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

[Annie]

2 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Yes indeed. As others have said, we only realise how much we miss seeing and discussing the various contributor's posts when they’re not there.   A pity about the loss of photos but it could have been much worse.

Yes indeed Mike, a little more carelessness on the part of the Dedibrain data centre and we might have lost everything.

[Annie]

Morning Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:

 

[Annie]

Back to more sensible things.

 

Book Corner:

Available now.

 

And........... it's my birthday.

 

[Charlie586]

Have a good day, Annie. 

[MikeOxon]

9 hours ago, Annie said:

Morning Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:

 

Now that's a bit of a stretch

[MikeOxon]

44 minutes ago, Annie said:

it's my birthday

I hope you have a great day

Mike

[rocor]

10 hours ago, Annie said:

Morning Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:

 

 

The perfect locomotive for that straight run from London to Bristol, though found nowhere else in the empire.

[NeilHB]

Happy Birthday Annie! 

[MikeOxon]

2 hours ago, rocor said:

The perfect locomotive for that straight run from London to Bristol, though found nowhere else in the empire.

I pity the fireman trying to fire that monster box!

[Caley Jim]

Many happy returns Annie!  It's a proven fact that the people who have the most birthdays live the longest!  You're lucky with the date, though. Mine was yesterday!!

 

Jim

[Compound2632]

On 21/03/2022 at 07:12, Annie said:

Ye ancient Iron Mink drawings.  In the text accompanying the drawings the author relates how he needed to check some details so he sent off a quick letter to Swindon.  If only we could do that now!

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday. You can consider it as still in progress here even if nominally over with you. 

 

That Iron Mink drawing is a curiosity as far as brakes go. It's drawn with DC1 - were any ever so fitted? - and mention is made of Morton levers which I doubt - surely any retrofitted with both side brakes were just given an independent set - possibly only acting on one wheel - on the off-side?

 

Nobody show that six-coupled behemoth to Mr Brunel, please! He had quite enough grandiose ideas.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Compound2632

[Adam88]

11 hours ago, Annie said:

Back to more sensible things.

 

Book Corner:

Available now.

 

And........... it's my birthday.

 

 

Many happy returns of the day - although it was probably yesterday by now.

 

I too received notification from the Lightmoor team - less than a month after they sent me yet another Red Cross parcel crammed with contraband.  I suppose I'll just have to pay up.

 

[Adam88]

On 28/02/2022 at 12:52, Adam88 said:

After a really fine weekend where I live Monday has turned out cold and grey, but not wet or damp.  By way of recompense, here's a 'Sturdy Hill Climber' in blue to cheer folk up.

 

 

For me it's rather timely as Mr Parkhouse recently sent me a copy of the updated edition of Caledonian Railway Locomotives: The Classic Years, which has indeed been updated considerably.

 

Today I visited a railway which had appropriated a couple of smart blue engines and they were really magnificent in the spring sunshine.  Do they count as cheer-ups?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Adam88
Returning lost photos

[Caley Jim]

Now these are PROPER engines!!!

 

Why can't you post 'like' more than once?

 

Here they are pulling proper coaches:

 

 

Jim (Currently lining a proper 2-4-0)

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Adam88 said:

Do they count as cheer-ups?

Most definitely.

[Annie]

Morning Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  No more April fooling.  This is ex-B&ER No.2001 in rebuilt condition as a 4-2-2 tender engine.

And thank you very much gentlemen for your birthday wishes.

 

[Annie]

During the two weeks of exile from RMWeb I not only managed to read five novels, but as well as that I also created a new engine spec for Steve Flanders 'Queen' class locomotive that he made earlier in the year.  Nothing else available in the way of engine specs was suitable for a 'Queen' class so I said I'd give it a try.  I was a total disaster at maths when I was in school, so why I agreed to make a complete new engine spec which involves all manner of esoteric calculations I don't really know.  But after many test runs and getting my sums wrong a couple of times I ended up with a fully functional engine spec.

 

'Prince Christian' at Gwinear Road.

 

Testing on the Minehead branch.

 

Some of the magic numbers.

 

 

 

[eheaps]

17 hours ago, Adam88 said:

 

Today I visited a railway which had appropriated a couple of smart blue engines and they were really magnificent in the spring sunshine.  Do they count as cheer-ups?

 

 

 

Pretty sure that's my forehead just visible looking out of the first droplight!

 

A very enjoyable event.

 

[Adam88]

31 minutes ago, eheaps said:

 

Pretty sure that's my forehead just visible looking out of the first droplight!

 

A very enjoyable event.

 

 

Does this from a few seconds later help?

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Adam88

[eheaps]

24 minutes ago, Adam88 said:

 

Does this from a few seconds later help?

 

Definitely me!

[Annie]

Afternoon Cheer Up Broad Gauge Picture:  'Courier' as seen in 1888.

 

[Annie]

Morning Cheer up Picture:  Something a little different.  2-4-0 tank locomotive No 1384 of the Lambourn Valley Railway built by Sharp Stewart in 1875.  Entered Great Western Railway stock in 1883 and was rebuilt at Swindon in 1899.  The photo is of 1384 in rebuilt condition.  I like 'Sharpies' so please forgive this indulgence.

 

(Photo shamelessly borrowed from the Didcot Railway Centre)

[Annie]

It has been soooooo long since I visited my imaginary patch of Norfolk.  After updating to TRS22 there's been some odd invisible track faults that don't show themselves until they cause a derailment, but otherwise the transfer to the latest version of Trainz was fairly painless.

The former Moxbury, Barrow Hills and Foxhollow Extension Railway always was a 'Sharpie' line that steadfastly purchased tank engines from Sharp Stewart & Co; - and while I've retired my elderly 'Sharpie' 0-6-2T models from TS2004 days and replaced them with Ed Heaps's wonderful GER C32 2-4-2Ts I could not resist obtaining a pair of Sharp Stewart 2-4-2T's of a kind that the Furness Railway indulged in and repainting them in GER blue. 

Historically the C32's proved to be too heavy for many GER branchlines which limited their usefulness and with a fair proportion of my imaginary lines being lightly laid I needed something like a lightweight 2-4-2T or two to work the Foxwood branch and as well as further afield to the goods yards and station at Tenpenny Harbour.  A quick edit and re-write of my imaginary line's history and it seems that when the 0-6-2T's were purchased from Sharp Stewart & Co they also purchased a pair of 2-4-2T's as well.  While the 0-6-2T's were sold off as the GER began to make their presence felt as the new owners of the line the 'Sharpie' 2-4-2T's stayed on due to being in a good state of repair and lightweight enough to work the branchlines.

From memory I did take some snaps of the two 'Sharpies' early in the new year, but not long after that life got a bit too 'interesting' for a while and they got forgotten about until now.

 

'Sharpie' No.065 at Foxhollow station, platform 2.

 

Leaving Foxhollow.

 

At Foxwood station.

 

And at Bleakhorse Road station.

 

On the Foxwood branch heading back towards the junction with the mainline.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Annie
fumble brain

[Tom Burnham]

17 hours ago, Annie said:

Morning Cheer up Picture:  Something a little different.  2-4-0 tank locomotive No 1384 of the Lambourn Valley Railway built by Sharp Stewart in 1875.  Entered Great Western Railway stock in 1883 and was rebuilt at Swindon in 1899.  The photo is of 1384 in rebuilt condition.  I like 'Sharpies' so please forgive this indulgence.

 

(Photo shamelessly borrowed from the Didcot Railway Centre)

And after that ended up as "Hesperus" of the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway.

[Annie]

8 hours ago, Tom Burnham said:

And after that ended up as "Hesperus" of the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway.

Yes of course it did, - I'd forgotten about that,