This Virtual Life

Llanrhaiadr Mochnant here we come!

One of my many excuses for a lack of recent modelling activity is that I've just upgraded the PC in my home office. To be honest as a household we probably have a higher than average number of computers and whilst it is a long time since I had a job that involved getting my hands dirty with technology I can still find my way around the innards of a computer. So normally a new machine is up and running with all the right software and data  in minutes. My home office machine though is a different kettle of fish, with a lot of legacy software on it and a lot of data, especially photographs. So it has taken a couple of weeks to get it to the stage where the new machine is ready to take over.

Whilst trying to find some of the CDs needed for those legacy programs I came across the disks for Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS). Now I have mixed feelings about train simulators, but I've recently upgraded to the latest versions of Train Simulator/Railworks/Rail Simulator and to Trainz. Trainz just doesn't do it for me, I find it uninvolving, but TS20014 has some quite good content, though it comes at a price unless you buy it during one of their regular promotions.

MSTS is long in the tooth now, and was long abandoned by Microsoft. Out of the box the graphics show their age, especially if you forget you need tom run it in windowed mode to make the best use of modern screens. However it has the advantage that there is a lot of high quality user-generated content out there that can transform it. From my perspective it helps enormously that some of that content is narrow gauge, and I have a particular fondness for the Rye & Camber and W&LLR routes that are available.

Having fired it up again on the new machine I began to wonder what Cambrian Railway content was available. I vaguely remembered there being a payware pack for the Cambrian Coast lines, and discovered to my delight that an expanded version even included the TVR.

Blodwell Junction

Llanrhaiadr Mochnant

Llangynog

OK, knowing the line quite well now some things are very obviously wrong. The good sheds are far too small and.... but hold on it is what it is, and quite good fun to drive. It has certainly given me another insight into the line. It might not be everybody's cup of tea but I've been really enjoying myself after a hard slog of a week.

Signalling Diagram

In the absence of a signal diagram for Llanrhaiadr Mochhnant I thought it would be relatively easy to convert the signal diagram of Llangynog. Here's one I did earlier.

It seems my Photoshop skills are a bit rusty, because it has taken an hour and I really need to start again.

So I did, this time using Anyrail to produce the basic diagram. This is just the basic export tweaked in Snapseed. The next step will be to combine this with the text from the version above, and another version with the switches in yellow so the blue indicates the alternative route. And here we have the finished version:

Why am I doing this? Well I'm enjoying the challenge, of course, but if I ever do build LM it would be useful supporting material for display with the layout. The main reason I'm doing it though is actually to check that I've got the point rodding arrangements right. I think I'm now pretty sure what went where now. Well almost, I'm not sure if I'm right in putting a facing point lock at the up end and that there isn't a second catch point to protect the running line from the loop at that end. What I do know is that there are two sets of point rodding running in that direction.

More on Llanrhaiadr Mochnant

What did we do before Google maps?

Here is the site of Llanrhaiadr Mochnant station


View Llanrhaiadr Mochnant Station (site of) in a larger map

The extent of the station equates to the rough field, with the route of the railway still showing in the tree line and the dark line across the wheat field. The coal yard building is still there and still in use.

I've now mapped the 1912  1:2,500 OS map on to it which should then let me calculate all the major dimensions, and also help in reconciling the various photos. Something I've found particularly problematic is the relationship between the good shed and the main station building.

It is all looking good for a 12ft by 2ft 6in plan.

Porth y Waen

My first exposure to the Tanat Valley came via John Allison's Porth y Waen O gauge layout, described in the October 1977 Railway Modeller. John was well known for his role in the Warley Model Railway Club, and was much mourned when he  died earlier this year.

My back collection of RMs disappeared in a series of unfortunate events, so I recently got hold of the relevant issue via ebay.

I'd forgotten that a) as far as I can see it didn't mention the Tanat Valley and b) the Layout of the Month was Tony Ross's Lower Hemlock that I rather liked at the time.

As usual looking through a back issue of RM makes you think about how crude things were in those days. I remember the early Jouef Class 40 as being a real landmark in RTR quality, but the photos show just how crude it was. Also striking is the number of traders who are no longer around.  I loved the advert for Modelmania in Norbury "I not only give free advice, I also sell things"

Talking of which I got an email recently from Phil Barlett, whose father bought my father's old model shop in Coventry. As is so often the case this became a small world/6 degrees of Kevin Bacon conversation.