eheaps

At the time I made the single that was the closest espec I could find. I wanted something that would give decent speed on a reasonable size train and there weren't any specs for singles or larger 4-4-0s available at the time (I used the Atlantic spec on lots of things back then due to lack of choice). 2995valliant's selection has improved since then, including the Stirling Single and various express 4-4-0s all of which might be more appropriate for the J class. Unfortunately this model will never have a truly realistic espec available as Trainz doesn't do compounding. Some of my other compound locos (eg the Midland compound) have Specs from 2995valliant that approximate compounding, but they are only approximations. Hopefully more will be completed at some point. The Midland Compound spec should be pretty close for the 3CC as they were extremely similar engines. One day I might find the time to learn to do especs myself, but getting them right is a complex and subtle art that also requires a pretty good knowledge of real steam loco operation, so for now I will continue to choose the best spec from the available selection by other people...

The Highland sheeted their fish wagons

Whilst looking for details on different types of French locomotive tenders for a potential future modelling project I stumbled across this delightfully Gallic Sharpie of 1879, which I thought would make a good cheer up picture.

A cheer up picture I think you'll like, this is a gauge 1 long boiler locomotive I spotted at Statfold this weekend.

It's actually an old project! I originally started this model 8 years ago, but never finished. A recent trip to the Isle of Man finally inspired me to finally finish it off.

Indulging in a little fiction as IoMR number 4 meets it's big cousin from London. 🇮🇲 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🦚 The Isle of Man loco should be available in Trainz as soon as they fix the server problems and I can upload it...

An awful lot of pre-group railways seem to have used this type of fox bogie (illustrated for avoidance of doubt as there was another type more commonly used on goods wagons), especially those who didn't have enormous drawing offices and carriage works. Each railway seems to have had there own preference for secondary springs (various combos of leaf and coil) and footboard length though. They also came in a few different wheel bases. Pretty much all of my Trainz carriages run on a bogie based on this design, even if it's not strictly correct but as long as you get the footboards right I think you can normally get away with it! For a fictional small railway company it seems to be the ideal choice! PS. the more I look at those single drawings the more I want build a Trainz one...

You might be able to get better resolution by downloading directly from the source of these scans, which was the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/pub_engineer) Searching for "Nanking" in the relevant volume finds them pretty quickly. For those that don't know the internet archive has full scans of both The Engineer and Engineering which can be a great source of drawings.

Spoke too soon!

You might have found these already, but if not... Couldn't find the single though

I think he may be following this advice on impressing ladies (from The Dangerous Book for Boys): "If you see a girl in need of help—unable to lift something, for example—do not taunt her. Approach the object and greet her with a cheerful smile, while surreptitiously testing the weight of the object. If you find you can lift it, go ahead. If you can't, try sitting on it and engaging her in conversation."

If you change the url of the image to replace "medium" with "large" you get the hi-res ones... e.g. https://coimages.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/images/469/525/large_2000_7702_00_486.jpg

NLR drawings were recently mentioned. The NRM have scanned part of their Bow collection and they are available in wonderfully high resolution here: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/documents/aa110002833/bow-works-locomotive-drawings Similar pages are available for other works. The Derby and Stratford ones seem quite extensive from my exploring so far... There are also lots of paintings (reproduced at lower res) from which this must count as a cheer up picture...

Contrasting winter/summer posters from days gone by. Nowadays they'd need one that says "It's @#%£ing boiling below" all year round...

Virtual Teutonic more or less finished!

A new pre-grouping loco in progress

Yes please! I can't promise to do anything immediately, but a complete NLR train would be rather lovely in Trainz...

Does anyone know where I might be able to find a drawing/photograph of the control layout in the driving compartment of a Maunsell BCK converted for pull push use? HMRS has a a couple of useful diagrams available, but they're either generic or for different carriage types, meaning I can't find the exact layout for the Maunsell conversions. Thanks, Ed

I couldn't find where I got them from either, so it's not just you...

I also found that the newer broad gauge signals from Steve work fine. These are ones with names beginning "GWR 30ft" or "GWR 45ft".

If you make a minor edit to the script file that doesn't actually do anything (e.g. add whitespace) it should force trainz to recompile it which will give you the same report you get when uploading to the DLS.

Unfortunately that reprint doesn't seem to be available to buy anywhere. Unless anyone has a copy and they can share a few pages from it, I think the best approach may be to contact the London Transport Museum...

The number of adverts in old photos is astonishing. We think it's bad now, but I think it was probably worse 150 years ago. It's easy to see why they had to start surrounding the station name boards with giant red circles so passengers could actually see them, thus leading to today's familiar London Transport roundel logo... For adding adverts in Trainz, look for the FMA random trademark assets. An easy way to plaster your walls with old fashioned adverts! This is one of the things I've been trying to add to my WIP London based layout below, one thing that's missing are the signs on the outside of the station proclaiming the cheap fairs and long list of destinations. These were often somewhat cobbled together with new signs being attached around the old ones every time a new extension opened and new destinations needed to be advertised. I've also been flooding the streets with horse drawn vans and buses to get some sense of the chaos of Victorian London. Need to find some decent 19th Century people to go with them though...

Another livery tweak. Fortunately it can be changed much more easily on virtual model than a real one!

Livery tweaked to be closer to that described above. The train is also reformed into the correct sets!