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

[Annie]

1 minute ago, Edwardian said:

 

 

Excellent. So 58' 6"? 

 

In other words it accommodates a standard Grouping era corridor coach (57').

Go team!  It looks like we've found the answer to Hroth's question.  It certainly was an interesting exercise as I've kept that photo of Sidestand Halt tucked away in a corner of my memory with the intention of doing something along the same lines myself.

[Edwardian]

19 minutes ago, Annie said:

Go team!  It looks like we've found the answer to Hroth's question.  It certainly was an interesting exercise as I've kept that photo of Sidestand Halt tucked away in a corner of my memory with the intention of doing something along the same lines myself.

 

Now it only remains for us to solve global food and energy crisis, but I think that can wait until next week.

 

Mr Hroth shall have his platform. Good collaborative effort there! 

[Caley Jim]

Is it possible to count the sleepers between the tops of the ramps? That would give you another way of working it out assuming 2'6" between sleepers. 

 

Jim 

[Hroth]

Thanks for all your suggestions!

 

My only concern is the size of those timetable/poster boards at each end of the platform. Assuming they're about 3ft wide, they give the impression that the platform is rather less than 60ft long. Counting the sleepers would be a bit of a problem too, the depth of field of the image is woeful and the sleepers really do blur as you go down the platform!

 

I'll make a card representation of a platform scaling out to about 23 cm long plus ramps and see how it looks in the flesh. 

 

[Edwardian]

38 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Thanks for all your suggestions!

 

My only concern is the size of those timetable/poster boards at each end of the platform. Assuming they're about 3ft wide, they give the impression that the platform is rather less than 60ft long. Counting the sleepers would be a bit of a problem too, the depth of field of the image is woeful and the sleepers really do blur as you go down the platform!

 

I'll make a card representation of a platform scaling out to about 23 cm long plus ramps and see how it looks in the flesh. 

 

 

I think you have to accept Annie's methodology and her GER fence measurements. Apart from making complete sense, they do result in your 1930s 1-coach length.

 

 

 

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

I think you have to accept Annie's methodology and her GER fence measurements. Apart from making complete sense, they do result in your 1930s 1-coach length.

 

 

 

 

Yes, it looks bigger in that photo!

 

[Annie]

Late Evening Cheer Up Picture:  LNWR 3022.  I have a big soft spot for these Crewe type tank engine rebuilds.

 

[Annie]

After a lot of mucking around and indecision I've settled into getting my much loved alternative history Norfolk layout into proper working order.  Moving my Norfolk layout from Trainz TS2012 to TANE shifted some things about a bit and that along with various faults and problems I should have attended to ages ago means that I have a longish To-Do list to take care of.

Almost three years ago now my Norfolk layout started off with the Hopewood Tramway and since it has always run just fine I've tended to overlook things like manky trackwork and signalling that might have worked, but was a strange old collection of unlikely bits and pieces.  Some pieces of magic interactive trackwork for loading and unloading things had stopped working long ago, - so that needed to be sorted out as well.

With the signalling I'm going to trial Ffestiniog Railway type disc signals and thinly disguised GWR fixed distant signals.  I'd made the sand and shingle sidings at Bluebell Sands too complicated with unnecessary signals so I took them all out all except for the ones for controlling entry to the main running line..  Any engine working here would be in possession of the staff and the signalman-porter and the shunter would be keeping an eye on things.  Hopewood on Sea is still going to keep its McKenzie & Holland split post signals since GER trains sometimes work through to the station and goods yard from Barrow Hills via the Windweather loop line and the footplate crews might wonder what they've struck if they came up against a disc signal.

 

Heading away from Cathill Junction.

 

The long roadside section on the approach to Bluebell Woods.  TS2012's magic roads could sometimes have cars running about everywhere like it was rush hour in the city, but TANE has knocked the numbers right back to two or three an hour which is much better.

 

 

Leaving Bluebell Woods.  No pictures of the town and station just yet as it's still got the workmen in fixing things.

 

Bluebell Sands.  (Picture taken before the extraneous signals in the background were removed)

 

Hopewood on Sea.  No picture of Nodding Halt just yet since it's having a new platform put in.

 

 

On the way to Downes Farm Halt.

 

Downes Farm Halt.  The running in board says, 'Downes Farm Halt for Low Howe', but Low Howe isn't there anymore since it was a casualty of a major rearrangement when Windweather station and harbour was put in.  The signpost, stile and footpath is still there though with the footpath going up the hill opposite the station and over the other side.  Downes Farm Halt isn't really a halt anymore either, - so perhaps one day I'll get around to making a pair of new running in boards.

 

Elgar Wood Station.  The running in board says, 'Elgar Wood for Elgar Junction' which is a monumental piece of cheek really since Elgar Junction is A Very Important Station on the GER-GCR joint line.  H.T.Co. No.08's crew  have topped up its coal and given the tram engine a good drink of water before running around its train in readiness to return to Bluebell Woods in about 15 minutes time.

The backstory with No.08 (and also No.09) is that they were both built in the H.T.Co.'s workshops at Flinders Mill with a pair of elderly shunting engines of obscure origins providing most of the mechanical parts and the boilers.  In reality they are a pair of C53/J70 models made in the early days of the Trainz simulator and they have a few errors with the size of the wooden 'shed' and the 'cowcatchers' aren't quite as they should be.  Since it wouldn't be likely that the GER would let the H.T.Co. get their hands on two real C53 tram engines a pair of almost copies being built in the works seems perfectly plausible to me.

No.08 is set up to run the passenger service, whereas No.09 mostly shunts the sawmill yards and does trip working.  Both run well on the steam controls, but No.09 is a bit more of an old brute to drive than No.08.

 

 

 

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

[Edwardian]

First 3 views particularly W&U in feel, and all absolutely delightful 

[Caley Jim]

9 hours ago, Annie said:

Hopewood on Sea is still going to keep its McKenzie & Holland split post signals since GER trains sometimes work through to the station and goods yard from Barrow Hills via the Windweather loop line and the footplate crews might wonder what they've struck if they came up against a disc signal.

No driver would be allowed to take a train on the route unless he 'knew the road' including an intimate knowledge of all  the signalling arrangements (and any special notices or appendices to the rules which applied).  Likewise, as you say, any movements within sidings would constitute 'Yard Working' and be under the control of the yardmaster, shunter or station master as appropriate.  The signal controlling exit from the sidings would either be operated from the signal box or from a ground frame, where there was no nearby box, unlocked with a key which was part of the staff for the section.

 

Jim

[Annie]

20 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

No driver would be allowed to take a train on the route unless he 'knew the road' including an intimate knowledge of all  the signalling arrangements (and any special notices or appendices to the rules which applied).  Likewise, as you say, any movements within sidings would constitute 'Yard Working' and be under the control of the yardmaster, shunter or station master as appropriate.  The signal controlling exit from the sidings would either be operated from the signal box or from a ground frame, where there was no nearby box, unlocked with a key which was part of the staff for the section.

 

Jim

100% agree with this Jim.  Mostly it's the GER Y14's from the MPD at Elgar Junction that work into the Hopewood Tramway either at Elgar Wood or Hopewood on Sea via the Windweather loop line and those crews certainly 'know the road'.  During Summer there's some excursion traffic and for those workings there's always a pilot on the footplate if it's a foreign engine.

I was having a slight tease at the GER crews over mentioning the disc signals, but they are to be mainly found on the roadside sections of the tramway which are exclusively worked by the tram engines and the H.T.Co. crews. 

 

At various times clever folk have tried to set up animated  flagmen or yardmen to throw over point levers, but no one's really been successful with it yet.  I usually try to have some static figures placed in yards so it looks like somebody at least is on the job.  Amongst the range of McKenzie & Holland point levers and ground frame levers I normally use I've got locking types as well as ones for operation both points and signals and I'm getting better at using the correct ones in yards and elsewhere.

 

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

First 3 views particularly W&U in feel, and all absolutely delightful 

Thanks James, - I was pleasantly surprised at how well those three screenshots turned out.  It's certainly nice to be messing around and playing trains on the Hopewood Tramway again.

 

[Annie]

I was mostly working on stations this afternoon since there's various things that I've been wanting to do for a while now.

Nodding Halt has finally had its platform extended since it was far too short before.  It sees plenty of passengers during the Summer since day trippers always like to go and have look around the ruins at Nodding Keep.  The workers from the farm estate make use of it as well to travel to Bluebell Woods.

 

That chap in the hat and scarf looks a bit dodgy.

 

Small tidy ups of various things at Bluebell Sands.  The platform height was slightly wrong so it was eating the passengers' feet, but adjusting that meant that everything on the platform had to be adjusted too.  Not difficult to do, just a bit tedious with having to move everything down 4 inches.  The station cat was very pleased when I moved him to a sunny spot on the platform and he said, 'Thank you Annie'.

I've been wanting to change the station canopies on the small brick station buildings for some time now and it turned out to be an easier task than I thought it would.  It's actually an Southern Railway one, but it matches the colors the H.T.Co. tends to use, - so that worked out well.

 

 

The tramway station at Bluebell Woods received a new canopy as well.  It will do a much better job of keeping passengers dry in the wet weather than the old one.  The trackwork through the township has been replaced as well and I'm a lot happier with its appearance since the old arrangement was a bit of a mess.

 

I've only just realised that I had the horse bus pointing in the wrong direction.  It was supposed to follow the road where it curved between the houses and then onto the road past the lighthouse and around the coast to a town that I haven't thought of a name for yet.  So at last in this afternoon's work session I turned it around the right way.

 

[Edwardian]

Such satisfying compositions with so much lovely detail and so well-observed, from the overcast skies to the knife-board horse 'bus, from Tom Baker (the Dr Who of my youth) to the station posters; Mars via Harwich, presumably?

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Such satisfying compositions with so much lovely detail and so well-observed, from the overcast skies to the knife-board horse 'bus, from Tom Baker (the Dr Who of my youth) to the station posters; Mars via Harwich, presumably?

Thank you very much for your kind comments James.  Detailing scenes is something that I enjoy doing and now that I'm using a later  version of Trainz with better memory handling than TS2012 I can go ahead and add detail without having to worry so much about the resource loading.  While I was working at Bluebell Sands yesterday I was planting clumps of long grass everywhere in a way that I wouldn't dare doing if I was still working in TS2012.

 

The Tom Baker version of Dr Who was added to the passenger set back in Trainz Classic 3 days, but things to do with licensing put paid to any other such appearances.  I've got the Tardis hidden away somewhere in the township at Great Marsh just to keep the Time Lord theme going.

The GER Mars poster was a bit of fun, - an 'easter egg' for folk to discover in my screenshots.  I've got some nice Shire travel posters I've been tempted to use here and there as well. 

 

[Hroth]

14 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Mars via Harwich, presumably?

 

What is needed is a "Visit Wroxham" one, in unearthly green shades...

 

[Annie]

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

What is needed is a "Visit Wroxham" one, in unearthly green shades...

 

From studying the Visit Wroxham tourism webpages I can only conclude that it's looking very much like a place to avoid in the year 2022.

 

I think I'll stay with displaying this very nice poster instead.

[Annie]

Work continues along the Hopewood Tramway in between me falling asleep from time to time.  Most of the tidying up tasks have been done now, - though the wharf at Bluebell Sands still needs a lot of work doing to it.  That might end up being a project all by itself.

 

Two yardmen/shunter chaps have been taken on at Bluebell Sands so that should help things out there a bit.

 

 

The goods shed at Bluebell Sands was looking a bit woebegone so that's had a lick of paint and a tidy up.  The timber goods sheds at Hopewood on Sea and Elgar Wood weren't much better so they got a paintbrush waved at them as well.  The staff at Elgar Wood said they couldn't find any green paint so they painted theirs with some sort of black tar like concoction of their own devising.

 

 

There was a siding at Elgar Wood that had a magic interactive loading track, but it never worked properly and it was never used so I put a small carriage shed there instead.  Since carriages are rarely stored at Elgar Wood it will mostly get used as a 'wagons to go' siding.

 

The sharp eyed among you would have noticed the new buffer stops.  The late 19th century, early 20th century era is popular with Australian Trainz enthusiasts, - especially the Victorian Railways.  Much of the equipment used on the VR at this time was either sourced from Britain or based on British practice; - all of which means that there's more than one or two useful items to be had which will do very nicely for my trainset.

 

[Hroth]

8 hours ago, Annie said:

From studying the Visit Wroxham tourism webpages I can only conclude that it's looking very much like a place to avoid in the year 2022.

 

I think I'll stay with displaying this very nice poster instead.

 

Nice!

 

Its a pity that the poster of The Wroxham Zombie Apocalypse vanished during the Great Removal...

 

However, I modified the above poster slightly.

 

 

And see the Zombie Apocalypse!!!

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Hroth

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Nice!

 

Its a pity that the poster of The Wroxham Zombie Apocalypse vanished during the Great Removal...

I know it's still putting all my eggs in the one basket, but I've always stored my images on either imgur.com or imgBB and then posted the image links here.  Perhaps not quite 'always', as I got caught out by the Photomucket debacle during my early years on the internet when they suddenly decided to go all paywall on their customers and ruined countless images on hundreds of forums.

 

Enough of all that, - time for a nice Cheer Up poster.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Edwardian]

Not really in the spirit of Annie's railway, but I offer it to Brother Hroth as some consolation for his loss in the Great Removal ...

 

[Annie]

17 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Not really in the spirit of Annie's railway, but I offer it to Brother Hroth as some consolation for his loss in the Great Removal ...

 

So that's the infamous Wroxham poster.  I feel much better informed now, - but I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not.

[MikeOxon]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

think I'll stay with displaying this very nice poster instead.

As an avid reader of Arthur Ransome in my younger days,  I recall that, even in those pre-war days, the Norfolk Broads weren't always havens of peace and tranquillity.  Put a portable gramophone on the roof of that cabin cruiser, playing at full blast, and you have a good portrayal of the 'Hullabaloos" from the book 'Coot Club'

[Hroth]

33 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

As an avid reader of Arthur Ransome in my younger days,  I recall that, even in those pre-war days, the Norfolk Broads weren't always havens of peace and tranquillity.  Put a portable gramophone on the roof of that cabin cruiser, playing at full blast, and you have a good portrayal of the 'Hullabaloos" from the book 'Coot Club'

 

If you're offered the "Margoletta" for your Broads boating holiday, don't take her.....

 

Other things to bear in mind:

• Be careful where you moor
• If a bunch of children ask you to move because you're moored on top of a coots nest, MOVE.
• Don't speed past moored boats, slow down!!!
• Don't play music loudly at inappropriate times
• Take care when manoeuvering on tidal waters...

Bon voyage!

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Hroth
Spelin, natch....

[Annie]

Ooooo do they know you've snuck off to the big engines' goods yard? 

 

The next job I really need to do is sort out a good few things that have been needing fixing for a while now in the goods yard at Elgar Junction.  This goods yard acts as a transhipment yard for the Hopewood Tramway and for traffic from the GER-GCR joint line so it's supposed to be fairly important.  Some of those wagons in the yard would just about have their wheels rusted onto the rails since they haven't moved for at least two years.  The magic interactive loading tracks have all gone bung as well so will need to be replaced.

 

It was about time I got the Foden geared engines out of my digital trainset box and returned them to this northern section of the Hopewood Tramway since they are very useful for doing short trip workings as well as playing at being Engineering Dept test engines while I'm adjusting and reworking trackwork.

 

[Annie]

Small and insignificant halt Cheer Up pictures: Cutler's Green Halt on the  Elsenham & Thaxted Light Railway.

 

(Pictures courtesy of Disused Stations)