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

[Edwardian]

Reminiscent of a NSWGR Class R.285, as re-boilered with a domed boiler. 

 

However, I'm not convinced it's a match.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by Edwardian
spelling

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Reminiscent of a NSWGR Class R.285, as re-boilered with a domed boiler. 

 

However, I'm not convinced it's a match.

 

 

 

 

They are Midland & Great Western Railway class 'E' 0-6-0T's James.  Sometimes called the 'Irish Terriers' due to their similar performance to the LBSC Terriers.  Built by Kitson & Co and Sharp Stewart in 1891 and 1893.

They are tempting little morsels that I could steal away to a light railway somewhere.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Annie
Um.........

[Annie]

Steve Flanders has just released his new Iron Mink models.  With the last not very good Iron Mink models having been made back in TS2004 days it was well and truly time for some new ones.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by Annie
added a picture

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

Steve Flanders has just released his new Iron Mink models.  With the last not very good Iron Mink models having been made back in TS2004 days it was well and truly time for some new ones.

 

Very much wagon of the moment, the V6.

[Annie]

One of the members of the creator group I belong to is building a brewery layout based on the famous ones at Burton-on-Trent so he needed some Midland Railway wagons.  With the only MR open wagons available being ones that I made ages ago using a body mesh that was too long the group thought it was high time that situation was improved.

Soooooo I was presented with a brand new 15ft 5 plank wagon mesh (oh that lovely new 3D mesh smell......) and I got on with updating my weathered MR 5 plank wagon textures to suit the new mesh.  The new body mesh meant that I could use Ed Heaps's wonderful wooden underframe and chassis ironwork components kitset of parts so that was an improvement over my older model as well.

The body mesh is setup to carry full loads of something like 6 different kinds of barrels involving the making of around 64 different attachment points, - and I'm awfully glad that I didn't have to do that part of the project!

 

 

Much simplified MR tarpaulin/wagon sheet because I'm still rubbish with making 3D meshes and texturing them.

 

[Compound2632]

That's a very brave post...

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

That's a very brave post...

I know Stephen, - a GER and GWR enthusiast attempting to make a model of a sacred Midland D299 5 plank wagon, - who knows what offences against hope and reason might she commit next.

[Edwardian]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

I know Stephen, - a GER and GWR enthusiast attempting to make a model of a sacred Midland D299 5 plank wagon, - who knows what offences against hope and reason might she commit next.

 

It's a minefield and Stephen's the only one with a map!

[Annie]

Midnight Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  A fascinating photo taken in 1875 when the area around the station at Williton flooded.  A Broad Gauge engine doesn't mind a bit of wading though.  What is particularly interesting is that apart from the footbridge (which has been renewed) all the railway buildings in this photo have survived.

 

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

It's a minefield and Stephen's the only one with a map!

It’s a mindfield, and Stephen’s the only one with a cognitive map!

[Edwardian]

9 minutes ago, Regularity said:

It’s a mindfield, and Stephen’s the only one with a cognitive map!

 

I don't need a cognitive map, I have a Mind Palace.

 

My daughter has a Mind Landfill site

[Jake The Rat]

... & I have a Mind Rathole.

[Annie]

Morning Cheer Up Picture:   A standard gauge 2-2-2T built by Sharp Stewart in 1899,  works number 4496. It must've been successful enough as it was scrapped in 1956.  Sorry about the small size of the picture, but this was all I could find.  I like single driver tank engines so I wasn't going to pass this one up.

 

[Annie]

I'm getting the awful feeling that there's only a dozen people who are interested in pre-grouping railways left in the world.  Where is everyone?

[rocor]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

I'm getting the awful feeling that there's only a dozen people who are interested in pre-grouping railways left in the world.  Where is everyone?

 

Maybe posting childhood reminiscences, of watching a British Fail blue liveried, dismal hauling a train of nuclear flask on their local line? (this was the least cheerful peacetime railway related imagining that I could come with).

[Adam88]

They don't seem to have many friends at the NRM either. :-(

[mpeffers]

If it helps, @Annie, I first visited this sub-forum a few years ago as a bit of a novelty and it’s steadily become my most visited section. For a long time, I believed I lacked the skills and resources to actually partake, but maybe I’m getting somewhere?

 

 

As you can probably see, I’ve started too many projects to actually finish anything yet - aim for this year is to not start anything new...

 

813* is I guess particularly out of place in this freelance East Gloucestershire Railway scene, but probably the most critical as to whether my future pre-grouping musings might be realised. As someone who currently has zero faith in their ability to solder (neatly - there is a High Level gearbox contained within) but can passably design components on a computer, 3D printing is likely to be either a big stepping stone or a permanent fixture in future non-RTR endeavours.

*Not overtly relevant, but I’m wondering if present day 813 passes as pre-grouping? I understand the arrangement between the PTR and GWR means Swindon fittings would likely started appearing before 1923. Going for a preservation finish anyway (if I ever get that far).

[Regularity]

If it wasn’t for this part of the forum, I am not sure I would bother.

[Annie]

It almost seems that after RMWeb was offline for several days that many forum members haven't returned.  I know that the loss of their pictures and photos from their forum threads have been upsetting for many and that could be a factor as well.  I think perhaps I'm particularly noticing this because I haven't been all that well this past month or so which means I haven't really been doing much on my projects due to brain fog and fatigue.  I've been trying to keep this thread of mine alive to maintain some kind of motivation, but it's all been a bit pointless really since I'm not doing anything worth posting about.

 

3 hours ago, mpeffers said:

813* is I guess particularly out of place in this freelance East Gloucestershire Railway scene, but probably the most critical as to whether my future pre-grouping musings might be realised. As someone who currently has zero faith in their ability to solder (neatly - there is a High Level gearbox contained within) but can passably design components on a computer, 3D printing is likely to be either a big stepping stone or a permanent fixture in future non-RTR endeavours.

813 is an interesting survivor with a unique history.  Being one of the last engines the pre-grouping GWR absorbed into the fold and sent through Swindon for a rebuild I think 813 qualifies well enough.  If you want to run 813 on your layout go for it and enjoy it too.

On the subject of 3D printing, over several years I've seen railway models made by this method go from being grainy shapeless blobs to being fully realised accurate models with high levels of detail.  I used to make finescale models in brass, - which I can't do anymore due to this illness I live with, - but not everyone can do that or perhaps would want to.  3D printing, - which really isn't so far away from making virtual 3D models, - has enabled a renaissance in the hobby where anybody with computer skills and a 3D printer can have a go and end up with a passable result and that's definitely a good thing. 

The other good thing is that the days of waiting in hope for RTR manufacturers to make the models you want have just about gone with the rise of a 3D modelling cottage industry.  I can remember how as a teenager I saw white metal casting do much the same thing and then a little later along came photoetching which really wasn't such a blessing for many since you had to be able to solder for that.  Overall I think 3D printing is a much more accessible technology.

 

2 hours ago, Regularity said:

If it wasn’t for this part of the forum, I am not sure I would bother.

I'm hopeful that members will start to come drifting back Simon.  I suppose the fact that it's Spring in the Uk means that most members are doing things outside due to the better weather and won't come back indoors again until Autumn and Winter make themselves known.  As for me the weather makes no difference since I rarely go outside these days and especially not with the plague still circulating in the community. 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Northroader]

I think losing the pictures was a real downer, particularly as I think having something to look at is much more interesting than plain text. The other thing is linking the thread to the modelling output is a very slow plod for me, so I try to spice it up with some prototype information. This works best with my pregroup Continental thread, which I am trying slowly to restore the pictures on, though it is a bit esoteric for most tastes.

Washbourne has been warmed up, with a slow paced narrative over on the IRM site as Ballycombe.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Northroader

[MikeOxon]

I agree that the loss of this site for a while and the continuing loss of pictures has been a real 'downer'.  It's when you lose something that you realise what it meant!  I started, a long time ago, in this Forum but after a while felt that a blog/diary style was more suited to my approach.  I could list several people on here who have provided the inspiration to push on, into areas of modelling that I never dreamed would be possible at the outset. 

 

Mike

 

 

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

I think losing the pictures was a real downer, particularly as I think having something to look at is much more interesting than plain text. The other thing is linking the thread to the modelling output is a very slow plod for me, so I try to spice it up with some prototype information. This works best with my pregroup Continental thread, which I am trying slowly to restore the pictures on, though it is a bit esoteric for most tastes.

Washbourne has been warmed up, with a slow paced narrative over on the IRM site as Ballycombe.

 

I agree.  It would be too long a task to find all the pictures posted in CA - by the time I'd done it, no doubt everything would have been restored or the site would have imploded, rendering the exercise redundant either way.  The other point is that these are conversations that would not be satisfying to read unless other contributors also managed to restore their images.  

 

The compromise I have adopted is to put a reasonable amount of work into the opening post.  There have been text corrections and additions, reflecting the evolution of layout lore, and I have not only replaced the lost images but significantly add to the subjects illustrated. It is a more comprehensive backstory post now as a result.  For the models and layout progress (I promise there soon will be some) the reader hops from the backstory into more recent posts. I do mourn all those old illustrated prototype discussions; for instance, Compound giving the history of Midland locomotives, discussions on the similarities between early LSW Adams designs and BP designs , Nearholmer's lore on Shepherd's Port, consideration of industries and agriculture etc etc.  There is am awful lot of interest and value in these discussions and they really need their pictures back. 

[Compound2632]

55 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Compound giving the history of Midland locomotives, 

 

Those can certainly be restored if they don't reappear of their own accord. The ones that are tricky are those cut-and-pasted from the internet rather than uploaded from my own hard drive, as they are listed as "image.pgn" in the "My Attachments" listing so the chances of me remembering what they were and finding them again are slim! On the other hand, those are the ones where I've been less scrupulous about C...

 

I've taken to embedding links to images elsewhere on the internet, where possible, which should be more robust, at least until the source site goes away or gets re-vamped...

 

If there is anything in particular you want restored, do ask.

[MikeOxon]

On 29/04/2022 at 07:59, Annie said:

...people who are interested in pre-grouping...

During ,my modelling, I've realised that 'pre-grouping' actually covers a very wide spectrum  

 

The 1st WW was one obvious break in the 'continuum', while the end of the Victorian age produced another change of outlook, with many new initiatives over the ways in which railways operated in the early 20th century. 

 

There was also quite a lot of 'pre-pre-grouping' going on in the latter half of the 19th century, as many of the original small railway companies were swallowed up into larger concerns, such as the LNWR and the expanded GWR. 

 

Before that, there was another change, when railways moved out of the 'novelty' phase and became an integral part of the National infrastructure.

 

Once upon a time, I thought the 1930's lay deep in the past but now, that period seems to me more akin to 'modern image'!  For the GWR, there is a marked divide between the Dean era and the Churchward era, with similar developments in other companies at around the same time. 

 

Now, I find myself exploring the so-called 'primitive' phase, which seems to be an unfortunate term to use, since it was actually a period of great innovation and rapid development, during which many of the concepts that have survived in all railways ever since first appeared.

 

Mike

[Edwardian]

While everything pre-1923 is of course pre-Grouping, I tend to think of pre-Grouping as the era of the railway companies extant at Grouping, i.e. in, very general terms, post the amalgamations that formed or expanded these companies, in many cases a process of the 1860s.