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

[Annie]

And after further rebuilding and frowning at things I can now tell you that Daere Steel Co. uses an open hearth furnace so is a much smaller kind of operation compared to steelworks that use blast furnaces.

 

 

One advantage with rearranging the furniture with considering different steel making techniques and discovering that there was an open hearth furnace model available for Trainz that I could use is that I was able to steal some more space for sidings and make a much better job of it.

 

[MikeOxon]

10 minutes ago, Annie said:

And after further rebuilding and frowning at things I can now tell you that Daere Steel Co. uses an open hearth furnace so is a much smaller kind of operation compared to steelworks that use blast furnaces.

Yet another skill for railway modelling 🙂  - steel making methods.

Mike

[Annie]

3 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Yet another skill for railway modelling 🙂  - steel making methods.

Mike

True enough Mike, - the things I've learned about through railway modelling are downright amazing.

 

As usual Wikipedia was useful to give me an idea of what it was all about.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_hearth_furnace

[CKPR]

7 hours ago, Annie said:

 the things I've learned about through railway modelling are downright amazing.

 

 

 

Most of my historical knowledge comes from reading "Military Modelling" magazine between 1973-1981.

 

[Annie]

The return of the 48xx's.  I've been able to figure out how to make the number assigning script for these engines work with a 48 prefix instead of a 14 prefix.  I also discovered that with the way it was set up it was capable of taking the numbering past the 75 members of the class and into imaginary numbering territory.  So I fixed that as well.

I now have four autotrain capable 48xx's on 'Tristyn in Winter' and i think that should be enough to handle the branchline traffic.

 

[MikeOxon]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

I also discovered that with the way it was set up it was capable of taking the numbering past the 75 members of the class and into imaginary numbering territory.

Are imaginary numbers appropriate for imaginary lines?

[Caley Jim]

4 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Are imaginary numbers appropriate for imaginary lines?

My memory of high school maths tells me that all imaginary numbers (square roots of negative values) began with 'i'.  They were what scuppered my maths as I just couldn't imagine what they were!  😉

 

Jim

Edited January 16 by Caley Jim
Typo

[Annie]

3 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Are imaginary numbers appropriate for imaginary lines?

I find myself wondering if that's what the locomotive's creator had in mind.  It would solve the problem of someone saying number 14xx didn't look like that. 

Fortunately there was only No. 1483 that need to be captured and taken away for re-education.

 

There's still the issue of which 48xx's had top feed on their boilers and which ones didn't, but I have decided that ignorance might be the best policy.

 

3 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

My memory of high school maths tells me that all imaginary numbers (square roots of negative values) began with 'i'.  They were what scuppered my maths as I just could imagine what they were!  😉

 

Jim

My own memory of high school maths Jim was that I was completely terrible at it.  😧

Once things got beyond basic tangible arithmetic I was completely lost. 

Edited January 16 by Annie
Um.........

[Annie]

45xx No.4553 at Daere.  I have a collection of 45xx's by Paulz Trainz dating from Trainz TS2004 days.  They have been much fettled and updated and are nice runners.  The ones that I have on Tristyn have been borrowed from my Penzance to Camborne and Branches layout, but if you won't tell anyone I won't either.

With the 48xx's now largely sorted with their schedules I'm starting to consider how the other longer distance passenger services should be run. 

 

[Annie]

I haven't forgotten about my pre-grouping session for 'Tristyn in Winter'.  Tristyn is a 1930s layout, but that doesn't mean that I can't run my older GWR engines about all over it if I want to.

 

[Annie]

I took Steve Flanders beautiful steam railcar out for a run this morning.  It's constructed from layered meshes similar to the classic method of constructing panelled coaches from cardboard that's been treated with shellac and I know that Steve had quite the struggle to get it to fit together.

 

 

[MikeOxon]

45 minutes ago, Annie said:

I took Steve Flanders beautiful steam railcar out for a run this morning.  It's constructed from layered meshes similar to the classic method of constructing panelled coaches from cardboard that's been treated with shellac and I know that Steve had quite the struggle to get it to fit together.

I know the problem of fitting layers together from having used layers cut with a Silhouette Cutter.  Yours looks splendid.  There's a steam railcar at Didcot (Railmotor No. 93, built 1908 to Diagram R, Lot 1142), which I've had the pleasure of riding in a few times

[Annie]

52 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

I know the problem of fitting layers together from having used layers cut with a Silhouette Cutter.  Yours looks splendid.  There's a steam railcar at Didcot (Railmotor No. 93, built 1908 to Diagram R, Lot 1142), which I've had the pleasure of riding in a few times

Steve was planning on doing some of the other steam railmotor variants, but the difficulties he had with this one has made him put the project on hold until he can figure out a better way of assembling the body meshes.

It certainly is a lovely model and it always makes me smile to see it running.

[Annie]

This is Rathtyen as it originally was before I went through and deleted everything that looked a poor match for South Wales in the 1930s.  It had 1960s error era buildings and strange Soviet brutalist tenements and factories for heaven's sake.  The station itself looked like nothing the GWR ever built so that got cleared down to platform level.

I was not looking forward to this as Rathtyen is the biggest station on Tristyn & District and with the town it covers a considerable area.  At least now I can give Rathtyen a proper goods yard, a decent station and some rail served industries which will be a major improvement.

 

[Mikkel]

20 hours ago, Annie said:

I haven't forgotten about my pre-grouping session for 'Tristyn in Winter'.  Tristyn is a 1930s layout, but that doesn't mean that I can't run my older GWR engines about all over it if I want to.

 

 

Chocolate box maybe, but I could never resist chocolate. Very nicely composed scene.

 

 

On 17/01/2024 at 01:00, Annie said:

I have a collection of 45xx's by Paulz Trainz dating from Trainz TS2004 days.  They have been much fettled and updated and are nice runners. 

 

Annie, being completely ignorant of the sim world, could I ask what "nice runners" implies here?

 

[Annie]

3 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Chocolate box maybe, but I could never resist chocolate. Very nicely composed scene.

True enough it's a bit posed and idyllic, but it does make for a nice picture.

 

3 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Annie, being completely ignorant of the sim world, could I ask what "nice runners" implies here?

Well first of all because I often drive from the footplate i want my engines to be able to steam well.  I also want them able to maintain steam while left stationary for a while on the blower.  Brakes are something that I'm fussy about.  I don't mind an engine with weak brakes because it's possible to work around that, but I won't tolerate an engine that pulls an unrealistic instant crash stop at the lightest touch of the brakes.

Next thing on my list is that my engines have to be controllable at low speeds without wanting to shoot off like a rocket the moment the regulator is cracked open.  And finally I won't stand for 'little engines that could' that can haul 1000 tons up the side of a mountain.  I want my engines to have a realistic performance and I'd rather have them a little less powerful than they should be than being able to pull anything that's coupled up to them.

 

The 45xx's being older models for Trainz needed a little fettling with their engine specs as well as their weights and measures to get them to run the way i wanted, but now they are a real pleasure to drive and are some of my favourite engines.

[Mikkel]

Thank you for the thorough explanation, Annie. I didn't realize the locos had idiosynchrasies like that, I thought it was more standard. Nice!

[MikeOxon]

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

I didn't realize the locos had idiosynchrasies like that, I thought it was more standard

I wonder how many of the real loco idiosyncrasies are captured by the software?  Some engines suffered from poor valve events or badly laid out steam passages.  In some, the problem was in the firebox, such as a tendency to collect clinker, leading to fall-off in performance on long runs.  Any comments, Annie?

[Annie]

6 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Thank you for the thorough explanation, Annie. I didn't realize the locos had idiosyncrasies like that, I thought it was more standard. Nice!

When they are setup properly locos for Trainz are quite individual and are definitely not the same.

 

3 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

I wonder how many of the real loco idiosyncrasies are captured by the software?  Some engines suffered from poor valve events or badly laid out steam passages.  In some, the problem was in the firebox, such as a tendency to collect clinker, leading to fall-off in performance on long runs.  Any comments, Annie?

I'm no expert Mike, but having spent time calculating the valve events for a single cylindered Aveling & Porter locomotive I can tell you that setting out valve events correctly can make a huge difference to how well an engine runs.  Calculations for boiler size and efficiency as well as firebox heating, steam chest size, blower efficiency and water injection are all part of it too.  I know one loco builder for Trainz had ashpans that needed to be emptied when they were full, but that would be about as close as things might have got when it came to clinker.

 

Those of us who follow the Uk steam era are fortunate in having 2995Valliant who is a real expert at this kind of thing and says that doing the calculations for engine specs is 'fun' and that he likes doing it.

[Annie]

(WARNING - unrestrained geek speak - WARNING)

 

A return to the Potteries Loop Line project which is available as DLC in TRS22.  I visited the Loop Line last year when I first started to run Linux, - only after TRS22 being somewhat less than best I flagged it away.  It was suggested to me on the Trainz forum that I try Lutris, - which is an open source platform for running computer games in Linux.  Wine, - which is a type of emulator software that allows Windows programs to run in Linux had been recently upgraded with new functions so I was hopeful that there would be an improvement.

The combination of using both Lutris and Wine 9.0.0 is amazing with steadier running and much improved graphics.  The sidings on this part of the Loop Line are absolutely crammed full of 7 plank wagons so it made for a somewhat severe test for my old Xeon computer's resources.

 

[TangoOscarMike]

5 hours ago, Annie said:

(WARNING - unrestrained geek speak - WARNING)

 

A return to the Potteries Loop Line project which is available as DLC in TRS22.  I visited the Loop Line last year when I first started to run Linux, - only after TRS22 being somewhat less than best I flagged it away.  It was suggested to me on the Trainz forum that I try Lutris, - which is an open source platform for running computer games in Linux.  Wine, - which is a type of emulator software that allows Windows programs to run in Linux had been recently upgraded with new functions so I was hopeful that there would be an improvement.

The combination of using both Lutris and Wine 9.0.0 is amazing with steadier running and much improved graphics.  The sidings on this part of the Loop Line are absolutely crammed full of 7 plank wagons so it made for a somewhat severe test for my old Xeon computer's resources.

 

 

 

Thumbs up for the geek speak and for the picture!

 

[Annie]

I unearthed the old session data for an early version of Trainz TS2019 I was using back in 2021.  Using Lutris in combination with Wine 9.0.0 made everything so easy so it's definitely my favourite Linux software at present.

 

Some of you would have seen similar screenshots to these before as they are snaps I took this morning on my1890s (Almost) Minehead Branch layout.  Only this is my version of Minehead before I changed the track to SG Baulk track, - and before I crashed out in despair trying to relay the whole branch in mixed gauge Baulk track in Trainz TRS22.

Apparently some keen Broad Gauge enthusiasts working in Dovetail Games Train Simulator (not Trainz) have solved the issue of creating mixed gauge track.  Unfortunately whatever it was they did isn't possible to do in Trainz which leaves me with miles and miles of painstakingly laid mixed gauge track that looks pretty, but isn't a lot of use when it comes to running anything on it.

 

Minehead

 

 

Blue Anchor

[Annie]

Fell down a rabbit hole..... 😎

 

[MikeOxon]

28 minutes ago, Annie said:

Fell down a rabbit hole..... 😎

A long way from NZ to Moscow 🙂

[magmouse]

I have a wonderful book of photographs of Soviet metro stations - companion to two volumes of Soviet bus stops. The later, especially, may sound a little, er, niche, but they really are amazingly diverse and quite fascinating.

 

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/author/herwig-christopher-fuel/

 

Nick.