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

[Annie]

I found these lurking about at Great Mulling.

 

 

A quick snap taken at Great Mulling's engine shed and workshops.  The darker green E.B. Wilson 2-4-0 parked behind one of the E&GR's Hicks 0-6-0s is a West Norfolk Railway engine.  By all manner of strange quirks of geography and running rights the E&GR maintains a connection with the W.N.R.

 

 

The MPD at Moxbury.  I gathered up all the engines I'd modified to run in TRS19 and TRS22 and brought them back to TS2012.  Most of them are now version 3 or version 4 of the carefree engines that went off adventuring in the later versions of Trainz and have such interesting mods such as GER lamp and disc codes, new engine specs and texture modifications.   The brasswork on some engines is a bit bright because it was set up for TRS22's environmental lighting and I need to dull it down a bit for TS2012.

Several engines have been piped for the Westinghouse brake, but due to a certain person letting it slip their mind that they need to make suitable Westinghouse pumps they're not quite finished yet.

The Affiliated (Imaginary) Railway Companies are devotees of the vacuum brake which does cause problems sometimes.

 

 

A lonely GCR  Sacre 2-4-0T at Elgar Junction MPD.  The poor thing has been waiting forever for me to make a motor train set for it to take charge of.

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

My focus has been on Grimwold today.  The Grimwold branch has, or had two quarries; - a smaller one served by a branch from Morrow which I named 'Morrowind Quarry' because I felt like calling it that; and 'Stone Delving Quarry' which is/was accessed by a steeply climbing branchline that passed through three highly detailed and mountainous boards that required a lot of computer resources to render it all.  Truth be told I hardly ever worked and shunted Stone Delving because it was somewhat of a pig to operate.  So I made up my mind that it was not what I wanted anymore and I demolished it.

'Stone Delving' is now represented by a magic interactive gravel and stone loading track that I built into the new return loop and portal track that has replaced the three condemned quarry boards.  You can just see part of the return loop through the conveniently placed humpbacked bridge that's acting as a view blocker.

'Stone Delving' isn't completely gone as I have a back up copy and it might get revisited sometime.

 

 

Removing 'Stone Delving' also removed all its mineral wagon sidings so I had to install a wagon holding siding at Grimwold.  Grimwold has a fairly small goods yard so it looks like I'm going to have to rearrange things so I can add at least two more sidings.  Note the catch point.  It really does work by the way even though it doesn't look like it.

 

 

A quick snap of a part of Grimwold's good yard.  There isn't really that much to it; - a stone built goods shed and a long covered platform.  The town is fairly small and while there is some farming in the area most of the local industry is centered around digging up rocks,

 

 

The E&GR's oldest engines and rolling stock eventually find their way to the Grimwold branch to work out their last years of usefulness.  However I don't think this hardy pair of saddle tanks are going to be sent to the scrap sidings any time soon.  Good to drive whether using the steam controls or DCC they can cope very well with hauling loaded mineral wagons about. 

I had a lot of fun doing their texturing as well as attaching their extra fixtures and fittings when I set them up for working on the mineral branches.  Definitely a pair of my favourite engines.

With Grimwold just about done it's Great Mulling next on the list.  I know that once I start running trains again that more issues and problems are likely to come to light, but it shouldn't be anything that can't be sorted out fairly quickly.

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Johnson044]

This is so, so inspiring Annie. I really love the developing townscape. Keep up the excellent work!  J.

[Johnson044]

This is so inspiring Annie. I've been trying to work out what your townscape reminds me of  and it finally connected.

 

In Louth, Lincolnshire, my wife's home town, there is a real gem - it's a huge series of paintings, all done from the tower of St James' church in the 1840's and showing the life of the town in minute detail. The arrival of the railway is shown amongst many other details. 

 

https://www.louthtowncouncil.gov.uk/browns-panorama/

 

I really love your work. 

 

Very best wishes

 

John

[Annie]

16 minutes ago, Johnson044 said:

This is so inspiring Annie. I've been trying to work out what your townscape reminds me of  and it finally connected.

 

In Louth, Lincolnshire, my wife's home town, there is a real gem - it's a huge series of paintings, all done from the tower of St James' church in the 1840's and showing the life of the town in minute detail. The arrival of the railway is shown amongst many other details. 

 

https://www.louthtowncouncil.gov.uk/browns-panorama/

 

I really love your work. 

 

Very best wishes

 

John

I didn't know whether to click 'Thanks' or 'Like' so I decided that 'A Round of Applause' covered all bases.  I enjoy building up towns in the Trainz simulator though at first I wasn't very good at it.  If I'm not so well it's a wonderful way for me to distract myself and generally lose myself in my own little world.  I'm not always certain if I'm muddling up my regional variations or not when it comes to my choice of buildings, but hopefully I'm not committing too many howlers.

 

Thank you very much for the link to Brown's Panorama.  What an absolutely amazing pair of paintings and it's wonderful that their priceless historical value was realised and that they have been preserved.  In so many ways they are like looking down on a model railway layout and were very much a cheer up for me on a day when I've been very sleepy and not able to do very much..

 

 

[Annie]

Today's Cheer Up Picture:  Starting the railcar at Vobley Mills by the late Peter Barnfield.

 

 

Not been here much as I'm still very sleepy and have been spending a lot of hours out of the standard issue twenty four asleep.

My lovely support worker has gone down with the plague and she was here earlier in the week, - so both my daughter and I are waiting to see if we're going to get it too.  We've got testing kits so now we just have to wait a couple of days more for the incubation period to run its course to see if we've got it or not.  I'm trying not to worry too much about it.  I've had my jabs, but even so with my Woolworths immune system I'm likely to not have the best time if I do get it.

 

Might be a good idea to give your computer a wipe down with a dab of disinfectant after reading this just to be on the safe side.

[Annie]

Morning Cheer Up Picture:  Monday morning at Plumbury Bagott by the late Peter Barnfield.

This particular picture has always been a favourite of mine because I'd love to be able to replicate it in the Trainz simulator.

 

[RedGemAlchemist]

51 minutes ago, Annie said:

Morning Cheer Up Picture:  Monday morning at Plumbury Bagott by the late Peter Barnfield.

This particular picture has always been a favourite of mine because I'd love to be able to replicate it in the Trainz simulator.

 

I do love me some Peter Barnfield (then again anyone who's seen my own modelling work has probably already worked that out.) His bucolic, whimsical take on rural England is exactly the sort of feel I aim for with my own layout, albeit mine with a twist of Norfolk added.

Edited August 4, 2022 by RedGemAlchemist

[Regularity]

Looks very much inspired by Wantage!

(But 3’ gauge.)

[Annie]

Evening Cheer Up Picture:  Otteroake Lane Level Crossing by the late Peter Barnfield.

Another one of my favourite Whimshire pictures.

 

 

Do you know how darn awkward it is to catch a rat and make it take one of those RAT tests.  I thought rats did the other kind of plague not COVID.  Seriously though my daughter started to not feel all that well today.  So far the RAT self test kit is saying 'No', but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

[Regularity]

What I love about the Peter Barnfield drawings is that in addition to the whimsey, the locos and stock are not simply generic, but have an obvious design heritage.

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

What I love about the Peter Barnfield drawings is that in addition to the whimsey, the locos and stock are not simply generic, but have an obvious design heritage.

Yes exactly that, - everything has been carefully and lovingly studied before a start was made on the drawings.

[Annie]

Evening Cheer Up Picture:  'Ragwort Road' by the late Peter Barnfield.

Another favourite.  That nice old red tender engine definitely has an Ilfracombe Goods vibe about it.

 

 

We're both doing Ok here.  I haven't acquired any more symptoms than I usually have and while my daughter is feeling poorly she's not having too bad a time of it, but she has told me that she can't really taste anything.  We've decided on doing another RAT test on Monday to see what's going on.

[Adam88]

I'm on holiday in Europe and my rail interest is being satisfied by my visiting a number of museums only one of which I've been to before.  Yesterday I was at Mulhouse to see various French items including, of course, their splendid Crampton, Le Continent.

 

 

 

This and everything else there really made the journey so very worth while. Taking these snaps and one or two others was a real cheer-up!

 

PS unlike our own NRM at York there were no kreaming scids, bliss.

 

[Annie]

2 minutes ago, Adam88 said:

I'm on holiday in Europe and my rail interest is being satisfied by my visiting a number of museums only one of which I've been to before.  Yesterday I was at Mulhouse to see various French items including, of course, their splendid Crampton, Le Continent.

Now there's a seriously good cheer up for me this morning.  Thank you very much Adam.

 

I have an older model of No.80 that was made for Trainz and a lovely thing it is too.

[Annie]

Morning Cheer Up Picture:  OFF THE RAILS - Glutton Parva, Whimshire by the late Peter Barnfield.

Another favourite Whimshire card, - which can be found here:  OFF THE RAILS

 

 

It looks like I've got the 'bot', - lucky me.  My blood oxygen is fine, but my heart is working harder.  Definitely don't want to end up in hospital.

 

[NeilHB]

Sorry to hear that Annie, look after yourself please and I hope that you and your daughter are both feeling better soon. 

[Annie]

2 hours ago, NeilHB said:

Sorry to hear that Annie, look after yourself please and I hope that you and your daughter are both feeling better soon. 

Thanks very much Neil.  I've been sleeping a lot and feeling pretty much fatigued, but I seem to be coping alright.  COVID fatigue feels different to narcolepsy fatigue, - I can't quite explain the difference, but it seems to be more pervasive.  My daughter is managing Ok as well.  I made my daughter laugh when I said I wanted to be a lighthouse keeper so I could stay right away from people.

[Annie]

Morning Cheer Up Picture: The Controller's Office by the late Peter Barnfield.

There's just so much detail to enjoy in this picture.

 

 

[Annie]

I haven't been keeping up very well with Steve Flander's heroic efforts to build Chippenham station of the 1840s, but despite that here is Steve's latest video.  Making sense of the surviving drawings Network Rail held in its archives hasn't been easy and only recently after consulting with the Broad Gauge Society it has come to light that some of these drawings were for an extension to the original station that was never built.  The plans were drawn up when the route to Weymouth was opened, but the modifications ended up not being constructed.  Steve has gone ahead and built his model according to the drawings and what other sparse information has survived so it's going to be a generic large Broad Gauge intermediate station rather than an accurate model of the 1840's station at Chippenham.

 

 

[Northroader]

I was a bit baffled at the earlier instalments of this job, now it’s come out that it never happened, I’m very relieved, as it didn’t really square with what bit I know of the place.

[Annie]

This is my cheer up project to give me something to do to take my mind off things.  I laid out the platforms and some of the track months ago, but never went back to it for some unknown reason.  The station buildings are placeholders, but I can put together some better textures to make them blend in with what else is there.  The Broad Gauge wagon turntables are old ones from TS2004 and are not easy to work with and after making several attempts at it this was about the best I could do.  The engine shed is the Broad Gauge era one from Barnstaple and the goods shed is based on one from the O.W.&W.R.  The over roofs are by Steve Flanders and aren't really correct for the use I'm putting them too, but they'll do for what I want.

 

 

 

[Annie]

Thinking one sided thoughts.  I'm doing a bit better today, but I'm sleeping a lot and I get fatigued easily.

Taunton 1845

 

Slough 1875

[Annie]

I was tired and my brain had gone offline when I left off working on the Brunel station yesterday so it was good to return to the goods shed and its trackwork puzzle and sort them out properly today.  I'm going to use the surroundings of Slough station as shown on the 1875 OS map as a general guide for building up the scenery and buildings around the station. The nice thing about the 19th century is a lot more open fields and smaller towns.

I haven't decided on a name for the station and yet to be built town yet, or where it is, - or even what I might end up doing with this embryo Broad Gauge layout.

 

 

A general view of the up line half of the station.  The red flag is a marker for the centre point of the layout board and doesn't mean that the Bolsheviks have taken over.  I think I'll re-texture those brick station buildings next.

 

 

An assortment of test carriages for checking clearances.  Clearances are tight, but this was pretty much how it was back then and engine crews had to be careful about sticking their heads out too far around those support columns.

 

 

 

'Sagittarius' and 'Red Star' busy raising steam with fireboxes well filled with oily old socks.  This pair were built for Trainz TS2004 and for some reason black chimney smoke was popular back then.  Steve Flanders has said I can do what I want with his older Broad Gauge models so I'll be wheeling them into the works fairly soon to sort them out a bit.

 

[Annie]

I feel like I'm making some progress now.  I ended up having to re-texture the ballast on the Broad Gauge track I wanted to use since I couldn't match it to any ground cover textures.  Once that was done I was able to level out the trackwork and wagon turntables at the height I wanted.  With that done I flung a suitable ballast texture everywhere which tied it all together very nicely.  It won't be staying quite so pristine as I'll mix in other ground textures.

I would have liked to have lowered the trackwork even more, but the wagon turntables proved to be the fly in the ointment as they couldn't be lowered anymore than what you see here.  Despite some of the frustrations with trying to get everything to work together I am enjoying myself and I'm managing to keep myself distracted from not feeling so well which is certainly a good thing.

 

 

 

I dug out some old friends.  The 'Metropolitan Pyramid Co' wagons are a bit of fun and while they aren't exactly correct for any known Broad Gauge wagon prototype I don't mind taking them out and giving them a run sometimes.  The GWR wagon in the background is a better example of a Broad Gauge open wagon as its meshes were made by a member of the creator group with some reference to BG Society drawings.  While digging about for rolling stock I found some B&ER open wagons I'd textured and completely forgotten about so I must get them finished off as well.

 

 

More old friends.  The E.B. Wilson Broad Gauge well tanks that never were (but could have been).  There's four of them altogether; - 'ARKE', 'ARETE', 'CORUS' and 'METIS'.  They're named after titans from Greek Mythology.  All four are nice runners and are capable of doing good work.  I keep meaning to devise a freelance railway company for them to belong to, but I haven't thought of one yet.