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

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Tea is very important.  The household pixies must keep sneaking drinks from my teapot when I'm not looking because the dashed thing always seems to be empty.

 

"Why is the rum always gone?" - J. Sparrow, Capt. RNR (Ret'd).

[Edwardian]

55 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

"Why is the rum always gone?" - J. Sparrow, Capt. RNR (Ret'd).

 

"RNR"?

 

More like RTR!

[Annie]

And I present after adding three more layout boards and a whole lot work........ Cathill Junction.  The aim of the exercise was to eliminate operating the passenger service on the Hopewood Tramway from a portal.  There is also the added benefit of finally having a good sized yard on the tramway where trainloads of farm produce, sand and timber can be sorted before being dispatched elsewhere.  All the other goods yards on the tramway are quite small and very much only able to handle local quantities, - so the logical place was to build a good sized sorting yard was at Cathill.  Cathill itself has existed for a while being a small farming hamlet at the edge of the layout boards with junctions to Mollywood and Flinders Mill, - both represented by portals.  Mollywood and Flinders Mill are still represented by portals, - both now being distant from where they were before, - but the passenger service itself originates at the new built Cathill station and is operated by a schedule stored in an accessible schedule library which allows for far more flexibility in operating the service.

 

 

Cathill Junction station and yard.  I adjusted the settings for less traffic on the roads, but if anything there's more traffic, - so I'll have to have another look at it.

 

 

Unfortunately the attempts with trying to get the G13¾ tram engines to work the passenger service didn't work out.  They are just too small to operate the interactive platforms properly.  So I'm testing out one of the Hopewood Tramway's homebuilt C53 copies to see how it will go with working the passenger service.  I built these up to handle trains of timber and logs on the tramway and they are quite tough old things with an engine spec based on a L&YR saddle tank and fitted with a larger boiler than a C53 (In actual fact on the model it's a length of re-purposed and re-textured culvert pipe).

 

 

I realised that the luggage van was the one that was setup to be a faux locomotive which I'd used in an attempt to enable the G15¾ tram engines to operate the interactive station platforms, - so it got uncoupled and left behind otherwise it would have ruined the test run.  No.127 was sent to go and fetch it back to the yard so it wouldn't cause an annoying disruption to traffic.

 

 

[Annie]

I miss being able to ride my old bicycles.  They're still all there out in the garage making an important contribution towards providing safe homes for mason bees and spiders (sigh....)

 

So a cheer up picture from a happier time.  I've never owned a Royal Enfield bicycle, but I just happen to like this picture.

 

[Edwardian]

The West Norfolk version ...

 

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by Edwardian

[Annie]

Now I do like that James.  Very clever.  I've been sorting through pre-grouping era posters looking for ones to use at the stations on my GER Norfolk layout and your Ridgways version might just end up at Moxbury.

[MikeOxon]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

......  I've never owned a Royal Enfield bicycle, but I just happen to like this picture.

 

 

I wonder what "made like a gun" means?   Does it shoot you into the ditch

[Annie]

Royal Enfield also made guns to high standards of quality back in the day so what they are saying is that their bicycles are made to the same standards of quality.

[MikeOxon]

 

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Royal Enfield also made guns to high standards of quality back in the day so what they are saying is that their bicycles are made to the same standards of quality.

 

I did actually know that but it struck me as an advertising slogan that wouldn't seem appropriate today.

 

On a different tack - it's good to see that NZ seems to be dealing effectively with the virus.

[Annie]

Yes the government has eased restrictions this week Mike, but caution is very much the key guiding principle.  Any sign of infection flare ups and we'll be straight back to the level 4 lockdown again.  

[Annie]

Not a brand I know, but I absolutely love the lady's outfit.

 

[Compound2632]

7 hours ago, Annie said:

Not a brand I know, but I absolutely love the lady's outfit.

 

Another big armaments firm, dealing mainly in explosive, eventually becoming part of ICI. The ability to make lightweight precision tubing led several of these firms into bicycle manufacture as a sideline. BSA is a similar example.

[robmcg]

9 hours ago, Annie said:

Royal Enfield also made guns to high standards of quality back in the day so what they are saying is that their bicycles are made to the same standards of quality.

 

Good grief, a motorbike type I never rode....   British that is.   I have failed!    

 

Rode a good few BSAs though, thread drift anyone?

[Annie]

I almost purchased an Indian made Enfield when they were first imported.  The motorbike I always regretted selling though was my 1953 Matchless 350 single.  

Edited April 29, 2020 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

I have a reproduction copy of this poster on the wall of my bedroom.  The winged woman has always reminded me very strongly of my elder sister.  Not that my sister actually has wings or anything........

 

[Annie]

Anyway enough of the bicycles and back to important things like tram engines.

The G13¾ tram engines I have needed much fettling and adjusting when I downloaded them from Auran/N3V's download station and they've always been a source of bemusement for me.  For a start they are very nicely made and finished, but they are noticeably too short for a G15. They are also an older digital model that their creator 'upgraded' to TS2012 over a year ago now, but it was an upgrade that wasn't one at all really. 

As created they had all manner of complex scripting (magical incantations) that controlled lamp positioning and directional lighting, animated couplings and a footplate crew that would be automatically whisked from one end of the tram engine to the other on changing direction.  The only problem was that complex scripting no longer worked which led to all kinds of strange things such as all the lamps being displayed at both ends. and couplings being permanently locked into a rigid 'pleased to see you' kind of way as well as the footplate crew sometimes disappearing altogether instead of changing ends.

And just to add to the list this very small tram engine was configured with the engine spec from a large 4-6-0 along with all the 4-6-0's weight and braking data.  They were in a word, - unstoppable; - Able to shift loads way beyond anything a G15 could ever hope to move.  As for braking it was an instant crash stop with no retardation physics happening at all.

 

So the first thing I did was give them the engine spec file from a NER Class 'H' (Y7) which helped a lot and since then it's been a process of experimentation to work around the complex non functional scripting.  These kinds of scripts can be so well sewn into a digital model that simply deleting them will cause all kinds of errors so it's been a slow process.  No.126 has been my test engine and yesterday I was finally able to get rid of the 'glad to see you' couplings and replace them with something much more sensible.  The lamps I took care of a while ago by making them fixed in place since there's only two lamp codes that are needed on the tramway, - though now that the G13¾ tram engines aren't doing passenger work any more they only need one which makes it really easy.

I've sorted out their weight specs too as well as the amount of coal and water they carry so finally I can say that they are officially 'useful engines'.

 

The graphics card in my computer has being playing up since the last driver upgrade so please excuse the image quality.

[Edwardian]

16 hours ago, Annie said:

Yes the government has eased restrictions this week Mike, but caution is very much the key guiding principle.  Any sign of infection flare ups and we'll be straight back to the level 4 lockdown again.  

 

Continued good luck to NZ in avoiding the worst.  Nota bene Germany's experience; it had a model response, managing to implement an early and effective testing regime, while the UK, weeks, months, later, is still failing to do so.  As a result of this and other failures, the UK has the third highest death rate in the world (and I'm pretty sure we've significantly under-recorded).  Only the lockdown is stopping it from being much worse here, and, again, Germany provides an instructive example; now they have eased their lockdown, there has been an immediate increase in their death rate. 

 

   Someone had blundered.

   Theirs not to make reply,

   Theirs not to reason why,

   Theirs but to isolate and die.

[Northroader]

I thought Angela Merkel come up with a good word yesterday:

     “Offnungsdiskussionorgien”

(orgies of debate about opening things up)

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

Continued good luck to NZ in avoiding the worst.  Nota bene Germany's experience; it had a model response, managing to implement an early and effective testing regime, while the UK, weeks, months, later, is still failing to do so.  As a result of this and other failures, the UK has the third highest death rate in the world (and I'm pretty sure we've significantly under-recorded).  Only the lockdown is stopping it from being much worse here, and, again, Germany provides an instructive example; now they have eased their lockdown, there has been an immediate increase in their death rate. 

 

   Someone had blundered.

   Theirs not to make reply,

   Theirs not to reason why,

   Theirs but to isolate and die.

Idiots were out in force yesterday breaking social distancing in their mad rush to buy fast junk food and the fast food companies involved caught a rocket for not ensuring it didn't happen.  Our Police are being patient emphasising education rather than fining people, but if the stupidity continues the gloves might come off.  Litter from discarded fast food packaging is back again which says plenty about the intelligence levels of these establishment's customers.

 

There were three more deaths today here in New Zealand so nobody should be thinking it's all over yet.

 

The horror of the death toll in the US where the federal government seems happy to let the poor, elderly and disabled die and the situation in the Uk where levels of bureaucracy have slowed any response should stand as a statutory warning to the idiots here who are moaning their heads off as to how badly it could have gone for us.  

 

26 minutes ago, Northroader said:

I thought Angela Merkel come up with a good word yesterday:

     “Offnungsdiskussionorgien”

(orgies of debate about opening things up)

Our Tory opposition here is starting to squeak about the economy and getting it moving again, but overall they have been well behaved and have been trying to do their bit rather than standing back and slagging off the government.  I think the Governor of New York put it best when questioned about opening up New York businesses again when he said that getting the economy running again was not more important than death.

[Edwardian]

12 minutes ago, Annie said:

Idiots were out in force yesterday breaking social distancing in their mad rush to buy fast junk food and the fast food companies involved caught a rocket for not ensuring it didn't happen.  Our Police are being patient emphasising education rather than fining people, but if the stupidity continues the gloves might come off.  Litter from discarded fast food packaging is back again which says plenty about the intelligence levels of these establishment's customers.

 

There were three more deaths today here in New Zealand so nobody should be thinking it's all over yet.

 

The horror of the death toll in the US where the federal government seems happy to let the poor, elderly and disabled die and the situation in the Uk where levels of bureaucracy have slowed any response should stand as a statutory warning to the idiots here who are moaning their heads off as to how badly it could have gone for us.  

 

Our Tory opposition here is starting to squeak about the economy and getting it moving again, but overall they have been well behaved and have been trying to do their bit rather than standing back and slagging off the government.  I think the Governor of New York put it best when questioned about opening up New York businesses again when he said that getting the economy running again was not more important than death.

 

I suspect you are correct in identifying bureacracy - really a failure to organise matters - as key to the UK's failure in its response.  This seems to be the common theme.  Bureaucrats wanting all their Destroyers in a neat row before setting sail, keeping the little ships in port while people die on the beach.  We, including our PM, are fond of these wartime analogies. What is not realised is how the Dunkirk Evacuation, like Beaverbrook's aircraft repair and manufacture rates, were the exception, not the rule.  Our efforts in the War were often unnecessarily wasteful, primarily of lives, and ineffective, undercutting the often heroic efforts of those on the frontline.

 

I think we're up to 26,000 dead in the UK. Our hopes must be on the lock-down as the only means to control the spread, pending an eventual vaccine, because, absent a vaccine, the death rate will need to be ten or twenty times that before we have possible herd immunity.  Our PM, for all his faults, is surely correct, therefore, to resist calls from his back-benchers to ease the restrictions significantly or soon. 

 

Not for the first time since the election of the Donald, and despite Brexit and Covid, I have had cause to be thankful that I live here and not in the States. The deliberate politicising, flouting and lifting of lock-down in favour of electioneering and a xenophobic blame-game will cost vast numbers of lives in the US.  You couldn't make this stuff up.

 

Keep safe everyone.

[Annie]

Yes it was only last week that I said to my daughter that we were lucky to be living in New Zealand and not America.  I have some longtime American friends (not Fauxbook friends) that I keep in touch with and from what they're saying things are pretty darn grim over there.  So far they are staying safe and well though.

[Annie]

Anyway enough of all this gloom.  I can't do anything about it, so it's no good getting upset.  If I was suddenly given a magic lamp (teapot?) that could wish away idiots to Alpha Centauri then things would be different, but that's not likely to happen unfortunately. 

 

Experiments continue with teaching the G13¾ tram engines their new jobs.  They are proving to be quite capable, - I just have to make sure to give them loads they can handle.

 

[Annie]

Random snaps, - sounds like some kind of biscuit doesn't it.  

 

I unintentionally ran my trainset for eleven hours due to falling asleep in the middle of the session and all the automatic scheduling continued to run perfectly.  First time that's happened so I am very pleased.  Achievement unlocked, - LEVEL UP!  

 

I took lots of snaps, but some weren't best and some were awful, - and others I hated........ But these are the ones I liked.

 

(imaginary) GER C53B No.022 outside the engine shed at Windweather.

 

 

6 o'clock  in the evening and H.T.Co. No.8 takes the last train of the day.

 

 

 

Tram engine No.040 takes the last train away from Tenpenny Wharf station.

 

 

It's half past eight and E&GR Beyer Peacock No.3 is in charge of the evening train from Great Mulling to Moxbury.

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

Very atmospheric, Annie. lovely shots.

[Annie]

Thanks James.  Normally I don't run my trainset past 6.00pm, but tonight I finally shut things down at close to 10.00pm (Trainz time).   I'd fallen asleep in front of my monitor screen without realising it and when I woke up about five hours later with a kink in my neck I saw that everything was still running fine so I decided to push on into the night even though the daytime train schedule isn't entirely the best fit for night time running.

It was fun though and I'll have to try doing it again sometime.