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


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EDIT, 29/09/20: I shall now clarify that the list on this post is no longer kept updated and that I've made another small amendment to the thread title!

 

Edit, 12/04/19: Given the turn that this thread has taken over the past year, I thought that I would amend its title to something more appropriate and to give Annie her due credit in the title! There's no need for me to add links in to where Annie's work starts as it starts from the post following this one!

 

This is not to say that other postings will not be welcome, I just thought it was time for a change of title here. :) 

 

I will, however, take the opportunity to keep this post updated with the current list of Pre-Grouping TS2019 (Dovetail) Locomotive and Rolling stock addons. I won't include freeware ones as they have been massively outclassed since I started this. '*' indicates a forthcoming release which is due shortly.

 

WARNING - This post is very long! 

 

Digital Traction

 

Caledonia Works

 

Matrix Trains

 

Victory Works

 

Rustic Engineman's Loco & Carriage Workshop

 

Meshtools

 

Donkey Works

 

Just Trains

 

Steam Loco Collection

 

And I think that rounds it all up!

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Edited by sem34090
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Very nice.  All this is very tempting.  It's a pity I can't stand TS's control interface.

 

So I think I'll stick with Auran's Trainz Simulator for now because at least I can can build what I want with that.

 

SaAxt8p.jpg

 

UEuY1RN.jpg

 

I used to own a Matchless, hence the billboard.  Coaches and loco reskinning of my own devising.

gfDcyl3.jpg

Edited by Annie
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I'm using TS2009 because I like it best, but there's been some very nice scenic stuff made for it since it was released.  Putting it all together in an intelligent way while thinking a bit outside the box helps too.  My HUGE UK layout, - as I call it, - is more Big 4 than pre-group, but with a little shuffling around of some things and the removal of glaring out of period objects we can do pre-group too.

 

I have got TS2012 and while I had a go with it on some of the Cornwall routes which were certainly very nice I hated what they'd done with 'improving' the editor (Surveyor) as well as what I saw as a whole lot of added complications to no real benefit so I went back to TS2009.  I really need to upgrade my computer though as I tend to put in a lot of details and my present setup struggles with that sometimes.  Virtual trainsets have been a god send though because I can still work on a virtual layout when I'm not well.  And that has done a lot for generally keeping my spirits up and making me feel a lot better about my situation.  The blue J69 belongs to the Grand Navigation Joint Railway which was originally in a joint arrangement with one of the LNER smaller constituent companies and the LNER ended up finding itself somewhat reluctantly the joint partner of my little imaginary railway.  The Grand Navigation owns a fleet of woodbine funnelled tramp steamers which is something I like and my layout has quite a few ports and navigable waterways.

 

But that's enough from me.  I shall do my best with anything else I post in the way of pictures to make sure it is pre-group with no modern stuff in sight.  wPOLlgQ.png

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R1 on the wharf at the end of my 'what-if' imaginary railway's branchline.  The 'G' and the 'N' do not stand for 'Great Northern' by the way.  I like R1's, - especially the ones that had the reduced height cab and boiler fittings.

 

BnybCvV.jpg

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50ft Ex-GER coaches in GNJt.R livery await their next turn of duty.  I make my own coach sides the same way I make coach lithos for my old 'O' gauge trains.  Not high detail by any means, but it suits this clockwork tinplate girl.  The old green 4 wheeler is painted in an older company livery of which there are several as digital trainsets make it relatively easy to try out different colour schemes.

 

37aKBZE.jpg

Edited by Annie
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I don't have a PC powerful enough to run a modern train sim, so I'm limited to Trainz on my ipad. Content is a bit limited, but some pre-grouping stuff has recently become available.

post-6821-0-35952800-1520079235_thumb.jpg

LNWR loco plus GWR coaches isn't ideal, but they are nice models. The inside motion on the loco moves.

There is also a Claud Hamilton available, but it's in L&NER livery.

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I have done one already! It's fictional (based on Malmesbury, of all places!) but it's definitely Brighton. I'll have another go with Hassocks, Hayward's Heath, or perhaps Sheffield Park if anyone could supply a suitable photo to base the scene off of.

 

I think my existing scene is further back in my Workbench thread, either that or in Gary's thread.

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Right, here are the options that I can do for you Mr Gates:

 

Any station on the BML, though I would prefer one outside London that hasn't been modernised too much!

 

Sheffield Park

 

A Fictional Scene

 

High Rocks?

 

Rudgwick?

 

Slinfold?

 

Any station between Shoreham and Christ's Hospital?

 

A proposed line? That could be interesting, especially if you could provide detailed plans?

 

Any other small branch station that I could make pretty easily, preferably of similar/identical design to Sheffield Park.

 

Would you be able to accept some of the final pictures not being in colour, simply because most of the LBSCR assets in train simulator are in SR or BR colour schemes?

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I've decided to do a representation of this scene, but with Stroudley-era stock and over-the-sleeper ballasting:

post-25673-0-50095300-1445889298.jpg

msg-33498-0-42794600-1520117216_thumb.pn

 

It's far from perfect, and it isn't finished yet, but I think it isn't too bad. I had to make-do with the canopies, as they are the only LBSCR ones available, and everything else looked even worse!

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An A1 pulls in with an Up local:

post-33498-0-35965600-1520119903_thumb.png

 

A pair of 'G's double-head Southwards with a working from the LNWR:

post-33498-0-16282200-1520120175_thumb.png

 

An A1 on a Down local:

post-33498-0-76766200-1520120563_thumb.png

 

The scene today and what I had to start with:

post-33498-0-41690100-1520120951_thumb.png

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Very nice work with Burgess Hill Sem.  I had a go at creating the Looe Branch in the late 1920s which was interesting both with the research as well as the actual building work.  Trouble was though I used someone's dismal era interpretation as a starting point and it was full of mistakes with the landscape itself never mind anything else so I ended up giving up on it.

 

Engine shed at Moorswater.

nzuB7Vc.jpg

 

Liskerad station at a WIP stage..

xKLO5um.jpg

 

Liskerad goods yard detail shot.

m0jbiG5.jpg

 

I may come back to it again later as the Liskeard & Looe Railway has a fascinating history and as an independent railway absorbed by the GWR in 1917 it's not a typical GWR branchline by any means.

 

I don't have a PC powerful enough to run a modern train sim, so I'm limited to Trainz on my ipad. Content is a bit limited, but some pre-grouping stuff has recently become available.

attachicon.giftrainz_01.jpg

LNWR loco plus GWR coaches isn't ideal, but they are nice models. The inside motion on the loco moves.

There is also a Claud Hamilton available, but it's in L&NER livery.

I haven't seen the ipad version of Trainz before Nile, so definitely an interesting screenshot.  I'm at the stage where I'm going to have to upgrade my computer again and since I've pushed my current motherboard as far as it can go the next upgrade might be a little more expensive.  Trouble is I keep adding more details and that certainly makes my computer sweat and work hard.  At least I know how to build up a computer from parts so upgrades aren't as expensive as they could be.

 

The wagon workshops on my imaginary railway, - the 'Grand Navigation Joint Railway'.  The Railway Co is part of the Grand Navigation Shipping Co and the railway has a joint arrangement with the NER.  The layout is actually set in the Big 4 era, but I'm gradually working on winding it back to the immediate pre-grouping period.   Behind the camera is a total scene of devastation as the MPD and coal yards are being rebuilt.

Pz5XJqz.jpg

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I remember when I used trainz the first time around I tried (and failed!) to recreate the LBSCR Overhead Electrified lines. I soon gave up due to being unable to accurately lay track to the actual distances and formations. I may revive this in TS, as that has the ability to overlay Google Earth, which helps with at least getting track and distances roughly correct, and to import 3D terrain data, which can be downloaded for free and helps no end when trying to build a landscape as it removes the trouble of getting hills looking right.

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That's what I really needed with the Looe branch Sem.  The landscape on the downloaded layout I started with was just so wrong that it made it just about impossible to build the railway in any kind of accurate form.  It's not always possible to get things like buildings and other details completely correct, but the landscape and the track layout has to be right or else it just turns into a huge mess.

 

The LBSC electrified lines would be a fascinating subject for a model and I'm fairly sure the catenary and some of the rolling stock is available on the Auran Download Station.

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A different sim and one many of you will regard as past its sell-by date, but there is a lot of pre-grouping material being produced at the moment for MSTS - especially LNWR and LYR. Plus a couple of pre-grouping routes.

The LNWR carriages in particular are superb. Before long everything in the LNWR carriage books will be available.

http://tsforum.freeclanforum.com/t1013-rufuskins-workshop-lnwr-coaches

Jonathan

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The conversion of models between different simulator formats has been the subject of short forum posts on UKTrainSIm, Trainsim.com and the Auran/N3V boards, the TL:DR for all of them is you have to have the source model to do the conversion, and few creators will hand those out for free. There are also things to be addressed with the assignation of hierarchy to wheels, motion, animations, texture mapping etc.

 

Regarding the wrong landscape (Looe), in addition to many routes not being made from DEM data, there are projection differences between the MSTS/Kuju and Auran simulators that can result in screenshots from two identical routes at identical positions differing between MSTS and Auran routes. My profile picture is looking out of a coach in Shepherdswell platform towards the Adams Radial on the siding it always seemed to be photographed on, taken from the MSTS version of the route I started over twelve years ago. Positioning the coach and engine in the more recent TS2010 route results in a different skyline because of a subtle shift in alignment of the high embankment, the dip beneath it where the dump siding runs, and the trees on the knees. Both routes were built using DEM data and the 1924 OS map. (Of the two, I believe the Auran projection is the more accurate).

 

Even having DEM data doesn't ensure a perfect route. I puzzled for ages over the impossibility of getting a steady falling grade between Elvington Halt and Knowlton, having to carve cuttings thirty feet deep. When I made a field trip to the area I found the spoil waste from Tilmanstone had been dumped over that area, and of course the satellite/Shuttle missions had dutifully recorded the resultant upwards movement in the landscape.

Edited by AdamsRadial
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Being a member of the UKTS Forum, I am aware of the many discussions, and know it's highly unlikely, though it has been done. I was more stating my wish for more pre-grouping models for DTG's simulator, though I may start doing trainz again simply because of the amount of pre-grouping stock available, for free!

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A different sim and one many of you will regard as past its sell-by date, but there is a lot of pre-grouping material being produced at the moment for MSTS - especially LNWR and LYR. Plus a couple of pre-grouping routes.

The LNWR carriages in particular are superb. Before long everything in the LNWR carriage books will be available.

http://tsforum.freeclanforum.com/t1013-rufuskins-workshop-lnwr-coaches

Jonathan

Those LNWR coaches are seriously nice.  I have got a copy of MSTS somewhere around the place and I did give it a bit of a run on my computer before I did the last upgrade and it certainly was interesting and a bit different.  The problem I have though is that with the mental confusion and sleepiness that's always hanging around due to narcolepsy the control interfaces for both TS and MSTS end up totally frustrating me.  Despite its sometimes occasional faults and shortcomings Trainz TS2009's  simple DCC control interface is what I'm able to successfully manage to use.  I know that's not considered to be the 'proper' way to run train simulator software, but it works for me.

 

 

Regarding the wrong landscape (Looe), in addition to many routes not being made from DEM data, there are projection differences between the MSTS/Kuju and Auran simulators that can result in screenshots from two identical routes at identical positions differing between MSTS and Auran routes. My profile picture is looking out of a coach in Shepherdswell platform towards the Adams Radial on the siding it always seemed to be photographed on, taken from the MSTS version of the route I started over twelve years ago. Positioning the coach and engine in the more recent TS2010 route results in a different skyline because of a subtle shift in alignment of the high embankment, the dip beneath it where the dump siding runs, and the trees on the knees. Both routes were built using DEM data and the 1924 OS map. (Of the two, I believe the Auran projection is the more accurate).

 

Even having DEM data doesn't ensure a perfect route. I puzzled for ages over the impossibility of getting a steady falling grade between Elvington Halt and Knowlton, having to carve cuttings thirty feet deep. When I made a field trip to the area I found the spoil waste from Tilmanstone had been dumped over that area, and of course the satellite/Shuttle missions had dutifully recorded the resultant upwards movement in the landscape.

If I go back to having a go at the Looe Branch again that's very much how I'd like to do it.  Trying to do it any other way just ends up with a frustrating mess.  I spent dozens of hours on the Moorswater area trying to fix the major errors built into the original layout and even then it still looked completely wrong.

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