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

[Annie]

Some more old memories.  Snaps taken while testing my rebuilt Midland 1F 0-6-0 which is pretending to be on loan to the M&GNJR.

 

From the series named 'Shunting at Moxbury'.

 

 

Cough cough, - it certainly was a smoky little devil.

 

 

[Caley Jim]

Can almost smell the smoke! 😄

 

Jim

[Annie]

An unusual visitor.  I was testing Steve Flanders's new steam railmotor model for him and I needed to test it in TRS22..... So No.39 took over the passenger run out to Little Keldon for the day.  The passengers on the platform at Bluebell Woods were very surprised. 

 

[Edwardian]

JOMO - very good! There is a lot I could apply that to

[Annie]

Extra Special Broad Gauge Morning Cheer Up Picture:  From the Broad Gauge Society a beautifully colourised photo of 'Sebastopol' standing near Bath Road Shed in Bristol.  I've posted the original black and white photo here a couple of times now, but I wasn't going to turn this one down.

 

[Compound2632]

38 minutes ago, Annie said:

Extra Special Broad Gauge Morning Cheer Up Picture:  From the Broad Gauge Society a beautifully colourised photo of 'Sebastopol' standing near Bath Road Shed in Bristol.  I've posted the original black and white photo here a couple of times now, but I wasn't going to turn this one down.

 

Trouble is, I seem to have got both the GWS and the BGS ensconced in my Facebook feed, so I know what's likely to appear here! Not that I'm objecting.

[Annie]

28 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Trouble is, I seem to have got both the GWS and the BGS ensconced in my Facebook feed, so I know what's likely to appear here! Not that I'm objecting.

I know that some members of the Parish don't like Faceache Faceplant Facebook all that much so that's why I post my favourite photos here so that they can see them too.

 

In general I don't like Facebook that much either, but some of the railway related groups are very good.  I've just now discovered the Mechanical Railway Signalling group on Facebook as one example of a group I want to know more about, - but as for all the daft social media nonsense I couldn't give a fig for that.

 

Littlehaven gate box outside Horsham in Sussex. (Mechanical Railway Signalling group Facebook)

Edited July 27 by Annie
added a picture

[figworthy]

I had a day out yesterday to visit the Welland Steam Rally (https://wellandsteamrally.com/), which I can recommend for anyone in the area (or indeed beyond, I was talking to a gentleman from North Carolina over lunch).

 

Amongst the exhibits was this, which I though might appeal to a certain lady of the parish :

 

 

 

According to the show guide it is a 3.5" gauge loco, "The Monmouth".

 

Unfortunately, the tender was displayed back to front.

 

Adrian

[Annie]

5 minutes ago, figworthy said:

According to the show guide it is a 3.5" gauge loco, "The Monmouth".

Very nice, - a lovely model and nicely finished too.  The tender with that barrel attached looks more than a bit of an anachronism though.

 

From the link you posted it looks like the steam rally was a great day out.  Takes me back to when I used to travel about to such gatherings in the Auckland region here in NZ.

[figworthy]

23 hours ago, Annie said:

Very nice, - a lovely model and nicely finished too.  The tender with that barrel attached looks more than a bit of an anachronism though.

 

From the link you posted it looks like the steam rally was a great day out.  Takes me back to when I used to travel about to such gatherings in the Auckland region here in NZ.

 

Viewed from the other end, it was obvious that the tender was back to front as there was a slope down to a door way from which you'd extract the coal.  Otherwise, it was very nicely done.   A pity that it was "unattended" otherwise I would have tried to find out more about it.

 

You might be surprised how often there are exhibitors from NZ at steam fairs over here.

 

Adrian 

[Annie]

Work on establishing my Norfolk layout in TRS19 continues.  As an older layout that has developed over time it's collected all manner of dependencies and there's a considerable number of them as well.  Add to that the fact that's its builder tends to be obsessed over details and it adds up to a lot of work to get it complete and up and running again.

It always surprises me just how much of my own work populates my layout and while some of it is on the DLS and is an easy download the rest is scattered about archived on various hard drives and isn't always that simple to find.  I keep telling myself that I need to be more disciplined about storing my digital files - but I never seem to take any notice and end up forgetting about it (sigh).

 

A quick snap of the stations at Bluebell Woods.

 

 

And a little detail snap...

 

[Annie]

I was able to get quite a lot done today with transferring models and their dependences & etc.  Though it seems sometimes that after finding and installing  a couple of dozen models I end up with even more stray dependences and then I have to go off and find those.  At least now all the trackwork is in place so in theory it should be possible to run some trains about.

 

I'd not long rebuilt Hopewood on Sea station when my CoolerMaster computer suddenly died at the end of last year and interrupted progress.  I was going to replace the trackwork at the station with the same 60 lb flatbottomed rail that I've been converting the tramways to use so at least I'll be able to get that done now.

 

The lonely signal box that guards the passing loop at Great Marsh.  It's been on my mind to install a small halt platform here.  

In the distance you can see just the long timber viaduct that crosses over the estuary.

 

Tenpenny Wharf station.  Another station that benefited from the major effort by George Marshall and myself to create a collection of GER buildings to suit light railways and minor lines. 

[CKPR]

Looking at the above pictures begs the question of whether you have considered modelling the Solway Junction Railway ?

Edited August 1 by CKPR

[Caley Jim]

39 minutes ago, CKPR said:

Looking at the above pictures begs the question of whether you have considered modelling the Solway Junction Railway ?

Indeed!  https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcrossingthemoss.wordpress.com%2Fcategory%2Fsolway-junction-railway%2F&psig=AOvVaw26YXvkfHpEHn8zKrMY4FEx&ust=1722631692128000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCNiWl6fV1IcDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE 

 

Jim

[Annie]

2 hours ago, CKPR said:

Looking at the above pictures begs the question of whether you have considered modelling the Solway Junction Railway ?

 

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

Indeed!  https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcrossingthemoss.wordpress.com%2Fcategory%2Fsolway-junction-railway%2F&psig=AOvVaw26YXvkfHpEHn8zKrMY4FEx&ust=1722631692128000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCNiWl6fV1IcDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE 

What an amazing article.  Thanks very much for the link Jim.  I had heard of the Solway Junction Railway, but not seen it described in such detail.  But the SJR is one thing and the Windweather Tramway is quite another kettle of fish altogether.

The Windweather Tramway line over the salt marsh estuary at Great Marsh is nothing like so grand.  The long timber viaduct over the salt marsh has a severe speed and weight restriction and I've done my best to make the surrounding landscape look something like bleak and empty fenlands.

One good thing is they don't have 6 foot thick ice floes raging down the estuary with the Spring thaw trying to bring the viaduct down so I think it should be fine for a while yet.

The two screenshots are from when I first created the salt marsh in Trainz TS12, but with the changes in environmental lighting in TRS19 much of the original plant material I used in the salt marsh lost most of its colour and definition.  A very real disappointment for me at the time since the salt march covers a wide area and a lot of work went into it.

 

 

Edited August 1 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

 

Book Corner:

 

I must've ordered this book all of three months ago so I got a surprise when it arrived today.  I'm not quite sure why I ordered it now, but I'm sure the words 'Light Railway' had a lot to do with it.  Definitely not just a railway picture book there's a considerable amount of maps, landscape photos, as well as details of how the line came about and the people who were involved in its construction.  Not so many photos of these folk while alive, but strangely there are quite a few pictures of their gravestones.  Not really something that I've seen before in a railway line history book.

That apart it's plain that a good deal of research as gone into this book's creation and it's certainly not any kind of once over lightly railway history.  Should be a good bedtime read for me over the next couple of weeks.

[CKPR]

Mike Lloyd built a very nice 7mm model based on the TVLR as well as writing his own very well researched and illustrated book on the line (published by Wild Swan IIRC). He described the building of the locomotives, inc. the Sharp Stewart 2-4-0T 1196 in occassional articles in RM in the 1960s and the layout itself was described in a very early edition of MRJ, possibly  No.2 or No.3.

[Edwardian]

On 26/07/2024 at 22:42, Annie said:

Some more old memories.  Snaps taken while testing my rebuilt Midland 1F 0-6-0 which is pretending to be on loan to the M&GNJR.

 

From the series named 'Shunting at Moxbury'.

 

 

Cough cough, - it certainly was a smoky little devil.

 

 

 

The sort of atmosphere the virtual layout excels in. Very lovely.

[Annie]

14 hours ago, Edwardian said:

The sort of atmosphere the virtual layout excels in. Very lovely.

I'd first discovered this kind of immersion into a created world while playing the better kind of open world RPG adventuring games during the 1990s and early 2000s, - and in many ways I find the same kind of immersion into a created world with the Trainz layouts I build.  On those days when I wasn't feeling all that well it was a perfect escape to disappear into my imaginary version of Norfolk circa 1910 (or so).  If I don't fancy being on the footplate some of the carriages have a reserved seat in one of their compartments where I can sit and be a passenger for a while.  This is very useful as I often see things that I've missed or need some adjustment when I'm down at the level of a member of the travelling public.

 

Driving an engine like my smokey Midland half-cab to do a spot of trip shunting using the steam controls is wonderfully atmospheric as you say.  That it has good sound files as well is really the icing on the cake.  Things are nearly at the point where I can run trains again and I'm certainly looking forward to that.

Edited August 3 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

16 hours ago, CKPR said:

Mike Lloyd built a very nice 7mm model based on the TVLR as well as writing his own very well researched and illustrated book on the line (published by Wild Swan IIRC). He described the building of the locomotives, inc. the Sharp Stewart 2-4-0T 1196 in occasional articles in RM in the 1960s and the layout itself was described in a very early edition of MRJ, possibly  No.2 or No.3.

I found Mike Lloyd's drawing and article on No.1196 by searching through the RM backnumbers archive, but RM didn't have all that much of use when it came to the Tanat Valley.  What I did find was certainly better than nothing though and that includes finding drawings of the three small 0-6-0T TVLR locomotives.

 

An article on building a TVLR based layout on a baseboard made from a cardboard box was a surprise since building cardboard baseboards is something that I want to try.

 

I've been following an ex-Cambrian Rlys layout build over on Western Thunder that takes inspiration from the TVLR  https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/bleddfa-road.8169/

 

Days away from closure near derelict BR layouts aren't my thing, but there was still plenty to catch my interest.

[CKPR]

Ah yes, sorry to have sent you on a wild goose chase in the RM archives - I should have been clearer that Mike Lloyd's articles were about building O gauge locomotives, including 1196,  rather than the TVLR per se. Re. the cardboard box TVLR-inspired layout, I had that very article in my files until very recently when I had a massive clear out to save shelf space in my re-organised study.

[Annie]

12 hours ago, CKPR said:

Ah yes, sorry to have sent you on a wild goose chase in the RM archives - I should have been clearer that Mike Lloyd's articles were about building O gauge locomotives, including 1196,  rather than the TVLR per se. Re. the cardboard box TVLR-inspired layout, I had that very article in my files until very recently when I had a massive clear out to save shelf space in my re-organised study.

As it happened I found some other interesting articles and loco drawings along the way so it certainly wasn't a waste of time.  Something TVLR inspired might yet emerge either in the digital world or via the building of a tangible layout.  As if to tease me our local auction website has 14xx's both in 'O' Gauge and 00 and me in no financial shape to bid for either of them.  What is particularly annoying is that I built an 'O' gauge 48xx some years ago then like a fool I sold it.  Mind you I still have the steel template I made to make the cab roof and side tanks in one piece and that's about the worst part of attempting to built a 48xx.

 

12 hours ago, CKPR said:

Re. the cardboard box TVLR-inspired layout, I had that very article in my files until very recently when I had a massive clear out to save shelf space in my re-organised study.

I'm very seriously considering copying the methods used to build that cardboard box layout.

[Annie]

I haven't been doing much at all today as I seemed to be on the wrong end of my fatigue symptoms for most of the day, but I did manage to go into TRS19 and have a look over Windweather and its surroundings to make sure all was well.  It was at Windweather that I installed the brewery and laid new inset trackwork through the village not long before my poor old faithful CoolerMaster computer died.

 

Windweather with the new brewery in the foreground and the timber goods shed and maltings visible in the distance.

 

I took a couple of snaps of the viaduct over the salt marsh at Windweather.  Comparing the older snap I took in TS12 with this one in TRS19 you can see how the environmental lighting in the newer version has knocked about the coarse grasses colour and definition.  It was worse in TRS22 so I guess this will have to do since there's not really anything I can do about it.

 

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

Digging about in my archive of imaginary Norfolk holiday snaps I found this one that i really like.

 

[Edwardian]

On 08/08/2024 at 01:54, Annie said:

Digging about in my archive of imaginary Norfolk holiday snaps I found this one that i really like.

 

 

Perfection!