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

[Edwardian]

Not to mention the burns in the carpet where you've dropped the soldering iron (or is that just me?!?)

[Annie]

24 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

Fascinating stuff!  A whole new modelling genre in its own right.  Now, where are the power feeds and point motors?  Also an unstuck corner, where the backscene is curling away from the frame.

 

On a different topic, I see in the news that we have exported a couple of coronavirus cases to you.  I'm sure NZ will cope better than we seem to be doing here.

Thanks Mike.  True enough it's all a bit perfect with nothing coming unstuck, no dust and cobwebs, no mysterious intermittent shorts in the wiring & etc , but I think I can live without those.

 

Those two imported COVID-19 cases caused a mass break out of finger pointing and blame gaming since the two women were supposed to have been tested before leaving quarantine and somebody forgot to do it.  The clock for the number of days without COVID-19 infections has been reset back to zero and everybody is grumpy about it.

[Annie]

23 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Yes, for true orthenticity there should be bits of black and red wire sticking through the baseboard and soldered (badly?) to the track.  And Peco insulated rail joiners too...  As for the control panel, switches or prod and stud for working the SEEP point motors?

 

But these things can be taken too far, it looks good as it is!

 

There are controller and switch models available, but I haven't investigated those yet.  Apparently it's possible to make the switches change the points, but I bet there are a nightmare of magical scripting incantations involved. 

Some trackwork is done with fishplates, but not all as most tracks don't have them.  As for bits of wire for sticking through the baseboard I'm sure if I asked somebody at the creator group they would be able to figure something out.

 

24 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Not to mention the burns in the carpet where you've dropped the soldering iron (or is that just me?!?)

Ah the memories (sigh).........  I used to be good at soldering, but now my daughter does it for me with her magic electronics soldering station because she has forbidden me from even thinking about using a soldering iron.

[Annie]

Yet more Seaton.  The platform can handle two bogie coaches and a van at a pinch.  And the loop is just the right size to allow the G6 to run around its train (Guess who forgot to check this important detail during tracklaying).  I would prefer 6 wheel coaches, but there are none for the LSWR in Trainz (sigh).  The LSWR is just about as badly off as the GER for engines and rolling stock in Trainz.  I could do some 6 wheel coach reskins I suppose, but I always struggle a bit with painted coaches and I much prefer doing teak ones.

 

Later on the platforms at Seaton were lengthened after WW1, but both the 1889 and the 1903 OS show the original length short platform so that's what I went for.  I ended up using the 1889 map as my main reference since the 19th century maps are much better.  The 1903 map was a sad skimpy thing missing on details by comparison.

 

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Annie
more to say

[Hroth]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Not to mention the burns in the carpet where you've dropped the soldering iron (or is that just me?!?)

 

Thats just you, I'm afraid.

 

I got my first Antex soldering iron, and a pocket multimeter for Christmas when I was 12.  It was one of the best Christmas presents ever, and one of the longest lasting.  I still have both and they both work!

 

Practice, mes brave!!!!

 

[Jake The Rat]

4 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Fascinating stuff!  A whole new modelling genre in its own right.  Now, where are the power feeds and point motors?  Also an unstuck corner, where the backscene is curling away from the frame.

 

 

... & a new derailment option, that makes trains derail randomly for no apparent reason. 

(It's 40 years ago, that I owned a model railway. Maybe some things have changed since then, & maybe some people are more crafty in building track than I was back then. )

 

8 hours ago, Annie said:

Something tells me that I'm going to end up with a virtual garden full of sheds with the way I'm going.

That would make a virtual model railway multiverse, with the sheds being universes interconnected by wormholes; & as these sheds are wooden, it's obvious what sort of wormholes that would be.

[Regularity]

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Not to mention the burns in the carpet where you've dropped the soldering iron (or is that just me?!?)

Just you. Well, not me.

No, I was cleverer than that: I caught it with my bare hand.

 

Forty years later, that is still a lesson learned well because it was learned so ****ing hard.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Regularity

[Jake The Rat]

On 15/06/2020 at 17:41, Annie said:

The track plan might be a match for Ashburton, but that's where it ends since the station looks nothing like Ashburton.  That might sound a bit snotty, but the correct model buildings to build Ashburton are available and since the layout's maker has done a reasonable job of the rest of the layout it seems a pity to ruin it by using poor substitutes.

The correct buildings seem to be not on the DLS, so I leave it as it is for now. I like this layout, & the whole rest of it (Windrush Station & everything in-between) is fictitious anyway, so I don't mind too much if the roof doesn't look authentic. I'm not much of a perfectionist...

[RedGemAlchemist]

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

No, I was cleverer than that: I caught it with my bare hand.

OW. Speaking as someone who managed to stick their hand accidentally on a hot stove while working and ended up with permanent scars on his right hand, I feel you man.

[Annie]

7 hours ago, Jake The Rat said:

The correct buildings seem to be not on the DLS, so I leave it as it is for now. I like this layout, & the whole rest of it (Windrush Station & everything in-between) is fictitious anyway, so I don't mind too much if the roof doesn't look authentic. I'm not much of a perfectionist...

 

http://www.jatws.org/ing4trainz/gwr-buildings.htm

 

About halfway down the page you'll find Ashburton station.

[Jake The Rat]

Thanx for the link! I've downloaded the 3 Ashburton buildings & a few dozen other items. Most likely I'll come back & download the whole rest, except the diesel railcar & the electric trams, of course, which have no place on my strictly steam-only British layouts.

Replacing the loco shed took only a minute: delete, insert, connect, done. But rebuilding the station is not quite as simple, because the author has made it passenger enabled, with tracks, & the tracks a little too long. So the street & the houses north of the station will have to move, as well as a few others. & then there is the goods shed. I'm working on it...

[Annie]

Book corner:

 

 

I've been able to buy a second hand copy of this lovely book via private sale at a much cheaper price than some second hand booksellers are wanting for it.  I'm very pleased with my purchase, - though at this stage of things I'm not making any promises as to what  projects might come into being at a future time.

[sem34090]

If you don't mind my occasional intrusions, I've a little more to show of my expanded and improved LNWR photographic route (call it a virtual photo plank):

[Hroth]

Good stuff Sem, though even the Premier Line had rust on the sides of the rails!

 

 

And the novel touch of having a Locomotive on the overbridge..... 

 

 

Tiptoe through the tulips.. 

[sem34090]

3 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Good stuff Sem, though even the Premier Line had rust on the sides of the rails!

I'm probably going to swap the track for some proper LNWR stuff, with 3D Rusted rails and 3D chairs.

3 minutes ago, Hroth said:

And the novel touch of having a Locomotive on the overbridge..... 

 

Tiptoe through the tulips.. 

Inspired by the NLR crossing the ECML after Gasworks Tunnel, despite the different companies.

[Annie]

Impressive Sem, - really impressive.

[MikeOxon]

2 hours ago, sem34090 said:

If you don't mind my occasional intrusions, I've a little more to show of my expanded and improved LNWR photographic route (call it a virtual photo plank):

Excellent intrusion, although I had difficulty recognising (in the small image) the tram in the last photo.  It looked like some sort of modern locomotive in a time warp, at first glance

[sem34090]

It probably is a tad too modern for the scene - It's a London County Council E/1 Tram of the 1910s.

[Annie]

My Trainz Model Railway layout 'Seaton' is making progress.  I had an 'Oh no' moment though when a couple of forum members on the Trainz forum showed me some photos of Seaton and my attempt looks not much like what is shown in the photos.  I have everything in the right places, but my LSWR buildings and disguised LBSC station building kit look nothing like what the Seaton & Beer Railway  built on the station site.  But (sigh) it's only a representation built on a shortened version  of the 1889 track plan afterall so I shouldn't get upset about it.

 

 

 

[Northroader]

The station doesn’t look too bad, but it’s the tall trees behind that look odd to me. You’ve got some town buildings there with the beach over the back, so it’s more exposed than it looks on your scene.

[Annie]

19 minutes ago, Northroader said:

The station doesn’t look too bad, but it’s the tall trees behind that look odd to me. You’ve got some town buildings there with the beach over the back, so it’s more exposed than it looks on your scene.

Yes I know the trees are wrong Mr Northroader, but it's a question of finding the right sort of backscene and I might have to end up making or editing one to suit.  Now that I've got the layout itself largely complete and sorted out I can turn my mind to the backscene and see what I can come up with.

[Annie]

I have found a backscene that I should be able  to edit.  Most of it is Ok, but the sky isn't overcast and grumpy like the other parts of the backscene so that will be the worst bit to do.  The buildings showing behind the trees in the corner will do well enough to represent the gasworks even though there's no trees showing on the OS map near the gasworks.  I don't fancy drawing a naked gasworks from scratch so it will have to do.

  In 1889 there were no buildings behind the station just a patch of rough ground so I'm going for that one since it's easier to do and I haven't a clue what the buildings were anyway that are shown on the 1903 OS map.  The 1939 OS map shows that the area had become a lot more built up and the old S&BR station had been replaced by some SR Art Deco thing, - but we're having none of that sort of behaviour going on anywhere near my layout thank you very much.

 

[Jake The Rat]

6 hours ago, Annie said:

My Trainz Model Railway layout 'Seaton' is making progress.  I had an 'Oh no' moment though when a couple of forum members on the Trainz forum showed me some photos of Seaton and my attempt looks not much like what is shown in the photos.  I have everything in the right places, but my LSWR buildings and disguised LBSC station building kit look nothing like what the Seaton & Beer Railway  built on the station site.  But (sigh) it's only a representation built on a shortened version  of the 1889 track plan afterall so I shouldn't get upset about it.

 

 

Probably your Seaton looks more like the real Seaton than "my" Ashburton looks like the real Ashburton or the model railway one. Anyway, it's only 1% mine, the other 99% were made by razor (who built the original 'Asburton' layout) , paulsw2 (who enlarged it to 'Ashburton & Windrush railway') & Steve Flanders (who modelled the station building, the roof, the goods shed & the loco shed). It's amazing, how many hours it took me to get this 1% done.

3 days ago I had never heard of this small town (4000 inhabitants), & now I'm obessessed with it.

This is what it looks like now:

 

 

 

 

 

In German, cats are jokingly referred to as Dachhase, which translates to 'roof hare' or 'roof rabbit'. Don't worry, he or she might fall off - they never do.

 

& finally, my colleagues waiting for passengers...

 

 

Next on the to-do-list:

- edit many many details

- backdate it 20 years to GWR days

- backdate it 20 more years to pre-grouping-GWR days

Edited June 19, 2020 by Jake The Rat
Me fail English? That's unpossible! ^^

[Annie]

Well it's certainly coming on Jake and having the correct railway buildings has made a big difference.  Definitely worth your hard work in making all the changes.  I do like those cats on the roof by the way.

[Northroader]

 

heres an an aerial view to show you how Seaton looks, the Railway comes down from the far top LH corner, the line of small bushes alongside the river, and the station site is the pale patch just short of where the main road curves round to cross the river. The town centre is coming towards you in the foreground.