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

[richbrummitt]

On 05/12/2020 at 10:20, Annie said:

 

Book Corner:

 

I've not long woken up and my daughter tells me it's Saturday night even though my brain is telling me it's another day entirely, but with time displacement due to narcolepsy having been a part of my life for a long time now I'm not terribly surprised.  What was surprising though was that this particular book had arrived while I was asleep. Almost four months ago I ordered this second hand copy of 'An Historical Survey of Selected Great Western Stations Layouts And Illustrations' by R.H. Clark and with one thing and another I'd forgotten all about it.  One thing COVID-19 has done is absolutely mess up parcel postage to New Zealand so if I order anything from the Uk I have to accept that there is a chance that it won't arrive.  But this book did and its packaging was in good order with no sign of its journey having been no more intrepid that usual (no blood stains, no velociraptor teeth marks.....) .  And I'm awfully pleased it has arrived.

 

This is the 1979 edition published before the author had any thought of there being being a Volume 2, or 3, or whatever so it doesn't have 'Volume 1' on the dust jacket.  At the time I purchased this book that seemed to have a significant effect on the price with the same book marked with 'Volume 1' costing more than the earlier version.  If there is a difference with 'Volume 1' having more stations included within its covers or an updated text I don't know, but that wasn't important for me at the time since what I wanted was a book with nice big layout diagrams that covered a wide range of GWR stations.

 

It's a good sized book with excellent quality reproduction of photographs and the text is easy to read, - which is important for me since narcolepsy has messed up my eyesight.  Despite its external appearance this book is laid out in landscape format which allows for a good and proper reproduction of station layouts.  I don't know about you, but I really dislike books that stick tiny station layout diagrams on a page full of wall of text lengthy pontifications with a couple of poorly reproduced photographs to go along with it all.  So yes, - this book is very much Annie Approved.

 

 

I believe you got the better version. I bought this around 2 years ago over the 'phone with a book seller that I trust. He had both versions available and told me to have the original edition. His reasoning was that the later edition branded Vol.1 is simply a reprint of the original but the reproduction (for whatever reason that he explained to me at the time and I now cannot remember) is not as good. The illustrations and images in the copy I have are superbly crisp. 

 

There are definitely 4 volumes. The first three are by one author, with a co-author on the third, with the 4th taken on by the co-author of the third as if the baton were passed on.  

[Annie]

19 hours ago, richbrummitt said:

I believe you got the better version. I bought this around 2 years ago over the 'phone with a book seller that I trust. He had both versions available and told me to have the original edition. His reasoning was that the later edition branded Vol.1 is simply a reprint of the original but the reproduction (for whatever reason that he explained to me at the time and I now cannot remember) is not as good. The illustrations and images in the copy I have are superbly crisp. 

Well I'm certainly glad that I have the earlier volume as like you say the illustrations and images are very crisp and clear.

 

What I'd really like though is for some learned person to do the same for Broad Gauge stations.

[Annie]

Been sleeping a lot and waking up disoriented because somebody keeps changing the days around, but after I had something to eat and a cup of tea I felt better.  I decided to carry on with the operating session on my Norfolk layout even though it was getting on to the late afternoon (virtual Norfolk time) and I hadn't really operated the layout much at all before when it was starting to get dark.

 

H.T.Co. No. 127 had delivered its train of goods wagons from the Hopewood Tramway to the GER-GCR interchange yard at Elgar Junction and was now taking a little rest at the small MPD at Elgar Wood.

 

 

Terrier 'Hopewood' had been delayed by driver error (mine!)  while completing its trip shunting jobs and was steaming as fast as it could towards Barrow Hills.

 

 

From Barrow Hills 'Hopewood' took the goods bypass line past Brenton Woods station, but was further delayed by a signal check before finally arriving at the interchange yard at Elgar Junction.

 

 

Y14 No.555 is supposed to take a semi-fitted goods train through into the mysterious North West somewhere off past the edge of the layout about 10 miles from the interchange yard, but I haven't got this far with the goods working schedule (such as it is) before so some of the goods vans in the yard haven't turned a wheel for months.

There was still all the goods vehicles from the trip workings to sort as some of them were supposed to go with No.555 so there was much 'walking' up and down the sidings on my part and peering at wagons and vans in the dark to find the right ones so 'Hopewood' could shunt them into a properly made up semi-fitted goods train.  The arrival of a GCR passenger train at Elgar Junction station brought things to a pause for a while and then I was back to it.

Eventually No.555 was able to back down onto its train and couple up and then it was a few minutes to wait for a clear road so that No.555 could proceed out onto the mainline and make its way through the complex trackwork at Brenton Wood.  (Others mightn't think it's all that complex, but it's complex enough for me and my silly little brain).

 

 

And No.555 is off and heading for the junction with the main GER-GCR joint line.

 

 

Approaching Brenton Wood station on No.2 road.  A BH&FER 'Sharpie' passes by on the left heading for Little Keldon via the old BH&FER main line.

 

 

Well past the station now and not not much further to go before being clear of Brenton Woods's mad pointwork.  The stars have come out now so it's a bit lighter than before.

 

 

A GCR Pollitt 4-4-0 in full cry makes an appearance.

 

 

 

And finally out on the joint line with a clear run.

 

 

 

It was certainly an interesting experiment operating my Norfolk layout at night and I'll certainly have a go at doing it again.  Like all layouts there's still plenty to do here and there, but it's all now in good working shape so I can spend as much time as I want running  trains without there being much in the way of hiccups.  The last big job I did was making adjustments to the signalling to prevent bottlenecks at a couple of locations and traffic on the line is running much more smoothly now.

 

E&GR Beyer-Peacock No.23.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

I decided that I needed another Y14 so No.526 has joined No.555 at the MPD at Elgar Junction.  All that was involved was a careful renumbering job on a clone copy of No.555 so it didn't take long.  That makes three Y14's altogether with No.554 presently away from the MPD assisting with timber traffic at Elgar Wood.

The MPD really is a bit big for three Y14's, but originally it was the GCR's MPD on my Norfolk layout and a good few GCR engines were shedded here.  One day while running a session TS2012 suddenly crashed and when I was finally able to get things working again all the GCR engines and some GCR rolling stock were gone.  They were all engines and goods vehicles made by Cameron Scott from Darlington Works and apart from them everything else was fine.  My own MS&LR engines which were either clones or reskins by Rob Dee or myself were fine too.  All very peculiar.  

I never bothered to put them back on the layout since most of them just sat about and did very little except eat up computer memory.  I may sort out another MS&LR 9F 0-6-2 since they certainly earn their keep, which means that the Y14's might get some company.

 

Nos. 555 and 526.

 

No.554.

[Annie]

Some odd snaps taken at Hopewood on Sea.

 

This time I remembered to bring No.128 to Hopewood on Sea to shunt the yard early in the session instead of forgetting and having to try and fit the job in later,

 

 

'I'm sure I've got your package somewhere here Mr Watkins.'

 

 

I took a snap of Jenny taking her old grandad out for his morning walk.  He likes to come down to the station to see the tram engines at work.

 

[DonB]

15 hours ago, Annie said:

Some odd snaps taken at Hopewood on Sea.

 

This time I remembered to bring No.128 to Hopewood on Sea to shunt the yard early in the session instead of forgetting and having to try and fit the job in later,

 

 

'I'm sure I've got your package somewhere here Mr Watkins.'

 

 

I took a snap of Jenny taking her old grandad out for his morning walk.  He likes to come down to the station to see the tram engines at work.

 

 

Picture #3 ... Just a bit too close to reality for some of us aged folk!

Edited December 13, 2020 by DonB
clarification

[Annie]

1 hour ago, DonB said:

 

Picture #3 ... Just a bit too close to reality for some of us aged folk!

It's certainly my experience when I have to leave the house to go anywhere Don; - though I only need one walking stick fortunately.  My daughter is an absolute treasure and I'd be lost without her.  Almost 15 years ago now when I came to live in this rural town I never thought I'd be like this as I was a very active woman riding everywhere on my old 1940s bicycles, working in my own vege garden & etc.  Tempus fugit and all that....... (sigh).

[Annie]

I'm playing trains on the Tenpenny Branch on my Norfolk layout at the moment.  Parts of it are still unfinished, but it's fully operational.

The branch runs from Tenpenny Wharf to Lockes Soak a distance of around eight miles.  At Lockes Soak there's a junction with the BH&FER line to Foxhollow.  The branch is a nominally a part of the Windweather Tramway, but leads a semi-autonomous existence.

 

I've been doing trip workings on the branch with Manning Wardle No.3.

 

Heading away from Tenpenny Wharf for Lockes Soak with a train loaded with timber and a mysterious big crate.  A trip working from Foxhollow will pick the loaded wagons up from there.

 

 

Coming back from Lockes Soak with an empty wagon collected from the goods siding at the station.  The branch is part roadside tramway and part light railway, - though with fencing and better signalling.

 

 

Two PO wagons picked up from the goods yard at Jared station.

 

 

Waiting for the signalman at Mosston on Sea to show his green flag.

 

 

Heading back to Tenpenny Wharf.

 

 

Back at the goods yard at Tenpenny Wharf.  From here No.3 will shunt local wagons that will be loaded with coal on the wharf from the PO wagons that need to return back home via the Windweather Tramway and then onto the GER.

 

[Annie]

A couple of snaps from my session this morning playing trains.

 

Crossing the salt marsh.

 

Evening sky.

[Annie]

One of the benefits of playing trains on the tramways has been finding out what works well and what doesn't work so well.

Running trip workings between the Hopewood Tramway and the Windweather Tramway showed me fairly quickly that the junction between them that I'd put together ages ago wasn't really the best so I rebuilt it.  I haven't really wanted to do anything for the past couple of weeks so it was nice to discover that I'm getting back to being my usual self again.

Along the way I also fixed various track alignment issues and tidied up some of the signalling that wasn't working so well.

 

 

 

A snap taken at Elgar Wood just because.

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Annie
more to say

[DonB]

Annie, Great pictures as ever.-- Just a nit-picking query if I may,  Do the point closure blades actually move as if to guide the wheels? There does not seem to be any tie-bars in the screen shots although your last photo above shows a point lever (equivalent of a ground frame?) You have mentioned several times of trains waiting for a signal to permit movement, do the signals also work ?

Asking from total ignorance of the wonders of the programming involved in the design of the virtual world you depict.

[Annie]

19 minutes ago, DonB said:

Annie, Great pictures as ever.-- Just a nit-picking query if I may,  Do the point closure blades actually move as if to guide the wheels? There does not seem to be any tie-bars in the screen shots although your last photo above shows a point lever (equivalent of a ground frame?) You have mentioned several times of trains waiting for a signal to permit movement, do the signals also work ?

Asking from total ignorance of the wonders of the programming involved in the design of the virtual world you depict.

Thanks very much Don, - I like my little tramway.

 

Track in TS2012 (which is the version of Trainz I'm using) doesn't have moveable point blades.  In the later versions some very clever people figured out how to do this.  The very nice Mckenzie & Holland point levers in my last snap do move though when the direction of travel is switched over.  I have used the later track and it does look very nice, but it's much more sensitive about how it's laid when setting up points.

The signals do work and when set up with care they do work as they should.  I'm a bit of signal nut so I spent a good while getting everything to work properly.  I really enjoy it when I'm waiting for the off at one of the larger stations and I see the signals moving to clear as a distant train approaches one of the other platforms.  On the tramways it's a bit of a mixture of various types of split post Mckenzie & Holland signals along with a few rotating disc signals in some of the quieter corners of the tramway.  

 

[Annie]

No.128 and No.07 at Hopewood on Sea.

 

[Annie]

After not turning a wheel for months I gave the Windweather Tramway's No.022 a run.  This is yet another example of my alternative Norfolk imagineering.  For some reason that I haven't been able to determine a member of the creator group I belong to made a basic GER C53 tram engine that was about one and a third times as long as it should be.  After studying it for a while I decided it was just the thing to use as a basis for a tram engine capable of working timber traffic away from Windweather wharf as well as heavy gravel and sand trains elsewhere on the tramway.

Windweather wharf abounds in tight curves and somewhat 'interesting' trackwork so it seemed to me that fitting a pair of four wheel bogies underneath the stretched out C53 would be just the thing.  The bogies I used are from a Heisler geared locomotive and fitted perfectly.   After much fettling and adding detail the final result is a tram engine that can haul a heavy train down to walking pace and isn't worried at all by 'interesting' trackwork.  No.022 and sister engine No.023 certainly aren't speedsters, but that's not their role anyway.  They run beautifully and sound very nice indeed when working a heavy train. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Annie
more to say

[AdamsRadial]

I love that Cromwellised ruined castle in the background

[Annie]

1 hour ago, AdamsRadial said:

I love that Cromwellised ruined castle in the background

From memory there's three of them spaced out along the many miles of coastline on my Norfolk layout.  Plainly somebody got a good deal from Ruined Castles-R-Us.  Seriously though there's not that many castle ruin models for Trainz so I had to get creative by varying the height & etc so they didn't look like a job lot purchased cheap.

[Northroader]

Reminds me of Bruton Dovecote. Dovecote? Hah! They must have some b****** Big doves there.

[AdamsRadial]

That's local to me, I think on the OS map it's shown as Jack's Folly or something like.

[Annie]

The adventures of Terrier 'Windweather'.  'Windweather' is shedded at the small MPD at Tenpenny Wharf rather than the MPD at Windweather since it was found that the Terriers weren't suitable for working the harbour sidings at Windweather.  Tenpenny Wharf suits it just fine though.

The magic coal loading track on the wharf has always been problematic with it sometimes working and sometimes not so I finally bit the bullet and changed it for something else.  The wharf is made up of a dozen of more pieces that I had to fit together and height adjust and then I had to do the same for the trackwork........ so it was case of putting my brave girl Tee shirt on and finally fixing things so that coal can be loaded reliably on the wharf.  It all worked out well though and the new loading track works perfectly.

 

Part of the harbour at Tenpenny Wharf.

 

 

Heading for the junction link with the Windweather Tramway.

 

 

 

The junction with the Windweather Tramway at Tenpenny Beach.

 

 

And fast forward to Hopewood on Sea with 'Windweather' about to make a return journey with a train of empty wagons.

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Annie
fumble brain

[Annie]

H.T.Co. No.2 at Nodding Keep halt.  This was a test run to see how a morning local passenger run from Bluebell Magna to Barrow Hills and back again would fit into the timetable.  With its small diameter wheels No.2 isn't up to any kind of speeds above 30 mph without sounding a bit frantic, but it's a steady enough runner and the distance to Barrow Hills and back is inside its working range.

 

[Annie]

More testing to aid my efforts with passenger train schedules.

 

No.4 is mostly in the condition I originally purchased this particular digital model apart from a coat of paint, its number plates and the fettling of its config files magical incantations.  Out of the box it was carrying a tenth of the daily production of the Durham coalfields in its coal bunker and five Olympic swimming pools worth of water in its tanks (perhaps I exaggerate a little).  But the end result of my first attempt at getting rid of its 'little engine that could' engine spec file and replacing it with a proper one was that it couldn't move itself an inch.  That's when I found out about the weight of coal and water No.4 was carrying.  The track No.4 was standing on should have collapsed underneath it with a loud bang!

So I did some research and found out what the correct quantities were and after that things were much better.  From the now rebuilt and fettled No.4 I developed the 2-2-2T tank engines Nos. 5, 7 & 8 by the addition of several parts that weren't meant to fit together and then the 0-6-0T No. 2 using a different lot of parts that weren't meant to fit together. 

In general after much fettling they all run very well, but are limited in range by their coal capacity; - which would have been true for the prototype engine the model is based on as well.  If I was a nasty little cheat I could edit the config files to give them all a few more hundredweight of coal, - because, well nobody would know would they?  BUT I don't do such things, - so I do what any shed foreman would do and give them jobs to do that are inside their operating range or send them to places where they can refill their bunkers and get a drink of water before coming back.

 

Passenger runs from Moxbury to Barrow Hills and back again are what I'm presently setting up.  Up until now No.4 has been mostly used on morning milk trains and acting as the Moxbury station pilot so it's good to see it back at work on passenger services again.  (No.4 is still in need of a visit from the lamp and brake pipe fairy)

 

At Moxbury.

 

At Brenton Wood.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Annie
more to say

[Annie]

Two day's worth of silence hasn't been entirely due to being asleep for a change, but because I finally decided to bite the bullet and take my Norfolk layout across from TS2012 to TANE (Trainz A New Era).  My Norfolk layout is large and well detailed and it's right at the edge of what the 32 bit TS2012 software can handle.  I'd been noticing that everytime I made modifications to the layout and saved them that rolling stock was going missing.  Mostly it was GCR models by Darlington Works that tend to have large memory hungry texture files which meant that they were somehow getting dropped out of the saving process.  And just recently I noticed that some of the goods train schedules that have been a part of the layout for a good while now had gone missing.  Plainly TS2012 wasn't keeping up so something had to be done.

 

As an experiment I made a version of the layout without the very large Eastlingwold & Great Mulling section and I also removed the new extension to Foxhollow on the BH&FER section.  (Don't worry the original version is quite safe)  Things were now noticeably better with TS2012 not struggling so much and the frame rate was now more than doubled; - which wasn't a surprise really since the E&GR section is as equally as large as the all other sections put together.

 

The reduced layout is basically all the tramway and light railway sections, the BH&FER line to Moxbury and Bunbury and the GER-GCR Joint line.  Essentially all the parts of the layout where I like to go on trip workings.

 

Before attempting to take the large version of the layout across to TANE I thought I'd take the smaller version across first as a test run.  I knew there were going to be problems with older TS2012 N3V payware assets that won't work in TANE as well as with older 32 bit only tree models that definitely won't work in 64 bit TANE.  My main concern was that my collection of much modified tramway engines were going to have major problems and come up with a lot of faults after being transferred.

 

Aaaaand yes it was all fairly horrible and it took a lot of work to fix the various problems, BUT we got there.  It was the stretched version C53B tram engines than TANE decided to hate out of my much modded collection of tram engines and after a lot of faffing around I discovered that they both had an ancient payware asset dependency and once that was got rid of all was well.

My Norfolk layout has always been my testing layout for any rolling stock I'm working on so they all had to be bundled up and transferred as well.  In the process I found one or two projects I'd entirely forgotten about so that was a little bonus along the way.

 

With the banishment of the older 32 bit trees the landscape is looking a lot more bare now.  Some of the trees that survived the move will need to be replaced eventually though since the lighting in TANE washes out their texturing and they don't look so nice anymore.  The small wharf at Bluebell Wood didn't make it since it was ancient payware and it will need to be rebuilt and some of the wooden bridges on the Windweather Loop Line didn't make it either for the same reason.  In general though the majority of the layout made it across to TANE largely unscathed which was a big relief.

 

Everything is now running so much better which gives me a degree of encouragement to try moving the full sized version of the layout across to TANE, but I think I'll leave that as a 2021 project.  At least now I know which assets/models are going to be a problem so I can do something about them before making the move.

 

Early testing screenshots on the Hopewood Tramway before any optimisations to lighting & etc were done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the GER-GCR Joint line.

 

 

 

 

 

[Northroader]

All that stuff what I don’t understand and you knocked it off in just two days, you must have a brain the size of a planet. (And it looks good, too)

Edited December 21, 2020 by Northroader

[Annie]

34 minutes ago, Northroader said:

All that stuff what I don’t understand and you knocked it off in just two days, you must have a brain the size of a planet. (And it looks good, too)

Thanks Mr Northroader.  Sometimes when I'm deep in the middle of it all I'm not sure if I understand it all either.  As time as gone on Trainz has become more complicated with each version that's been released and while someone like me who has steadily made their way through the various versions of Trainz has an idea of how it's supposed to work newcomers to the latest versions are having a lot of problems.

 

So far it seems to be going alright and next it's the scenic work and tree planting to do.

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Sometimes when I'm deep in the middle of it all I'm not sure if I understand it all either.

Ah. In a Trainz trance, perhaps?