Work in progress - The Wisbech Line

[Paulsw2]

Hi Andy, if you're doing a snow/winter route for Wisbeach, you might want to check out my Lavenham route (Lavenham in Winter, kuid2:234086:100141:3) as it comes with lots of snow assets, including trees and track, which you might find useful for your route.

Nice to see another winter route coming from the Norfolk/Suffolk part of the world.

Paul

 

[fen_tiger]

Hi Paul

Many thanks for your support for me working on a christmas / winter-themed route. I have tons of jobs large and small to do before any train services will run on my 17+ mile branch as I am currently landscaping in fine detail all baseboards where my branch line ends.

Andy

 

[stationmistress]

FYI. The latest, November, issue of Steam World has an article called A Fenland Wonder. It shows some pictures both in the day and today of the Wisbech and Upwell tramway. It includes shots of tram vehicles, rolling stock and an official portrait of a Sentinel Y10 0-4-0T made for the branch.

 

[fen_tiger]

Hi Stationmistress.

Thank you for letting me know about the November issue of Steam World. It's useful for people without the book 'Branch Line To Upwell' wanting to know about the former roadside tramway and what is was used for.

Point of interest for other users of Trainz is that I have three local railway books so far, of which two of them are helping me to bring back to life some of the former railways around my home town. I could also attempt to have a go at the full 7+ mile W&U tramway, and the 1866 - 1959/1964 M&GN branch from Peterborough to Sutton Bridge (Lincs) via Wisbech North Station, which was formerly sited on Harecroft Road. Wisbech once boasted two seperate branch lines, two harbour quay branches and the W&U tramway.

 

[fen_tiger]

Black Drove (North), nr Middle Drove, in Norfolk, UK

On-going work behind the scenes is slowly taking place across the wider landscape away from the branch line, using google instantview for reference images from everything on the north to north-east-side of the former level crossing on Black Drove, in Norfolk. The two track rulers on the LC are only there temporarily just to align the trackside fence into the correct distance from the rails. Just behind the level crossing is the small bungalow as seen in an earlier posted screenshot, and which the bungalow is matched to the real one.

Apart from where I am adding road-side reeds and grass, is there anything I could add to this first section of almost complete Fen countryside? (apart from any large Kv pylons as there are none at the real location)



* Below is the real location of what my screenshot matches. The area to the top right and middle-right of Black Drove has been identically matched in my own above image, with my own fields having the exact same meaurement dimensions as the real fields. Middle Drove Station (now a private house) is at the bottom left of this image whilst the orange google man is at the former level crossing on Black Drove - ((My above image recreates this quiet level crossing as how it looked until September 1968 when the branch was closed)). As for the railway line, it is now just a fading trackbed remnant across the Fen fields heading slightly north-eastwards from Wisbech to the former junction with the current King's Lynn - Ely main line at Watlington, Norfolk.



* The old trackbed of the former Wisbech to King's Lynn railway line at Black Drove, Norfolk, as it heads slightly north-eastwards across the fens. The branch was finally closed on 9th September 1968 as passenger numbers were not enough to justify the route being kept open.



* My March - Middle Drove railway branch line has now been named as 'The Bramleyline', taking its inspiration and name from the 'Bramleyline Heritage Railway Trust' based at Waldersea, Nr Wisbech -- http://www.bramleyline.org.uk/

 

[ray_whiley]

Schools will certainly be closed!

Ray

(Just said this to let you know that I'm still looking out for your super screenshots.)

 

[JackClare1995]

Looks great to me I'd say the only thing missing from that screenshot is perhaps a few cars/trucks/vans/farm machinery adjacent to those buildings in the foreground, and some large power lines like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Power_lines_cross_-_geograph.org.uk_-_10429.jpg

You're doing an excellent job at capturing a true winter scene - I had to make a cup of tea after seeing that screenshot!!

Jack

 

[fen_tiger]

Hi everyone

Looking on google earth, the nearest large Kv pylons to 'Black Drove', Norfolk are actually at Marshland St. James (Smeeth Road) a few miles west. I'm currently recreating the landscape at 'Black Drove' (half a mile east of 'Middle Drove') around the former level crossing, so no pylons will be appearing here. When I get to my version of Smeeth Road later on, I will of course have the Kv pylons in place and roughly following the line of the real ones.

A lot of the country lanes across the Norfolk Fenlands hardly ever see any traffic, so I am also depicting this in-game at the recreated locations. I will though add a car or van to my scattered houses and farms to keep matching the real area.

Andy

 

[neville_hill]

This is looking very good. One thing I notice which is very effective on Lord-Claud-Hamilton's Welney and Umneth route is the way he has broken up the hedges by using only a few winter hedge splines but with intermittent gaps. This gives the vague impression of sections buried in snow but also avoids lots of continuous parallel lines in such a flat landscape. Just a suggestion. I don't know the area, but from L-C-H's routes it seems to have an atmosphere all of its own (especially in winter) and is well worth modelling.

 

[fen_tiger]

Many thanks for your comments, suggestions and support for my forth-coming fenland branch line and its landscape. I've dropped the height of the field hedgerows a little and now they look a bit better and not so obtrusive against the farm lands; one or two other changes have been sorted too before I can move to the baseboards south my current work areas.

Andy

 

[fen_tiger]

Just a little something I have been working on for the last few days - the very first piece of an almost completed area of frozen Fenlands covering eight baseboards. A few more jobs are still required though such as farm fences and gates, road-side low grass, and maybe a few power lines or phone poles/wires; my increasing-in-size landscape (originally just three baseboards across is now eight boards across - in an north-south orientation) based upon the prototype Norfolk fenlands near Middle Drove. Buildings are few and far between on the real landscape so I am reflecting this aspect on my own identical recreation.



Meanwhile, two and a half (trainz scale) miles to the west stands a mid-term goal awaiting the builders, brickies and plumbers to move it and start work - the re-built Smeeth Road station. It'll be a while before the landscape is spruced up into a winter wonderland...



An re-built Emneth Station and small goods yard with improved and re-aligned trackwork standing a scale mile west from Smeeth Road. By re-aligning all the track I hope to prevent any potential issues when running timetabled services.

 

[Paulsw2]

Good pics! Just so you know, Skipper1945 has just uploaded a very good brick built goods shed, SR Goods shed, kuid2:116296:23118:1, which may work well for you at this location.

Paul

 

[fen_tiger]

Many thanks again, Paul, for my work in recreating the former railway branch across the East Anglian fens.

These screenshots give an idea of how large my landscape has since recently become. This is my current work area at the eastern end of my branch line, showing the fields and country lanes that are mapped and measured out to exact metre dimensions identical to their real counterparts. The second image below shows Middle Drove Station at the bottom, and the physical end of the track that will see heritage services to and from my Wisbech East Station.

The bottom image shows five fields with their 50m and 100m rulers temporarily still in place; this is how I mark out the fields to match the dimensions and positions with their real counterparts. On the far right of the eight baseboards (north-south orientation) is the 'Middle Level Relief Channel' which as seen on Google Earth runs diagonally from south-west to north-east, but I had to dig it out south to north to solve any issues with installing the railway bridge and the leading railway embankment to the bridge.







My first fully completed section of Fenland landscape that I thought to myself it would not be possible in achieving, seeing as I am working on such a difficult and slow project. Road-side grass is being added both sides to each country lane and road I will be later building in order to reduce the obvious distraction of the UK road splines being slightly above baseboard height and to also add some much-needed vegetation. My railway line is in the far distance (four baseboards away), alongside the clump of trees on the distant horizon. Final additions will eventually be the inclusion of road signs, and also vehicles parked up in the driveways of the scattered houses and bungalows.

 

[Paulsw2]

Good pics! Just so you know, Skipper1945 has just uploaded a very good brick built goods shed, SR Goods shed, kuid2:116296:23118:1, which may work well for you at this location.

Paul

Actually, just realised I sold myself short here as there's also Lavenham Goods Shed snow, kuid:234086:101113, which is a snow reskin I did of a brick goods shed by jayholland and so would work well at this location if it's going to be covered in snow.

Paul

 

[fen_tiger]

Many thanks, Paul, for sharing that info about the Lavenham goods shed. Once I finally get a significant amount of fields, lanes and roads built, based upon prototype measurement data from Google, I'll share the new work on here. A lot of mapping & measuring conversion work is to be done first though so everything on my route can properly match the real locations.

Andy.

 

[fen_tiger]

Whilst I am fiddling about laying out the road and lane network around my winter fenlands, the first train service of the day is awaiting to depart back to Wisbech. Here we see the 'Santa Special' restaurant train (2 BR MK1 FO's, 2 BR MK1 RFO's and 1 BR MK1 RKB) standing at Smeeth Road station, midway on my preserved heritage railway that runs between Wisbech and Middle Drove.

 

[fen_tiger]

I have posted up a new forum tread on 'Prototypes' http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...at-Peterborough-UK-(Large-Images-1024-x-768)&

The copyrighted photos on that thread are large images 1024 x 768

 

[ray_whiley]

Hi Andy

No screenshots from you for some time - how is progress?

Ray

 

[fen_tiger]

** WATCH THIS SPACE **

Sorry If I have been away from these forums and in particular my own thread covering my Trainz12 recreation of the former GER (1847 - 1968) March - Wisbech - King's Lynn branch line, but I have had many personal and private issues away from here the last six or so months, that have forced me to withdraw completely and cancel my project.

Watch this space though as I am attempting to resolve these issues and hopefully will attempt soon to come back here and maybe post new screenshots of my fenland route on a NEW forum thread separate from this one.

Firstly before I can put Trainz 12 back on my PC I will need to check my PC over thoroughly and see how much iTunes is taking up hard drive space (i have well over 5,500 songs on my PC)

Once my game is back on my PC it will be some time before I can even consider posting screenshots as obviously I shall be referring once again to my local railway books for track plans, photos and text of the stations between March and Watlington JNC (on the King's Lynn line). My new thread won't be available as yet though as a lot of pre-planning work will be needed to accurately measure the correct distances between the stations and numerous level crossings along the route. I may be only doing the 8 mile March - Wisbech section, or if feasible the entire route to Watlington JNC.

If and when my new forum thread becomes active, please note that I will not take kindly to any mention of any mapping software (DEM). I do not wish it to be hijacked by this un-welcome mapping advice. I am perfectly capable of mapping out and building my fenland branch line as I successfully managed it to exact scale distances before using my railway books and google Earth.

Finally, Ray, many apologies if you haven't heard from me for quite a while. I haven't been able to consider Trainz12 at all what with many personal issues having to be dealt with. Most of these appear to be resolved now for the time being. I should be coming back with new screenshots (work-in-progress initially) as soon I can possibly attempt this.

Andy.

 

[fen_tiger]

** May 21st Update **



Now running Trainz from its new home installation of an USB 2.0 Sandisk Cruzer Glide Flash Drive (64gb), not anywhere on my PC no more as I have stuffed it full of over 5,500 songs on iTunes :hehe:

I'm slowly working towards my Wisbech - March branch line, using original photos and signal box track diagrams from the former prototype route 1847 - 1968/2001 so If anybody on these forums would like to see initial work-in-progress (track and station construction work) please do let me know and I'll do my best on here. I might even add the original source diagrams and photos as well as I did previously before...

Please bear in mind that the route I previously worked on had to be scrapped for many reasons due to many personal issues needing to be resolved. Many apologies to you for following my previous work with interest.

My route rebuilding will be slow in progress though through time constraints I now have to consider from elsewhere. I can't now find enough time each day to crank up the computer and even think about fiddling with building track, stations, etc.

Andy.