UK and European Model Railways

[teddytoot]

Some of my work in progress:

Vale of Talynog, a 2ft NG layout based on a 009 layout by Phil Savage.



Pike City UK, a UK version of a Model Railroader plan.



Madder Valley, my interpretation of the first version of John Ahern's landmark layout.



Lymeswold, based on Easingwold and using toy train track.



Both the last two layouts use the payware Potteries Loop Line signalbox rule as the controller. The first two use Andi06's JK signal box to set routes but I shall change them to the PLL rule as it is more realistic.

 

[itareus]

Very good layouts there John, keep us posted with progress.

I'm intending to apply the PLL Box to my routes (but will probably do a version non PLL as well). How do you find using the Box rule, I've not yet got round to using it.

Chris

 

[teddytoot]

Quite easy once you realise that the junctions have to be placed on the plan in numerical order. I in fact did Lymeswold before the setup manual appeared, so discovered this by trial and error when I found I couldn't place junctions out of order. I have also checked out the turntable facility which works very well. The only problem I have found is sometimes when I select a loco, it does not respond to the signal box throttle. I don't know why this is at the moment, as it seems to be a random event.

 

[ray_whiley]

Very attractive layouts. As Chris says, keeps us posted.

I'm making progress with my latest but have had to double the size of my railway room - more expenditure ( but fortunately only virtual cash!)

Ray

 

[itareus]

Westwold has today been uploaded to the DLS, so it should be available in the next day or two.

It's TS12 SP1 only at the moment, needs a little work to create a TANE version. I will also be creating a TS12 version that uses the PLL signal box functionality.

 

[Vern]

Looking forward to seeing it, Bob.

But are there so few experimenting with virtual model railways, UK and European, compared with in the States? If you're out there, let's see what you've been up to!

Ray

Now that I've got Duchal Moor complete, I might make a model railway my project for February. Biggest issue is sourcing suitable track plans - Peco guard their "Plan Of The Month" from Railway Modeller almost as vigorously as Kalmbach do for the US, even stuff from 30 years ago can't be found on the net. At one point I had the full collection of Railway Modellers from around 1975 to 1986 but regrettably got culled in an inevitable house move. Many of the CJ Freezer plans were, in retrospect, quite impractical for what was drawn in the space though as "virtual" railways we do have the advantage of being able to ease the dimensions a bit. However quite often the plans were simply variations on an oval or dumbbell with a couple of linked branch lines all crammed into 12' x 8'!

I particularly miss April 1980 which featured the superb Chiltern Green layout.

Places like Pendon or Mevagissey don't publish a copy of their track plan on their websites which could be used as a basis for a good virtual version. Still, part of the challenge is the research...

 

[ray_whiley]

Hello Vern

Glad to hear from you and look forward to see some screenshots when you make a start in February.

It may be obvious that I'm quite a fan of CJF and I'm fortunate in having RMs dating from the 1950s until well after he left Peco - I only gave up my subscription when the mag became more occupied with kit construction rather than scratch building. My approach to virtual model railways is to use his plans but not for ovals or dumbbells - but rather using individual terminus or through station plans to make an end-to end layout as not many railways ran round in circles (except the Glasgow Subway and that would take a few baseboards and not be especially interesting!) My first Trainz layout, Dukes Denver using only built-in TRS2004 assets on 7 boards was based on his convoluted plan Holman Valley in the PSL Book of Model Railway Track Plans.

For my virtual railway modelling I imagine that I have an (expensive) purposely designed building 31 feet square and use more prototypical curves etc. This will accommodate an extensive end-to-end layout with at least four stations. But I do try to keep things within reason to simulate a scale model - eg. no track which can not be reached by the average person's length of arm; no moving traffic except on a continuous circuit as would be necessary on a model; no animated people; no trees with waving leaves; and so on. I am working at present on a layout with trams at the back, but these are accessible from the rear and the railway track from the front.

Sorry for rambling on ...

Best wishes.

Ray

 

[itareus]

I had a mad half hour today and managed to source 5 of CJF's track plan books, three from Amazon and two from Ebay, the postage for the books was a major factor in the cost !

With model railway magazines costing around £4 these days they are an expensive way of getting the odd plan or idea. That said I do get the odd Railway Modeller when the mood takes me and my "Westwold" route is based on a track plan from a 2013 issue, the plan being of an actually built layout.

Chris

 

[itareus]

Westwold (and dependencies) is now on the DLS.

If you do not have the S&C add on installed you will have 3 missing dependencies, these are 'people' from the S&C pack and can be ignored. If you find any problems with the route please post them on this thread: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?97843-C-Assets.

I would like to say a big thank you to ChrisAW and Clam1952 for making assets specially for the route and also to thank all the other content creators who's assets I have used.

Chris

 

[jankvis]

Westwold, very nice layout, nice work. Downloaded yesterday...

thanks, Jan

 

[itareus]

Thank you Jan, glad you like it.

Chris

 

[trainboi1]

I recently rediscovered some Swedish narrow gauge. Here is the result:

 

[Railwoodman]

That is a really great looking route, remember that engine being made, but not ever finished. the whole layout is fantastically done. Thank for sharing.

 

[itareus]

That layout is very unusual Dan and looks good with interesting use of background 'full sized' features.

Chris

 

[ray_whiley]

I had a mad half hour today and managed to source 5 of CJF's track plan books, three from Amazon and two from Ebay, the postage for the books was a major factor in the cost !

With model railway magazines costing around £4 these days they are an expensive way of getting the odd plan or idea. That said I do get the odd Railway Modeller when the mood takes me and my "Westwold" route is based on a track plan from a 2013 issue, the plan being of an actually built layout.

Just what I do now as well, Chris - and the odd Continental Modeller if it has anything on classic Belgian trams (and that's not very often!)

I've just uploaded another batch of model railway room assets 76 times normal size t add to those released yesterday (or the day before) and there are some more in the pipeline - I'll post a freeware announcement soon.

Ray

 

[wpn96]

Does anyone know where to get that HUGE person from???? Sorry for getting off topic here, it's just that I've been looking all over the place for some of those.

 

[itareus]

The man is:

C+ MR OH 4mm Man 1B,<kuid:243828:100252>

there is also

C+ MR OH 4mm Man 1A,<kuid:243828:100248>

Both on the DLS

 

[wpn96]

Oh thank you so much!!! I will try that right now. Thanks again!!

 

[SuperSpeedMaglev]

Where can I get those buttons and controllers? I like the idea of making a model railway and those are a must have!

 

[itareus]

Try:

Transformers and controls, model railroad /wo base,<kuid:645812:97920> ( by 'Oknotsen')

or those on the DLS by 'Ray_Whiley'

CM