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

[Annie]

WOW!  Everything is just sooooo beautifully modelled.  Talk about a pre-grouping overdose.  

 

Some of the same engines and coaches have recently been made available for Trainz due to the very dedicated work of around four different content creators, but I don't think they have covered so many livery variations.  Those Caley locomotives are absolutely beautiful.  It's really good that coaches and goods wagons are been made available too as one of the problems with Trainz for a long time was that someone would make a pre-group locomotive and there would be absolutely nothing to run with it.

Seeing the M7 and the Adams Radial does my heart good too.  I have both of those for Trainz now, but it took sooooo long before somebody created a decent Adams Radial.  At least coaches were available due to the single handed work of Jay Holland who had been a bit of a lone voice in the wilderness with the southern area railway companies for far too long.

 

Now I feel completely embarrassed and inadequate with showing off my latest reworking of a generic Metropolitan Railway & Carriage Co coach for the GNJt.R.

 

 

I'm going to convert some of my older artwork over to the six wheeled clerestory coach mesh as well as make more of these faux MR&C Co. six wheelers.  I have some roughed out artwork for a first class version that still needs further work.  Doing textures for this coach mesh is a bit of a trick since they are stretched into place across the body mesh, but after working with these coach meshes for a while now I've managed to get the hang of it.

[sem34090]

Kris has done a good job on them...

 

The sounds are also something to be proud of, and once again add to the learning of the loco. The sounds for the 812 (and 123...) were professionally recorded off of the preserved 812 No.828 at Strathspey, and you can tell. That hooter is a sheer delight of a whistle, and the whole thing makes such a wonderful noise, even when you cut the regulator to coast for a bit and you can hear the loco in motion: the rods clanking, the safety valves slowly beginning to lift as your pressure builds up, the Westinghouse Pump, the noise of the coaches behind, all fading into the background again when you've realised you've lost a bit too much speed and you reduce the cutoff and open up the regulator as you storm through Three Bridges at 60mph on the 'Blue Belle' railtour (I need to buy the T9 to do that properly... a Compound doesn't quite cut it!) headed for Haywards Heath. It's also fun outpacing modern electric units when you choose to do a 'quick drive' on a modern route! Even the sound of the loco slipping when you (stupidly) open the reg up fully on starting, and also forgot to turn the sanders on! The Sparks go flying and you need to start again, but the sound is brilliant! The Caley engines don't have the most advanced features, but they give a nice impression of the real thing - they don't need opening smokebox doors or 3D Firebox interior models - they have the right  'feel' to them and they sound great to boot.

 

As I said, I don't see such detail and realism as working inside motion and high detail as such a requirement for trainz, where the fun is in playing trains in an unlimited space, rather than mastering the control of a loco.

[Annie]

Sounds marvellous indeed Sem  

 

I agree about all the twirly bits not being so important with Trainz, but the McDonnell Class 59 and Worsdell Class C's I've just got from Paulz Trainz do have animated connecting rods and a proper crankaxle between the frames.  With them being small boilered locomotives and being able to see down between the frames it is nice to see the rods in motion and the absence of the valve gear isn't that obvious.  

 

I do agree about decent sound files being important though and they do very much help to create an immersive experience.

[Annie]

I just had to redo No.12 the 3rd/luggage coach to being a 6 wheeler if for no better reason than its unusual two tone green livery.  It's actually a really useful coach to have in a train and I did do a further modification of it's artwork to having a guard's compartment as well, but I seem to have misplaced the file.

 

[Annie]

So I decided to go ahead and make the 3rd/Luggage/Guard version of No.12 and I made it No.11 to give the idea that both coaches were obtained/purchased around the same time and would also explain them both being in the same livery.  This type of coach would be seriously obsolete by the time of the grouping, but I used the centre Guard/Luggage compartment format because of the very simple way the textures are applied.  With a guard's compartment at one end they would end up diagonally opposite one another from one side to the other.

 

[Annie]

And the logical conclusion to the series.  The GNJt.R handles a lot of parcels and small goods traffic so coaches like these are very necessary.  While i was making these I remembered I'd already made a similar set for TS2012, only they all vanished when my TS2012 install went and ate itself.  I didn't like TS2012 anyway and I much prefer to play trains with the TS2009 version of Trainz.

 

Edit: No.10 coach has now been amended so this is the latest picture after the alterations.

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by Annie

[Caley Jim]

The CR 0-4-4t is a '439' class. One of these is preserved at the SRPS site at Bo'ness.

 

Jim

[sem34090]

I forgot and was too lazy to look it up! I'll amend my post later...

[Annie]

And there is just one more in the two tone green series of luggage coaches.  I have really needed one of these for a while.

 

[Caley Jim]

Further to my post #182, details of CR 419 can be found here.  It is to take part in a Steam Gala at Bo'ness in November, along with 812 class no 828 (which is the subject of a soon-to-be-released 4mm RTR model (pity it's the wrong scale!).  These are the only two preserved CR locos in steam.  The third is 123 which is on permanent display in the Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport, so is unlikely to ever steam again, sadly.

 

Jim

[Annie]

Hope I'm not boring everybody to death with my coach pictures. I had some not very good teak coaches I did ages ago with blurry low resolution textures so I decided to improve the textures and generally give them a bit of a good tidy up.  The faux interior is a bit of an experiment which I'm going to persist with and once I'm happy with it my other coaches might get it too.

 

[Edwardian]

Hope I'm not boring everybody to death with my coach pictures. I had some not very good teak coaches I did ages ago with blurry low resolution textures so I decided to improve the textures and generally give them a bit of a good tidy up.  The faux interior is a bit of an experiment which I'm going to persist with and once I'm happy with it my other coaches might get it too.

 

 

I like coaches.

 

You keep going!

[Annie]

Thanks James.  From various digital sources I'd acquired some really nice pregroup coaches for the GER, NER, L&Y and the LNWR and suddenly my old GNJt.R coaches looked like very poor relations indeed.  Even though my coaches are flat lithos mounted on what is a very simple coach base mesh I do like them and wanted them to look good too.  Since I originally put them together my skills with using graphic software have improved so I was able to do a much better job this time around.

[Edwardian]

Thanks James.  From various digital sources I'd acquired some really nice pregroup coaches for the GER, NER, L&Y and the LNWR and suddenly my old GNJt.R coaches looked like very poor relations indeed.  Even though my coaches are flat lithos mounted on what is a very simple coach base mesh I do like them and wanted them to look good too.  Since I originally put them together my skills with using graphic software have improved so I was able to do a much better job this time around.

 

Can you adapt the designs to print out for models?  I say that because they remind me of what was done for Saltdean.

[Annie]

Oh yes James it's quite possible for me to print my designs out and use them on model coaches.  The artwork for the six wheeler coach sides would need a little modification as they are compressed lengthways due to the texture being stretched across the coach's body mesh, but it wouldn't be difficult to do that.  My coach sides are a little bit on the vintage 'tinplate coach' side of things in general style rather than being scale, but that's just down to my personal foibles when it comes to railway models.  

 

Saltdean?  I'm afraid I don't understand the reference as my daft little clockwork brain is being a bit slow this morning.

[Regularity]

Saltdean?

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98308-saltdean-lbscr-in-0-gauge/?hl=saltdean

[Annie]

 

 

........... I say that because they remind me of what was done for Saltdean.

Having now read though the relevant pages in the Saltdean thread I can see what you mean James.  Certainly teak or any varnished wooden coach is a lot trickier to do than a painted one and with some of the other teak coaches I did I had some small battles with trying to get the finish to look right.  So far I've done a 4 compt 1st, a downgraded luggage 4 compt 2nd, a 5 compt 3rd (as above) and a passenger luggage van.  Some of them I'll need to go back to and do some adjustments, but for the present they are useable.

[Annie]

I have one thing to say about this luggage van and that's AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!

 

 

For some reason it was just plain difficult and fought me all the way.  Having so many bits to line up and fit correctly didn't help, - especially when I managed to level some of the panelling incorrectly and I had to do it again.  And then there was the lining to get right.  And then I got the size of the doors wrong and had to correct them...... And.....

Well you get the general idea.  Looking at the picture the only thing I think I'll do is to make the hinges on the double luggage doors a bit heavier, but otherwise I think I can call it done.

[Annie]

I must be nuts, but I must admit I'm pleased I went back and had another look at this van.  

 

[Edwardian]

Well scumbled.  And now, with louvres, you can use it for perishables!

[Annie]

Thanks James.  I did look around for some proper teak textures, but ended up driving myself bats by drawing most of the textures by hand.  It was only while I was fixing the hinges on the van that I got the idea to put louvres in the doors.  As you say it's now a much more useful van especially since my railway is right in the middle of a farming area.

[Annie]

I hadn't noticed this before, but Paulz Trainz has the Barry Railways Class B1 and J tank engines in their original as built condition on his website.  The Class 'B1' was built by Sharp Stewart which immediately opens up all manner of 'what-if' possibilities.  The Class 'J' is by Hudswell Clarke 1897 (3 locos) and Sharp Stewart 1898-99 (6 locos) and also has potential for flights of imagination.  Paul seems to have modelled the Sharpie 'J'.

 

Swindonised ex-Barry Railways 'B1'

 

 

An original condition Barry Railways 'J' by Hudswell Clarke

 

 

Swindonised 'Sharpie'  'J'

 

Edited April 18, 2018 by Annie

[sem34090]

Fun and games on the first Col.Stephens line for TS!

 

And we already have a terrier in the right livery, two in fact!

[Annie]

All good fun Sem.  I have a big soft spot for the Col. Stephens railways.

[Annie]

Just received some ancient NBR composite coaches with three stages of nicely done weathering from Paulz Trainz.  The Furlong branch, which is a meandering twiglet off the Seaside branch, uses ancient NBR coaches for its passenger trains.  Perhaps not likely in the immediate grouping era, but it's fun and since it's my trainset I can run wot I like.

 

(Paul's picture not mine)

 

I already have some very plain and grim NBR thirds and I'd like to get the first class coaches next.  The firsts might be a bit more likely since first class coaches tended to have longer lives and were sometimes still in use even when ancient.  A posh 1860's interior is still posh in the year 1920 or so, but might be getting just a little worn about the edges by then.  The compo is a later model so has a nicely modelled ribbed roof whereas the first on Paul's site doesn't.  I must ask him if he's updated the roof as it does look better.

 

Paul's picture of the first class coach.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Annie