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

[Martin S-C]

I like the grotty paintwork on the wood door and step handrails of the brick building beside the turntable. I also think an 8-wheeler tram engine makes all kinds of sense. It would distribute the weight per axle and so in fact make a loco with a lighter footprint, and of course a pair of bogies gives a better ride around very sharp curves than a LWB 4-wheeler.

[Annie]

My thoughts exactly Martin.  I was going to move the bogie attachment points around and fit an 0-6-0 chassis, but I thought I'd try the bogies from the Heisler first.  Following the tram engine about while watching the bogies closely very much proved that it was tracking better as well as coping with odd dips in the trackwork much better than it was before.  Unfortunately the cylinder assembly from the Heisler wouldn't fit inside the 'shed' as it was too wide over the cylinder heads so the method by which the wheels are set in motion will have to remain a secret.   All the delights of building a semi-freelance railway of course.  Whether or not the GER would have built a pair of larger articulated experimental tram engines especially for handling heavy traffic on one of their tramways is a total piece of kite flying, but you only have to look at some of the types of smaller dismal diesel locomotives that ride on a pair of bogies that are used in similar modern day situations to see that the idea has merit.

 

Yes the detailing on that old brick workshop building is very nice.  The chap who made it turns out some very nice scenic pieces from time to time and his brick workshop model was absolutely perfect for what I wanted.  The backstory is that it dates from the earliest days of the railway and it certainly looks the part.

 

One of the last jobs I did on the pair of 'behemoth' tram engines before I called them finished and complete was get rid of the over complicated shadow mesh that was throwing up strange faint black lines on their body sides and I replaced it with the plain and ordinary shadow mesh from a short bogie goods van.  Problem solved and the resulting shadow cast by the tram engines looks much much better than it did before.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Annie

[Edwardian]

My thoughts exactly Martin.  I was going to move the bogie attachment points around and fit an 0-6-0 chassis, but I thought I'd try the bogies from the Heisler first.  Following the tram engine about while watching the bogies closely very much proved that it was tracking better as well as coping with odd dips in the trackwork much better than it was before.  Unfortunately the cylinder assembly from the Heisler wouldn't fit inside the 'shed' as it was too wide over the cylinder heads so the method by which the wheels are set in motion will have to remain a secret.   All the delights of building a semi-freelance railway of course.  Whether or not the GER would have built a pair of larger articulated experimental tram engines especially for handling heavy traffic on one of their tramways is a total piece of kite flying, but you only have to look at some of the types of smaller dismal diesel locomotives that ride on a pair of bogies that are used in similar modern day situations to see that the idea has merit.

 

Yes the detailing on that old brick workshop building is very nice.  The chap who made it turns out some very nice scenic pieces from time to time and his brick workshop model was absolutely perfect for what I wanted.  The backstory is that it dates from the earliest days of the railway and it certainly looks the part.

 

One of the last jobs I did on the pair of 'behemoth' tram engines before I called them finished and complete was get rid of the over complicated shadow mesh that was throwing up strange faint black lines on their body sides and I replaced it with the plain and ordinary shadow mesh from a short bogie goods van.  Problem solved and the resulting shadow cast by the tram engines looks much much better than it did before.

 

I don't know how any of this virtual stuff works, of course, but can something like your old building be viewed as an elevation and, dare I suggest, printed out on paper ...?

[Caley Jim]

If you're a fan of tram locos, this website might be of interest, though it's for actual models rather than virtual ones.  Although it has a dutch sounding name and a .nl web address, he is based near Slough.  I'm currently in the process of designing a chassis for an 0-6-0ST in 2FS using one of his 12v 0816 motors.

 

Jim (no connection other than a satisfied customer)

[Martin S-C]

James, the original digital texture sheets might be in a format that can be displayed on the screen. These may not provide a direct side or end view of the building but all the component details will be there; one would just need to print them to your chosen scale and cut them up and apply them to whatever card wood or plastic substructure you were using.

[TurboSnail]

If you're a fan of tram locos, this website might be of interest, though it's for actual models rather than virtual ones.  Although it has a dutch sounding name and a .nl web address, he is based near Slough.  I'm currently in the process of designing a chassis for an 0-6-0ST in 2FS using one of his 12v 0816 motors.

 

Jim (no connection other than a satisfied customer)

 

Thanks for the tip-off, I've been looking for a supplier of small flywheels for some time. The motors may find their way into projects too!

[Annie]

I don't know how any of this virtual stuff works, of course, but can something like your old building be viewed as an elevation and, dare I suggest, printed out on paper ...?

These are the textures for the building reduced by 50% James.  As you can see they aren't a building as such; - it's how they are fitted to the building's 3D mesh that transforms them into a building.

 

 

[Annie]

If you're a fan of tram locos, this website might be of interest, though it's for actual models rather than virtual ones.  Although it has a dutch sounding name and a .nl web address, he is based near Slough.  I'm currently in the process of designing a chassis for an 0-6-0ST in 2FS using one of his 12v 0816 motors.

 

Jim (no connection other than a satisfied customer)

Thanks for the link Jim.  Certainly plenty of interesting subject matter there.  I do have a digital model of a small metre gauge French steam tram, but I don't think I could successfully regauge it to run on Windweather.

 

Having (finally) completed the behemoths I'm moving onto to giving the G15's a visit to the workshops.  I was a big meanie and confiscated all the extra lamps these G15 models were festooned with.  Once I'm done there will be two with ordinary passenger lamp codes and one with stopping pickup goods lamp codes.  With the way I run my little scratch in the dirt tramway I don't need to change lamp codes on my engines.

These G15's were an older model updated to TS2012 by their creator only all their old TS2004 and TS2006 bells and whistles, singing and dancing magic scripting doesn't work anymore so I'm going to have to figure out how to remove it and replace the non working magic bits with plain ordinary ones.

At least now that I've done the attachment points for No.125's number plates I can just cut and paste those over to the other two and then all I have to is make their number plates.

 

[Annie]

Behemoths now with added Shay cylinders.  I wanted some sense of plausibility as to where these two tram engines were getting the oomph from to make the wheels go round.  The Shay cylinders fit inside the body nicely and look much better than the Heisler ones which would have been a right pig for the footplate crew to try and work around.

 

[Annie]

Another little triumph.  I've finally figured out how to place an interior cab driving position.  What documentation there is is pretty vague and not well explained so I ended up having to do a lot of experiments before I was successful.

 

This is G15 No.125.  The window 'glass' makes the view ahead slightly blurry, but still fine for driving.  G15's No.127 and No.128 have also been modified to have interior driving positions as well and once they have their new number plates made and fitted they'll be good to go.

 

 

A look back inside the  shed  cab.  The footplate crew must be very fussy because look how clean it is.

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by Annie

[Annie]

Thoughts on sea marsh grass.  After trying a few different kinds of grass models I think this is about the best one.

The digital model grass has been laid down very thickly indeed and I'm wondering how far I can go with it before my computer rolls over and dies.

 

[Martin S-C]

Looks good. Big improvement over the bullrushes. You can have areas of exposed mud too and different grasses but that would mean a lot more planting work and probably more load on the puter as well.

 

What are the ground height editing tools like in Trainz? Does the ground mesh come as triangles that you can lower and raise the nodes of? I was thinking that creeks might be possible if you can stomach the fiddley work.

 

 

You could do this with MSTS 1 but we had some pretty crude ground textures and plant models back in those days.

 

IIRC the default MSTS 1 ground mesh was made of 16m triangles. There was a setting to fine tune these to 8m and even 4m but if you did that too much the game just gave up and crashed so it was only practical in small focussed areas of interest.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Martin S-C

[Annie]

Thanks Martin.  In Trainz the ground mesh is made up of 5m squares which can be stretched and distorted, but not very effectively compressed.  It would be nice if the ground shaping tools could be more fine than they are, but I guess if they were it would be as you say happens with MSTS and the memory hit would be severe.  Out at the further end of the marsh I have done some creeks and they didn't turn out too badly, though at this stage I've only just started working on the salt marsh again so I have yet to try further experiments.

The ground can be raised or lowered in 0.1m increments which I find is useful enough for what I want, though because the ground mesh is based on squares it's all too easy to end up with annoying sharp corners on the landscape which have to be persuaded to  bend themselves into more believable forms.

 

The landscape in your MSTS screenshot is certainly nice enough and reminds me of some of the very early UTC and TS2004 layouts.  I think I still have a copy of UTC somewhere, - I should see if I can find it and do a retro nostalgia trip.  I have a copy of MSTS as well, but for some reason I could never get it to work for me.

[Annie]

A wagon I put together for the timber traffic away from the wharf at Windweather harbour.  Not having any proper references for a GER wagon of this type it's totally all guesswork.  I used a fairly rubbish wagon model of the right size as a basis and then remade its textures.  The original textures were based on photographs, but were poorly put together with errors like planks that didn't even line up.  The texture wasn't fitted properly as well so the mesh was clipping off parts of the ironwork.  The plank textures were based on what had to be photo of a wagon in derelict condition so they had to be redone too.  Possibly another silk(ish) purse from a sow's ear exercise, but at least I now have a wagon that I can use that doesn't look too awful.

I have seen some pictures of dropside GER wagons with 'G  E' centred in the middle part of the wagon side and I might make another couple of wagons that are lettered that way to go with the four I already have made so far.

 

[Annie]

Further snaps of the GER dropside wagons I've been working on.  The wagon tarp doesn't have a number because I have seven wagons and there are five different tarp covered load variations that can be selected and I'm not going to make thirty five individually numbered tarpaulins thank you very much.

 

 

[Martin S-C]

The load swapping system of Trainz is really well thought out. Back in MSTS 1 days we always had to have 2 complete wagons, one with a load that was part of the 3D model and one empty. You were then limited in your activities because you couldn't drop off a loaded wagon at a station then come back on the return journey and collect the empty - the return trip had to be a second activity entirely with the wagon models swapped over.

[Annie]

It's something I very much like Martin, - being able to take wagons somewhere to be loaded and then onwards with a visible purpose to a destination where they are unloaded definitely adds to the enjoyment factor.  I know some suspension of disbelief is required when a train of wagons is sometimes instantly loaded as if by teleportation, but it's certainly better than trundling around with empty wagons and playing 'let's pretend'.

[SECR 235class]

I am currently working on with L45 to recreate the 6 mile Brill Tramway in Ts 2019 The current requirements are the riveara in the 50's and the UKTS freeware pack, the route will be as it was in 1923 under metropolitan operation but some scenarios will make use of the peckett or terrier hope you are interested.

 

The Brill Tramway team,

SECR 235class and L49 (edited)

 

Pictures to follow

Edited January 23, 2019 by SECR 235class

[sem34090]

Is it not Mr L49? Or has L49 been renumbered to L45?

 

I recall that you've previously been referred to as L50 before now!

[SECR 235class]

Here are the pictures of the brill branch.

[Annie]

Oooooo nice.  I must confess I don't know a lot about the Brill Tramway, but have always had a certain fascination with it.  I think I can remember a piece in MRJ about the Brill Tramway from a good many years ago.  I would severely doubt that I have that issue anymore as most of my magazine archive was badly water damaged during a storm about a year ago.

Edited January 23, 2019 by Annie

[SECR 235class]

i am also looking for testers so we know it dose work on other systems

[sem34090]

I'm happy to give it a try once you're done.

 

Now we need an Aveling & Porter loco to run the thing! Or was that the Wootton branch? A Manning Wardle would also be nice.

[SECR 235class]

I'm happy to give it a try once you're done.

 

Now we need an Aveling & Porter loco to run the thing! Or was that the Wootton branch? A Manning Wardle would also be nice.

You are one of my automatically chosen ones along with Lancaster 622

anyone interested PM me

Edited January 23, 2019 by SECR 235class

[Martin S-C]

Looks great. I have a kit of one of the Met 4-4-0 tanks in 4mm scale on my to-build list. Really unusual looking machines due to the small wheelbase of the front bogie.

A question - in Trainz, would it be possible to make up meshes for the missing details in the pointwork - frogs, checkrails and such? Their lack is noticeable in some pics. One of those little things that bugs me!