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

[Hroth]

What a nice collection of sheds!

 

 

If only my back garden were longer... 🙂

 

[sir douglas]

nothing railway related but thought i'd share it anyway. New Zealand's fight against invasive species

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcp1BfPUeOc&ab_channel=TomScott

[Annie]

4 hours ago, sir douglas said:

nothing railway related but thought i'd share it anyway. New Zealand's fight against invasive species

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcp1BfPUeOc&ab_channel=TomScott

It's one of those things that's quietly happening in the background here.  Most New Zealanders have a high regard for our natural environment and don't want to see our native bird life and other creatures like lizards and insects dying out and going extinct due to introduced predators.

[Annie]

Afternoon Cheer Up Painting:  'Hesperus and Weston' by Greater Albion Art and Design.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

 

[Annie]

GWR Barnum No.3223 seen in Moxbury goods yard before heading off into the mysterious West.

Steve Flanders has just released the rest of his Barnums to his website, - there are 5 in all; - two in pre-1907 livery, two in post-1907 livery and one in a livery I've not seen before with a black boiler and Indian Red frames and splashers. There's boiler variations as well.

 

[Tom Burnham]

6 hours ago, Annie said:

Afternoon Cheer Up Painting:  'Hesperus and Weston' by Greater Albion Art and Design.

Hesperus was a favourite name for engines on Colonel Stephens's railways. As a rude person once said, a good name for a wreck.

[Compound2632]

23 minutes ago, Tom Burnham said:

Hesperus was a favourite name for engines on Colonel Stephens's railways. As a rude person once said, a good name for a wreck.

 

In classical mythology, a personification of the planet Venus as the Evening Star. Make of that what you will.

[Annie]

Barnum No. 3223 leaving (faux) Bunbury on its way to the mysterious West, - or in actual fact return loop No.1 at the very end of the layout.

 

 

On the way No.3223 would have passed Eastlingwold & Great Mulling Railway No.5 on its regular daily passenger service from the W.N.R.  The TANE version of my Norfolk layout represents the last Summer in which the Affiliated (Imaginary) Railway Companies maintained a semblance of their former independence before the GER took full control.  E&GR No.5 would be withdrawn still wearing its original green E&GR livery, but for this final Summer the passenger service to the W.N.R. is still No.5's to own.

 

 

Approaching (faux) Bunbury.

 

 

Station stop at (faux) Bunbury.  If you are wondering why I'm referring to this station as being (faux) Bunbury, - it's because when I named the station and the point switch connections and the trackmarks and wrote the passenger schedule I did not know that there really was a town named 'Bunbury'.  So after doing all that I seriously was not going to change the station's name to something else and have to do it all over again.

 

 

And arrival at Moxbury.  From here No.5 will continue east making station stops at Bluebell Magna and Brenton Wood (Junction) before returning to the E&GR via the junction at Barrow Hills.  It's a been a good long run for this intrepid old engine by the time it reaches its home shed at Great Mulling.

 

 

 

[Hroth]

"The Mysterious West", better known as "Here be Dragons!"...

 

[magmouse]

There seem to be at least two Bunbury's, one in Cheshire, England, and one in Western Australia. And of course, there is Bunbury in Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of Being Earnest - a character made up by one of the other characters, so doubly fictional.

 

When the supposed existence of Bunbury becomes inconvenient, Algernon, who invented him, declares him to be dead - "quite exploded":

 

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/250528-lady-bracknell-may-i-ask-if-it-is-in-this

 

So Bunbury is a good name for a usefully fictional station, it seems to me.

 

Nick.

[Hroth]

Bunbury, Cheshire naturally pre-dates all the other references, and has a railway, though not a station.  This is the main line from Crewe to Chester.  So if Annie could run LNWR trains through her (fictional) Bunbury Station, then all will be well!

 

In the real world, Bunbury's main claim to fame is that the Shropshire Union Canal passes through and has a 2 rise staircase lock lifting the canal some 15ft.

 

 

I took this over-atmospheric photo in March 2002, the railway crosses the canal about 400 yards behind my right shoulder. The buildings beside the locks were stabling for canal company towing horses.

 

[Hroth]

I must also say that the railway from Crewe to Chester and beyond is an important line as it continues from Chester, across the River Dee* and thence along the North Wales coast, across the Menai Straits on the Brittannia Tubular Bridge to the island of Anglesey and the port of Holyhead.  This is the route of the Irish Mail, until it was discontinued, the oldest named train service in the world**.

 

* The Dee Bridge was one of Robert Stephenson's few failures, in May 1847 a cast iron span collapsed as a train was passing over it, killing the fireman, a guard, two coachmen and a passenger. Naturally, it's described in Red For Danger (Ch4 - Bridge Failures).

** I say discontinued as it does not run as a mail service, though a train running at the Mail's time may still be identified as such in the working timetable.

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Hroth
Update about the Dee Bridge

[Annie]

6 hours ago, magmouse said:

So Bunbury is a good name for a usefully fictional station, it seems to me.

 

Nick

And that was exactly why I chose the name Nick.  The fact that it was the station to the west of Moxbury also helped along my choice of name.

 

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

Bunbury, Cheshire naturally pre-dates all the other references, and has a railway, though not a station.  This is the main line from Crewe to Chester.  So if Annie could run LNWR trains through her (fictional) Bunbury Station, then all will be well!

 

I would be seriously stretching things to have the LNWR running through to Moxbury via Bunbury.  I already have the GWR, GCR and M&GNJR making connections with Moxbury via running powers so I doubt that I get away with the LNWR as well.

 

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

In the real world, Bunbury's main claim to fame is that the Shropshire Union Canal passes through and has a 2 rise staircase lock lifting the canal some 15ft.

No canal at my Bunbury only a rather magnificent lake (Broad?) which i always intended as my Bunbury's main attraction.

 

26 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I must also say that the railway from Crewe to Chester and beyond is an important line as it continues from Chester, across the River Dee* and thence along the North Wales coast, across the Menai Straits on the Brittannia Tubular Bridge to the island of Anglesey and the port of Holyhead.  This is the route of the Irish Mail, until it was discontinued, the oldest named train service in the world**.

A fascinating line of railway with a rich history, but since I've been resisting taking up anything to do with the LNWR for a good while now I dare not start drawing in any more imaginary lines on the map to make a North Wales connection.

[Annie]

A snap taken this morning at Gwladys Ddu in the early Autumn sunshine.  Barnum No.3221 has joined No.3211 (Armstrong Goods in the background).  Both engines are as downloaded from Steve Flanders's website.  I still have my cloned copy of No.3211 with my own interpretation of Indian Red, but I would need to figure out the texture mapping on the new tenders before I could have it make a return.

'Prince Christian' still needs to be frowned at some more while I try to get its more difficult texture mapping figured out.

 

[Edwardian]

18 hours ago, Hroth said:

Bunbury, Cheshire naturally pre-dates all the other references, and has a railway, though not a station.  This is the main line from Crewe to Chester.  So if Annie could run LNWR trains through her (fictional) Bunbury Station, then all will be well!

 

In the real world, Bunbury's main claim to fame is that the Shropshire Union Canal passes through and has a 2 rise staircase lock lifting the canal some 15ft.

 

 

I took this over-atmospheric photo in March 2002, the railway crosses the canal about 400 yards behind my right shoulder. The buildings beside the locks were stabling for canal company towing horses.

 

 

Ah, but I grew up familiar with the 10 locks of Foxton's two staircases!  They even added an inclined plain beside them to speed things up!

 

[Schooner]

Simmer down lil'uns!

!

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Schooner said:

Simmer down lil'uns!

!

I see your 10 flight of locks and raise you 29.  What a great photograph.

Some clever people in the creator group made working canal locks for Trainz.  I've tended to stay away from them as I could see them becoming a very deep rabbit hole to fall into if I wasn't careful.  When asked I did do some narrowboat texture work for the project though.

The really strange thing is when the first canal layouts were first uploaded to the DLS their makers got officially told off because canals have nothing to do with railways.  Seems like whoever it was who did that got taken off somewhere and re-educated, because not long afterwards canal layouts were welcome.

[Annie]

Afternoon GWR Cheer Up Picture:  Bugle station c.1910 with a train for Newquay.  Another source says it's c.1920, but I don't think so.

 

 

1907 OS map.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Annie
Added a map

[Compound2632]

5 hours ago, Annie said:

Another source says it's c.1920, but I don't think so.

 

What was that word you used earlier? Re-education.

 

I think we have:

1. U27 31 ft luggage tricomposite T/S/Lug/F/T with the first class compartment further from us; note the unequal panel spacing and deep eves panels. 
2. D? A bogie brake third with two sets of luggage doors and five compartments, that I can't find at http://www.gwrcoaches.org.uk/index.html!
3. U29 31 ft luggage tricomposite, also T/S/Lug/F/T but note shallower eves panels over the quarterlights, though the deep panels for the door ventilators have been retained.   
4. V5 28 ft passenger brake van - it's a 4-wheeler and shorter than the U29, so not V8 / V10 / V11 I think...

I saw a very nice photo the other day of a U27 in a LNWR train bound for Manchester at Stockport, with roof board suggesting it had come via Worcester but probably originating from somewhere beyond:

 

 

[Embedded link to L&NWR Society Facebook group.]

 

The Bugle photo has an interesting wagon in the yard - looks like black lettering on a lighter-coloured body, which usually suggests buff or off-yellow of some sort, and stone or lime rather than coal.  T. J. SHAR(P?) & Co.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Compound2632
apostrophe inserted

[Hroth]

On 02/03/2023 at 07:03, Edwardian said:

 

Ah, but I grew up familiar with the 10 locks of Foxton's two staircases!  They even added an inclined plain beside them to speed things up!

 

 

A steam driven inclined plane to boot!

 

13 hours ago, Schooner said:

Simmer down lil'uns!

!

 

Caen Hill is just a flight of locks, physically exhausting to operate (especially as they're BROAD gauge!), but not the technical challenge that staircase locks present.  Broad gauge AND staircase is even more fun, the Bingley Five Rise combines both and is one of the few lock sites on the recreational canal network that has a full time lock keeper to supervise operations. Chester has a broad gauge three rise that boaters are left to their own devices with. Hire boaters particularly get in a pickle with the operating sequence and often flood one of the lower two chambers...

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Hroth
Bingley corrected...

[Tom Burnham]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Chester has a broad gauge three rise that boaters are left to their own devices with. Hire boaters particularly get in a pickle with the operating sequence and often flood one of the lower two chambers...

 

Been there, done that...

[Hroth]

50 minutes ago, Tom Burnham said:

Been there, done that...

 

Its also possible to empty the middle chamber entirely.  I've even seen that achieved while it contained a boat*...

 

* The level of cack-handedness needed to do that is epic!

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Hroth

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

What was that word you used earlier? Re-education.

 

I think we have:

1. U27 31 ft luggage tricomposite T/S/Lug/F/T with the first class compartment further from us; note the unequal panel spacing and deep eves panels. 
2. D? A bogie brake third with two sets of luggage doors and five compartments, that I cant find at http://www.gwrcoaches.org.uk/index.html!
3. U29 31 ft luggage tricomposite, also T/S/Lug/F/T but note shallower eves panels over the quarterlights, though the deep panels for the door ventilators have been retained.   
4. V5 28 ft passenger brake van - it's a 4-wheeler and shorter than the U29, so not V8 / V10 / V11 I think...

I saw a very nice photo the other day of a U27 in a LNWR train bound for Manchester at Stockport, with roof board suggesting it had come via Worcester but probably originating from somewhere beyond:

 

 

[Embedded link to L&NWR Society Facebook group.]

 

The Bugle photo has an interesting wagon in the yard - looks like black lettering on a lighter-coloured body, which usually suggests buff or off-yellow of some sort, and stone or lime rather than coal.  T. J. SHAR(P?) & Co.

Thank you Stephen, and thank you especially for that nice picture of the U27 Tri-comp.  U29 Tri-compts are old friends since I have a very nice litho version I put together some time ago.  I've been wanting to do a U27, but for some reason or another I've not got very far with it yet.

That bogie brake 3rd isn't one that I recognise.  At first I wondered if it was a D3, but it's definitely not with two sets of luggage doors and 5 compartments.  I wasn't so sure about the passenger brake van since I don't know much about those so thanks for giving it an identity.

 

I went with the earlier date on the photo because I'm betting on that 455 class Metro tank having Indian Red frames.  The old Broad Gauge era 6w Tri-comps were very useful coaches and made it to 1930 before being withdrawn or turned into camping or workman's coaches, - so they would have been around still being used in Cornwall in 1920.  However Wikipedia identifies the source of the photo as being a postcard published in 1910 so that puts paid to the 1920 theory.  Wikipedia also says that the T.J.Sharp wagons are loaded with china clay.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

However Wikipedia identifies the source of the photo as being a postcard published in 1910 so that puts paid to the 1920 theory.  Wikipedia also says that the T.J.Sharp wagons are loaded with china clay.

 

To my mind the strongest argument against 1920 is that all four carriages are in the pre-1908 chocolate and cream livery, rather than claret. I suppose one could argue for a date in the mid/late 20s following the 1923 restoration of fully-lined chocolate and cream.

 

China clay makes sense.

[Annie]

10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

To my mind the strongest argument against 1920 is that all four carriages are in the pre-1908 chocolate and cream livery, rather than claret. I suppose one could argue for a date in the mid/late 20s following the 1923 restoration of fully-lined chocolate and cream.

 

China clay makes sense.

I must confess that I have this terrible blind spot when it comes to the claret carriage livery.  Somewhere in the depths of my memory I know it existed, but when it comes to identifying old photos or even model making it's as if it didn't happen at all.  Possibly that might be because I think the claret livery is an aberration that should not have happened so my brain edits out its existence.

 

Edit: I also feel much the same about the GER's post WW1 carriage livery.

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Annie
More words needed.