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


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A video clip of a passenger train on the Hopewood Tramway approaching Hopewood on Sea.  Unfortunately I fell over something in the goods yard and dropped the camera so I had to cut the end of the video off short.  It's a three and a half minute long video clip.

 

 

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Thanks for the gen, Annie, that and this picture prove that I haven't quite lost my marbles yet ....

 

image.png.3ce2b719374bed2d157f9a715773a160.png

 

2 hours ago, Annie said:

A video clip of a passenger train on the Hopewood Tramway approaching Hopewood on Sea.  Unfortunately I fell over something in the goods yard and dropped the camera so I had to cut the end of the video off short.  It's a three and a half minute long video clip.

 

 

 

Again, lovely.

 

Hope no virtual bruises from the fall! 

 

I wondered what speed it was going, but assumed that the Board of Trade or the local Act or Order for the line did not necessitate the fitting of speed regulators in this instance!

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4 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Again, lovely.

 

Hope no virtual bruises from the fall! 

 

I wondered what speed it was going, but assumed that the Board of Trade or the local Act or Order for the line did not necessitate the fitting of speed regulators in this instance!

Fortunately I had a virtual pot of virtual bruise ointment with me so no harm done.

 

The section of track beside the road from Cathill Junction to Bluebell Woods has a strict 8 mph speed limit.  On the coastal section between Bluebell Woods and Hopewood on Sea the speed limit is 20 mph and then on the roadside section from Hopewood on Sea to Downes Farm station it's back to 8 mph again.  From Downes Farm to Elgar Wood it's open countryside so 20mph is the limit on that section.

The Hopewood Tramway Co. successfully argued that the coastal road between Bluebell Woods and Hopewood on Sea is no more than an access track originally constructed by the sand and gravel company at Bluebell Sands and that it's not a dedicated road maintained by the county. If the public use it it's at their own risk. The BoT agreed so the speed limit on that section was raised.

 

Sometimes the footplate crew will daringly push the speed on the coastal section up to 25 mph if they think they can get away with it.

 

On the Tenpenny Branch the 2-4-2T tram engines have a cleverly devised engine spec that governs them down to 20 mph, but on the roadside section to Lockes Soak it's a strict 8 mph. 

On the Windweather Tramway they have sections that they argue are 'near' roads rather than 'beside' roads and they got around any arguments by putting in lineside fencing on those sections.  Needless to say the Bot is keeping a close eye on the situation.

 

36 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Thanks for the gen, Annie, that and this picture prove that I haven't quite lost my marbles yet ....

I am certainly tempted to have a skirted Nielson 'coffee pot' on the tramways  James, but I'd have to commision one since unfortunately there's not anything like that available for the Trainz simulator.

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17 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Be very interesting to know what would happen if drivers could do that in the real world!

 

17 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

I'm told that such is under development for industrial railways.

 

Adrian

 

Would they even require a driver, though?

 

 

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There's five gated level crossings on the Tenpenny Branch and while I was continuing with doing tidying up work along the branch I noticed that only one of them had a crossing keeper on duty.  That situation is all sorted now, - it's details like this that help to bring my peaceful little branch line to life.

 

mW13tOK.jpg

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More video from the Tenpenny Branch.  I think this might be the last one for a while.  I did record the 8 mph section from Lockes Soak as a footplate trip, but it's a wee bit like watching grass grow so I decided not to post it here.

 

 

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19 hours ago, Annie said:

There's five gated level crossings on the Tenpenny Branch and while I was continuing with doing tidying up work along the branch I noticed that only one of them had a crossing keeper on duty.  That situation is all sorted now, - it's details like this that help to bring my peaceful little branch line to life.

 

mW13tOK.jpg

 

Your crossing keeper appears to have obtained her own clothing, and not had it donated to her by the time travellers.

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5 minutes ago, rocor said:

 

Your crossing keeper appears to have obtained her own clothing, and not had it donated to her by the time travellers.

One of Bob Sander's nice Victorian figures.  An older figure series and a bit simplified, but they look the part.  Unfortunately they can't be adapted to make a passenger set.

Passenger sets for the Trainz simulator are a very real problem.  The 'time travellers' are about the best general purpose set available out of a collection of not so good options.  The issue with making passenger sets is that making figures that won't be a huge computer resource hit isn't easy and on top of that each figure needs to have both a sitting and a standing version.  There also needs to be at least 40 individual figures as well to avoid station platforms filled with triplets and quadruplets.

There is supposed to be a 1920's passenger set in preparation, but I haven't heard anything more about it for a while now.

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I haven't been all that well today so I decided to go and mess about on the Tenpenny Branch to cheer myself up.  And it did cheer me up and I got a reasonable amount done too.  During the upgrade to TRS22 from TS2019 some assets that work as a spline mesh had shifted position due to changes in how TRS22 handles spline objects.  With some things it didn't really matter, but other models such as fences, footpaths and hedges needed a little bit of adjustment here and there.

After that I decided that Jared station yard could do with a cattle dock since the main traffic on the branch is agricultural produce.  At Tenpenny they mostly have sheep, but both Jared and Lockes Soak go in for raising cattle.  I've been very lazy and not placed any cattle models yet, but I will get to that fairly soon.  They also do a lot of market gardening at Jared which is another important traffic.

 

RHF097y.jpg 

 

Mosston on Sea is a busy place during Summer despite the long walk from the station to the beach.  There's a cornmill at Moston on Sea and they go in for doing managed wood lots as well.  The station master at Mosston on Sea has a supervisory role over Jared station, Nelsons Crossing Halt and Lockes Soak station so he's a busy man.  I thought he might like a greenhouse to potter about in and I'll do a bit of garden for him as well.  While I was there his wife pointed out that everybody up and down the branch has a washing line in their back yard except her so what was I going to do about it.  That was an awful oversight on my part so I quickly put one in for her.

 

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Here's a stray snap of the morning passenger train leaving Jared station and heading back to Tenpenny.  An important local hostelry, - 'The Railway Tavern', - can be found at Jared.

 

LfjOLkI.jpg

Edited by Annie
fumble brain
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For a major cheer up I decided to do some trip working using the smaller Wotton Tramway Aveling & Porter locomotive.  I always drive the Aveling & Porters using the steam controls since the engine spec I created for these single cylinder engines works better, sounds better and is a lot more fun than using the DCC control set.  This small locomotive can steam for Britain, but with that said it's boiler and firebox aren't all that big so a close eye has to be kept on the fire and the water level.  I managed to set up things with the engine spec so this digital model acts as if it really is a single cylinder locomotive with it being a little cantankerous about starting if its virtual piston is too close to top dead centre.  It's brakes also want knowing so a lot about driving it is about momentum control and making use of inertia and other physics type science words like that.  It all adds up to me having a lot of fun which is exactly what I want.

 

Shunting the goods yard at Tenpenny wharf.  The warehouse model is based on one somewhere in America, but I think it's perfect for Tenpenny.

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Shunting at Mosston on Sea. This Aveling & Porter is right little buffer clanger if I'm not watching what I'm doing.

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This little pile of coal and the shovel sticking out of it marks a small magic coal loading thingy under the track.  I've use it elsewhere on the tramways because it doesn't take up much space and it works well for small engines.  Neither of the Aveling & Porters can carry much coal so it's necessary to make sure they can get some more while on the job.

F3pSdlG.jpg

 

A short clip with me showing off with how slow I can make the Aveling & Porter go on the steam controls, - only like a pratt I went and stalled it not long after the end of the video clip.

 

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Evening Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture:  Taplow Station in Broad Gauge times showing all manner of interesting details including a close up view of mixed gauge trackwork.

 

MxOlshQ.jpg

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With cutting back my Norfolk layout to a size that my old Xeon computer could run in TRS22 there's been all manner of reorganisation with locomotive placements.  With Great Mulling and Foxhollow only existing now in the form of a virtual somewhere beyond a portal I'm two major MPD's down so new engine assignments have been made to Moxbury's previously underutilised MPD.

Moxbury's MPD was the haunt of the former B&FER 'Sharpie' 0-6-2 tank engines, but they weren't doing all that well in TRS22 so I've had to reluctantly withdraw them.  Foxhollow's allocation of Holden GER engines have now been moved to Moxbury, but they haven't got it all their own way since Foxhollow's 'Sharpie' 2-4-2 tank engines have come along with them too.

 

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And this old veteran hasn't been forgotten.  'Jubilee' will be helping to keep the Eastlingwold & Great Mulling's flag flying until I can afford a more powerful computer.

2gOUdgo.jpg

 

B&FER 'Sharpie' No.12 has been replaced on the morning express goods run from Moxbury.  Hopefully the Holden C32 tanks will prove equal to the task.

nWyNTC4.jpg

 

And this little lurker is still about.  Moxbury's very own pilot engine.

dN7CvuB.jpg

 

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12 hours ago, Annie said:

 

F3pSdlG.jpg

 

 

 

My first impression, on seeing this image, was that you had buried someone beside the track (and I was wondering who that might have been?).

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26 minutes ago, rocor said:

 

My first impression, on seeing this image, was that you had buried someone beside the track (and I was wondering who that might have been?).

 

Someone who asked too many questions, no doubt

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2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Mt sympathies, Annie, but what a stunning array of GER motive power.

 

And do I spy a WNR portion in that parcels train? 

I have plans for reorganising the Eastlingwold & Great Mulling which will continue to be worked on and may take form as a stand alone layout for a while until it's reunited with the rest of my Norfolk layout.  The old B&FER station and yards at Foxhollow are going to be revised and ultimately shifted into a better position as well so nothing has been permanently removed from the layout.

 

Ed Heaps's  Holden era GER locomotives are certainly impressive pieces of work and it's taken me up until now to get used to my good fortune with being able to run such lovely models on my layout. 

The 'Sharpie' 0-6-2T's weren't the only casualties of the move to TRS22 as my three Y14's have problems with a mysterious white bloom on their paintwork which I'm not sure if it can be eliminated.  For the present time the Eastlingwold's Hicks 0-6-0s have been called upon to fill in for now.  It isn't ideal, but they are reliable old stagers despite being created back in TS2004 days so they'll do for now.  Ed's T26's can help out as well as they did with occasional goods work in GER times.

 

Yes that is a WNR 6 wheel parcels van.  A very important cargo of lavender biscuits to be transported with all speed to the expectant good citizens of Great Mulling.  The WNR van would have arrived at Moxbury in the small hours of the morning along with the LNWR van and then been shunted onto the teak 6 wheel vans in process of being loaded in Moxbury's parcels bay.  The morning express parcels train usually gets away smartly into its slot in the timetable for a clear fast run to Great Mulling to arrive nicely in time for when the shopkeepers in the town are opening their doors.

Edited by Annie
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1 hour ago, rocor said:

My first impression, on seeing this image, was that you had buried someone beside the track

 

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Someone who asked too many questions, no doubt

 

A critic, I suspect...

 

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More tasks completed.  The trackwork in the goods yard at Mosston on Sea has now been decently buried for the full length of the yard.

This was a bit tricky to do as I needed to raise the ground up to cover the sleepers instead of lowering the track into the ground like I usually do,  With raising the ground I had to be careful not to accidentally raise the station platform or displace anything else that might be a pain to level up again.  I think the final result looks good even if I do say so myself. 

 

5rm0FKr.jpg

 

The notice boards on the timber station buildings at Tenpenny Wharf and Mosston on Sea have been carrying the initials S. D. R. from my old Sumwheir District Railway project for far too long so I decided to do something about that.   They now carry  W. T. Co. initials for the Windweather Tramway Co since the Tenpenny Branch is in fact a section of the Windweather Tramway despite its high level of independence about the way it does things.  I changed the posters on the notice boards as well since they were old S. D. R. ones.

 

The time travellers are keen readers.

G2CKnei.jpg

 

exup3Zm.jpg

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Schedule testing with the aid of an old Y65 'Crystal Palace' 2-4-2T model from TS2004 days and a 'litho' motor train two coach set.

Unfortunately the 'Crystal Palace' tank is mapped for one colour only which has to be black, but I wasn't going to letter it up for the 'Late & Never Early Railway'. 

Sooooooo I spun up a backstory about the Associated (Imaginary) Railway Companies being short of an engine and requesting the GER to help them out.   Someone at the area office decided that it was a perfect opportunity to palm off a Y65 on the A(I)RC only the paint shop foreman at Great Mulling works was under the impression that the Y65 was now permanent A(I)RC property and set about painting it in the same black livery as the 'Terriers' they'd done previously.  The area office when they heard about it made it very clear (or so they thought) that the Y65 was GER property and was only loaned to the A(I)RC.  However despite the heated telegrams being passed back and forth the area manager's final words, 'I want GER initials back on that engine by the end of the week.' were the ones taken to heart and that's exactly what he got.  And yes the GER transfers were applied a bit too high, but it was the first time the Great Mulling paint shop had ever applied GER transfers to an engine so it was understandable really.

For an old Trainz model from TS2004 days No.1303 has been much fettled in the 'works' and now has fully animated smoke and steam scripting as well as updated sound files and a new engine spec.  It's a nice little runner, but it's not happy about going faster than 35mph as the driving wheel animation tends to get tangled up at higher speeds.

 

n0FoP3q.jpg

 

I'm still having problems with TRS22 failing to render the layout's scenery properly so the only way to get it to behave was to cut the scenery draw distance back to the minimum and to have a good dose of coastal fog obscuring everything.

 

Y2tZ7Vl.jpg

 

MyANVMW.jpg

 

I have posted about the motor train set before, but that was pages ago so I thought a refresher might be needed. 

The litho motor train set was originally created by an elderly member of the creator group I belong to.  I asked him if he would mind if did some work on his original basic texturing to improve the coaches' appearance and he told me to go ahead.  I tidied up the textures, gave them a 3D appearance and added lettering, commode and door handles.  I'd only just started to do 3D modelling so I made a set of gas lamp tops, gas cylinders and footboards for the coaches as well.  The faux interior window artwork came a little later as a further enhancement.  The elderly gentleman was delighted and he has since gone on to use my artwork to make other GER coaches of his own devising.  All good fun.

 

PPbAThx.jpg

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A couple of snaps taken during a pause with testing my totally 'what-if' imaginary GER Steam railmotor  in TS2012.  Like the motor train set it's just received a faux interior via new window artwork, though my main purpose in visiting an older version of my Norfolk layout was to check that various other mods I'd done would function in TS2012.  I'm going redo the smoke and steam effects as well with new animation scripts so by the time that's all done it will be properly ready for service in TRS22.

Something I'd like to do is adapt my teak coach artwork to suit both the railmotor and the motor train set which would freshen them up very nicely indeed.

During testing in TS2012 I noticed that the framerates were fairly appalling.  There wasn't any reluctance to load scenery as there was during my tests in TRS22, but it was certainly enough to tell me that something isn't right with the graphics card and it wasn't all TRS22's fault.  If I'm feeling clever tomorrow and my brain is working properly I'll try another graphics card and see if it makes any difference.

 

C7lcLF2.jpg

 

The railmotor's brake composite driving trailer.

 

U7lDFNy.jpg

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Steam Railmotor under test in TRS22's foggy morning.  I think I might need to dial the volume of smoke it's producing down just a wee bit.  The Railmotor's engine spec was originally made for a model of the Wantage Tramway's 'Jane', but I don't think it's working properly judging by the rate of acceleration the Railmotor is presently capable of.  TRS22 has a new physics engine that doesn't always play nice with older engine specs so I might need to find a pencil and an old envelope with a good sized back to it and draw up a new one. 

 

G8P5cUN.jpg

 

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At rest in Great Marsh's carriage sidings.  I'm presently working out a schedule for the Railmotor to run between Moxbury and Great Marsh (& possibly Windweather) via Brenton Wood and Barrow Hills (& return).  It's been a missing part of the timetable ever since the early days of the layout and having either Railmotor or the motor train set in operation would help a lot with easing some of the Windweather Loop's operational quirks.

 

1yH7IAu.jpg

Edited by Annie
can't spell for toffee
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When I was working out how to put the Steam Railmotor together I decided to base it on the elderly gentleman from the creator group's Brake 3rd model.  I know that's not exactly typical of Steam Railmotor design, though with there being a fairly steady parcels traffic over the old former B&FER lines and most stations having lock up goods facilities on the station platform you can see that it makes a lot of sense.

I included a snap of Barrow Hills station by way of explanation as to why a motor train set or Steam Railmotor would be especially useful here.  Barrow Hills is actually a junction, but we won't hold that against it.  There's only a small community of farm workers who live near the station, but despite that the station sees a lot of traffic as it's a place where passengers make a break of journey to change trains (Hmmm I wonder if a station tea room would do good business here?). 

When the full layout was in operation trains used to arrive here from three directions and nearly all of them needed to run around their train before proceeding onwards.  It took quite a bit of hard thinking to work out the timetable for Barrow Hills so there wouldn't be any conflicts and that was with a daily goods train arriving as well and needing to be shunted just to keep it interesting.   Even with my Norfolk layout now having been reduced in its circumstances  Barrow Hills will still be busy so keeping any run around locomotive dance maneuvers to minimum will still be an essential requirement.

 

dZIuBLh.jpg

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