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

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

It's unusual to have the key in the chimney. There's usually a hole in the side of the tank.

I've been looking at that and trying to figure out what it is.  There seems to be a slot in the side of the chimney to allow it to move vertically, but to what purpose?

[Hroth]

12 minutes ago, Annie said:

I've been looking at that and trying to figure out what it is.  There seems to be a slot in the side of the chimney to allow it to move vertically, but to what purpose?

 

Is it some sort of route indicator?

The loco is well buffed up, ts got to be something experimental...

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Annie said:

I've been looking at that and trying to figure out what it is.  There seems to be a slot in the side of the chimney to allow it to move vertically, but to what purpose?

 

I think it's a bracket - it's visible in other photos of NLR locos, e.g. on the Our Bow website. But the only other image I've found with anything in the bracket is this Hamilton Ellis painting:

 

 

[Embedded link]

 

That's a train leaving Richmond for Broad Street; No. 37 in your photo carries a Richmond headboard, so I suppose it must be a route indicator.

 

But wait a mo, what has James Tissot painted here?

 

 

[Embedded link]

 

This is an extract from his 1873 painting, Waiting at the Station, Willesden Junction:

 

 

[Embedded link]

 

[Annie]

13 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I think it's a bracket - it's visible in other photos of NLR locos, e.g. on the Our Bow website. But the only other image I've found with anything in the bracket is this Hamilton Ellis painting:

Fascinating, - and what an interesting website that you linked to as well.

 

I'm not ever going to attempt to model the N.L.R., but it's one of those interesting and unique railways that I've often found myself wondering about.

[Schooner]

For top mustache appreciation higher resolution available here, captioned "Proud workers on the North London Railway at Bow, 1900.", along with some other NLR classics:

"An early locomotive which ran on the NLR. It was one of five built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1855. It’s pictured at Bow, just south of the current DLR station."

 

...and my second-favourite Park Tank pic:

"A small but powerful freight engine built at Bow in 1889. It was rebuilt in 1906, just before this photo was taken, and survived 43 years in service."

 

...all held by the Science Museum Group, who are now rather stingy in their previews but still worth a look, eg, for useful details :)

 

[Compound2632]

20 minutes ago, Schooner said:

For top mustache appreciation higher resolution available here,

 

As linked in my previous post! Note that No. 17 also has the bracket, as do several others - some carrying the cutout 0 - in the SSPL gallery you usefully link to. I've written to my NLRHS contact.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Compound2632

[MikeOxon]

4 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

As linked in my previous post! Note that No. 17 also has the bracket. I've written to my NLRHS contact.

in fact three of the illustrations in  https://www.ourbow.com/the-vanished-north-london-railway-though-bow/  show the bracket - nos. 51, 17, and 37.  Close examination of the photo of no.37 shows that the '0' indicator is mounted on a tapered peg, slid into the bracket from above.  I assume it is a route indicator, which would appear, from the front, alongside the engine number, also placed on the chimney.

[Schooner]

Ah, indeed! Turns out I spent slightly longer looked at pics than realised! Excellent sleuthing on the bracket and thanks for following up with the NLRHS, fingers x'd for more info soon.

[Schooner]

I'll save speculating on purpose, but thought I'd share the only photo I've found online or in my little NLR library of one of these indicators actually in use:

(Transports of Delight)

 

Every other photo with indicator present is posed (loco on shed for staff photo), and in the overwhelming majority of photos it's absent entirely. The bracket itself appears universal, 4-4-0T (pax) and 0-6-0T(goods), until Grouping:

 

The indicator looks rarely used and a right pain to change, interested to hear what it indicated!

[Compound2632]

Again, the figure 0 is associated with a Richmond train.

[Schooner]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

a Richmond train.

 

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/pr/983409521/SSPL_10672455_preview.jpg

 

Think you've nailed it!

[Regularity]

3 minutes ago, Schooner said:

 

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/pr/983409521/SSPL_10672455_preview.jpg

 

Think you've nailed it!

How so? That takes me to a 404.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Regularity
This works: https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10672455

[Schooner]

1 minute ago, Regularity said:

How so?

 

Indicator on a staff photo loco with Richmond headboard.

 

3 minutes ago, Regularity said:

That takes me to a 404.

Hmmm...I can open it fine, but did wonder why it didn't embed.

 

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10672455&itemw=4&itemf=0002&itemstep=1&itemx=64

 

How's that link?

[Compound2632]

It's the photo of No. 38 in a similar pose to Annie's one of no. 37, also with the 0 in the bracket and Richmond destination board; one of the ones in the gallery linked earlier.

 

 

[Embedded link]

[Schooner]

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

No. 38

And No.55

Edited July 20, 2022 by Schooner
Come on brain!

[Annie]

Wow, - excellent sleuthing gentlemen.  The mystery of Richmond and the letter 'O' seems to have been solved.

With three different photos of railway staff and a N.L.R. locomotive at the engine shed I find myself wondering what the occasion was or whether this was a favourite spot for the company photographer.

[Compound2632]

Well, I don't know. Some evidence of the things in service would help. This is where I like the Tissot painting - he painted what he saw at the time, without any understanding or theorising , unlike Hamilton Ellis' painting.

[Adam88]

My copy of "North London Railway: A Pictorial Record" published by the HMSO for the NRM in 1979 has a number of similar photographs but not that particular one.  One which shows 4-4-0T No 40 appears to be taken at the same oh-so-clean shed gives South Acton as the location.  That picture has nine bewhiskered railwaymen but possibly not the same ones.  No date is given.

[Annie]

Today's Cheer Up Project:

I was feeling a bit sad and not very happy so I thought I'd go and visit  my freelance minor railway project 'Bedwood' again and see what I could do with continuing to build up the town.

 

Two Sparrowcam views.  My first task was to finish the new terrace houses off and they are pretty much done and dusted now.  These terrace houses were made by a member of the creator group I belong to and have been made in blocks of 12 residences which is a nice handy size. 

With that done it was time to move onto the old part of the town/village and start on expanding that.  I completed the row of new terrace houses next to the dairy factory with a row  of older houses opposite the church and then I added an odd job man and chimney sweep's premises and yard and an agricultural merchant's yard.  After doing some tidying up with fences and footpaths I was starting to feel tired so after taking some snaps I decided to call it a day.  I want to add a couple more yards with grotty sheds and after that it will be a few  more houses and cottages before starting work on laying the surrounding fields and farmland & etc.

 

 

 

A few snaps taken in the older part of the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making the new textures for the station building took me ages due to the base structure mesh being fairly old and not all that friendly towards being repainted and taken back to the pre-grouping era.  The original station building model was based on the one at Moreton-in-the-Marsh which would have been fine except it was modelled on the station as it was during the 1960s which gave me a few problems with removing the BR blue error additions.  I'm pleased with how it turned out though and I'm glad that I persisted with it.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Annie said:

 

This one I especially like. Full of character.

[Annie]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

This one I especially like. Full of character.

Thanks.  Station Road was the first part of the town that I built up back when I was intending to build 'Bedwood' as a Trainz Model Railway layout.  I re-textured several of the buildings especially for Bedwood and it's my favorite part of the town as well.

Once I've got the rest of the town built up I'll be looking more closely at detailing and making the town look like people live there.  It's very much a part of layout building that I enjoy doing.

[Annie]

Still sleepy today and I crashed out this morning for six hours.  After getting something to eat I decided to go back to 'Bedwood' and do some more work on the town.  No pictures as it's still a bit of a muddle, but so far I've added another yard, - a bit more of a messy one this time, - and made a start on placing some more houses and cottages.  Finding the right kinds of buildings is the usual problem so I think I'm going to have to do some more retexturing to end up with what I want.

[Annie]

After I'd had my tea I thought I'd go back to 'Bedwood' and finish the last bits and bobs with what I'd been doing earlier.  It didn't take long to do the last bit of tidying up and now I can start on working around the cottages and getting them sorted out.  I'll have to remember that they are in the background or else I'll end up planting out flower beds and vegetable gardens.  Mind you I suppose it doesn't matter if I do since it's my train set and I like doing this kind of thing.

 

By the way thank you gentlemen for the nice Friendly/Supportive click icons.  I'm alright really apart from fading out and having to sleep far more often than I want to; - which is frustrating, but won't do me any harm.  Working on 'Bedwood' is a good cheer up for me and it's nice to be working on building a layout in TS2012 again.  Trainz TS2012 just does what it says on the tin without any of that silly hi-tech nonsense so I think I'll stick with it for a while and archive the later Trainz installations I've got away.

 

I don't know how big this layout will end up before I call it done, but with it being single track and set in a rural landscape it's not going to turn into anything huge and resource hungry.  I loved my alternative Norfolk layout, but I let it get too big and with the amount of detailing I'd put into it the memory loading was enormous.

 

 

[Annie]

Today was a good day for me once I finally managed to wake up so I thought I'd tryout an idea that had been drifting around in my brain.  I wanted to see if it was possible to lift the Hopewood Tramway out of my larger Norfolk layout and connect it to the Bedwood Light Railway (Just trying out the name to see if I like it.).

I was very pleased to discover that I could get the two layout sections to fit together, but I did manage to create a lot more work for myself by not including a necessary five layout board long section the first time around so I had to do it all twice-twice instead of just the once.  The other slightly awkward problem was that it was low tide at Hopewood on Sea and high tide at Bedwood.  I checked levels and determined that if I raised the sea level to Bedwood's high tide level there would be flooding in some places on the Hopewood on Sea side of things.  So the sea level at Bedwood was lowered by two meters which involved having to lower the sea floor and the bed of the Bedwood River among other things.

It took me most of the afternoon to do this, but I'm glad I did it.  Much tidying up and relaying track still needs to be done before I can settle back into completing the scenic work on the Bedwood baseboards which is no less than I expected.  It's all good though since It means I'm going to end up with the kind of train set I like best.

 

A glimpse of a distant shore. 

 

 

[MikeOxon]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

So the sea level at Bedwood was lowered by two meters which involved having to lower the sea floor and the bed of the Bedwood River among other things.

So you succeeded where King Canute could not!  It must be fun managing your own world. Are you planning ahead for climate change?