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

[Compound2632]

i don't think I've seen a signal with arms at 90 deg before; certainly not with a slotted post!

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

i don't think I've seen a signal with arms at 90 deg before; certainly not with a slotted post!

The right angle arm is for road traffic  Stephen.  Where the vinegar works branch crossed the roads there were semaphore signals for controlling road traffic.  A bit unusual, but people seemed to know what the signals were for and obeyed them.

To find a good photo of a slotted post signal is unusual enough on its own, but that one is a real special case.  Later on the slotted post signals were changed for ordinary boring ones with steel posts.

 

[Compound2632]

At ExpoEM the other week, they had that truly splendid layout "South Pelaw", a depiction of a real location in the north-east, in the late 50s / early 60s. It had some realistic operation, including sequence of the 9F banker coming on behid the 9F-hauled Consett iron ore train, and subsequently coming back down the bank and retiring to its ban engine siding. It left one itching to model Bromsgrove! 

 

But the point of mentioning it here is its profusion of signalling - from up-to-the-minute BR LMR-inspired tubular posts to ancient NER slotted post signals. The latter included some of those small-scale semaphores the NER used in lieu of ground signals. I have a theory that the NER would plant these by the lineside and wait for them to grow into great multi-armed brackets, then install a junction to suit. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Compound2632

[Annie]

40 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

But the point of mentioning it here is its profusion of signalling - from up-to-the-minute BR LMR-inspired tubular posts to ancient NER slotted post signals. The latter included some of those small-scale semaphores the NER used in lieu of ground signals. I have a theory that the NER would plant these by the lineside and wait for them to grow into great multi-armed brackets, then install a junction to suit. 

A member of the creator group I belong to is building what will eventually be most of the old NER in the Trainz simulator.  I know he's away at the moment, but when he gets back I'll fly that theory by him.

[johndon]

21 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

At ExpoEM the other week, they had that truly splendid layout "South Pelaw", a depiction of a real location in the north-east, in the late 50s / early 60s. It had some realistic operation, including sequence of the 9F banker coming on behid the 9F-hauled Consett iron ore train, and subsequently coming back down the bank and retiring to its ban engine siding. It left one itching to model Bromsgrove! 

 

But the point of mentioning it here is its profusion of signalling - from up-to-the-minute BR LMR-inspired tubular posts to ancient NER slotted post signals. The latter included some of those small-scale semaphores the NER used in lieu of ground signals. I have a theory that the NER would plant these by the lineside and wait for them to grow into great multi-armed brackets, then install a junction to suit. 

 

As one of the group responsible for South Pelaw, your comments are very much appreciated.

 

John

 

[Annie]

While I started out with Trainz with a second hand copy of TS2004 my first brand new Trainz purchase was Trainz TS2009 World Builders Edition.  And that was exactly what I did, - I built all kind of layouts using the surveyor toolset.  Some of them weren't very good, but I learned a lot along the way.  I still have my original TS2009 install safely archived away so I did a little re-visiting this afternoon.

A layout named 'A Moment in Time' that I downloaded from the DLS was a particular favourite of mine back then.  I called it the 'HUGE Uk Layout' because it was.  I'm not sure if I ever fully explored it because there were all kinds of odd branchlines and bypass lines going off everywhere from the main route.  It must've taken its creator ages to build and when you consider that there wasn't anything like the range of buildings and scenic assets that we have now available back then they did a pretty darn fine job.

I only really ran any kind of a regular working schedule on about a quarter of this layout.  Only once did I drive a passenger train on a complete circuit of the layout and at 60mph it took two hours to get completely around it.

 

Fetching empty wagons from this wharf and the mysterious factory/warehouse beside it was a regular trip shunting job.  These Sentinels were lots of fun.

[MikeOxon]

I found it interesting to read how it all started.  Those warehouses remind me of scenes from the dystopic worlds of computer games like 'Doom' - I suppose they were easier to render on the computers of the time.

 

I tried a few sessions with with TaNE but, so far, it hasn't grabbed me.  i think that in order to do it justice, I need a more powerful computer/graphics card than mine, which is mostly used for still photography editing.  For the time being, my attention is still being held by 3D-printing.

 

Mike

[Annie]

37 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

I found it interesting to read how it all started.  Those warehouses remind me of scenes from the dystopic worlds of computer games like 'Doom' - I suppose they were easier to render on the computers of the time.

 

I tried a few sessions with with TaNE but, so far, it hasn't grabbed me.  i think that in order to do it justice, I need a more powerful computer/graphics card than mine, which is mostly used for still photography editing.  For the time being, my attention is still being held by 3D-printing.

 

Mike

TS2009 will run very successfully on my Dell notebook Mike which goes to show just how undemanding it is with computer resources.  I'd last had a play about with TS2009 towards the end of 2019 so it was really nice to visit it again.  Despite the buildings and scenery being basic and low resolution it does the job and it looks perfectly fine.  There are some Trainz folk who are still running TS2009 and Trainz Classic 3 and aren't bothered in the slightest about the later 64 bit versions of Trainz.  I can certainly understand their point of view as I think the simple delight of the older versions has been tossed aside in the quest for hyper-realism.

The last of the 32 bit versions, - TS2012, -  is still available on Steam last time I looked and it might run better on your computer.

 

TANE was rushed into the marketplace too soon before it was ready and then N3V spent a lot of time and resources getting the bugs out and making it work properly.  The first release was great for blowing up people's graphics cards apparently.  No sooner than it was stable and working more or less Ok TANE was then abandoned for TS2019 and whole process started again.  With TRS22 it looks like N3V might finally have a winner, but to run it a 6 core late generation i7 processor and the hardware to support it looks to be the basic requirement.

 

I may yet step back to TANE myself since the final SP4 version looks to be stable and without the endless problems with environmental lighting and script breaking that dogged TS2019 with every 'upgrade'.

 

A better picture of the dystopian warehouses.

 

[Annie]

 

[MikeOxon]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

TS2009 will run very successfully on my Dell notebook Mike which goes to show just how undemanding it is with computer resources. 

I thought I'd try out that idea and even found TS2009 is offered free on the Auran website.  Why is nothing ever simple?  I tried downloading and installing - all seemed ok.  Then it asked for the CD-key, so I entered the key from their message and ... 'the key you entered is not valid'.  I've tried a few things but now given up and uninstalled the thing.

 

M

[Annie]

1 hour ago, MikeOxon said:

Then it asked for the CD-key, so I entered the key from their message and ... 'the key you entered is not valid'.

Bother, - what a confounded nuisance.  I've not heard of that happening before.  You could try asking their help desk about it, - they can usually manage to figure out things like that pretty quickly.  Just be aware that they will still be tucked up in their beds in Oz at the moment.

 

EDIT:  Just remembered the CD key is case sensitive so it has to be entered in exactly the same or it doesn't work.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Annie
More words needed.

[Annie]

Late Evening LNWR Cheer Up Picture:  LNWR 2-2-2, Problem Class. No 279 'Stephenson', Works No 530. Built in February 1862, rebuilt in November 1897 before being withdrawn from service in September 1906. (A Stephen Arrandale Colorisation.)

 

[Compound2632]

44 minutes ago, Annie said:

Late Evening LNWR Cheer Up Picture:  LNWR 2-2-2, Problem Class. No 279 'Stephenson', Works No 530. Built in February 1862, rebuilt in November 1897 before being withdrawn from service in September 1906. (A Stephen Arrandale Colorisation.)

 

On the L&NWR Society Facebook page, the Chair of the Society, John Gowers, observed that this photo shows the engine before its 1897 rebuilding (note sloping smokebox front and top-hinged smokebox door); in fact it must be before c. 1895 when coal rails on passenger tenders had become universal - at least, that's more-or-less what another poster there said. One could add that it has been rebuilt once already from its original condition, or at least Webbified.

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Compound2632

[Annie]

42 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

On the L&NWR Society Facebook page, the Chair of the Society, John Gowers, observed that this photo shows the engine before its 1897 rebuilding (note sloping smokebox front and top-hinged smokebox door); in fact it must be before c. 1895 when coal rails on passenger tenders had become universal - at least, that's more-or-less what another poster there said. One could add that it has been rebuilt once already from its original condition, or at least Webbified.

 

Thanks Stephen.  The Trainz 'Problem' made by Ed Heaps that I have is in post-1897 condition.  I have a soft spot for the locomotives of the LNWR, but I freely admit that my knowledge about them is patchy at best.

[Annie]

I've downloaded a whole raft of patches to update my beta copy of Trainz TRS22 to the latest retail version.  More patches than a lively toddler has sticking plasters on their knees and I was hoping that they might do some good with improving the way TRS22 utilises the CPUs and graphics card in my old Xeon computer.

And they did make a difference.  On the Tenpenny Branch all was good except that things were a bit laggy around the goods yard at Tenpenny wharf due to the high concentration of warehouse buildings, sheds & etc.

 

 

Taking a seat in the luggage van for a while.

 

The large area of old tree models at Mosston on Sea have been replaced with better models with a lower computer resource impact.

 

 

 

With running the Motortrain set away from Elgar Junction and out onto the main line to BlueBell Woods and Little Keldon I only really got a clear run without any problems on the open rural sections between stations.  Surprisingly Bluebell Woods was fine, but passing the yards and station on the tramway at Hopewood on Sea made all kinds of things not render properly.  Some areas of older tree models were bad news as well, but I'm going to replace them fairly soon which will be an improvement.  The concentration of houses, barns, farm buildings, fruit trees and field crops at Downes Farm is another difficult spot as well.

 

Setting off from Elgar Junction.  Wow, - look at my nice new cylinder draincocks.

 

Heading out onto the main line.

 

At Bluebell Woods

[MikeOxon]

On 31/05/2022 at 18:45, MikeOxon said:

I thought I'd try out that idea and even found TS2009 is offered free on the Auran website.  ..............

I'm pleased to report that it's now running - thank you folks for the support/sympathy.  I tried loading it onto my old Win7 desktop and that was fine - although it all took a v e r y long time to load.  I went back to my Win10 laptop and 🤣 this time it went through - s l o w l y.  I've no idea what the initial problem was but it seemed to be something to do with loading the database and nothing to do with an invalid key!

 

As you said, Annie, it seems to be a nice simple place to start and I can mess about with it on my laptop, to get the hang of how things work.  The scenics are quite basic but better than I expected - thinking back to early days with the Flight Simulator when there was very little scenery at all, except at airports.

 

Mike

[Annie]

6 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

As you said, Annie, it seems to be a nice simple place to start and I can mess about with it on my laptop, to get the hang of how things work.  The scenics are quite basic but better than I expected - thinking back to early days with the Flight Simulator when there was very little scenery at all, except at airports.

 

Mike

I had a huge amount of fun with TS2009 and I learned so much about building virtual layouts using the Surveyor toolkit.  Unlike the complexity of the later versions TS2009 does what it says on the tin and it's simple to use.

[Annie]

This is the Dintdale Road layout running in TRS22.  The provided session put together by the layout's creator has huge engines running about all over the place without a single glitch or flicker.  The difference between my Norfolk layout and Dintdale Road is that Dintdale Road was built in one of the final versions of TRS19 and my Norfolk layout has parts that originally came from TS2009 and the rest was built in TS2012.  I'm starting to consider the theory that there's something different between the way that the older layouts were constructed and how layouts are constructed in TRS19 and TRS22.  Even when a TS2012 layout is converted to work in the later versions and tests out as having no faults; - somehow it ends up taking a bigger resource hit than a TRS19 or TRS22 layout of a similar size.

 

 

My latest WIP version of 'Cairnrigg to Balessie' was built in TRS22 and it's perfectly fine and runs without a hitch.  At first I thought that might be because the layout is only 12 miles long and the greater part of the landscape is sparse and empty, but Dintdale Road is three times as long as that and its landscape is far from being sparse and empty.  

Further experiments are needed, but if they don't work out and my Norfolk layout remains a problem in TRS22 I'll put it into TANE and it should be fine there.

[Annie]

In a fairly radical move I uplifted the Tenpenny Branch from my Norfolk layout and after a certain amount of tidying things up and cleaning up around the edges.  I decided to play trains for a bit to see how things were going to work out.  I'd already noticed that the framerate was at the standard Trainz limit of 30 fps while I was working in the Surveyor side of things so I was hopeful that it would stay the same in Driver.

Well to cut a long story short everything  worked perfectly with no glitching or failing to render the scenery properly.  It looks very much as I thought that the older part of the layout was taking far more resources than it should to run in TRS22.  The format TR22 is using to create its virtual worlds is completely new and while layouts built in the older format can be transferred over to TRS22 it looks like the conversion might not be a perfect one.  I'm not too worried as I can find a home for my Norfolk layout in TANE (Trainz A New Era) where it should be fine.

I am very pleased that the Tenpenny Branch is working so well in TRS22.  I did some video clips, but I haven't sorted them out yet.

 

Silly beggars should have gone by train.

 

There's a siding that runs back into the dunes for the purpose of loading wagons with sand.  The smaller of the two Aveling & Porters wasn't very happy about the nasty little gradient on the way back up to the junction so it looks like five wagons is the absolute limit and four might be a wee bit more sensible.  Huge fun to be driving this A & P again on the steam controls.

 

 

And this is why we've been waiting at the signal.  The Tenpenny Bumper was due any minute so there was no time to duck through to the exchange sidings.

 

 

 

[MikeOxon]

5 hours ago, Annie said:

Silly beggars should have gone by train.

I like the steaming radiator!  Nowadays, though, they would be unlikely to find a train running!

[Annie]

1 hour ago, MikeOxon said:

I like the steaming radiator!  Nowadays, though, they would be unlikely to find a train running!

Thanks Mike.  The bus with its steaming radiator was a very early arrival when I was building up the area around Tenpenny Wharf over two years ago now.  The steam source is a tiny smoke/steam generator hidden inside the bus's engine compartment.

[Annie]

An Eastlingwold 15ft 3 plank dropside wagon with dumb buffers.  I put this together yesterday using the new 15ft open wagon meshes made by the creator group.  I already had suitable artwork which wasn't a problem to adapt to the new meshes, but it took me ages to get the magic incantations in the config file to behave properly.  This is from the 15ft series of wagon meshes that were made for a brewery layout so it's set up to carry at least half a dozen different sizes of barrels along with all the other loads a 3 plank wagon might be expected to carry.

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

A picture of the new E&GR 15ft wagon with its hat on.

 

 

I've been quietly pottering about with updating and improving some of my older models.  It's the turn of the teak luggage vans and milk vans at the moment.  The luggage vans can now carry crates of Guinness as a load along with crates of ceramics packed in straw and boxes of Jacobs Biscuits.

 

 

Spotted lurking in the Tenpenny Wharf goods yard.

 

[Compound2632]

6 hours ago, Annie said:

Spotted lurking in the Tenpenny Wharf goods yard.

 

Another load of Burton beer.

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Another load of Burton beer.

 

Staggered in singing and belching by accident?

 

Don't look behind the goods shed....