Annie

This is what the 1904 OS Map shows of Minehead station.  Not a lot has changed really except that there is a new long siding that runs up behind the cattle dock.  The 1880s goods yard as shown on the OS map that I've modelled at Minehead doesn't have that much siding space so I can see why the extra siding was added.  However what I hadn't noticed before is that a cattle auction yard is now sited in what was shown as an empty field on the 1880s map.

I haven't been able to find out a thing about it, - though discovering that Minehead was a major centre for training mules for the army during WW1 was certainly interesting, apparently they were brought in by the sizeable trainload about every six weeks and then taken away again once they got their army mule practicing certificates.  

I suppose the cattle auction site in the field would look much the same as any other in the district should I decide to model it.  I doubt very much that it suddenly appeared in 1904 just in time to be surveyed.

My copy of the 'O' Gauge Guild Gazette has just arrived to remind me what an 'O' Gauge failure I am and have been over the past months.  I must say though that it certainly is a darn fine read with plenty that's of interest.  There was an additional bonus a week or two ago when the GER Society Journal arrived and it was almost entirely taken up with lengthy, detailed  and informative articles about Great Eastern Tram Engines.  That made a very nice change as for a while there the Journal had been drifting further and further away from anything about the Great Eastern Railway and even had some articles about diesels (shudder).

With the price of membership fees ever rising for those of us who live in the far flung colonies it's become a major economic decision to stick with a Uk railway line society for another year so I hope the GER Society continues to keep it's socks pulled up.

Morning Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  Millbay Railway Station 1880s. From the collection of Malcolm McCarthy.

The Longridge is back from the 'works' as well, - though it only need a fairly minor adjustment before it was declared fit for duty again.

Most of my mid-19th century engines that did duty on the Eastlingwold & Great Mulling use Hawthorne Hicks tenders because I think they are the nicest of the mid-19th century tenders I have in my collection.  

I was able to get the three SER Cramptons sorted out today so that they no longer attract council bin men wearing hi-viz.  Now that they have a proper footplate crew I should be able enjoy running trains with them again.  As I mentioned I have three of these Cramptons ranging from slightly weathered through to heavily weathered, - this is the grubby one.

24 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Now this has departed from Minories on a short(?) excursion, can I raise something that has always made me wonder about these more complex model termini?

 

Would you really want to operate one on your own? 

With working in digital environments as I do with railway simulators it is possible to have some parts of the timetable running under AI control.  My main interest is parcels traffic, trip working and shunting so I'm quite happy to have the passenger service largely running by itself while I shunt wagons and vans about and keep an eye out for signals for my own slots in the timetable.  That said though I don't know if I would want to be operating a layout much bigger than my own modified version of Minories.

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Take it away, Liz.... 

Coating extremist Tories in layers of zinc plating sounds like a good idea to me.

It's not a joke at all really since we have have our own brand of newly arisen extreme conservative politicians here who are preaching barely disguised eugenics based policies against anyone who dares to be the wrong colour and poor.

The Longridge has gone off to the works for some minor adjustments so here in the meantime is a snap of a WIP attempt at restoring the Broad Gauge trackwork again on cloned version of my Minehead layout.  No mixed gauge track this time and no procedural trackwork either.  Procedural track is all very nice with the way it automatically generates point frogs and check rails, but in the case of Broad Gauge track using this system the cross-ties tend not to be evenly spaced and sometimes even closed up close together and it ruins the appearance of the trackwork.

So what I've done is go back to the original plain and ordinary Broad Gauge track I was using in Trainz TS2009 and TS2012.  It might not have moveable point blades and frogs and check rails, but at least it does what it says on the tin and doesn't cause any problems.  I've only done the basic trackwork change over so far with the necessary adjustments around platforms and in goods sheds & etc still to do, but that won't be any real problem to sort out.

1 hour ago, D-A-T said:

My “enlarged” Minories (when it gets built) will be based on ‘South for Moonshine’ which I think has more than hint of Borchester Market about it as well. 

May I ask where that plan is taken from?

Another of my mid-19th century engines has had the digital dust blown off it.  This is a Longridge 0-6-0 of circa the mid 1840s.  R.B. Longridge & Co were a Locomotive Works established in 1838 at Bedington.  They quickly developed a reputation for quality work, but due to strong competition from other makes they found themselves unable to compete and the works closed in 1853.  It's been estimated that they made 209 locomotives altogether including six Broad Gauge engines for Daniel Gooch.

No.5 was a 2-4-0 standard gauge Longridge locomotive absorbed into the GWR from the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway during the mid-1840s. 

A good enough excuse for me to run my 0-6-0 about on GWR metals.  It needs a little bit of tidying up here and there, but it always was a good runner when I had it hauling mineral trains on the Eastlingwold & Great Mulling.  Brakes are a wee bit on the appalling side which is why I've set the tender up with functional brakes.

9 minutes ago, simon b said:

A great picture which I cant post for copyright reasons, but here's a link for you.

 

https://di262mgurvkjm.cloudfront.net/e67f128b-abca-43cd-9aa6-44a89c36f633/Holborn_Viaduct_station-SM1956_ARCHIVE~2_xgaplus.jpg

 

 

 

Tight curves as evidenced by those check rails.  Thanks for posting the interesting picture link.  I don't know if I'll do anything just yet, but it's certainly something to think about.

2 hours ago, simon b said:

The one that I'm surprised CJF never tried to imitate is Holborn Viaduct. That has alot going for it with overall roofs, 6 platforms, and a very compact track layout. 

 

Obviously he didn't have the slip points to work with that we do now, but that is the one that most screams commuter terminus to me.

Definitely interesting. (1900s OS map)

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

A Jubilee might have been easier; you wouldn’t have to cut away the splashers and the inside cylinder cover.  

Something tells me the final result was an LMS 4-6-0 of indeterminate origins.  BUT I was only young back then and still learning what was one end of a locomotive from the other.

5 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Sounds about the same dap as the Black Princess-Black 5 conversion in MRC around the same time, maybe a year or so earlier.

I remember that article, - and (cough) I even had a go at it myself.  Some sawn off bits from a Kitmaster 'Coronation' Pacific were thrown into the mix as well.

1 hour ago, Skinnylinny said:

As this wagon was originally drawn up in SketchUp (before I started using Fusion 360), it was a bit of a challenge to get the brain cells working with the old software. That, and Fusion obstinately refused to import the STL files in any way that was even vaguely editable!

I'm delighted to read that you originally created this model in Sketchup Linny as Sketchup 8 is the only 3D modelling software I have managed to master and know how to use.

5 hours ago, TurboSnail said:

However, it's less fun when, as I did on Friday evening, you dig out your stock of plasticard for a weekend project and discover it's gone brittle and now shatters at the slightest touch of the knife! The Slaters thick stuff is fine, as is the SE Finecast sheet, but whatever this other brand is is now virtually unusable.

I can remember when the plasticard revolution hit the shops and the railway mags.  Many articles were published about how plasticard was the miracle material that was going to transform modelling.  Not in any way wishing to denigrate Brother TurboSnail's  modelling skills or methods, but I knew the day would come when my adherence to the John Ahern school of model building construction would be shown to be worthy.  Wood and card models have their own ways of demonstrating their aging with the passing of time, but at least shattering isn't one of them.

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

UK parishioners seem to think I need something called coraline ....!

 

 

Having just sprayed my cup of tea across the room I'm finding it difficult to stop giggling.

Like the Australian parish members I'm finding it difficult to understand why any number of a variety of rust resistant corrugated steel roofing products that are commonplace here in Australia and New Zealand aren't made use of in the UK.  The corrugated steel roof on my 1930s miners cottage might be getting on a bit, but it still keeps the water out.  It even managed to make a heroic job of it during the tropical cyclones we suffered during our 2023 Summer that wasn't.

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

The wagon next to the right of No. 53490 is from the same lot, [5]349[?] but still in its original livery - small G.W.R just visible at the RH end - which does raise the question of what colour each of these wagons is. 

Nooooooooo GWR wagon colours were mentioned!  Run! hide! Tin hats must be worn, - don't come out until you hear the all clear siren.

6 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

In the meantime, I continue to be cheered by your pictures of a realised virtual railway world.

Thanks, - it's been really nice to bring out some of my older layouts from my archive hard drives.  I messed things up with trying to make the Minehead branch dual track in TRS22 and once TRS22 started having stupid faults and issues and broken scripts with every 'update' I was stuck because I couldn't take the layout back to TS2019-TRS19 where things were still sensible and working as they should.  At least with this version I still have the good work I did on Minehead, Dunster and Blue Anchor.  Doing Stogumber again won't be so terrible, but with Crowcombe Heathfield I had done a lot of topographical work with the landscape as well as rebuilding the village and the station and that's just going to have to be flagged away.  Perhaps a year from now TRS22 might have been properly sorted out, but I'm not going to hang around waiting.

6 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I had thought to erect it in the house, but if I can fit the test track layout, I will put that up in instead. My thoughts were (i) to get to a working layout, it's probably not more hassle than persuading the rescue layout to work, (ii) as the scenics on the rescue layout need renewing, again, the test track probably isn't much more work; and, (iii) the test track is a roundy roundy and with generous enough curves to run most things. A long way off any of this, but we'll see. 

It would be wonderful to see the rescue layout restored to usefulness again, but on the other hand a roundy roundy test track has a lot of advantages when it comes to fettling locomotives and rolling stock.

You've had a good many issues and responsibilities lately with moving your elderly parents out of their house to a better situation so being able to retreat sometimes to the peace of your own small created world is definitely beneficial, is good for the soul and has much to recommend it.  These past 6 months my daughter has been unwell and if it wasn't for 'Tristyn in Winter' and being able to run trains about in the snow during quiet moments I don't think I would have done so well as I have.

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Lovely views with some wonderful equipment.

 

Funnily enough, I have a similar train!

Thank you 😀

Yes it's a fairly classic formation to be found on a late 19th century GWR branchline.  My clerestory is a 6w ex-Broad Gauge tri-composite, but otherwise a near perfect match.

Your venerable old rescued layout is looking nicely cheered up with its new station building.

A computer recycler-refinisher that I've dealt with before had a good deal on ex-lease wide screen monitors so I purchased one of the HP monitors which seemed to be the best choice for what I wanted.  And what a difference it makes with the visible landscape in Trainz.  My previous monitor was an ex-lease NEC which is a good brand and had a nice clear image, but had a fairly small aspect ratio compared with more modern monitors.

It looks like Pablo Escobar is no longer on the Crampton's footplate, - only a council bin man wearing a yellow hi-vis jacket has turned up instead.

Another test snap taken at Minehead.  I'm really pleased with my 'new' ex-lease HP monitor, - at only NZ $126 it was a real bargain.

42 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

I love that Crampton, but why is it driven by Pablo Escobar?

I want to know the answer to that as well James.

I dug into the archives and found all my mid 19th century Crampton files.  Trouble is I was still learning about modding engines back then I failed to archive the mods I made to them as well.  Still it won't be all that difficult to sort them out again now that I've got my Windows 11 computer sorted out with all my favourite modding software installed.

Only problems is at the moment I'm having to put up with Trainz TRS19 putting council bin men wearing hi-vis gear and/or Italian pizza delivery guys turning up on the footplate and claiming to be engine drivers.

My favourite grubby weathered SER Crampton locomotive is a case in point.

In TANE the Trainz software wanted to put drivers on the footplate as well, - but that was fine since the driver figures it put there did actually look like proper engine drivers.  Not anymore though, - now in TRS12 and TRS22 any old hopeless looking scruff is likely to turn up.  Once I can get in and mod the scripts a bit all will be fine, - though it does make me wonder if this is what modern day Train drivers really look like.

A promising test snap.  I found a Linux screenshot application called appropriately 'Screenshot' and it seems to do what it says on the tin.  With the way it works it's plain it's intended for taking still pictures and not ones of things in motion like I tend to do with a lot of my locomotive snapshots.

BUT the main thing is that it takes a proper snap without removing objects from the picture so it will do for now.

This version of my Minehead layout tended to be a home for several of my mid-19th century engines so don't be surprised if some of engines you might see on the layout don't look much like GWR ones.

I'm having a frustrating time with TRS19/TS2019.  I fixed and tidied up various things around Minehead and everything was looking better, - only when I came to take some screenshots I discovered that the screenshot application was ignoring parts of the image so that they simply weren't there as if they'd been rendered invisible.

I'm using a Linux application named 'Spectacle' and it's been fine with taking snaps in TANE so I was really surprised when I saw what was happening.  The environmental lighting was completely redone in TRS19 which makes me wonder if that's what's causing the problem.

I took this early morning snap at Minehead and while it doesn't look too bad at first glance the track has entirely disappeared under the E.B.Wilson well tank and the steel rail has disappeared from off the baulks behind the '850' class.  It's just possible to see that I've blended in the turntable reasonably well by getting rid of the huge square slab of concrete that was attached to it, but when I tried to take a close up snap of it parts of the ground surface disappeared.  Annoying is not the word for it.

Some time ago I was given a small collection of Broad Gauge signals by Steve Flanders that are made to a higher standard of detail than the ones commonly available on the DLS and Steve's website.  The bay platform at Minehead retained its disc and crossbar signal after this type of signal had been replaced elsewhere on the branch by slotted post semaphore signals.  Normally I'd be very pleased to have such a nice model of the correct type of signal at last, but when I tried to take a snap of it things kept disappearing.  🙁

This was about the best I could do unfortunately.  🙁