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

[Compound2632]

Yes; it pays to remember that when Churchward's first ten-wheelers came out, locomotive enthusiasts were still recovering from the shock of Johnson's Belpaires and Compounds - great ugly broad-shouldered machines that to us (well, me at least) look the epitome of fin de siècle elegance.

[Edwardian]

Indeed, and this unconventional modernity, along with other things such as gigantic Atlantics, were all in stark contrast to the general run of Victorian design that still predominated.

 

I suspect any GWR scheme of mine will be set at the turn of the century, but I am attracted by the thought of pushing it on just a few years to have a layout that is still populated by Dean and Armstrong types, still predominantly un-belpaired, still parallel boilered, perhaps still red-framed in many cases and with many sandwiched framed classes.  Then, in the middle of all that, I'd run a Saint through the layout.  Hopefully with the effect that everyone, from the little metal Stadden Edwardians to the full-sized spectators, would turn to each other and ask 'bloody Hell, what was that?'    

[Annie]

And this morning's non-Churchwardian cheer up picture is 'Stour' at Bath station.

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeOxon]

50 minutes ago, Annie said:

And this morning's non-Churchwardian cheer up picture is 'Stour' at Bath station.

 

Those rivets are crying out to be counted

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

Those rivets are crying out to be counted

 

I make it 27 large ones along the valence from the buffer beam to the oval works plate - after that the coupling rod gets in the way. I take it this is a sandwich-framed engine? From my reading in my recent purchase, Ahrons' The British Steam Locomotive, I gather that the Great Western persisted with sandwich frames for many years after other companies had give up building their engines of wood* because the flexibility compensated for the rigidity of the baulk road.

 

*LNWR tender frames excepted.

[MikeOxon]

6 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

..... the flexibility compensated for the rigidity of the baulk road.

 

Another of Brunel's mistakes, I fear.  His original design for the baulk road had the baulks supported on long piles driven into the ground.  The ride was so bad that he was almost fired but removing the piles left just enough flexibility for a reasonable ride.  Brunel had not appreciated that some 'spring' in the track is essential.

[Compound2632]

15 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

Another of Brunel's mistakes, I fear.  His original design for the baulk road had the baulks supported on long piles driven into the ground.  The ride was so bad that he was almost fired but removing the piles left just enough flexibility for a reasonable ride.  Brunel had not appreciated that some 'spring' in the track is essential.

 

Ahrons' Great Western footplate experience was as a Swindon apprentice in the 1880s, so he rode both broad and standard gauge locomotives on baulk and transverse-sleepered road. He states that the drivers reckoned their engines to be a coach better on the transverse-sleepered road.

 

But Brunel was simply taking one step further the accepted wisdom that a rigid support for the rails was essential. The Stephensons started out using stone blocks; I believe it was Joseph Locke who made the discovery of the advantages of transverse timber sleepers.

Edited August 25, 2021 by Compound2632

[Caley Jim]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

.........The Stephensons started out using stone blocks; I believe it was Joseph Locke who made the discovery of the advantages of transverse timber sleepers.

There was also the issue of the blocks moving laterally and going out of gauge.  Mind you this could still happen with timber sleepers.  My son-in-law once got me some sleepers for the garden at our previous house.  They had come off the East-South ('Edinburgh') curve at Carstairs, which is very tight.  They had been lifted because they weren't holding the gauge.  The bolt holes on some of them were quite oval in shape.

 

Jim

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

And this morning's non-Churchwardian cheer up picture is 'Stour' at Bath station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Well spotted", or "A right rivitin' view"!

 

[Hroth]

10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Yes; it pays to remember that when Churchward's first ten-wheelers came out, locomotive enthusiasts were still recovering from the shock of Johnson's Belpaires and Compounds - great ugly broad-shouldered machines that to us (well, me at least) look the epitome of fin de siècle elegance.

 

The problem, if it were a problem, with 100 and probably 98 and 171*, was the original parallel boilers that didn't look quite right. That and the angular footplate drew forth the disparaging cries of "Americanism".  I suppose we should be glad he didn't go the whole hog with external pipework and a sanding dome on top of the boiler!

 

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, MikeOxon said:

Another of Brunel's mistakes, I fear.  His original design for the baulk road had the baulks supported on long piles driven into the ground.  The ride was so bad that he was almost fired but removing the piles left just enough flexibility for a reasonable ride.  Brunel had not appreciated that some 'spring' in the track is essential.

Just ahead of his time: the modern approach is for a more rigid and less resilient track bed - one advantage of the only coupled wheels being on shunters.

[AdamsRadial]

21 hours ago, Annie said:

There was a signal link script asset which worked in TS2012, but is now broken in TANE and TRS19. 

It sounds like there's been mass slaughter of all the things I knew and loved.

 

My attempts to repair the laptop on which I was slowly working away at the East Kent Railway have met yet another obstacle and so I'm slowly re-installing the backups on a tower on which I shall use TC3, but at the rate I'm going I shall have actual 00 models running well before any virtual ones run.

[Annie]

On 25/08/2021 at 11:31, Annie said:

There was a signal link script asset which worked in TS2012, but is now broken in TANE and TRS19.  I have got a copy of the TS2012 script, but it might as well be written in Babylonian cuneiform for all my ability to understand it. 

My incredible and amazing super daughter has repaired the magical incantations in the signal link script asset so it now works in the later versions of Trainz.  However while being fully functional it doesn't do quite wot I wanted; - so a new set of magical incantations might be needed to be written.

 

[Annie]

Broad Gauge cheer up picture.  'Rennie', - a member of Gooch's 'Victoria' class.  Built in-house by the Great Western Railway in April 1864, and named after John Rennie, - the builder of London Bridge.  Withdrawn in 1878.

This is not really a class that I'm familiar with, - and just look at those driving wheels!  And look Mum, no brakes!  There were single sided brakes on the tender only so I am told.

 

[MikeOxon]

6 hours ago, Annie said:

....There were single sided brakes on the tender only so I am told.

 

Surely not on all three wheels

[Northroader]

“Victoria” of that class showed up the lack of brakes by failing to stop at the right place in Weymouth station (a terminus), through the stop blocks, across the road, and ending up in a pub. This gave rise to a music hall song “Victoria in a gin shop”.

[Annie]

Today's Broad Gauge cheer up picture.  Another one of the Rev. Malan's amazing photos.  This time it's the Rover class 'Lightning' built in 1878.

 

[Jake The Rat]

On 25/08/2021 at 22:03, Regularity said:

Just ahead of his time: the modern approach is for a more rigid and less resilient track bed - one advantage of the only coupled wheels being on shunters.

Maybe you're right, at least I don't doubt it.

But isn't it almost heresy to use a term like 'modern approach' in this thread ? 

[Annie]

Crowcombe Heathfield WIP.  Progress to date.  At the moment I can only be awake for 4 hours before my brain turns to mush so it's been really good having my Minehead branch to work on the help me to keep my spirits up.

 

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

Sorry you're going through the mill at present, Annie, but you have created a really atmospheric scene there.

[Hroth]

7 hours ago, Annie said:

Today's Broad Gauge cheer up picture.  Another one of the Rev. Malan's amazing photos.  This time it's the Rover class 'Lightning' built in 1878.

 

 

GWR [tick]

Broad Gauge [tick]

Great Big Lumps Of Coal [tick]

Wonderful photo [tick]

Cheering [tick]

 

Yep, ticked all the boxes!

 

 

7 hours ago, Jake The Rat said:

Maybe you're right, at least I don't doubt it.

But isn't it almost heresy to use a term like 'modern approach' in this thread ? 

 

'modern approach' is ok in context.  Modern Image, on the other hand...

 

[Annie]

19 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Sorry you're going through the mill at present, Annie, but you have created a really atmospheric scene there.

Thanks very much James.  Possibly being asleep for so many hours out of 24 is not the best way to deal with the stress of lockdown and the presence of the delta variant in the country, but that's just how my dodgy Woolworths brain deals with stress and I can't do a lot about it.  While I'm asleep though my dreams are mostly all about building railways or visiting interesting old railways so that once I'm properly awake again I'm finding that I am able to get on with working on the Minehead branch with a reasonably clear idea of what needs to be done.

I have had so many attempts at rebuilding this layout, but this time with much improved skills as well as a lot more information about the branch line I seem to be doing a better job of it.

 

It was an interesting distraction having a mess about with my 1950s BR layouts, but I'm at my happiest when I'm working on my pre-grouping layouts and my Broad Gauge ones in particular.

[Northroader]

The last view of yours of Crowcombe station yard wouldn’t have a flat horizon, Annie, there’s the Quantock hills running along the back. Sorry to hear about the sleepy sessions, it must be a damned nuisance for someone with an active mind like yourself.

[Annie]

Thank you Mr Northroader, - i could kiss you!  That is exactly the kind of information I need with rebuilding this layout.  While the builder of the original TS2004 layout that I'm using as a basis for my own version got a good many things right, they also left a good many details out as well and with having never seen the Minehead branch up close and for real I have no way of knowing if something like the Quantock Hills are missing from the landscape.

 

Ah yes the sleepy thing, - I've had it for a long time and I got over the tears and shaking my fist at God and having black dogs as pets some years ago now.  So yes it's a confounded nuisance, but all I can really do is roll with it and make the best of the good days and not get too cut up about the bad days.

[Northroader]

Ooh, ta, lucky old Bob! No, if you have the technical nous to trim off the field in the foreground, and slip the rest behind in the background, then somehow extend that sort of thing in both directions... The Quantocks start around Bishops  Lydeard with Cothelstone Hill, and run parallel with the WSR on the North side to beyond Williton, then end into the Bristol Channel at Quantoxhead. Really nice walking country, if not particularly dramatic.

cothelstone Hill:

williton, with Quantocks over to left (east), and more hills on south side.