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

[Annie]

From the Facebook Broad Gauge Railway Simulator group:  A Rover posed next to a King.  This isn't the Trainz simulator by the way this is t'other one,-  their competition in the Railway simulator marketplace.

 

[Annie]

Morning Railway Cheer Up Poster:  So far this is the only North London Railway poster I've been able to find.  It was my interest in tinplate trains that led me to discover the N.L.R.  I've only ever owned a couple of tinplate engines by Bing, but unfortunately not one of their N.L.R. locos.

 

 

[Adam88]

 

Oh dear! Someone has rather carelessly left this Crampton unattended in a dark corner of the internet.

 

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Adam88 said:

 

Oh dear! Someone has rather carelessly left this Crampton unattended in a dark corner of the internet.

 

Oh my, - now there's a pleasant sight.  😀

[Edwardian]

8 hours ago, Adam88 said:

 

Oh dear! Someone has rather carelessly left this Crampton unattended in a dark corner of the internet.

 

 

Might suggest that as KR Models next steam outline model.

 

Ahem

[magmouse]

46 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Might suggest that as KR Models next steam outline model.

 

Easy to manufacture, and a well known and popular prototype. It's a no-brainer.

 

Nick.

[wagonman]

The outboard Stephenson's gear should be fun!

[Hroth]

Mike Sharman managed it...

 

 

0:05 - 0:26 (and other shots in the film)

 

I think this has been posted before, but its nice to see it again!

 

 

[Annie]

Afternoon Cheer Up Painting:  'Winter Steam' by Don Breckon.

 

 

It's been a good sort of a cheer up day actually because I went and saw my doctor about some of the LongCOVID symptoms that were still bothering me and I was prescribed some tablets that should help.  Because I hardly ever leave the house these days and prefer to stay hidden away my doctor made good and sure to get the Medlab people at the clinic to test me for everything she could think of since she might not see me again for a good while.  Apparently there's a new COVID vaccine that works against Omnicon variants that will be available soon and my doctor has put me down on the list for it.

 

[Compound2632]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

I was prescribed some tablets that should help.  

 

With that painting in mind, those tablets should prevent any unfortunate accidents. But you'll be needing a tablet dispenser:

 

 

[Embedded link to LMS Society website.]

 

I doubt you'll need this, but for anyone taking tablets while on the go, Alfred Whitaker has the answer:

 

 

[Embedded link to LMS Society website.]

 

The whole multi-part article by Peter Tatlow is an interesting read:

https://www.lmssociety.org.uk/topics/singleLineWorking1.php

[Hroth]

33 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

With that painting in mind, those tablets should prevent any unfortunate accidents. But you'll be needing a tablet dispenser:

 

 

[Embedded link to LMS Society website.]

 

I doubt you'll need this, but for anyone taking tablets while on the go, Alfred Whitaker has the answer:

 

 

[Embedded link to LMS Society website.]

 

The whole multi-part article by Peter Tatlow is an interesting read:

https://www.lmssociety.org.uk/topics/singleLineWorking1.php

 

I've often thought that the problem with automatic tablet exchange equipment is that the driver can't immediately examine the new one to ensure that it's for the section he is entering, especially if he's bustling along at 40mph and there's a bit of a bend ahead...

 

@Annie  Its a very nice picture, but it's March and we don't want any more snow!  🙂

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I've often thought that the problem with automatic tablet exchange equipment is that the driver can't immediately examine the new one to ensure that it's for the section he is entering, especially if he's bustling along at 40mph and there's a bit of a bend ahead...

 

Job for the fireman, then.

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Job for the fireman, then.

 

Oi Bert! Stick her in reverse!  They've given us the wrong tablet again!!!

 

Ok, I realise that with a properly operated Tablet machine, it's highly unlikely for it to happen. But still...

 

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

But still...

 

Only one word for that, beginning with A. But no need to go into such unpleasantness here.

[Annie]

50 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I doubt you'll need this, but for anyone taking tablets while on the go, Alfred Whitaker has the answer:

With much of the old New Zealand Railways being single track back in the day there was a similar kind of automatic tablet exchange equipment in use here.

5 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Job for the fireman, then.

Yes as far as I was aware it was always the fireman's job to catch and check the tablets or staff.

 

57 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

With that painting in mind, those tablets should prevent any unfortunate accidents. But you'll be needing a tablet dispenser:

 

Now that did make me laugh and cheered me up a bit.  One way to make sure that I don't forget my tablets.

 

18 minutes ago, Hroth said:

  Its a very nice picture, but it's March and we don't want any more snow!  🙂

It's just coming on to our Autumn and after all the frightful weather we had during January and February our lost Summer weather has finally decided to turn up.  Where I live in the Waikato we might just might get a tiny dusting of snow on one of the tallest hills around here, but you have to be quick to see it since it always melts fairly quickly.

 

 

[eheaps]

Latest 3D loco model that might be of interest here. This variant is nearly done, but there's lots to add to represent as built locos, District line examples, etc.

 

[Adam88]

On 07/03/2023 at 00:36, Adam88 said:

 

Oh dear! Someone has rather carelessly left this Crampton unattended in a dark corner of the internet.

 

Needless to say, Mike Sharman already had it in his book (p91).  Had I been deliberately looking for this I would not have found it, and I never did find what I was actually looking for.

 

[Annie]

3 hours ago, eheaps said:

Latest 3D loco model that might be of interest here. This variant is nearly done, but there's lots to add to represent as built locos, District line examples, etc.

 

Absolutely wonderful Ed, - this is definitely one of your models I will be waiting for.  There certainly are plenty of variations you could model between both the MET and the District lines.  I suppose the ones that were sold on to other railways might be a step too far though.

[Annie]

Late Afternoon Railway Cheer Up Picture: Blue Anchor station in the preservation era.  I think this is a piece of artwork that was created for a jigsaw puzzle.  Still relevant to me though because my very much WIP 1880-1890s Minehead branch project is something that I've been frowning at a bit lately.

 

[magmouse]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

Late Afternoon Railway Cheer Up Picture: Blue Anchor station in the preservation era.  I think this is a piece of artwork that was created for a jigsaw puzzle.  Still relevant to me though because my very much WIP 1880-1890s Minehead branch project is something that I've been frowning at a bit lately.

 

This is lovely, Annie. In my early teens I holidayed with my parents in the area. It was before the whole of the line was restored, and we used to walk the unrestored track bed in the evenings, near where we were staying. We also rode the WSR, of course. Fond memories!

 

Nick.

[Edwardian]

A sadly defunct model railway was the large Tone Vale layout. Set in the 1930s, it centred, IIRC, on the GW mainline through Taunton. It was ambitious in scope and I do not know, large as it was, it encompassed not just Taunton, but the lines around it, including the terminus at Minehead. Taunton, of course, saw the confluence of the West of England mainline services with the North-West cross-country routes on the mainline.

 

A relic of the layout survives in film footage, a film compiled after the demise of the builder and the layout, which I have somewhere on a VHS tape which, in this day and age, I cannot now view.  

[Annie]

13 minutes ago, magmouse said:

This is lovely, Annie. In my early teens I holidayed with my parents in the area. It was before the whole of the line was restored, and we used to walk the unrestored track bed in the evenings, near where we were staying. We also rode the WSR, of course. Fond memories!

 

Nick.

Well you might like this then Nick.  This is the Minehead end of TANE version of my representation of the Minehead branch circa the 1890s loaded into TRS22.  The original layout it's based on was made in TS2004 and it had a lot of errors so I've been working on it for a good while now to get it somewhere near how things would have been in the 1890s. From memory it's properly sceniced as far as Williton.

 

There's a TRS22 version as well which I've done a lot more work to, but with TRS22 causing more and more problems with every 'upgrade' breaking things I'm not going to do any more to it and I'll take the TANE version back to TANE and carry on with it there.

I only know the Minehead branch through working on this layout, but it definitely has a soft spot in my heart.

 

 

 

[Annie]

32 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

A sadly defunct model railway was the large Tone Vale layout. Set in the 1930s, it centred, IIRC, on the GW mainline through Taunton. It was ambitious in scope and I do not know, large as it was, it encompassed not just Taunton, but the lines around it, including the terminus at Minehead. Taunton, of course, saw the confluence of the West of England mainline services with the North-West cross-country routes on the mainline.

 

A relic of the layout survives in film footage, a film compiled after the demise of the builder and the layout, which I have somewhere on a VHS tape which, in this day and age, I cannot now view.  

That would have been quite a sight to see James.  I often used to see adverts posted in the local paper where folk were offering to copy old VHS tapes onto DVD and I would imagine such a service would be available somewhere near to you.

[Annie]

I had a seriously good look at the older TANE version of my Minehead branch layout and the amount of work that would be involved to get it to the same stage as the TRS22 version is just so darn depressing to even think about I've decided to keep on going with the TRS22 version.

Stogumber and to a larger extent Crowcombe Heathfield both needed a fair bit of landscape sculpting with the aid of topographical map data and I certainly don't want to have to go through all that again.  The issues with the mixed gauge track still remain unsolved, but at least the issues with signalling can be more of less solved by a strict one engine in steam policy in each section. 

The disc and crossbar signals no longer work after a TRS22 'update' broke their scripting so it's going to have to be slotted post signals and like it.  The disc and crossbar signal for the bay platform at Minehead is going to stay in place though since there's photographic evidence that it was still in use after the rest of the signals at Minehead were replaced with semaphore signals.

 

Stogumber.

 

Crowcombe Heathfield.

 

[Schooner]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

Stogumber.

 

Good, woody sort of word (from 5'55")