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

[Annie]

A new van from Dreamwalker Wagon Works; - a NBR 10 Ton Covered Van.

 

 

And this is the base photographic template I started from.  I messed about with the photo to give it more contrast and definition as well as removing the shine.  The restored van had been painted with glossy modern paints for heaven's sake which just looked plain wrong as well as obscuring details.  I had to do some further correction to this image to remove photographic distortion, - so yes I did know that the van has a bend in one corner.

 

 

And after much hand painting and drawing I ended up with this.  Some further minor adjusting of details was needed after this stage and then I went ahead and fitted it into the van texture template that I use.  I made a normal map to give some semi-3D like detail to the surface of the texture and that was that, - one completed van.

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by Annie

[Annie]

Got some!  I finally got the sand loader to work.  It's weird though because I slowly shunted the wagons under the loader and nothing happened, - and just as I was thinking, 'Well so much for that then,' - bing!, - all the wagons filled up with sand.  I can only conclude that the sand loader has to chant a lengthy magical script incantation to itself before anything happens, - but it does look odd though with all the wagons filling up at once.  I've used coal loaders quite often on other layouts and they will neatly fill up the wagons one by one, - so I really don't know what's going on with the sand loader.

 

 

I needed some more wagons for the sand traffic so I devised an imaginary PO livery especially for the Hopewood tramway.  Mollywood is only represented by a portal at the moment, but once I've completed my list of jobs to be done on the tramway I will have a look at doing the line to Mollywood.

 

 

 

Running on the newly laid trackwork leading to the Mollywood portal.  There was this nice stretch of road heading away from Bluebell Woods that I'd put in place some time ago and after looking at it for a while it came to me that what it needed was some tramway tracks adding to it.

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by Annie

[sem34090]

It's been a while... Just a few (!) shots of my train simulator doings over the past few weeks and months...

An SR 2-HAL departs Whitton Town on the Isle of Stadworth, all stations to Stadworth Pier Head. On this Island, situated 4 miles off of the Sussex Coast with it's nearest Mainland Port at Shoreham. The Isle of Stadworth is unique among lines on the British Railway system in employing elderly Southern Region slam door electric units. These pre-date the LT 1938 stock units on the Isle of Wight by some years, and the entire line retains much of its Southern Railway atmosphere, even down to its signalling and signage. Basically, this route is a modification of the modern 'Isle of Wight' route for train simulator.

A terrier on the South London Line (Actually the Chatham Mainline Route).

An ex-Caledonian Railway Class 812 about to start a double-headed Signal & Telegraph engineers' train.

Another shot of the 812, also showing the BR Standard 2MT with which it was double heading.

And another!

Elsewhere on the Pyne & Warrborough route, an ex-LNER B1 was seen on a similar working.

The gorgeous CR No.123!

An ex-GCR 8K on the Turntable at Darlington MPD.

An LMS Stanier Pacific on an express between Warrborough Central and Newton-on-Pyne.

An LMS Fowler 'Austin Seven' on a heavy coal train leaving Newton-on-Pyne.

A Bulleid Pacific at Aller Junction on a diverted Plymouth - Waterloo express.

Somehow, a pair of ex-GNR/LNER N2's pass between Bishop Auckland and Darlington.

A GWR 4200 2-8-0T sits on the former Taff Vale Railway Maerdy Branch at Porth.

An ex-LSWR O2 on ex-LSWR stock has somehow found its way onto the Ventnor West Branch. What's more, it's facing the wrong way, so has presumably worked that day from Ryde to Newport (via Havenstreet) then down to Sandown, back to Ryde (via Brading) then to Newport (via Havenstreet) once again before is Ventnor West working.

An ex-GWR 5700 class pannier trundles along the up line at Dawlish during a track renewal.

The start of a gala day on the Norford Railway.

Midland Compound No.1000 putting on a fine display later that day.

An ex-L&Y 2-4-2T on station piloting duties.

GWR No.3717 on a down mail train near Exminster.

A GWR Saint on a mail train that has somehow ended up on a single track branch.

Ex-GWR No.1401, heading one of the Titfield Railway's first services, passes under a viaduct that is carrying the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway. 1401 was sadly written off but a short time afterwards in a so-called accident that had in fact been staged by the local bus company.

An EM1 at Sheffield Victoria.

An LBSCR A1 at Langden.

And... I'll leave you to explain why a CR 812 is sat at Malmesbury...

Edited November 14, 2018 by sem34090

[Northroader]

Crikey, Sem, there’s some really tasty stuff in that lot, very nice!

[sem34090]

Ah, one of the nice things about virtual railways - I would never have had the space, time or money for that lot in scale model form!

But I enjoy proper modelling.

[Caley Jim]

Is there a cross-over buried in the undergrowth there, or has 4318 come off the road at the gala?

 

Jim

[sem34090]

There's a crossover buried in the undergrowth.

[Annie]

Excellent pictures Sem.  I've missed seeing your screenshots so it's really nice that you're posting them again.

[Martin S-C]

Wow. Train sims have seriously improved since I played about building a route in MSTS1.

 

[sem34090]

The tales of Driver Missenden of Norford Shed...

Driver Missenden is one of a limited number of full-time locomotive crew employed by the Norford Railway for their mid-week and timetabled operations. The Norford Railway is unique in having a regular, timetabled, daily steam passenger service and a weekly timetabled goods operation. The goods operation consists of four workings each week, two up and two corresponding down, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Saturday operation is for 'public' use and conveys goods and materials into and out of Norford to Millfield. This operation takes the place of what most heritage railways would refer to as a 'demonstration' goods, though in this instance it is not for show alone. The Wednesday operation is the one which will be covered in this 'story'. On Wednesday afternoons, a rake of empty open wagons is tripped from Tanley or Norford up to Millfield for the purpose of delivering coal to the sheds at Norford. Here it would probably be best to explain the reason for the goods operations! In 1998 a restriction was placed on roads around Norford, Langden and Tanley to forbid vehicles larger than small vans and buses. As such, it became more economical for transportation from Norford out to Millfield, and the villages between, to be by rail. The Norford Railway has a vast fleet of restored wagons to carry out these functions, including several complete sets of open coal wagons. After loading from lorries at Millfield, the train departs at 22:00 with the timetable allowing thirty minutes to complete the roughly seven miles to Norford. It is this late night working that is featured here.

 

It was a couple of nights before the railway's annual 'Pre-Grouping' gala, and it had been decided to use pre-grouping equipment on the Wednesday coal working. Amongst the visiting locos for the gala was newly-restored North Eastern Railway '1001' class No.1275, and it was elected to use this loco on the train along with some of the railway's restored NER wagons. The loco was run light up to Millfield, and it is here that we start.

Also present at Millfield was the loco and coach set that would form the last passenger train of the night - resident ex-LBSCR A1 No.76 'Hailsham'.

Then, sure enough 22:00 came... and went. The loco crews continued chatting until 22:05 - a tough challenge for such an ancient machine as 1275 to maintain line speed (25mph) up the 1 in 60 to Tanley.

Eventually, the train left at 22:06 and began the climb.

Tanley was reached, surprisingly, on time with the loco having put in a stunning performance maintaining 25mph and sometimes breaching it (the loco having no speedometer) almost continuously. Unfortunately the good progress meant that the train was still doing 19mph as it drifted through Tanley, where the train was booked to stop to allow the wagon's brakes to be pinned down before the 1 in 60 descent to Langden then Norford. The loco lacking brakes and with the only other accessible ones in the two brake vans, it took some time for the train to stop. It did so, eventually, only a short distance from the mouth of the tunnel in which the 1 in 60 incline commenced. Here, the brakes were pinned down firmly and wouldn't be released again all night.

Despite the precautions, however, the train gathered speed quickly once inside the tunnel, and despite the crew having shut off as usual (but not having put the loco into reverse!) the train was recorded at 37mph passing through Langden. On such a cold autumnal night the crew were not faring well on the locos open footplate, the more usual BR Standard 9F being a far preferable choice to 1275 in such conditions.

Sure enough, the train arrived at Norford two minutes ahead of schedule, despite the late departure, though the loco crew say it was a close run thing as to whether the train collided with the buffers.

The train was propelled into the siding alongside the sheds.

The loco was then put away in the sheds until required for shunting.

And then it was knocking-off time! Time to say goodnight to the shedmaster and guard...

Then time to go!

Aaand home!

Here endeth the first silly story! I may do a few more like this... hmm... P'raps not.

[Annie]

Wow! MSTS certainly has grown up since I last looked at it Martin.  Those pictures are really impressive.

 

Nice spot of storytelling there Sem and some well put together pictures to go with it too.

[Martin S-C]

Annie, that was the first MSTS, released back around 2000. Compare with Sem's images and you can now see how crude it was, although at the time we thought it was fantastic.

The route editor was very flaky though.

 

 

And my favourite engine of all time, Dean experimental 4-4-0ST No.13 which saw service on the Highworth branch in the early 1920s.

 

 

(She also worked the Liskeard & Looe for many years, Annie)

[Annie]

I'm not sure when I last tried running MSTS Martin, but it certainly didn't look anything like your pictures, - so that explains my comment.  

 

And yes the Liskeard & Looe!  Very much a favourite line for me.  I had a go at trying to build a digital model of the line in its early GWR years sometime ago, but ended up completely frustrating myself because I couldn't get the landscape modelling to look anything like the prototype or in the right proportions, - which led on to all manner of other difficulties with trying to lay out the trackwork and correctly place buildings & etc.  I may go back to having another go at it sometime, but not for a while yet as my sense of disappointment in my very poor efforts is still a bit too sharp.  I do really like that Dean experimental 4-4-0ST and thanks for the picture.

 

[Edwardian]

I'm not sure when I last tried running MSTS Martin, but it certainly didn't look anything like your pictures, - so that explains my comment.  

 

And yes the Liskeard & Looe!  Very much a favourite line for me.  I had a go at trying to build a digital model of the line in its early GWR years sometime ago, but ended up completely frustrating myself because I couldn't get the landscape modelling to look anything like the prototype or in the right proportions, - which led on to all manner of other difficulties with trying to lay out the trackwork and correctly place buildings & etc.  I may go back to having another go at it sometime, but not for a while yet as my sense of disappointment in my very poor efforts is still a bit too sharp.  I do really like that Dean experimental 4-4-0ST and thanks for the picture.

 

 

Lovely evocation of Coombe Junction there, Annie

[Annie]

Thank you James.  That was one area on my Liskeard to Looe project that did turn out well and I was happy with.  It was my attempts at trying to represent Moorswater that horribly and completely defeated me despite having a good number of period photographs of the area.  I ended up completely deleting the whole mess and then I just plain lost heart with attempting to begin work on it again.

[Edwardian]

Thank you James.  That was one area on my Liskeard to Looe project that did turn out well and I was happy with.  It was my attempts at trying to represent Moorswater that horribly and completely defeated me despite having a good number of period photographs of the area.  I ended up completely deleting the whole mess and then I just plain lost heart with attempting to begin work on it again.

 

Sorry to hear that. No station, just clay dries by your period?

 

Mind you, the real site was completely deleted by modern road builders.

[Annie]

I made the decision to include the station James as it hadn't entirely disappeared in the early GWR period as the platforms still remained for a long time afterwards.  My big error was in misinterpreting the position of the station in relation to the viaduct and also the degree with which the viaduct dominates the whole area.  By the time two very good early photographs came to light very clearly pointing out my error to me I had built up a very large area of Moorswater with everything in the wrong place and the Cornish mainline crossing over at too low an elevation.  Faced with having to raise the elevation of the Cornish Mainline including both Liskeard station areas and part of the town as well as having to rebuild Moorswater as well I just sort of wilted and gave up.

 

And yes one look at Google maps shows what utter devastation was done to the Moorswater area completely obliterating the whole community and a good slice of the old Liskeard & Caradon track formation.

 

Some old photos from a much happier time in the railway's existence.

 

 

[sem34090]

For my own use, and potentially that of others, I've put together the beginnings of a train simulator route for Blackstone-in-the-Strait: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/136558-blackstone-in-the-strait-town-and-pier-a-border-county-grouping-layout/?p=3367001

For pictures with trains in, see the link above.

[Annie]

More NBR D39B vans.  I discovered how to do the necessary script incantations to have the underframe fitted with a 'Scottish Block' type single shoe brakes so now I've updated some of the vans to have the older brakes.  I'm considering doing a 8 ton NBR 'Jubilee' van next using a different van mesh from the one I normally use.  Might be a bit more tricky though.

 

[Annie]

Thanks, but I don't think I'm very 'Craftsmanship/Clever' at the moment because the more i look at my NBR vans the more sure I am that I've got the colour wrong.

 

The only existing preserved example of this van is painted in modern high gloss house paint so it's absolutely no use as a guide.  

[sem34090]

Well who's to say that you're wrong?

[Annie]

True Sem.  All the period literature describes the colour as 'lead grey' which as we well know can be just about any shade of grey you care to name.

[sem34090]

Indeed! The joys of pre grouping modelling...

[Edwardian]

I made the decision to include the station James as it hadn't entirely disappeared in the early GWR period as the platforms still remained for a long time afterwards.  My big error was in misinterpreting the position of the station in relation to the viaduct and also the degree with which the viaduct dominates the whole area.  By the time two very good early photographs came to light very clearly pointing out my error to me I had built up a very large area of Moorswater with everything in the wrong place and the Cornish mainline crossing over at too low an elevation.  Faced with having to raise the elevation of the Cornish Mainline including both Liskeard station areas and part of the town as well as having to rebuild Moorswater as well I just sort of wilted and gave up.

 

And yes one look at Google maps shows what utter devastation was done to the Moorswater area completely obliterating the whole community and a good slice of the old Liskeard & Caradon track formation.

 

Some old photos from a much happier time in the railway's existence.

 

 

 

Though to have Moorswater station and stone yard operational and to see those three saddle tanks going up and down from the Cheesewring would make a great layout, I think there is a modeller's 'sweet spot' around the turn of the century after the branch to Liskeard is operational, with these three original locomotives still running, a very interesting collection of coaches and goods stock and the addition of new motive power including the GW loco on hire. 

 

Coombe Junction then becomes the place, because you can run it all; Liskeard traffic and what remains of the traffic down from Caradon to Looe.

[Annie]

That was very much my thinking James when I was planning out the layout.  I wanted to have traffic still running to and from Caradon, - even though there wouldn't be that much of it and the new station at Liskeard only just in operation.  Some of the 1860's saddle tanks I have from the early days of the NBR could be fudged into being suitable with a little texture work and I even now have some 1870's four wheel coaches that could be similarly persuaded. 

However it will be a good while before I open up the layout files and have a look at them again.  I think I would need to have a bit more distance yet from the Looe & Liskeard to clear my head completely so I can look at it with fresh eyes without experiencing profound disappointment.