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

[Compound2632]

On 09/11/2023 at 11:08, Annie said:

 '97 - 4402'  was printed on the top left hand corner, but that was all, - no date.  

 

97 = 1897.

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

97 = 1897.

Ah thank you, - now why didn't I think of that.

[Annie]

I was messing around on the Windweather Tramway last night before bedtime.  It's been far too long since I gave this little Foden geared loco a run.  It's a cantankerous little thing and huge fun to drive on the 'advanced' steam controls.

It doesn't carry much coal so it's vitally important to make sure I don't embarrass myself by running out miles from anywhere.

 

 

[magmouse]

31 minutes ago, Annie said:

it's vitally important to make sure I don't embarrass myself by running out miles from anywhere

 

You can always pinch a shovel-full or two from the wagon behind...

 

Nick.

[Annie]

As a part of the general overhaul and tidy up around Windweather station and township I decided that it was well time that the small MPD at Windweather was finally sorted out.  It's always been a bit scruffy which is fine, but things like a turntable that operates according to chaos theory making access to the engine shed and the coal stage almost impossible got on my wick once too often and off to the scrapper it went.

The turntable I replaced it with works well without any fuss, but it has less track connections and they are arranged differently to the chaos turntable so that meant a complete rearrangement of everything was necessary.  Windweather has one engine assigned to it, but there are always visitors from Tenpenny Wharf that might be staying over so in addition to the very nice brick engine shed for the designated engine I put up a rough and ready timber and corrugated iron shelter for the visitors.  There was one bay left over in the shelter so I put a traction engine in there just because I can.

 

 

[Annie]

Presently working on getting a certain little Neilson Box Tank working properly.  It was made for use on the Isle of Sodor which usually means that its config file specs will be downright strange.  The engine driver and the fireman are fine and I don't mind them since I don't believe in judging folk just because they look a bit different, but the engine spec was one intended for a BR standard 2MT and its weight was more than twice what it was supposed to be.

Any very small engine for Trainz that can stop completely dead with 100 tons of coal pushing at it from behind is a very small engine that's been set up to be 'a little engine that could' and not set up to operate like the real engine it's supposed to be modelled on.

 

Getting set to leave Tenpenny Wharf with 100 tons of coal.

 

 

One of the reasons why I want a Neilson Box Tank on the roster.  The timber viaduct across the salt marsh has a weight and speed restriction and only certain engines of a notably smaller kind are permitted to work over this older part of the Windweather Tramway.  Heavier traffic from Tenpenny Wharf has to go out via Barrow Hills, run around its train in the goods yard there and then head for Windweather via Great Marsh.

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

Trip working is always a good way for me to cheer myself up.  Steve Flanders had some new things he asked me to test and after that I set some of the local passenger engines off running on their schedules and then spent an hour or two with Terrier 'Hopewood' shunting wagons about and taking them places.

I didn't take all that many snaps because I got busy with shunting or else train spotting at Bluebell Magna and Moxbury.

 

My old GTX 960 graphics card sometimes drifts its setting about a bit and this time around it produced a dreary morning instead of a Summers day.

 

Bluebell Magna goods yard.

 

The 9.30am local from Moxbury comes dashing past.

 

The mysterious 'works' at Bluebell Magna.

 

Leaving Beaky's Hill Halt behind.

 

Fetching the coal delivery for Moxbury gasworks.

 

 

 

[Tom Burnham]

Always useful to have a Terrier on hand!

[Annie]

47 minutes ago, Tom Burnham said:

Always useful to have a Terrier on hand!

Yes indeed! According to my layout's history/backstory four Terriers were purchased second hand from the LBSC by the Affiliated (Imaginary) Railway Companies.  They were generally tidied up, painted in the A.(I).R.C's black livery, converted to the vacuum brake and arrived just in time for the GER to take a controlling interest in the Affiliated Companies.  

Since they'd been purchased for working over the companies' more lightly laid sections and branchlines that was where they went and generally got on with it without too much fuss and mostly without being officially noticed.  When the M&BHER's 'Jack of all Trades' 0-6-2T 'Sharpies' were withdrawn after the arrival of GER 'Intermediates' and C32 2-4-2T's at Moxbury shed it was found that there was an urgent need for shunting engines so the Terriers were sent for and pressed into service.

 

They are awfully good fun to run about and shunt with.

[Annie]

My poor old CoolerMaster Windows computer died suddenly and unexpectedly last night so I'm setting up my HP Xeon Linux computer to be my daily use computer.  I can't afford a replacement Windows computer at the moment and it would have to be a Windows 11 compatible machine due to Windows 10 being obsoleted in 2025 and no longer supported.

 

The only thing that was really holding me back from running Linux was the fact that it was difficult to get Trainz to run under Linux.  However there have been some recent breakthroughs with software that would allow Windows programs to run in Linux and with my clever daughter's help I've been able to get TRS22 working in Linux. 

There's still more to do as well as all the usual tedious business of setting up files and the software to run them as you'd have to do anyway with transferring everything over to a new computer.  I'm going to have to get used to using different graphics software as well to do texture work, - which is a pain, - but I guess I'll figure it out soon enough.

 

The TRS22 Potteries Loop Line route for Trainz running in Debian Linux.

 

 

 

[Annie]

It's been a right tedious old business transferring  files over to the HP Xeon.  It's the usual kind of thing that has to be done anyway with a new computer, but made just that little bit more difficult with the Xeon running Linux instead of Windows.  Fortunately none of the CoolerMaster's hard drives suffered damage so that means that I can pop them into my very useful external hard drive mounting cradle and copy across the files I need to the Xeon. 

 

Perhaps the most important thing is that the Trainz simulator is going to work in Linux.  It looks like the older 32 bit versions of Trainz like TS2012 won't, but that's not much of a problem since it was very rare for me to use it these days.

[Annie]

And finally after quite a bit of work and worry here's a sparrowcam screenshot of Windweather in Linux.

I'm really quite impressed because it's all turned out much better than I hoped it would.

 

 

After discussing things with my very tech minded daughter I decided to buy a HP SFF (Small Form Factor) Z240 ex-lease computer that's already set up for Windows 11.  I don't want it for running Trainz on, - this will be for running the digital Trainz wrangling software that I use for making things to use and run in Trainz. 

Most of this software is purely for running under Windows and doesn't have either a Linux version or Linux equivalent.  There might have been a very slim chance that I could get them to run in Linux using the Wine emulator, though something tells me it would end up being a source of annoyance and frustration instead.

[MikeOxon]

Glad to know you've got everything working in Linux.  When I tried several years ago, I found Linux worked very well until it didn't, and then it was a nightmare to sort out.  It's probably improved since then.

 

I've never worried about Windows versions running out of support, although some software does want to see the latest version - often it's just the installer that objects and I have successfully transferred software that wouldn't load into Win10 from a Win7 machine.  I even still use WinXP (under Win7) for some peripherals that won't talk to later versions.

[Annie]

It's been a while.  Afternoon Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture courtesy of the Broad Gauge Society:

 

No. 2019 looks very similar to the "Hawthorn" class of 1865, and appears every inch a Great Western locomotive. 
In fact, she is neither.  No. 2019 was one of 10 locos built at Bristol by the Bristol & Exeter just 5 years later during 1870/72.

After 1876, she became GWR property, and although she was almost the last of her class to be built, she didn't last until the end unlike some of her sister engines. She was withdrawn in 1889.

 

 

Bristol & Exeter engines are the best.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Annie
Um.........

[Annie]

4 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Glad to know you've got everything working in Linux.  When I tried several years ago, I found Linux worked very well until it didn't, and then it was a nightmare to sort out.  It's probably improved since then.

Thanks Mike, - it was a bit of a mission, but I got there in the end.

 

I wrote you a much longer reply, but the forum software glitched and ate it and now I'm too fed up and tired to write it out all over again.

[Annie]

There seems to be various problems with some commands not working properly.  Some scripting that was slightly flaky in Windows 10 now seems to be very flaky running under Wine in Linux.  Hopefully there will be ways to work around most of them.

 

Clicking on the pictures when you can see the + sign will make them much bigger.

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by Annie
Um.........

[Annie]

After a lot more messing around I've come to the conclusion that TRS22 is too flaky to run properly in Linux.

So I gave TANE a try and it just works like it should exactly like it says on the tin.  Once i started taking a closer look at what I've got installed in TANE it was a pleasant surprise to see  just how much was there in the way of layouts that I'd carefully stashed away, - both my own layouts and those by other creators that I might have modded a little.

 

 

 

[Compound2632]

Is it possible to port entire layouts between the two systems?

[Annie]

11 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Is it possible to port entire layouts between the two systems?

I can port a layout built in TANE into TRS22, but unfortunately going the other way isn't possible.  TRS22 uses an updated landscape mesh format that isn't compatible with earlier versions of Trainz.

It's a right pain to tell the complete truth as while I have earlier versions of some of my layouts in TANE I'm having to do what amounts to abandoning all the further work I've done on them in TRS22.  I will be archiving my TRS22 install away and not just deleting it, but it's likely it will be a good while before it sees the light of day again.

 

[Annie]

You've seen this picture or at least many like it over the time I've been writing about my Norfolk layout in this thread.  Tram engine No.08 heading for Bluebell Woods with three tramway coaches and a luggage van in tow.  Only this time around it's happening in TANE and not TRS22.

 

 

The one thing I especially noticed about being back in TANE is the greater variety of trees.  When I came to move my Norfolk layout over into TRS22  from TANE I was really struggling to replace the trees that weren't compatible using a much smaller pool of tree models than I had available before.  In fact trees and the lack of them are one of the many sources of complaint about TRS22.

It's going to be a pain to have to repeat most of the rebuilding work I've only just finished doing in TRS22, but this time around my Norfolk layout is staying put and I'm not going to move it into any other version of Trainz, - no matter how many glittery geegaws it might have.

 

Oh and a bit of luck as I've been able to find an upgrade CPU for my HP Z200 Xeon computer.  That will certainly help things along.

[Annie]

In memory of Shane MacGowan. 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Annie

[Compound2632]

I hope you spotted the D299 there (twice) - truly the little blighters get everywhere!

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

I hope you spotted the D299 there (twice) - truly the little blighters get everywhere!

Yes double spotted, - they truly did get everywhere.

[Annie]

Another small victory with Linux.  I was able to get the decade old Trainz Classic 3 version of the Settle & Carlisle route working reasonably well in Debian Linux.

 

 

 

Screenshots aren't quite so easy to do as they were in Windows, but at least they are turning out alright.  I've found a Linux screen capture program called SimpleScreenRecorder that seems to work reasonably well, though I'm not really set up to do any You Tube videos just yet.

[Annie]

A 'clockwork' Jinty shunting at Durran Hill.  This is from one of the sessions in the TRS22 version of the old TC3 Settle & Carlisle route.  I found that I can get TRS22 to work in Linux if I set the performance menu to the lowest setting and make sure that I'm not trying to run a graphically intensive route.  There's some very clever command coding in this old S&C route as it manages to work perfectly whereas other routes will be plagued with bugs and errors.  I think the original TC3 team must've been blessed with esoteric Trainz knowledge denied to to us lesser mortals.