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

[Annie]

Back on  the E&GR again.  On the morning service to Moxbury No.25 is in charge of a train of teak clerestories.  These five clerestory coaches normally live in the carriage sidings at Great Mulling, but they were becoming like the best china my Mum used to keep in the china cabinet that was never used ever all the time I was growing up so I thought it was well time for them to go out and earn their keep.

 

[rocor]

5 hours ago, Annie said:

Branch train at Great Mulling.  'Lots of time travellers again today,' commented Alan Dawson to George Bunn as he brought the old Nielson well tank to a stand at the platform.

 

 

 

I see the local department store had special offers on pink jumpers and maroon dresses.

[Annie]

This is the rebuilt version of the engine formerly named 'Kate Kearney'.  The rebuild was considered to be successful, but it was decided that it would be uneconomic to rebuild the others.  No.27 lasted until 1908 with her sister engines being scrapped in the early 1890s.

Quite a bit of fettling had to be done to get the model into its present state, but with having already done the other 'Ariel' class Nielson well tanks it all went reasonably smoothly.

I have models of the larger Neilson single driver well tanks built in 1873 as well, but I haven't made up my mind about them yet.  They lasted until 1923.

 

 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

Nice depiction, however I must admit that I think the cab design doesn't really suit her.

[Annie]

An added later on the cheap type of cab Malcolm.  The cabs on the larger 1873 Nielson well tanks were marginally better, but not by much.

This little engine will be useful enough on the branchlines on my layout even if it doesn't look all that pretty.

And I still haven't done anything about the bottom section of the firebox for these engines, - so that will have to be my next job.

[Edwardian]

6 hours ago, Annie said:

An added later on the cheap type of cab Malcolm.  The cabs on the larger 1873 Nielson well tanks were marginally better, but not by much.

This little engine will be useful enough on the branchlines on my layout even if it doesn't look all that pretty.

And I still haven't done anything about the bottom section of the firebox for these engines, - so that will have to be my next job.

 

I think that cab has exactly the aesthetically-challenged charm that I would associate with a modification made to such a loco late in service by a minor railway company.  It adds variety and aids verisimilitude, IMHO.

[Annie]

26 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

I think that cab has exactly the aesthetically-challenged charm that I would associate with a modification made to such a loco late in service by a minor railway company.  It adds variety and aids verisimilitude, IMHO.

I completely agree James.  No.27's slightly awkward lack of aesthetic beauty is appealing and once I had it tidied up a bit I knew it would be perfect for working on any of the three branchlines at Great Mulling 

[Annie]

No.27 in charge of two milk vans.  The vans at Eastlingwold should have been picked up as well, but I forgot.

Not a bad sort of morning job for an elderly engine to be undertaking.

 

 

At the dairy factory.  They seem to be having problems getting their boiler fired up.

 

[Compound2632]

12 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

I think that cab has exactly the aesthetically-challenged charm that I would associate with a modification made to such a loco late in service by a minor railway company. 

 

Damn Slow & Easy a minor railway? It was the fourth largest in the country - bigger than the Midland Railway.

[Annie]

28 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Damn Slow & Easy a minor railway? It was the fourth largest in the country - bigger than the Midland Railway.

Though No.27 was originally ordered from Nielsons by the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway and subsequently rebuilt by them.  By the time the DSER came on the scene I think it would have been well gone.

[Compound2632]

The DWWR renamed itself DSER in 1906 - so a couple of years before the demise of No. 27. It could claim to be the oldest railway company in Ireland, since one of its constituents was the Dublin & Kingstown, opened in 1834.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Compound2632

[Annie]

Thank you.  I know next to nothing about Irish railways so I was bound to put my foot in it and get it all wrong.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Damn Slow & Easy a minor railway? It was the fourth largest in the country - bigger than the Midland Railway.

 

I was referring to Annie's Railway

[Annie]

20 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I think that cab has exactly the aesthetically-challenged charm that I would associate with a modification made to such a loco late in service by a minor railway company.  It adds variety and aids verisimilitude, IMHO.

 

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I was referring to Annie's Railway

And that is exactly why I decided to add it to the E&GR's loco roster.  As a model it isn't really a good representation of the DWWR's No.27, but it is perfectly fine as a 'what if' product of Nielson & Co. that may or may not have acquired a new boiler at some stage of its working life.

I've given No.27 a set of the GER style number plates that the E&GR has fitted to most of the tank engines it owns and I retextured a packing crate mesh with a nice riveted iron texture piece to represent the missing lower half of the firebox.  So that's No.27 pretty much set now.  '27' just happened to fit into what passes for the E&GR's numbering scheme so I didn't change it.

 

While I have models of the two larger Nielson well tanks that the DWWR purchased in 1873 I won't make use of them.  The E&GR has enough small tank engines now for doing odd jobs since I've also added two of  Titania's sister engines to the roster.  Two are now assigned to the Mulling on the Hill branch and one has been added to the 'odd job' roster of tank engines working out of Great Mulling.

Working the goods branches at Great Mulling as well as doing short trip workings is an absorbing task in itself for me to undertake when I'm in the mood to play trains and Great Mulling has its own set of interesting puzzles to solve to help me keep my brain working.

[Annie]

 

I've mostly got the branch passenger train scheduling sorted out.  There's been some issues around crossovers with the Nielson well tanks refusing to go where instructed claiming that they are 'waiting for track clearance' when there is nothing stopping them from proceeding.  The AI drivers in Trainz just love to use crossovers and without being instructed to do so will make use of them even if doing so is absolutely to no advantage and will cause snarl ups on the line.  So considering that they can make their way freely through complex formations on their own account when they aren't supposed to I tend not to be much amused when they refuse to do it when they are told to.

The AI system in Trainz is something folk have been complaining about for years and the system that's used in the latest version of Trainz is exactly the same as when it was first released over a decade ago.  There are fortunately ways to make trains go where they are supposed to by use of trackmarks and closely devised instructions to move from one trackmark to the next, but it can be frustrating when for no apparent reason a schedule doesn't work.  If nothing else it exercises my brain with all the problem solving and that is at least one benefit of the exercise.

[MikeOxon]

12 hours ago, Annie said:

The AI system in Trainz is something folk have been complaining about for years and the system that's used in the latest version of Trainz is exactly the same as when it was first released over a decade ago. 

It's not just me then!  I haven't done much with Trainz but couldn't understand why the Cornish Riviera Express kept crossing to the wrong line and back again for no apparent reason!

[Annie]

Place a facing crossover into the trackwork and a Trainz AI driver will immediately use it to run wrong road.  It's worse if you use the 'Navigate to' commands and slightly better if you use 'Drive to' commands.  I've been told it's because the Trainz AI attempts to avoid adverse signals and other trains on the line which is going to be a real winner on a busy double track mainline, but even in the absence of signals or trains it still has this mad desire to shift over to the right hand track.  The AI will also attempt to find the shortest distance between two points which means that it will do things like ducking off through industry sidings if it considers that is a shorter distance as compared with running on the mainline.

As much as possible I only use trailing crossovers and if I do have to use a facing crossover laying down trackmarks (go this way you idiot markers) is absolutely essential.

[Annie]

Been fairly rubbish these past couple of days with a stomach bug so haven't done much.  Here's three snaps I took of Hopewood Tramway's No.08 at Bluebell Woods while I was setting up the passenger schedule before my insides decided to hold a mutiny against me.

 

 

 

[Annie]

Found two more tramway snaps.

 

 

[Edwardian]

Like that little brake van and the disc signal particularly.

[Annie]

Thanks James.  The brake van is an ex-GNR one from the 1860's.  In reality it must've had little braking effect on a train due to its size and the fact that it has brakes on one side only, but it suits the kinds of goods working undertaken on the tramway.  They are setup to have a braking effect and it's not uncommon for there to be two of them attached to heavier goods trains.

The disc signal is a very nice model of an early pre-preservation Ffestiniog Railway signal and I mainly use them along the roadside sections of the tramway.

[Oscillation]

I hope Annie doesn’t sharing my(first!) post here.  

 

Annie very kindly provided me with a cabview for the Great Western Railway Broad Gauge ‘Iron Duke’ Class.

When I tried this sort of thing myself, I somehow ended up breaking the exterior view and killing the steam effects! 

Thankfully, to my surprise Annie came to the rescue and now I have a footplate view which also shows off the scale and bulk of these engines! To quote Annie, enginemen/firemen may have had a hard time looking past these bulky fireboxes! 

 

This engine certainly feels a lot larger than how it normally does in the exterior views or default cab views!(Which are leaning off the side.)

 

The route incase anyone is curious is Triystin(I think I spelt that right) & District converted to Broad Gauge. Like Annie, I’ve been keeping the trackside boundary clear as well as making the route somewhat accurate for the loose period! 
I have however, made a copy of this just yesterday with the engines deleted, I’ll be replacing the non-interactive stations with interactive ones, changing out the point switches for the kind Annie uses, replacing the barbed wire with the wooden fence you normally see in Annie’s shots among countless alterations. I’ll even make the coastline section of the route a little more believable by bringing it out one boardplate. 
I’m considering as well to remove some sections of the layout so I can pretend I’m on part of a mainline, rather than have trains run round on the looped route.

 

Anyway, I’ll let this thread get back to it’s current owner and move along! 

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

11 minutes ago, Oscillation said:

Anyway, I’ll let this thread get back to it’s current owner and move along! 

Post all the pictures you want to.  I've never claimed this thread as my exclusive property and it's open to anyone who is modelling the pre-grouping era in either the Trains Simulator (Dovetail Games) or the Trainz Simulator (Auran/N3V).

Tristyn is a great route for turning into all kinds of other things and had its original origins way back in TS2004 days with Valleyfields.  Its creator has been progressively building on his original layout for a long time now and while it is a GWR route it can be modded into whatever you want.  My own GER Norfolk layout uses a long section 'borrowed' from Valleyfields, - though over time I've modded it to the point where it would be difficult to recognise its origins.

 

Your ideas for modifying Tristyn sound good to me and would very quickly set the scene as your layout being of pre-grouping origins apart from the fact of the Broad Gauge track of course.  Steve Flanders site http://www.jatws.org/ing4trainz/index.htm  is well worth checking out as he has Broad Gauge models on his website that aren't on the DLS.

Extending the sea out from coastlines is always a good move since it makes for a worthwhile visual improvement.  Tedious and boring to do, but well worth the effort.

 

Very much looking forward to further postings as you continue with your project.

[Oscillation]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Post all the pictures you want to. 

In that case, here’s some screenshots of ‘Iron Duke’ when I first took her out for a run with your new cabview.  Either the engine-spec is bad or I’m a Novice-Driver(probably the latter!), but I couldn’t get Iron Duke up to Express speeds. Only around the 20s or 30s I believe. These screenshots were taken before I decided on the overhaul. I have a copy of my original edit as I’ll be editing track in the copy, so I deleted all the engines. I may even be adding new consists in place of the old. If I fancy a break from editing, I can always go for a run on the original route.  In this view, I thought I felt a bit too close for comfort! I was too! This is one of the reasons I’m going to make the ‘six foot’(I believe it’s called) a little wider between tracks.(As well as to avoid the signalmen, as I’m using classic Brunel signals, standing on the four foot!)
I must confess I tried a rather.. monstrous experiment to test out the clearance between passing trains(EVERY Broad Gauge rolling stock, the later carriages seem to be wider) with 10 Iron Dukes powering the train! The locals must of ran away in fright, or thought someone in the operating department had too much to drink! 

 

Honestly, I discovered most of the track has enough clearance but this train came to grief as I was working it into a siding! A silly AI Train, which sadly, thanks to the way Trainz works, didn’t stop for me as I was on a junction trying to get out the way, ‘ran’ into the train. I think it’s safe to say I’ll be exiled from my own Railway Network, if not lynched! 

 

   Passing one of my own AI Trains, heading Up or Down I can’t say for the life of me! While I did add ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ Broad Gauge Signals, they look practically the same! The 1890s UK Passenger set figures can be seen inside! I think they go well with the route.(If anyone has other suggestions, let me know!)One of the signals I’m using on the right, along with a halted ‘Iron Duke’ Class! I believe this is one of many locations where some replacement buildings are needed! I have also removed some buildings from certain spots, including a loop(Which unless I’m mistaken, is at this station) and how lovely that looks now! This station is one of all the non-interactive stations, but that will soon change!(I’m using an 1890s UK Passenger set, which I think goes quite nicely. The figures themselves are also on the DLS, not just as a passenger set, so I won’t have to use my trains to populate the platforms with period passengers or fuss around with scripting, which I don’t know at all!)

Edited May 13, 2020 by Oscillation

[Oscillation]

(Oh dear! I’ve started page 139! I was hoping Annie would! Hopefully she gets the honour of page 140! )
More screenshots. I did have these all on the one post, but the site was being a bit funny, so I couldn’t get them back on one post.“Well, this AI certainly knows how to drive better than this... human!” , the driver is probably saying to himself! While the AI is using DCC Control I imagine, at least it can get the train up to Express Speeds! Stopped at the same station on my last screenshot on the previous post, I’m considering replacing  the building on the left and deleting or replacing the footbridge.

Soon after this screenshot, I took control myself from the cab! Passing a ‘Bogie’ Class I believe? Unless I’m mistaken. This screenshot was likely taken with me putting up a poor running performance, the poor driver and fireman wish they were on the other engine I imagine! To the right also I believe is what has been the pruned lineside! Following what Annie has mentioned here, as well as someone else advising her, I’ve been keeping the lineside clear. Parts of this route did have trees sticking right out onto the line and that’s now history!

I’ve also been debating whether to do what Annie does, rails only with no ballast(ballast as a ground texture) or what I currently have, with ballast. I tried without ballast yesterday and it didn’t look too good, so this might stay. I am thinking of replacing the barbed wire, as I’ve already said. “I could run faster than this engine!”, the poor driver thinks. This is probably around the mid 30s or 20s my speed in this screenshot. Some Brunel style signals can be seen ahead.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Oscillation