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

[Annie]

With applying the lettering 'GREAT CENTRAL' onto my GCR engines I've been kind of aware that with a name like that it's very important to put it in the right place.  I'd had a couple of goes at doing this on my Parker designed Class 9F tank engines as with their longish not terribly tall side tanks there is only really one place it can go and look as it should.  And having got myself a set of the proper GCR lettering to replace my own marginal attempts I really did want to get it right this time.  Fortunately I found a really good side on view of a Class 9F of the right period and in the lined out condition which I eventually hope to emulate.  It's not a very clear photo, but with magnification it's possible to see all the details.

And those details included all the rivets on the tanksides which gave me a perfect indication as to the right position and spacing for the 'GREAT CENTRAL' lettering to be applied.  My Darlington Works 9F had most of the tankside rivets it was supposed to have, but with being so involved with rivet counting for an actual practical purpose I added in the missing ones which is certainly easier to do on a digital model than a physical model.

Now with all my guide points in place I added the lettering and this time I got it right.

 

 

Most of the photos I've come across for this period show the Class 9F's with painted on or decal/transfer applied numbers instead of numberplates, but I decided to do my two Class 9F's with numberplates.  All my other GCR engines have them so why make them the odd engines out; - and anyway it's my railway and Rule No.1 and all that.

Next job will be lining my 9F's out which I am not looking forward to.  I did my 1B tank engines myself, but their large tanksides and cab side sheets only required some fairly simple shapes with only the curved edges of the cabside doorway making me have to hold my mouth right.  The Parker designed cab on the 9F's is going to be a wee bit more demanding to my way of thinking.

[Annie]

With the other fairly important GCR tank engine class on Valleyfields I've had another round of tweaking and adjusting colour patch tone and intensities as well as doing further work on the "GREAT CENTRAL' lettering on the tanksides.  I think I've now got these old Class 9K digital models about as good as I'm ever going to get them, though one disappointment was discovering that the lettering mesh patch and the numbering mesh patch aren't symmetrically placed from one side to the other with enough of an error in their positioning that I can't place the numberplate properly in relation to the 'GREAT CENTRAL' lettering as getting it right on one side places the numberplate well out of position on the other.  It doesn't help either that the number mesh patch stretches the texture lengthways in a not entirely predictable manner.  

So anyway it will do and nothing on this older model really offends my eye anymore given its limitations.  Possibly a major reason for me being willing to give this older digital model a chance is that I've now got it very well set up with its engine spec files and steam engine sound files so it's a real pleasure to drive.  Combine that with the four positions in the cab I can choose while driving these engines and it becomes a real winner for running passenger services.  I'm still reluctant to convert the stations to interactive magic passenger loading and unloading as it involves a lot of faffing about with adjusting platforms and trackwork to get everything in the right position.  And having to do all that on very long platforms like those on Valleyfields which may or may not be subtlety curved is the stuff of nightmares.  Sooooo I'm going to stick with the old static TS2004 Auran people on the platforms and play let's pretend at station stops.  I have noticed though that some of the stations are a bit deserted so when I'm in the mood I'll go around the layout and add some more intending passengers.

 

 

More test run pictures. Passing the carriage shed at Meiville.  When I put the carriage shed in place I thought it was too big, but in actual fact it's only just big enough.

 

Station stop at the delightfully named 'Bluebell Woods'.  I've kept all the layout's original station names, - or at least for now.  There's about four out of the dozen stations on the line that are likely to be renamed once I've thought up some proper replacement names for them.

 

Test run through Elgar Junction.  As a reasonably convincing background set piece the newly built town does its job well.

 

 

Honest guv, I was minding my own business with my Box Brownie all ready to take a picture and that bush leapt in front of me.

 

So that's all the snaps I took as I was getting a bit fumbly.

 

In other news I've had notification that 'Deep Thought', - my new computer, - has been dispatched, - so hopefully I'll get it before the weekend.  In case you were wondering the concept of a 'weekend' doesn't actually brush against my consciousness very much since I'm stuck at home all the time, but it does on our local courier drivers so if it hasn't arrived by Friday evening I'll have to wait until Monday.  

[Annie]

Nobody get too excited because there is still a lot to do on this yet.  I downloaded what claimed to be a light railway layout in the spirit of Col. Stephens only it was brimful of modernity and horrifying anachronisms obliging me to do much deleting with extreme prejudice and a good deal  of replacing things with something more appropriate.  Though some things are place holders which I'll use until I find something better.

The SG track layout was basically Ok  so I converted it over to 3ft gauge; - nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that kind of thing.  I've had some County Donegal wagons, vans and coaches in my digital trainset box for a while now so I dug them out for test purposes and dusted off the Manning Wardle tram engines that have been feeling a bit ignored since I stopped doing anything with my Kotanga layout.  Because of their skirts the tram engines don't have any wheels and actually ride on what's called an 'invisible bogie' so really they can be used on any gauge I want within reason.

The station buildings are all rural Victorian Railways (Australia) items and make reasonable enough light railway buildings so they'll most probably be staying, but there's an awful lot to do with sorting out the small towns and villages along the line.  Fixing scenery and getting the fields and rural farming areas to look like people actually did it and it wasn't all done by the good folk from under the green hill in the night.  Yes all the usual stuff I do; - you should know how I build my layouts by now.

If I can knock this layout into shape I may join it onto either Valleyfields or the HUGE UK layout and work in some kind of transshipment  interface with the standard gauge side of things.  Valleyfields might be easier for this than the HUGE UK layout, but I haven't really had a proper look around yet to find the best sites on either layout where I could do this.  Anyway it's early days yet and I'm still planning out  what I want the layout to look like and the kind of traffic this 3ft gauge line will will be handling .              

[Annie]

•  

I've been working on the new 3ft gauge layout and I decided the best way to approach detailing the layout how I want is to do it section by section.  So I started with the terminus which I decided to name 'Friar's Stumble' which is a place name from one of the narrow gauge layouts I'd plotted out a while ago for 1:55 scale (I think).  There's also a terminal station at the other end of the line, but whatever thin spare thread of light railway practice the original builder had been following was finally broken as a light railway terminus it's definitely not.  An Art Deco  concrete Southern Railway station building was never marked down in Col. Stephen's notebook just as one example of the horrors that lurk at that end of the line.  The whole area is going to need to be swept clean except for the track and completely done again.

But back to Friar's Stumble.  I decided that agriculture and the products there of is going to be the main traffic on the line with coal and other needs the communities along the line can't provide for themselves being brought in via the connection to a standard gauge railway somewhere beyond the layout boards, - this being represented by a portal track conveniently disguised by a road bridge over the line.

So pictures.  Work still needs doing around the station and railway infrastructure, but the town and surrounding landscape is pretty much done and dusted.

The ruined priory was a super useful item for me to find.  Very low resolution and not especially detailed , but absolutely perfect amongst the trees in the background.

 

I'm really enjoying seeing the new 3ft gauge layout developing from something  that definitely wasn't what it claimed to be into a nice little local railway.  Fortunately the landscape and the track layout is basically fine and has given me a useful canvas on which to build.  The original station yard area at Friar's Stumble was larger and had quite a few far too modern industrial type buildings in it so they all got demolished and I drew the station yard boundaries back into the more compact shape you can see in the third picture which to my mind is much more suggestive of a small local railway terminus.  At this stage all I've done with the fields is properly fence them of with either stone walls or hedges, but there is definitely much more potential for further detailing to  enhance the agricultural  aspects of the layout.

On the proposed 1:55 layout the other station/town names I can bring to mind were 'Bishop's Tenpenny' and 'Pennyworth', but I know there were others.  I've been looking at pictures of Suffolk landscapes and towns to help me get my head around what I'm trying to create.  Since it was through watching old films of the Southwold Railway that got all this sparked off I decided that my new layout is set in Suffolk, but don't ask me exactly where as geography has never been my strong point.

'Deep Thought' has been delivered, but is still packed up in its box and I won't try doing anything about unpacking it or setting it up until later on this evening.  I'm sleepy at the moment and once I've had some lunch I can see myself needed to curl up and sleep for a good few hours.  Besides there's quite a bit of file backing up and the like that will need to be done with my trainset on my present trusty old computer before I start installing 'Deep Thought' and getting it setup how I want.  

Edited May 25, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

  Link to a history of the Southwold Railway along with pictures of the route    https://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/1979

 

I'm not building a version of the Southwold though, but that's where my inspiration comes from.  Having noted that in 1925 increased motor omnibus services caused the Southwold's demise I propose to have a few motor omnibuses on the layout crashed into trees, submerged in rivers and on fire and generally otherwise having suffered misfortunes, but fortunately without harm to the passengers they were carrying.  So as a result of omnibuses seeming to be operating under some kind of curse in the local area everybody takes the train and there will never be any risk of closure.  And yes this is a pre-group layout as the period is post WW!, but with the grouping still a few years off yet..

 

I have no idea what my railway is called yet.  The 1:55 scale line was to be called the Sumwheir District Railway and I suppose I could revive that name since I did have a lot of fun at the time dreaming it all up.

 

'Ponder' was a station on the line about 5 miles away from 'Much Mulling'.  Nice, I'm starting to remember some of the details now.

[Annie]

No trains being run, no layout building or any digital texture work being done at the moment as all my files are being backed up to an external hard drive in readiness for being transferred over to 'Deep Thought' tomorrow.  I have unpacked the new Xeon powered machine though and it's in virtually as new condition with everything beautifully clean and not a scratch or a mark on the case.  I have no idea what one of these would have cost when new, but my daughter who used to work in the computer industry as a software trouble shooter has told me that I've got myself an absolute bargain so it's nice to know that I did the right thing when I clicked the 'Buy Now' button.   

 

I may be off line for a while tomorrow/today/whenever (precise concepts of time confuse my narcoleptic brain), but I shouldn't be away from the forum for very long.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

Still hanging about, - haven't gone to bed yet.  On Steve Flander's amazing Trainz website he has just released models of the Crystal Palace in both its Hyde Park and rebuilt Sydenham forms.  Apparently the model is huge.  I have no use at all for it, but I'm sure somebody does.  http://www.ballynagarrick.net/ing4trainz/other.htm

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEWLNvzKyVY

 

Steve Flanders has also made all the necessary bits for the South Devon Atmospheric Railway as well which is a very sore temptation for me.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_btSObpLuqE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTsX3Y5S74

[Annie]

Aaaaannnnnd we're up and running again.  No trainsets loaded in yet, but 'Deep Thought' started up without a hitch and the process of getting all my favourite software applications loaded back in and up and running again is going very well.  'Deep Thought' certainly runs very silently and it's super fast at doing everything.  I will eventually get used to the idea of having a tall black monolith beside me, - shades of '2001 a Space Odyssey',  - but no complaints and all is good.   

[sem34090]

Good to hear!

 

Don't ask why I'm still up at 04:11 in the morning...

[Annie]

Being a person who can fall asleep for many hours at any time day or night and thereby having no day-night time orientation at all I tend not to speculate why someone might be awake in the early hours of the morning 

[Lancaster622]

Hi Annie, 

 

Did you say that you use 2009 as your go to Trainz? I got it for free (sign up to the NV3 Newsletter and you get given a legit copy by them) and still am finding that Darlington Works freeware isn't loading (just checking CDP Manager) so just wondered if that is the version you use?

 

Christopher 

[sem34090]

You've discovered the joy of dependencies... 

 

I suggest a word with Annie via PM is in order!

[Lancaster622]

I will do so then

 

Yes dependencies when I swapped from playing Trainz (Original - 2010) to Train Simulator (Railworks - 2017) I didn't miss downloading an item and playing the will it won't it work game haha!

[sem34090]

I am in the happy situation of using both, though prefer TS to Trainz on the whole.

[Annie]

Darlington Works's digital models for Trainz should work in the Free version of 2009 as they're build version 2.4 if I remember correctly.  Mind you I haven't tried any of Darlington Works's models in my own Free version copy as yet as I'm still in process with installing everything over to my new computer so haven't had a chance to just yet.  Once I've got everything done and provided I haven't fallen asleep I'll have a look and see what might be the problem.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Annie

[Lancaster622]

AHA! I found how to do it

 

Installed my copy of TANE and it has got more of the items working in it!

 

So I have decided to start by upgrading a route I made at least 9 years ago in Trainz 2006!

 

GWR Country Railway it is on the DLS under the Author: lner 

 

Not so sure that upgrading is the correct term but I am back dating the country line to Broad Gauge while keeping the mainline Standard Gauge.

 

We will follow GWR 2-2-2 'Gorgon' on a engineering train along the line by way of a tour and save for the track and one or 2 items I have had a quick play with a basis for the remaking of this route.

 

Here Gorgon is leaving the mainline connection station with a standard gauge train passing in the background

 

Passing through Binger Halt

 

Onto Epwell

 

The train whistles as it passes through Chipping Spa Race Course Station - I am thinking of giving this a horsebox yard

 

Into Box...Chipping Spa Tunnel

 

Emerging at the other end

 

Chipping Spa station itself no sure quite why the platforms are so long but I kinda like the look. This is currently as far as normal services can reach

 

Under one of the newly downloaded timber bridges

 

Finally coming to a halt with it's wagons of materials at Fenny Norton 'Gorgon' stops besides an apparently time travelling signal box.

 

Now to the DLS to seek Broad Gauge signals, appropriate platforms more buildings etc!

Edited May 26, 2018 by Lancaster622

[Lancaster622]

Darlington Works's digital models for Trainz should work in the Free version of 2009 as they're build version 2.4 if I remember correctly.  Mind you I haven't tried any of Darlington Works's models in my own Free version copy as yet as I'm still in process with installing everything over to my new computer so haven't had a chance to just yet.  Once I've got everything done and provided I haven't fallen asleep I'll have a look and see what might be the problem.

 

Thank you Annie, it would appear some dependancies are missing from what Content Manager is saying in both 2009 and T:ANE

[Annie]

Ah the joys of the Broad Gauge.  'Turk's Castle 1892' on the DLS is a really good Broad Gauge layout based on the line from Minehead to Taunton.

 

Edit:  'GWR Country Railway', - I started to convert that over to the Broad Gauge, but stopped when I discovered 'Turk's Castle'.

 

Darlington Works's models do use some occasional DLS content so it might be worthwhile doing a right click on their files in Content Manager and clicking 'Download' and see if anything turns up.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Annie

[Lancaster622]

Thank you I will find it and have a good look

 

That is quite an honour and coincidence that you first selected a route that I made all those years ago! I can still remember sitting at college in the refectory between lessons and working on it, happy-ish days haha

 

You are welcome to the first copy of the new version when I complete it

[Annie]

I thought the 'GWR Country Railway' was quite an appealing layout when I first downloaded it, but since my GWR tendencies run towards the Broad Gauge and not standard gauge it wasn't long before I started to look at converting it back to a possible pre-1892 form.  I then got all involved in my big NER based layout and forgot about finishing things off properly; - and it didn't help that I'd painted myself into a few corners along the way.  About the time my Broad Gauge interest perked up again I found 'Turk's Castle' so the poor old neglected 'GWR Country Railway' layout ended up being unjustly forgotten.

 

And yes please to a copy of the new version once it's done  

[Edwardian]

 

•  

I've been working on the new 3ft gauge layout and I decided the best way to approach detailing the layout how I want is to do it section by section.  So I started with the terminus which I decided to name 'Friar's Stumble' which is a place name from one of the narrow gauge layouts I'd plotted out a while ago for 1:55 scale (I think).  There's also a terminal station at the other end of the line, but whatever thin spare thread of light railway practice the original builder had been following was finally broken as a light railway terminus it's definitely not.  An Art Deco  concrete Southern Railway station building was never marked down in Col. Stephen's notebook just as one example of the horrors that lurk at that end of the line.  The whole area is going to need to be swept clean except for the track and completely done again.

But back to Friar's Stumble.  I decided that agriculture and the products there of is going to be the main traffic on the line with coal and other needs the communities along the line can't provide for themselves being brought in via the connection to a standard gauge railway somewhere beyond the layout boards, - this being represented by a portal track conveniently disguised by a road bridge over the line.

So pictures.  Work still needs doing around the station and railway infrastructure, but the town and surrounding landscape is pretty much done and dusted.

The ruined priory was a super useful item for me to find.  Very low resolution and not especially detailed , but absolutely perfect amongst the trees in the background.

 

I'm really enjoying seeing the new 3ft gauge layout developing from something  that definitely wasn't what it claimed to be into a nice little local railway.  Fortunately the landscape and the track layout is basically fine and has given me a useful canvas on which to build.  The original station yard area at Friar's Stumble was larger and had quite a few far too modern industrial type buildings in it so they all got demolished and I drew the station yard boundaries back into the more compact shape you can see in the third picture which to my mind is much more suggestive of a small local railway terminus.  At this stage all I've done with the fields is properly fence them of with either stone walls or hedges, but there is definitely much more potential for further detailing to  enhance the agricultural  aspects of the layout.

On the proposed 1:55 layout the other station/town names I can bring to mind were 'Bishop's Tenpenny' and 'Pennyworth', but I know there were others.  I've been looking at pictures of Suffolk landscapes and towns to help me get my head around what I'm trying to create.  Since it was through watching old films of the Southwold Railway that got all this sparked off I decided that my new layout is set in Suffolk, but don't ask me exactly where as geography has never been my strong point.

'Deep Thought' has been delivered, but is still packed up in its box and I won't try doing anything about unpacking it or setting it up until later on this evening.  I'm sleepy at the moment and once I've had some lunch I can see myself needed to curl up and sleep for a good few hours.  Besides there's quite a bit of file backing up and the like that will need to be done with my trainset on my present trusty old computer before I start installing 'Deep Thought' and getting it setup how I want.  

 

 

That's very cool, Annie

[Annie]

Thanks James.  It's all a bit of a rural adventure in local railway building.  All my previous layout have had coal mines and related industries so it's definitely a departure for me to be attempting to portray a completely agricultural landscape.  Building a railway to 3 foot gauge is also a new thing as well.  I've built digital 3ft 6in gauge railways before, but they tend to be quite a different kettle of fish especially when they're in a colonial setting.

Being a Suffolk based layout and in GER territory is also a new thing me too as I don't really know that much about the region.  I'm completely hopeless at things like trying to put together a map to demonstrate where my little 'what-if' railway might have been so I'll have to be completely mysterious and say it's in the 'Sumwheir District' and leave it at that.

 

At the moment 60Gb of trainset data from my old computer is loading into a brand new TS2009 install.  It's going to take a while for all that to be processed and I still don't really know at this stage if it's all going to work.   

[Edwardian]

Thanks James.  It's all a bit of a rural adventure in local railway building.  All my previous layout have had coal mines and related industries so it's definitely a departure for me to be attempting to portray a completely agricultural landscape.  Building a railway to 3 foot gauge is also a new thing as well.  I've built digital 3ft 6in gauge railways before, but they tend to be quite a different kettle of fish especially when they're in a colonial setting.

Being a Suffolk based layout and in GER territory is also a new thing me too as I don't really know that much about the region.  I'm completely hopeless at things like trying to put together a map to demonstrate where my little 'what-if' railway might have been so I'll have to be completely mysterious and say it's in the 'Sumwheir District' and leave it at that.

 

At the moment 60Gb of trainset data from my old computer is loading into a brand new TS2009 install.  It's going to take a while for all that to be processed and I still don't really know at this stage if it's all going to work. 

 

You seem to be doing fine.  Full of character. I just make tears in the map and stitch in slivers of new geography!

[Annie]

I can't get nuffing to work in the free giveaway version of TS2009 as it turns everything jet black so even if it was working I can't tell anyway.  After spend around five hours on it and getting nowhere I deleted it with extreme prejudice and did something else.  I still have my old computer in fully working condition and my original TS2009 install is right there on its hard drive where I left it so it's not as if I lost anything forever or anything.

 

So the something else was getting TS2012 up and running and I decided to load all my favourite GWR models and things into the new installation for testing purposes.  The test layouts are as downloaded without extra detailing or modification as I'm not going to start in on doing that until I'm completely certain that the new install of TS2012 is working properly.

Of course I hate everything about it, but that's only because it's new and different and I don't like change much.  I'll get over feeling that way eventually once I've discovered where all the new menus and control buttons are and have got the knack of the differences in the way they work.

 

Anyway some test run snaps on Turk's Castle.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something I really like is the new lineside camera view which allowed me to follow the train from the fields on the other side of the boundary fence.  Made me feel like a demented trainspotter girl with all that running and jumping about, but I certainly got some good snaps.

 

Of course for the first run I had to chose one of the B&E Pearson well tanks just because they're so terrific.  I neither know nor care whether or not they really did work on the West Somerset Railway's Minehead branch because this is my railway and I say they did. The West Somerset Railway was B&E territory so the Pearson tanks have got more right to be there than the GWR engines anyway . 

 

Edit:  I haven't done anything about changing the distant signals for the pre-1927 ones I made, but it will happen soon.  TS2012 uses something called 'Speedtrees' which is some kind of magic system for assembling and creating unique looking tree with move in the wind animations.  They're supposed to be an improvement over the old tree models that were based on flat textured meshes, but I think some of the new trees look a bit daft in a moonstruck tree meets the triffids kind of way.

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by Annie

[sem34090]

Nice!