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

[Annie]

Broad Gauge cheer up picture:  This is an utterly amazing 3D model of the old Brunel station at High Wycombe created by David Lane.

Apparently a less than best 'restoration' of the old building is being devised by modernist architects at the moment.  It's nice that the building is going to be preserved, but it would also be nice if those planning the project took a proper look at the original drawings.

 

 

[Annie]

[Annie]

This is a Fletcher '901' class here pictured on a friend's North Eastern Trainz layout.  It's a fairly recent model from Paul of Paulz Trainz and come the new year I'll be ordering one to call my own.

 

[NeilHB]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well Annie. 

[DonB]

On the topic of Christmas...... From the facebook page of the incumbent at an adjacent Parrish:-

 

From the church Nativity crib, his dog has swallowed the baby Jesus.

He says that he is not looking forward to the second coming ........ 

 

Stay safe, have a Merry Christmas.

[Annie]

Morning Broad Gauge cheer up picture:  And it's a Bristol & Exeter one so that's a double cheer up.  Being sleepy I shall take a lazy shortcut and quote the Broad Gauge Society caption for this old photo in full.

Quote

A group photograph! Taken in around 1870, the staff at Tiverton crowd around Bristol & Exeter Loco No 58. Built by Rothwell & Co of Bolton in 1859, she later became GWR no 2057, before being withdrawn in 1880. Twelve staff members have posed for this one - they took another on the same day with seventeen on it! 

Photos taken with lots of people standing in front of engines can be annoying sometimes when doing research, but in this case the range of company uniforms portrayed in this photograph are a valuable historical record in themselves.

 

[Annie]

Driving composite testing.  For driving trailers/driving composites/& etc to function properly at station platforms in Trainz they have to be setup as a locomotive.  If this isn't done the Motor Train Set won't align with the platforms correctly when the driving trailer is at the leading end.  The tricky bit is getting it to play nice with the locomotive.  I used a teak version of the driving composite lettered for the Eastlingwold & Great Mulling Railway on the Great Sudden branch on my Norfolk layout, but that one was setup for a lightweight and lively Terrier and the same settings just won't work for a much larger NER Class O.

 

EDIT:  Success!  I ended up using the engine spec that I used for my GER railmotor's trailer and it was exactly wot I wanted.

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by Annie
added more pictures

[Annie]

For some unknown reason my Bouch 4-4-0's had the correct numbers, but entirely fictitious names.  Thanks to Wikipedia No.161 'Lowther' and No.163 'Morecambe' are now properly turned out with their correct identities.

 

 

[Annie]

I gave No.1490 a little texture tidy up as both TRS19 and TRS22 tend to make the texturing on some old models look very dull.  I didn't get too carried away and only added 1% reflect to No.1490's main body colour.  The other job I finally got around to doing was placing No. 1490's driver on the left side of the cab.  As delivered to me a couple of years ago the driver was on the right hand side of the cab, but for some reason I didn't sort it out back then.  I only have just the one McDonnell Class '59' and while I know they weren't much of a success I do happen to like No. 1490.  Being Westinghouse fitted makes it a useful engine for Cairnrigg shed to have on the roster.

I have a couple of NER Class 'C' 0-6-0's which need fettling before I can introduce them into TRS22 and 'Cairnrigg to Balessie', but what I'd really like is a Fletcher '398', but a model of one of these doesn't exist as yet.

 

EDIT:  I have the choice of either W. Worsdell's Class 'P' or  Class 'P1' from Paulz Trainz.  I would prefer a Class 'P', but I don't know if it's available in NER livery or not.  My Class 'C' engines were only available in LNER livery so some bodging was required.  No.1490 was a later commissioned model that was then released for sale by Paul so it's in a better state of finish than the older NER 0-6-0's in Paul's catalogue.

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by Annie
more to say

[Annie]

I asked Paul of Paulz Trainz for a NER Class 'P' (J24) and sent off payment via the mysteries of the goddess Visa.  Only he sent me a NER Class P2 (J26) in error and when I emailed him about this he said, 'Call it a Christmas free gift', and then sent me the NER Class P I'd asked for.  

I really did not expect that as I would have been happy to pay for both locomotives even though a bruiser of an engine like a Class P2 built in 1904-05 wasn't really what I had a use for on 'Cairnrigg to Balessie'.  Needless to say this is very much my cheer up for the day and I'm certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

The Class 'P' is an old model originally from TS2004 days so I gave it a bit of a tidy up with a little shine to its paintwork as well as various other odd texture fixes.  The Class 'P2' is a recent model and has been made to run in TANE and the later versions of Trainz so I 'borrowed' its new and updated engine spec for the Class 'P'.  Older engine specs don't work properly with TRS19 and TRS22's new physics engine so having the new one for Paul's models will save me having to search around for a replacement.

I think No.1900 has scrubbed up reasonably well and while I know it's not perfect I don't really mind.  I tend to have a coarse scale 'O' gauge attitude towards my older Trainz models.

 

 

I look on later NER engines like the Class 'P2' as being big sad-eyed bruisers due to the size of their boilers dictating the shape of their front cab windows.  I had intended to keep the NER version of 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' in the 1890's, but maybe I might reconsider, - the poor thing looks so sad.  

I gave No.1676's paintwork a slight polish and then fixed various thing like it carrying an LNER Darlington build plate.  For some unknown reason Paul had used a GER number plate on the cabsides.  As soon as I saw it I knew it wasn't any kind of NER plate, - so I couldn't let that stand and I replaced it with the numberplate artwork from the Class 124 tank engines.  I had to do a bit of messing around to get it to fit the plate mesh and after that I couldn't get the style of the numbers right.   Soooo at the moment the numberplate on No.1676 is a WIP and I'll get back to it.  I'm not sure about those letters and numbers on the tender either, - they look a bit LNER like to me. 

 

I know I sound like I'm looking my 'gift horse' in the mouth, but I'm not doing anything that I don't usually do when I get a new engine.  New engines go off to 'works' and get all kinds of inspecting and being frowned at and then I fix any texture problems; - treat any obvious outbreaks of Arial fonts disease; - change the footplate crew to ones that I like; - and then it's driving the new engine about all over the place with the kind of load I expect it to handle while taking note of any problems.

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

And the revealed truth is............................

 

 

But at least the North Eastern Railway had it first before that Late and Never Early Railway lot got hold of it.

For some reason I never had much luck with downloading Gill Sans fonts and the last time I tried it was an omnibus type download consisting of many varieties of Gill Sans font and they all got into a tangle that no software attempting to make use of said fonts could untangle.  This time though I hunted out exactly the ones I wanted and installed them one at a time.  And this time I knew success.  (Alleluia!)

I think the P2 is using the LNER lettering version which looks like it had too much Art Deco for breakfast so I'll frown at some old photos for a while and see if I can draw up some of my own with NER type proportions in Paint.NET.

 

[eheaps]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

And the revealed truth is............................

 

 

But at least the North Eastern Railway had it first before that Late and Never Early Railway lot got hold of it.

For some reason I never had much luck with downloading Gill Sans fonts and the last time I tried it was an omnibus type download consisting of many varieties of Gill Sans font and they all got into a tangle that no software attempting to make use of said fonts could untangle.  This time though I hunted out exactly the ones I wanted and installed them one at a time.  And this time I knew success.  (Alleluia!)

I think the P2 is using the LNER lettering version which looks like it had too much Art Deco for breakfast so I'll frown at some old photos for a while and see if I can draw up some of my own with NER type proportions in Paint.NET.

 

 

Frank (Border Reiver on the Trainz forum) has some pretty good NER letter/number images that he produced after I questioned some of the lettering I was using in my NER singles. It includes tender lettering with red shading and bufferbeam numbers with blue shading. I can also share the photoshop file for my NER numberplate if you'd like.

[DonB]

There you are Annie, who's a lucky girl then?  Another freebie for Xmas ! enjoy your new "Toys". I'm off line for 3days now  Stay safe we need your humorous asides, particularly descriptions of frowning !   

Edited December 24, 2021 by DonB
spellin

[Annie]

52 minutes ago, eheaps said:

 

Frank (Border Reiver on the Trainz forum) has some pretty good NER letter/number images that he produced after I questioned some of the lettering I was using in my NER singles. It includes tender lettering with red shading and bufferbeam numbers with blue shading. I can also share the photoshop file for my NER numberplate if you'd like.

Yes please Ed that would be really good.  It's only now that I'm working on 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' that I thought to do anything with my small collection of NER engines and rolling stock or even add to it and it would be good if I could tidy them up and make them look a little more presentable.

[Annie]

One small problem is that the new P2 is capable of hauling more than what the yards and loops can hold.  'C to B' was originally built for my mid-19th century engines and rolling stock so there really wasn't the need for large siding capacity.  Perhaps once I have some of the larger capacity wagons in the repair pile sorted out things might be better.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Annie
fumble brain

[Annie]

It's been a really good Christmas day.  My wonderful support worker brought round a really lovely Christmas lunch which my daughter and I washed down with cider made by a local NZ company; - 'Orchard Thieves' - absolutely delightful stuff. 

I had a really good natter to my older sister on the phone as well.  I don't get to see her now as she lives miles and miles and miles away from me in a small rural town in the central North Island.  She never learned to drive and I'm no longer allowed to hold a driver's license anymore coz I fall asleep all the time.  It would take absolutely all day and four changes of buses to visit her or for her to visit me so we stick to talking on the phone. 

The silly thing is if  the brain dead, - firmly in the pockets of the road transport industry, - Tory government at the time hadn't had all the railway tracks torn up in this part  of the Waikato I could have taken the train to visit my sister and got there in half a day.  Ours was a major junction station, - not anymore though.  At least the preservation folk rescued the station building and recently the old formation was converted into a cycle track.  

 

But onto the trainset!  I dug one of my NER Class 'C' engines out of my digital trainset box and gave it a little tidy up.  This engine hasn't seen any use since I last ran it on a HUGE layout named, 'A Moment in Time' back when I first started out with Trainz TS2009.  I really liked that layout, - perhaps I should see about doing an upgrade and rebuild sometime.

 

 

This is No.533 and I also have No.513, - but No.513 still sleepth.  This T.W. Worsdell Class 'C' is definitely a compound even though its hybrid post - 1903 - pre-1917 livery is a bit confusing as to when it's supposed to be.  And just to confuse things a little more it has a pukka McDonnell tender because It wasn't possible to letter its proper one as an NER tender. 

Back in TS2009 days I gave No.533 the engine spec for a L&Y Aspinall 0-6-0 and the sound file for a two cylinder engine with Stephenson valve gear even though it's a compound with Joy valve gear.  But sometime you just have to use wot's available.

 

 

The big question was how would No.533 manage running on 'Cairnrigg to Balessie', - which used to be my old engine testing track.

 

 

Just past the eastern outer home signal at Cairnrigg the gradient starts to bite.

 

 

If an engine is going to stick on the gradient this is where it will do it, but while No.533 was dropping speed it wasn't anything serious and it sounded lovely too.  The wagons are some generic iron 1880-90's wagons I made just in case you were wondering.

 

 

Paul's NER Class 'C' engines have a crank axle and connecting rods with the small ends hidden from view to give the illusion of more going on between the frames than there really is.  On the other hand the Class 'P' has a crank axle, and inside cylinders, but no connecting rods, - so I don't know what happened there.

 

 

Making the crockery rattle at Balessie.

 

 

And returning with 480 tons of coal via the tunnel where the rest of the 'Norf' is hidden.

 

 

On the way back with the completely not mysterious tunnel you've seen before in the distance.

 

 

Very important this.

 

 

And home in sight at last.  No.533 is going to be assigned to Cairnrigg shed.

 

[Annie]

After quite a bit of fettling and being frowned at No.1900 was put through its paces to see if it could do the job of hauling coal about on the Cairnrigg to Balessie section.  Being lighter in weight than a class 'C' and being possessed of smaller diameter driving wheels meant that No.1900 could work over the colliery lines in the mysterious countryside to the east of the Balessie tunnel without getting itself into trouble.  Since the L&Y Aspinall engine spec had shown itself to work very well in TRS22 No.1900 has been given it as well along with the 2 cylinder Stephenson sound file.

 

 

What took up a lot of time while No.1900 was in the 'Works' was sorting out its letters and numbers, - not that I'm saying No.1900 is a slow learner or anything.  Down in the depths of my chaotic texture file system I found that I had various images of early LNER locomotive lettering that I think Frank from the creator group must've given me some time ago along with various other images I must've found on the interwebs.  The only problem was while they were all nice pieces of artwork the proportions of the letters 'N' and 'E' were a bit variable.  In the end I managed to sort out something that I think works.  Part of the problem too was that the original texture pieces were small and low resolution so I had to fix that as well so that the letters and numbers would display properly on the tender sides.

 

 

First time allowed out on its own.

 

 

About to leave Cairnrigg yard.  I have a pile of NER coal wagons to repair, but since I've been doing the test runs with my grotty old iron ones I didn't want to go making any changes.

 

 

Rostyre gets a raw deal really.  It's a station in the middle of nowhere between Cairnrigg and Balessie and I always seem to forget to take any snaps of it.

 

 

Waiting for the wagon brakes to be pinned down before making the descent to Cairnrigg.  The test results were really interesting.  While No.1900 certainly performed the test run very well it used more coal than No.533.  Of course as a compound fangirl I had to smile at that with No.1900 being a W. Worsdell designed two cylinder simple engine and No.533 being a T.W. Worsdell compound.  But really I didn't expect that since both engines have the same engine spec file.  The only differences are that No.533 is 7 tons heavier than No.1900 and that No.533's wheels are 5ft 1" in diameter and No.1900's are 4ft 7" in diameter.  Both engine's tenders shared the same engine spec as well, - so that wasn't an issue.

They do have different whistle sound files though......... Ha-HA!

 

[Annie]

Now that I've got the engines sorted out it's the turn of the NER rolling stock to get some attention.  These 20 ton hoppers were a fairly easy fix as they only needed some texture repairs.

 

[Annie]

So wagons.  I had various NER wagons that I'd purchased back when I was playing trains in TS2009, but I'd not liked their texturing that much and they didn't really look all that good in TRS19 and TRS22.  The first two snaps show the NER P17 12 ton coal wagons that have taken over from my old grotty iron open wagons.  These wagons have a multi texture change script for textures which was dependent on another 'superscript' that was faulty so it didn't work.  Just recently that 'superscript' was repaired so I thought it was worthwhile to see what I could do with the textures to improve them.  It took a couple of hours and a certain amount of frowning, but at the end of it all I'm reasonably happy with the result.  There's a multi-change script for the wagon numbers as well, but if I make a change on one wagon all the rest get it too so I selected a faded number that seemed work more or less Ok for all of them and left it at that.  I really don't like this kind of scripted multi-textured rolling stock as I'd much rather each model wagon or coach had its own textures without any magic scripts involved which always seem to end up going bung.

 

 

 

And here we have a pair of bolster wagons from my original TS2009 stash.  They aren't set up for loads so I've always used them as barrier wagons.  They're reasonably nice models, but they were just a wee bit ex-works so I gave them a touch of a weathering job.

The six merchandise wagons coupled to the bolster wagons are a complete respray and numbering job on wagons that weren't NER wagons at all (shock, horror!).  However they do have the look of wagons that are properly made from decent sized pieces of timber and they were already set up for a range of useful loads so I decided to use them.  The tarpaulins/wagon sheets on the last three wagons in the rake are permanently fixed in place with nicely modelled ropes so they basically work like they are a covered van when it comes to interactive loading.  I like properly sheeted wagons.  

I do have a couple of NER merchandise wagons from the TS2009 stash, but so far I haven't been able to solve their texturing problems.

 

 

 

[Annie]

More playing trains serious testing.  No.1900 heads away from Cairnrigg with a train of twenty two P17 12 ton coal hopper wagons.  There's some real oddities with wagon capacity in Trainz, - mostly because somebody took a wild guess or else demonstrated why they failed at basic arithmetic in primary school.  My old iron wagons have a scripted set of incantations that say that they load 10,500 kg of coal.  This same script has been used for all manner of wagons so it's common to find both 8 ton and 12 ton (and larger) wagons all saying they carry 10500 kgs which is a bit dopey really.  BUT some things end up being engraved in stone and with possibly hundreds of wagons using that script nobody wants to grasp the nettle and do anything about it.

The P17 hoppers say they carry 15,000 kgs of coal, which is a bit odd because those old monster wooden NER 20 ton hoppers I've got say they carry 20,000 kgs of coal and the 20 tonners look like they could eat two P17 hoppers for breakfast.

 

 

Three snaps taken on the approach to Rostyre.

 

 

 

 

And leaving Rostyre.  When I was putting this layout together I was aiming for 'empty' and 'bleak' as qualities to be present in the landscape.

 

 

And rattling the crockery at Balessie again.

 

[Annie]

I've finally got my NER coaches sorted out to work properly in TRS22.  All the coach windows needed their opacity settings adjusted which was tedious to say the least; - and then I had to adjust their LOD settings since the coaches' details were fading out of sight at about 10 meters instead of a 100 meters.  Fortunately because I'd mostly used the 6 wheelers in TS2009 I'd already done a fair bit of work on their textures so once their windows and LOD settings were sorted they were good to go.

I'm going to use No.1490 on local passenger runs and milk and parcel trains since it's Westinghouse fitted and it's not considered reliable enough for heavier work (poor thing).

 

 

 

I only had three NER bogie coaches apart from the driving composite. - a D47 Lav Compo, a D86 Lav First and a D48 Third Ordinary.  They never got used much so I had to do quite a few texture fixes as well as fixing the LOD and sorting out all those windows, - soooooo many windows.

When I was setting up my Norfolk layout I'd purchased quite a few NER coaches in LNER teak which I'd reworked for the Eastlingwold and Great Mulling, -  only the pukka NER coach models have different texture mapping to the LNER ones so it would be right trial to put them into NER livery.

 

 

I'm so pleased that I'd archived my old Trainz TS2009 install away so I could retrieve these NER models.  I hadn't bothered with them because I didn't have anywhere to run them and then after a while I'd just about forgotten about them.  'Cairnrigg to Balessie'  is only 11 miles long so it's not all that big for a Trainz layout, but it's proving to be an ideal layout to give my old NER models somewhere to play.

Edited December 27, 2021 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

'Now there's a sight you don't see everyday Bob, - thought they'd scrapped all those.'

I've been trying to make up my mind about the Bouch 4-4-0's now that 'C to B' is set in the first decade of the 20th century and I've decided it's my trainset and I'll run them if I want to.

 

[eheaps]

Continuing the NER theme, here's something I've been working on.

 

 

[Annie]

Oh my Ed that's lovely.  I have a big soft spot for Atlantics and your NER example of the breed is beautiful.

[Annie]

This is one of Ed's magnificent engines.  No.1521, - a Worsdell-Von Borries 'J' Class Compound.  Another engine that I shouldn't be running on 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' since they were rebuilt as simples in 1896.   But I'm not too bothered about all that, - after all what has reality done for you lately?

It's almost too nice an engine to run on my tinpot little railway, but I will anyway.   An unexpected diversion due to a derailment on the mainline will send No.1512 through on the down line once per operating session, - or more often if I need extra cheering up.