” is the one I’m looking for.

[Annie]

Thanks Northroader.  Sometimes when I wake up I don't feel very amazing though, - just confused.  Thank heaven for Trainz though because at least I know where I am with that.  Or mostly I do because I have been known to get myself lost on my own digital layouts.

[Annie]

West Norfolk Railway saloon coach seen on the M&GNR.

 

[Edwardian]

Heaven!  If only my layout looked like that!

[Regularity]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Heaven!  If only my layout looked like that!

You might need the Great Hall in Westminster Palace to house it, if it did!

[Annie]

37 scale miles long altogether James and a bit of a challenge to operate properly.  Your layout would look better since all the buildings in that picture are placeholders and not ideal.  It's meant to be Melton Constable and it is slowly getting there with the aid of some photos I found and an OS map.  When I got the layout Melton Constable was all done wrong and the trackwork was an utter mess, - but I could see the potential so I stuck at it.

[Annie]

Amazing wot you can do when you know how.  There used to be a Johnston 0-6-0 'Jinty' available for Trainz, but it's disappeared so since I needed a M&GNR 0-6-0T I made one using bits that weren't really intended to fit together on the same engine.  The rear axle is just slightly forward of the rear springs/axleboxes centerline, but not so far as to look too alarmingly out of place.  The NER class 'E' wheels just fitted nicely under the front splashers and that certainly was my main concern with doing this conversion.

Yes I know it's another M&GNR 'neverwassa', but since there's nuffing proper available anyway I had to make something that looked vaguely plausible.

 

[Annie]

Apart from sorting out some of the ever increasing fleet of M&GNR engines I managed to find 4-4-2T No.11 a proper bogie and paint it in 'golden gorse' livery.  The bogie being one from a recent model needed all kinds of fluffing about with to get the colours to display properly.  Fortunately I now have the necessary tool to adjust specular shine and other mesh related settings or else I wouldn't have had a hope of getting the wheels to match the rest of the engine.  Also with the wheel models being the latest thing the rest of the wheels on the engine are looking a bit like poor relations.  No.11 might end up with new wheels all round if I can find the right sort to replace the old ones, but for the time being they will do.  After sorting out two 0-6-0T's and another 2-4-0T I've had enough of fiddling about with engines for one day.

 

 

Sorted out a cattle wagon and a 4 plank open wagon as well which should help things along.

 

 

[Annie]

M&GNR engines.  I've just got the 0-6-2T 'Sharpies' left to do and there might be three of those.  With the portals generating trains I have to have enough engines to run those trains as well as anything I might be doing on my own account.  Would you believe I had to change the file names on this lot because Trainz can't read an ampersand and was getting its silly AI mind confused.

 

 

Did some GNR 6 wheel 3rd class coaches.  Not totally accurate, but better than nothing.

 

 

Yard shunter waiting for something to do.

 

Edited February 24, 2019 by Annie
more to say

[sem34090]

I've finally got some more to show for myself! I've done some work today on my Fictional LBSCR Pre-Grouping route for Dovetail Games' Simulator:

A LSWR 0415 Atlantic Tank comes off of its train at Tanley. Since the loop was installed here, the loco changes on the two daily LSWR return services to Norford have occurred at Tanley rather than at Slinwell Junction. The train will be taken on to Norford by an LBSCR E4, which will have followed the working down from Lentbridge shed.

The Tanley Town Tramway's Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST pauses in the loop at Tanley (LBSCR) prior to running back down to Tanley Town, having brought up four elderly ex-NER wagons. (It will become apparent that these shots aren't in chronological order!!!)

A shot taken before the 0415 came off its train showing a normal LBSCR service waiting to depart for Norford.

Although it looks like it's running round, the 0415 is leaving Tanley via the Platform 3 Loop to head up to Lentbridge shed for servicing.

As the 0415 heads back North in the background, LBSCR No.77 Wonersh shunts the yard at Tanley.

Radials Meet - The E4 which will take the LSWR train forward to Norford passes the Northbound 0415 on the Viaduct just to the North of Tanley.

I know this is anachronistic, it really is, and was a bit careless of me (I think Wonersh might have been too.) but here's the LBSCR's Hailsham heading North over the same viaduct.

And impossibly, given the withdrawal date of Hailsham passing an umber, reboilered, E4!

The LSWR working heading South under Bogham Road.

An E2 is seen working up the 1 in 60 bank towards Lentbridge, assisted by an A1 at the rear.

E4 and A1x enjoying each others company on Lentbridge shed.

Southbound E4 at Lentbridge.

-----------------------

A note regarding wagons, coaches, signals, buildings and locos - Unlike Trainz, there is a severely limited number of suitable stock and infrastructure assets available for the DTG sim, and fabrication prototypical wagons like Annie does in Trainz is, for me, impossible. The LBSCR wagons are as close as I could get, being based on the SR version of the standard LBSCR open diagram (With squared, as opposed to rounded, ends) and the brake van being a representation of a Panter road van based off of an LSWR one of the same.

Signals are mostly NER as these are the only split-post signals in the game and the conventional lower-quadrants are LNWR (in BR condition) ones as these are the closest in the game to LBSCR later lower-Quadrants. These have been used around Tanley on the logic that Tanley has recently been rebuilt (hence the later-pattern canopies) into a 3-platform station prior to doubling of the line down to Norford, excluding the tunnel just to the South of Tanley. The loop platform has been installed to add flexibility and to give a terminating road to the infrequent services offered by the Tanley Town Tramway (Hence the Hawthorn Leslie!).

I make the route to be set roughly around 1903, so I know that most of the stock shown is far too modern. I can't do anything about the E4s as Mr Wilson has done what Bachmann did, and I decided to make the other stock match the period of the E4s rather than the route. Anachronistic, but fun and easier.

[Annie]

All good Sem.  The picture you've painted with your line is certainly a believable one and when it comes to simulators it's often a compromise with using what is available rather than what is prototypical.  I do appreciate the difficulty with rolling stock you mention though since I am a bit spoilt with the goods wagons meshes I can use where with some of them I can 'plug in' different kinds of brakes, buffers and couplings to suit what I'm making.

[sem34090]

Well, this has had some custom assets very kindly made for it in the form of the running-in boards and a very nice track reskin. The ROD project is doing even better with a very kind Frenchman having made some wagons and other custom assets for it.

 

Thank you for the complement though - I like to think it works nicely.  

[BlueLightning]

2 hours ago, sem34090 said:

And impossibly, given the withdrawal date of Hailsham passing an umber, reboilered, E4!

 

The only problem with that is that Hailsham would have been based out of Oak Hill by then!! Dunno what this withdrawal you are going on about is!!

 

The route is looking really good though!! Can't wait to see some more!

 

Gary

[Annie]

Update and general tidy up of one of the first coaches I made.  Originally I made this GNR coach to attach to GCR passenger trains and I made it to look like a coach with its vanished teak finish aged in service.  The new version has been uploaded to the DLS.

I made a clean and tidy 1st class coach as well and that's getting a little bit of revision work too.

 

[sem34090]

Very nice.

8 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

 

The only problem with that is that Hailsham would have been based out of Oak Hill by then!! Dunno what this withdrawal you are going on about is!!

 

The route is looking really good though!! Can't wait to see some more!

 

Gary

Ah - I forgot about the mistake in the withdrawals list...

 

I will be doing more work on it over coming weeks.

[Annie]

GNR 6 compt Lav 1st all tidied up and ready for upload to the DLS.

 

 

Did some playing trains serious testing last night before I got too sleepy and had to stop.

 

[Annie]

A weathered GNR 1st/3rd Composite was next on the build list.  I managed a better attempt at detailing with this coach which is a bit of a two edged sword since I'm now wondering if I should go back and do the same on the coaches I did previously.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Annie
spelling

[Annie]

Improved GNR 6w coach because I didn't like my first attempt.

 

[Annie]

This amazing confection is what I ended up with when the M&GNR and GER layout I've been working on is joined to my Hopewood & Windweather Tramway layout.  The large trees towards the back of the picture mark where the edge of the M&GNR and GER layout ended and the end of the station platform in the foreground marks where the Hopewood & Windweather Tramway layout ended.

The H.& W.T.Co. layout apart from the tramways contains a double track GCR mainline and a single track GER branchline and it's these that have been plumbed into the M&GNR and GER layout.

The single track line running straight through the centre of the picture is the GER branchline's connection to a portal which is simply there to allow me to operate the H.& W.T.Co. layout on it's own.  The single track line running diagonally across the picture is a goods only connection from the GCR to the M&GNR .  As you can see the GER branchline also connects with the GER double track line to Hunstanton on the left and the M&GNR line over to the right.

 

 

More of the joining section over to the left.  Fields as far as the eye can see.  I will be adding in more signs of rural life and that drainage canal that's ending at the hedge will eventually actually go somewhere and terminate properly.  

The GER double track line to Kings Lynn is running between that paired row of hedges running diagonally across the picture.  Kings Lynn is conveniently represented by a portal hidden in the landscape.  The GCR double track line runs from the left foreground and makes a junction to the GER double track line.  I actually neither know nor care whether the GCR really did such a thing because this is my own little version of pre-grouping reality.  Since I have a huge amount of GCR engines and rolling stock and alarmingly little in the way of GER engines and rolling stock the GCR was always going to remain a part of the scene.

 

 

 

[Annie]

Through all the various upheavals on the layout the single GER branchline has always remained operational.  (The GCR mainline is still in the throes of major trackwork replacement with the old TS2004 track being replaced by something much better)  It serves a number of small stations and eventually finds its way to a platform at the  main GCR station on the layout before heading off into the rural landscape and a portal that represents the rest of the GER.  Near this portal is spooky Barrow Hills and the junction for the branch to Windweather.

 

Testing.  First train on the GER branchline since the unholy joining of the two layouts.  The stations on the branchline are now passenger enabled so I wanted to make sure they worked properly.

 

The main GCR station.  Much remains the same from its original Valleyfields layout origins, but I have considerably rebuilt the town and the surrounding area.

 

Off into the rural countryside and heading for 'the rest of the GER'. 

 

Barrow Hills.  The portal 'to the rest of the GER' is just past the cliffs in the left background.  The grey band on the horizon is unfinished Norfolk since I have yet to do the scenic work on those boards.  The trackwork is all laid though so this this part of the layout is fully operational.

Barrow Hills is the junction for the GER branchine to Windweather as well as being  the Hopewood & Windweather Tramway's connection to the GER.

 

 

[Edwardian]

Lovely shots.  I know all about "unfinished Norfolk", though I suspect that your will not remain unfinished for long!

[Annie]

Thanks James.  Apart from blending in some odd bits of higher ground the unfinished bits of Norfolk will mostly be fields and hedgerows like in my second picture in my post about joining the two layouts together.  Not exactly hard to do, just a bit tedious.  Getting the main bits down will certainly make it look better, but then after that it's all the detailing which will make the flat landscape look like people actually live there.

 

With the layouts now joined together it looks like the Hopewood & Windweather Tramway is well north of Hunstanton and somewhere on the north side of the River Nene.

[Edwardian]

Not, I trust, in the Wash? 

[Martin S-C]

I love those GE coaches and the loco - is it a Buckjumper?

Looks like you need one of those tall USA style switching towers at that impressive star junction!

[Annie]

11 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Not, I trust, in the Wash? 

No not in the Wash James     I spent a while studying an OS map of the Norfolk coast and somewhere on the coast north of the River Nene looked to be about right.

 

10 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

I love those GE coaches and the loco - is it a Buckjumper?

Looks like you need one of those tall USA style switching towers at that impressive star junction!

It's the slightly larger version of a 'Buckjumper' Martin, - a Holden S56.  I have a R24 'Buckjumper' as well, but I haven't been running it lately because I want to tidy up some of its texture detailing.

 

The star junction was the only way I could think of to join all the various tracks together in any kind of way that made sense.  Possibly if I'd made the joining piece between the two layouts a lot wider I could have done it differently, but the last thing I wanted was yet more empty layout boards that I'd have to landscape and do scenic work to.  Fortunately the GCR goods transfer line shouldn't see a lot of use which means that it will just be traffic to and from the GER branch that I have to worry about.

One of those elevated signal boxes would be a good idea.  I only have a Northern region NER signal box that's like that and that's very obviously not GER unfortunately.