Jake The Rat

In Trainz this could be done. The AI drivers are capable of a run-around-train maneuvre, & in case of tender locos, they can decouple the old loco & couple a new one at the other end of the train. What they cannot do, is turn around a loco on a turntable; at least I haven't found out how. This would have to be done by some invisible loopings or triangles or turning stars at the termini. So I can imagine this layout with 3 fiddle yards: 2 small ones at Euston & Liverpool for turning around tender locos & a large one representing the 'rest of the world' (or rather the rest of the LMS system), which could be somehow connected to the tunnel under 'Liverpool'. Portals are another option... I guess, the gradients would not be much of a problem, if one uses the whole length of a baseboard, which is 27 ft in H0, 31ft in 00 & approximately half a mile in real. If it's still too steep, take 2 baseboards, they don't cost much... (That's one thing I like about digital railway modelling: if I want to expand my layout, I don't have to buy a new house with a larger basement, I simply click on 'new baseboard'. )

She might get underfoot herself, or underpaw. Of course you can judge the technical details much better than I can; I wouldn't be quite as harsh, at least not about his later models. Sadly, you're right... ... but if you hadn't mentioned it, I might have never noticed, because I'm a very superficial observer, & most of the time I watch my trains from a larger distance... ... & from this angle she doesn't look too bad to me. The Claughton is such a beauty, that even a mediocre model is something that pleases my eyes. So you are right from your point of view, & I think I am right from mine. (& on my layout I am always right anyway. )

British steam is an enigma... A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 SCNR

You are living in New Zealand, whereas I am living in a geographically small & overcrowded country just on the opposite side of the disk... err... globe, in a half-million city; 1 km to the next bank, 1.5 km to the next post office... A few years ago, before I had a paypal account, I made a strange deal with an Irish chess book salesman: I ordered a book by e-mail & paid by sending him a 10€ bank note by mail. 21st century meets 19th century... This one from the DLS, made by knucklesnvector? Maybe it's not perfect, but I liked it as the flagship of the black LNWR fleet on 'Rhye on Sea', & I like it in LMS crimson here on 'Exley Castle'; & I can choose from 4 different numbers & names. (This is No. 5946 'Duke of Connaught', & in the background you see No. 6229 'Duchess of Hamilton'; a duke & a duchess. ) If I had to make that decision, I would leave it to my cat. She hates the sound of the vacuum cleaner, but she has no objections against steam engines, at least digital ones.

Great idea. I think, I will go shopping for some locos & coaches, as soon as I find out how to pay. (I don't use credit cards, & paypal has suspended my account, since they want a mobile phone number from me, & I don't have one. I hate mobile phones, never had one, never will. Hey, & you thought, you were oldschool... )

Beautiful. When I first got interested in British steam, I admired Sir Nigel Gresley's famous pacifics. Only later I found out, that Sir William Stanier's creations are well on par, or maybe even slightly superior; just a matter of taste, I guess. My current project 'Exley Castle' has a mixed bag of BR locos from all 4 regions, which I know is totally unrealistic, but I don't mind. It's meant to be a toy railway for a kid, & the kid is me. But now that I see this, I feel like backdating it some 20 years & converting it to a pure LMS layout. I would have to cheat with the autotrain though, as there are no LMS autocoaches available. I might get away with a pair of BR crimson ones & an ex-LNWR 5ft6 2-4-2T, as long as you don't look too closely...

There you can see, that English is not my native language. 'Embodiment' is what I meant. Also, I'm a bit confused about the grasshopper; what does it mean in this context?

In other words, being the impersonation of grumpiness without having to act grumpily? That's a long way to go for me, but I'm working on it...

That's exactly the reason why I only managed to make a bachelor in this subject.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Waldorf & Statler Remote Academy, where I made a master in structural conservatism & a bachelor in senile obstinacy.

There are 2 restrictions: 1. It must fit into a 1956 or 57 scenario. (I have locos with both "cycling lion" & "ferret & dartboard" crests, so it cannot be earlier than 1956 &, I guess, not much later.) 2. It must be on DLS. The closest thing I can find is the SR L1, which is not exactly SECR, but almost. (I'm pretty sure, you knew that; but I didn't.) Or maybe the N class - genuine SECR, but a mogul, not a 4-4-0...

Terry Pratchett! I have read many of his 'Diskworld' novels (some in German, some in English, some in both), but 'Jingo' wasn't among them, if my memory doesn't fail me (which it often does ). Something to make up for... Meanwhile, my virtual tabletop model railway is making progress. I have finally decided on a real name (instead of 'Plan 18a'): Exley Castle ... after the former model railway manufacturer. The 2 stations are named Exley ... & Hornby (which actually exists, near Lancaster; Exley apparently doesn't). As I said before, without this thread the idea of modelling a model railway instead of the real thing would have never come to my mind. Hence I would like to dedicate some locos, drivers & other items on this layout to the contributors of this thread; starting, of course, with Annie, who runs a tea shop at Exley ... but of course she could also drive a loco; just choose one... Stephen's Compound is currently waiting at the fiddle yard. The Adams Radial at Hornby station. The most rat-like loco I could find is this very weathered J39, & now the name of the driver is Jake. The train it's hauling conveys, among other goods, fish, cidre, cookies & chocolate. Sem's avatar is some 4-4-0 loco I cannot identify, & Hroth's one looks like mid-19th century & is far too ancient for a BR layout; same goes for rocor. For Schooner I will have to expand the river at the western rim (which now is only part of the backdrop) to run the 'driveable steam schooner' up & down. Any more volunteers...? If anyone of you doesn't like it, just tell me, I'll remove your name. The whole thing is just a funny idea, not something I insist on.

I remember playing a real-time strategy game named Cossacks. But there were no railways...

Not quite true, but how could you know, when I'm posting nothing? After the breakdown of 'Rhye on Sea' (I still have no idea, why this happened) & a reinstallation of TS12 (which didn't help) I wanted to start something new; something small & simple, that looked like a tabletop model railway. So I downloaded a dozen or so layouts & decided to take one named 'Plan18 11x6', which looked like this: OK, add a few buildings, signals & trains, & off we go... but then I built this & that & expanded here & there, & then things escalated a bit , & now, a week later, it looks like this: For now, 4 British Railways express trains, hauled by 4 of my favourite locos (1 from each of the Big-4), are running around nicely, along with an ex-GWR autotrain; coal & goods traffic coming soon... P.S. Thanks to Sem for changing the thread title. Now I don't have to feel guilty of being off-topic any more, when I post something Big-4 or BR.

Problems with 'Rhye on Sea', or likely with my whole Trainz12 database. It all started with a CTD, after which I wasn't able to restart the program. So I did a database repair, first quick, then extended. Now I could start Trainz again, but 'Rhye on Sea' always froze, sometimes in surveyor mode, sometimes in driver mode, sometimes after a few seconds, sometimes after half an hour. The older the version, the longer it lasted, but nothing seemed to be really stable. So I tried a few other routes; some worked, some didn't. Last night I made backups of most of my Trainz content (lots of CDP files, all in all 8 GB) & I'm planning to set up a new clean database or even uninstall & reinstall the game tomorrow night; unless someone comes up with an advice, what I could try, before I take this ultimate measure. (& yes, I searched the Trainz forum, but found no easy solution. What I did find is Annie's advice, to use 'Fraggler' to defragment harddisks; a very useful program, but it didn't solve my problem.)

I like Caledonian blue. (& I don't like olive green; must have something to do with my time in the army a long time ago. ) Is this the 439 by Darlington Works? Ordering locos is more complicated than I expected. The L&Y 0-6-0 3F is available in 3 versions: 'round', 'belpaire' & 'modified'; I guess, this means round firebox (class 27), Belpaire firebox (class 28) & superheated (class 27). As usual, I couldn't make up my mind, which one I want, so I decided to order all 3 for the price of 2. & then he asks for the loco numbers... Wikipedia gives the number of the 1st example of every class & how many there were, but if the numbers were consecutive or chaotic (like in the LNWR) remains unclear. If I suppose consecutive numbers, then 142, 657 & 463 might be OK; & 534 for the 0-6-0ST 2F. AI drivers never fail to amaze me with their stupidity. (If they could speak, maybe they would say the same about me, but fortunately they can't. ) Tonight they produced this marvellous disaster at Rivendell, & I have no idea, how this could come about.(Sorry, no cat in this screenshot - it must have run away from the noise. )

My screenshot of your L&Y coal wagon was also in TS2012, so maybe the Trainz version does not make the decisive difference & it's something else. I've been looking for L&Y & LNWR locos on several sites, with paulztrainz among them, & I found the L&Y 3F & the 2F saddle tank, but he only shows pictures of them in BR livery. If he has them available in L&Y livery, I will definitely buy them, but of course I don't want to see any 'cycling lions' in a 1922 layout.

Excellent. Where did you get these locos from? & would they run on Trainz 2012? I could use a few more L&Y locos on my 'Rhye on Sea' layout. L&Y wagons would also be very welcome. You already made a L&Y coal wagon, but there seems to be something wrong with the texture: it's flickering & looks like halfway hidden under a grey veil.

I think, that's a matter of taste. For my taste even one Garratt would be too many. I could never understand the whole concept of Garratts, & to me they look like monsters from another world. I like conventional large heavy goods locos like the BR 9F, the LMS 8F or, a little smaller, the LNWR 7F. Your layout, your Garratts - my layout, my Super Ds... This month I don't have much time for Trainz, because the NHL playoffs have started. Hockey (i.e. ice hockey) in august is a once-in-a-lifetime experience & on some days means watching 5 games from 5 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. (I'm a nightowl anyway). Fortunately there are lots of 15 min. intermissions; time to play at least a little Trainz & make some minor changes on Rhye on Sea. My LNWR session is still not perfect, but most of the time the 12 trains behave halfways reasonably, & sometimes it takes a few hours before they screw up.

This thread is too good to stay away, so you had to come back schooner or later. (I guess, I'll get an earful from the Department of Bad Jokes again. )

I blame the English. The whole madness started with the Stephensons.

This answers my question. This doesn't. A centimeter won't get any longer if you call it 10 millimeters.

Wait... wasn't 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters? (Inflation, maybe...? )

Agree, thanks, informative/useful, craftsmanship/clever, friendly/supportive... I could have clicked all of these, but only one is allowed, so I gave it a standard 'like'. The goods shed I use has two tracks, one for 'goods in' & one for 'goods out', & that's why I choose it. But if there's no hope to make it work properly, i will replace it with one or two of your recommendations & a non-interactive building. Update: The 'BI2 General' track seems to have the same problem, at least when loading. Next try... Was it a French car?

When I saw the clockwork loco with the keyhole, I thought this couldn't be topped, but now that I see this, I'm not so sure anymore. This is totally weird in a very positive way. I believe, Chekhov would be proud of you. Maybe you could fit part of a station into the greenhouse? Isn't it quite normal, that the roof doesn't cover the whole length of the platforms? At least the door seems to be wide enough for 2 tracks. Compared to this, my 'Rhye on Sea' project looks like boring routine, but I like it & I'll stick to it. I thought it would be nice if trains could change direction, so I built a triangle. Then I found out that now trains could change from clockwise to counterclockwise, but not vice versa, & it took me a while to understand why this is necessarily so & not because I did something wrong. So I had to build another triangle, & now everything seems to work fine... except for the interactive goods shed. Why 5 or 10 waggons are dispatched without any problems, but then the train won't go on, is beyond me. (Maybe that's why it's called a goods shed, because the train stops there for good. ) I think I'll replace it with something that works... Many thanks to Northroader, Compound2632 & Annie for the information on the 4'6'' 2-4-2T. So if I get it right, these locos were originally built for passenger trains, but later found quite useful for goods work too.