Justin's Workshop

As is usual it's always good to read "Notes from an Australian Workshop", although the thought of renumbering some 200+ wagons does appear somewhat daunting! Whatever the history of individual wagons, the fact that you have attempted to generate this individuality is to be applauded.

I would hazard a guess that your Picasso inspired "blue period" loco is a Class 40, but my limited knowledge may be leading me astray?

Hi Alec,

Your close: it is an English Electric unit, but it is smaller than the Class 40, and more numerous (some where over the 300 mark).

Fortunately I was able to cheat somewhat with the textures as the HDA and HCA numbers only needed the first 3 numbers changed from 350 to 368 From the HAA version, plus the lettering.
But doing 60 wagons at a time takes around 3 hours to process the S, SD, WAG and ACE files. Compressing the S files takes another hour or so to get through.

Justin

Really impressed with your work on the MGR hoppers Justin

Was going to guess class 37 or 40, but as Alec has already guessed class 40, I'll go with class 37, the only other option I can think of is the baby deltic, but they were much smaller and less numerous than the 40's.

Great Work Justin! How are you getting on with my TSOL?

Looking at the model I would hazard a guess at a Class 37!!

Really impressed with those wagons Justin!

Hi Guys,

I'm not too sure what happened but I did post an update here about a week ago but it never showed up so here I go again:

Thank you for all the positive feed back on the hoppers, in one way I am glad that they are finished now but it does mean that I need another set of engines to off set the 47's so that I have 8 complete trains.

As for my mystery engine it is a Class 37:



Still around early mid stages with getting all the extra paneling done, though I do need to be careful with grills and certain paneling as I am using 37/4 plans that came with the Autumn 1998 edition of Model Rail magazine (yes I still have the full magazine, as well as all other magazines that I have brought over the years as I knew that one day they would come in handy) and the versions that I am modelling are 37/0's. Though in all fairness it probably won't be too long (in MSTS time) before all 31 37/4's come out of my workshops as it is a class that I have been wanting to do for quite a number of years.

As a final note: as of Monday the 25th of May 2015, I am starting a Diploma of Graphics Design course that is run part time (2 - 3 nights a week) in the evenings from 6pm til 9pm for 2 years (6 trimesters of 12 weeks each). So my already tight schedule will get a bit tighter, though at the moment I am only working 4 days a week due to my current job having a down turn in sales (and I'm sure that you all know the added pain that comes with fewer hours and less pay).

Justin

Nice!

Looking good!

That Class 37 model looks really good Justin! Not too sure about the mixed colour scheme though!!

Andy

Hi everyone,

After what seems like ages I have finally made some progress with my MSTS work, namely the East Coast Coal pack. As I am wanting to get this pack released before Christmas, I have decided to do another 4 47’s to complete the pack.



The engines for the pack are as follows:

47016 and 47285 in Railfreight Grey
47150 and 47291 in Large Logo Blue
47308 and 47313 in Trainload unbranded
47377 and 47378 in Trainload Distribution

Add to that the hoppers:
30 HAA Standards Empty numbered 350100 to 350129
30 HAA Standards Full numbered 350130 to 350159
30 HAA With Canopy Empty numbered 350160 to 35089
30 HAA With Canopy Full numbered 350190 to 350219
30 HDA Standards Empty numbered 368100 to 368129
30 HDA Standards Full numbered 368130 to 368159
30 HCA With Canopy Empty numbered 368160 to 36889
30 HCA With Canopy Full numbered 368190 to 368219

And all of a sudden this pack is quite large.

Whilst I would like to put a call out for testers who can still use MSTS on their systems, as that is what I have designed this pack to work with, I would like to also here from anyone who is game to test these in OR as I haven’t had the time to do this.

Justin

Hi Justin,

I am willing test them both in MSTS and OR.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Justin,

Looking nice. Just wish I had time to test them for you! I will definitely download them once released.

It's a cheeky request, but seeing as you have the large logo 47 , can I put in a cheeky request for a particular engine?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/37271_37418/18093356218

This loco has been all over the shop in recent months, especially areas covered by my route. Would be cool to have it running around Glas-Car to provide a bit of variety.

If that request is too cheeky, I apologise in advance!

Niall

Hi Niall,

No problems mate, I'll try and make it on Wednesday and have it as a separate upload.

If I can return the cheekiness, I don't suppose you know about Mk1's and when the finished up as front line stock do you?
I was looking at doing (in the long term future) some Mk1's in Intercity colours and was wondering if they would have still been widely used in the mid-late 1990's to early 2000's????

Justin

My answer to your last question would be no.

The MK1s were being removed from front-line journeys as early as the late 1970s early 1980s as the Mk2s and Mk3s took over.  The MK1s were pushed mostly onto the regional services, like Regional Railways and Network Southeast.

The two Mk1 examples that bucked the trend where the buffet/restaurant cars and brake guards (BG) which were used a lot with Mk2 stock. On the West Coast line they survived up until the late 1980s when there were sufficient Mk3 stock (along with the new DVTs) to make the Mk1s redundant.

I would occasionally see some Intercity livery Mk1s on the East Coast Main Line and Midland Mainline but they were displaced by HSTs or in some cases, EMU stock.

Some Mk 1 "Brakes", painted in "Trans Pennine" livery, lasted to circa 1991 at which time Class 158 DMUs took over.

Hi Guy's,

Thanks for the fast replies. Surprisingly despite your answers being a no, it is actually helpful.

So my next big question is: what coaches (and in which liveries) would the 37/4 have hauled around the year 1998?
I know the exact year may sound odd, but I have livery details for each member of the class for that particular year (thanks to ModelRail magazine) and I have been wanting to model the whole 37/4 class for a long time and I was thinking about which coaches would go with them. (Just planing for the future at this stage).

Justin

You need this website mate. You can find out workings of all the 37/4s, along with some galleries.

http://www.class37info.co.uk/history.aspx

Pick a loco and away you go!


Some picture examples for you, all from 1998.

http://www.hondawanderer.com/37417_Kings_Sutton_1998.htm

https://www.flickr.com/photos/samrail/7636616766/

http://www.hondawanderer.com/37410_Glen_Falloch_1998.htm

http://www.kentrail.org.uk/37402%20Hoo%20Jn%206O74.jpg

http://www.geoffbannister.com/tod/modern_diesel/class37/37403.jpg

http://www.geoffbannister.com/tod/modern_diesel/class37/37414.jpg

http://www.geoffbannister.com/tod/modern_diesel/class37/37427.jpg


As you can see by the pics, the 37/4s are on a mixture of regional services, sleepers in Scotland, freight and infrastructure work. Nice variety of liveries too in '98!

Ok,

Why is it that every time I get in the mood and have some free time that my PC decides to have a fit.
Current problem seems to be a graphics card issue (screen is all pixelated and it keeps shutting off).
The hard drives are fine, motherboard is ok, power supply is fine, monitor is fine, I just can't get the damn thing to display properly.
Oh well my PC is 7 years old and has been worked hard so things are bound to start giving up...

Sorry folks but this puts me back out of action for a while...

Justin

I feel your pain Justin! I too, since this morning have a faulty display on my main Laptop! So I too will be out of action for a while until I can afford a new HD display panel to fit myself!

Andy

Hi Justin,
I can test them for you,but I'm afraid it will have to be OR now,I cannot run MSTS on this computer,some thing to do with the wrong graphic card.
Mike

Hi Mike,

some thing to do with the wrong graphic card.

If you've got an AMD/ATI graphics card, a fix was published recently on trainsim.com and if it's an Intel on-board graphics system, I think Andy (35005CP) may have found a solution.

Cheers,
Ged

Thanks Ged,
Yes it's the Intel on board graphic card that's causing my problem with MSTS,I will ask Andy how he got round the problem.
Mike

Hi Mike,

This is how I got around resolving the MSTS Scambled screen by downloading this driver; https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24971/Intel-HD-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-64-bit

I run the Intel HD4000 Driver with the machine in question and it worked perfectly for me! I hope it works for you and others too! Please let me know how you get on?

Thanks

Andy

Thanks Andy
I will give it a try in the morning
Your help is appreciated
Mike

Mike,

Please let me know how this goes as this is all the help I can give right now! Let me know how it goes?

Cheers

Andy

Hi Andy,

The Graphic card up date has done the trick I can now run MSTS again,with out all the gobble de gook I used to have,have run some activities, but still having problems with Justin's Hopper wagons,In Open Rails they show up OK,but have trouble getting the brakes to come off,

In MSTS when half way along the loading bar I get failed to initialize HCA world UID ,then crash to desk top.

Mike

Hi Mike,

I'm really pleased to hear that the fix I found is working!

Cheers

Andy

Andy
Now I found the fix is working OK with windows 7 I'm leaving well alone,I'm not going to risk up grading to windows 10
Mike

Hi All,

Good news, I have installed a new graphics card into my pc and can now resume MSTS work.
To celebrate:



Here is 47847 as requested by Niall (I decided against modelling it with the jumper housing in the middle of its nose).

And here it is in MSTS (proving that I can sometimes have good luck and not have any issues with computer repairs, I didn't have to change or update/upgrade anything to get MSTS working with the new graphics card):



Now to get to work on the hopper brake issues,

Justin

Hi All,

Good news (I hope):

The brakes have been sorted out, marker lighting has been corrected and it all seems to be ok for now, just one final round of checks to be done and the we are good to go.

Just to keep teasing here is a little video for you all:



Justin

Oh no the mad man has been looking around again.....

Hi all,

With the coal pack nearly ready I had been taking a little mental break and was looking through a railway magazine and noticed that 67004 had been repainted into the Caledonian Sleeper colour of Midnight Teal. Now as I have 67004 modeled, I got thinking that this would be an easy repaint and upload.
Err wrong.... I have the new logo, not a problem, the issue lies with the Midnight Teal.

Some shots that I have seen show it to be a very dark almost dark navy colour, other shots it looks close to the Arriva Blue.
Can anybody shed some light on this matter please?

Justin

Hi Justin,
Googling "67004 New livery" throws up lots of links and it's even better when you select "Images" with most being in the "Arriva" blue. Here's one :


Cheers,
Ged

. . and here's another


I guess that an image depends upon the light and the angle of shot and the weather and . .

(I'm having a similar problem trying to determine a suitable BR Green for my "shorties".)

Hi Guy’s,

Thanks for the info, I think for now I will put this one on the back burner until I can figure out which way to jump with the colour.  

A funny thing happened tonight, as I was messing around on my laptop (which was Windows 8.1, but I have taken the free Windows 10 upgrade as it is for using more modern programs), and I tried running MSTS (stored on an external hard drive) out of curiosity. Now I know full well that the laptop, when running 8.1, had the gibberish text issue because of the Nvidia on board graphics so I have no idea why I thought things would be different with 10.

Except they are.

Everything loaded up like before, except when I got to the main menu screen were thing usually went haywire, it all worked perfectly. Even once I had loaded into the sim, everything worked perfectly (FPS down due to it being on the external hard drive but hey).

So what does this all mean?

Well instead of having to make time to get on my PC at home, I will be able to sort out things where ever and whenever I can.  

I mean, more MSTS time can’t be a bad thing can it….???        

Justin

j3801 wrote:
I mean, more MSTS time can’t be a bad thing can it….???        
Justin

Mmm . . . I'll run that idea past SWMBO!

(I apologize in advance if the following sounds a bit like a rant).



Why is it that every time I get things sorted out in my life does my main computer decide not to work?

After all the fun of retail Christmas and New Year, I finally sat down yesterday to do some long awaited MSTS work.
I checked out the two projects that I currently have in the workshops, and they are further ahead than what I remembered, which is good news.
I then decided to get back into the swing of driving so that when it comes testing time I would be back at full pace.

By now the computer had been running for about 2 hours without any issues, when after 30mins of driving MSTS crashes.
No problem, I figured it was because I was messing around with an old activity that I had made.
Next thing I know the computer puts up a warning that it needs to reboot due to a system error, errm ok?

As the computer boots up it warns me that a hard drive failure is imminent, oh crap.......
I manage to get it to load off the second hard drive to compare the current hard drive to the last back up I made, thankfully they match.
As I am poking around trying to check things out, the computer fails again, and again, and again.........

The main hard drive had failed.

So until I can decide what to do and if I can afford to do it, I am going to be out of the workshop for some time.

As for my laptop running MSTS, it can but it only manages about 8fps......

I will keep up with the forum and the file hosting, but production wise I am not sure...

Justin

j3801 wrote:(I apologize in advance if the following sounds a bit like a rant).



Why is it that every time I get things sorted out in my life does my main computer decide not to work?

After all the fun of retail Christmas and New Year, I finally sat down yesterday to do some long awaited MSTS work.
I checked out the two projects that I currently have in the workshops, and they are further ahead than what I remembered, which is good news.
I then decided to get back into the swing of driving so that when it comes testing time I would be back at full pace.

By now the computer had been running for about 2 hours without any issues, when after 30mins of driving MSTS crashes.
No problem, I figured it was because I was messing around with an old activity that I had made.
Next thing I know the computer puts up a warning that it needs to reboot due to a system error, errm ok?

As the computer boots up it warns me that a hard drive failure is imminent, oh crap.......
I manage to get it to load off the second hard drive to compare the current hard drive to the last back up I made, thankfully they match.
As I am poking around trying to check things out, the computer fails again, and again, and again.........

The main hard drive had failed.

So until I can decide what to do and if I can afford to do it, I am going to be out of the workshop for some time.

As for my laptop running MSTS, it can but it only manages about 8fps......

I will keep up with the forum and the file hosting, but production wise I am not sure...

Justin

Sorry to hear Justin. Anything I can help with? I too am just browsing the forum currently as really snowed under (No Pun intended) Not that we have got snow! More of a washout than anything!
I do bit with MSTS as and when time allows and there are a lot of textures and models to be made! I found a couple of hours to revisit a few models and the Works DEMU model the other day, but that's about it.... Could be a slow process releasing what I have in the workshop!.....
Anyway, if you need any help, then by all means drop me a PM and we will go from there.

Andy

Justin
Sorry to hear about the hardware failure, and I very much hope that you have suitable OS back ups. Quite often we spend a lot of time worrying about which OS we should use, and which software is or is not good, and forget that hardware has a finite life.
This should act as a reminder to us all that we need to back up on a regular basis, and I will back up later this evening!

Sorry to hear that, Justin. The good news is that a new HDD shouldn't cost you too much. You might still be able to get a post-Christmas deal as well. Just don't go to Dick Smith... Although they may have some really good deals now.

HI Guys,

Thank you to everyone for there support with this. I have brought 2 new 1TB Seagate HDDs and have already installed them today.
I was a bit anxious/frustrated for a while as I couldn't locate my Windows Vista install disc (some how it had wriggled under my printer in its case).
With the OS loaded the first thing that I installed was MSTS and checked that all would work well, which it did.
I copied the back-up data to the new hard-drive, now all I need to do is re-activate/reinstall all the programs I need.
That should keep me occupied for a few hours tomorrow night if I don't get side tracked.

Hopefully Monday should see a return to the land of MSTS for me!!!!

Justin

Hello All,

Wow, I just looked at when my last update was... too long ago  

I am currently on holidays and have found some time to put my head into MSTS modelling work. (On a side note: I have also just finished doing my MSTS 15 anniversary GUI makeover which is currently being tested!!)

I decided to have a good hard look at my 37/4 class model, it is further along than I remembered so tonight I pushed forward with adding more external details and raised roof paneling. The results of a few hours work can be seen below.



With cab interior modelling and a few extra details still to go it is looking more like a 37/4.

Due to my course that I am doing I have been messing around with fonts and things and have done the replica work for some of the texture details for the 37/4's (namely 37408 Loch Rannoch) so these models will feature a more accurate and refined texture set than what I have previously done.

I can honestly say that I am looking forward to seeing what I can squeeze out.

Justin

j3801 wrote:Hello All,

I can honestly say that I am looking forward to seeing what I can squeeze out.

Justin

As are we all, based on the excellent illustrated modelling.

Looking fab Justin! I particularly like the colour scheme.....

Amazing what a few short hours can produce:



The textures have been completely rebuilt in Adobe Illustrator then exported as a bmp.
A quick switch of computers and then a bit of refinement and further detailing work done in MS Paint resulted in the above test paint.

The main body texture is 2048 x 2048 pixels whilst the detailing texture (names, numbers, etc) is 1024 x 1024 pixels.

The grills need flattening onto the body, there is a lot of work still to go on the bogies, textures still have a lot of work in them, working fan and mesh to be added to the "black hole" on the roof, and I still haven't done the cab interiors...

Still for a few short hours of work not bad...

Justin

j3801 wrote:Amazing what a few short hours can produce:
Still for a few short hours of work not bad...

Mmmm . . not too bad at all!

And to finish off the night, A quick running in turn on the Crosby Valley Railway.

Cab details have been added, fan in place and working as well as the mesh and the grill brace added to large body side grill.

Justin

And here is 37408 all finished and detailed out.
Just some eng file work to go and then the rest of the class can be made.

Justin

That was quick work, looking good.

That is a beautiful bit of modelling Justin! Fab job mate!

"I'm sneaky and I know it"    (with apologies to LMFAO)

It has been way too long between workshop trips, with life/work getting in the way for too long, things have finally slowed down enough for me to blow the cobwebs out.
So to remind us all of where I left off:



37408 Loch Rannoch in all her glory in BR Large Logo.

After a few short tweaks I present the next 2 out of the works:



37402 Bont Y Bermo in unbranded Railfreight 2 tone grey.



37427 in EW&S (correct as it was early days) Maroon and Gold.

This leaves just 3 more base liveries to be created : Regional Railways, Intercity and All-over Green, as the other major livery of Transrail uses the 2 tone grey as it's base.

Below is the list of identities and liveries that will be modeled:

37401 - EWS - Mary Queen of Scots
37402 - 2 tone grey - Bont y Bermo - Done
37403 - BR Green - Ben Cruachan
37404 - Transrail - Loch Long
37405 - EWS
37406 - Transrail - The Saltire Society
37407 - Transrail - Blackpool Tower
37408 - Large Logo - Loch Rannoch - Done
37409 - Transrail - Loch Awe
37410 - Transrail - Aluminium 100
37411 - EWS - Ty Hafan
37412 - Tansrail - Driver John Elliott
37413 - EWS - The Scottish Railway Preservation Society
37414 - Regional Railways - Cathays C&W Works 1846 - 1993
37415 - EW&S
37416 - EW&S
37417 - 2 tone grey - Highland Region
37418 - EW&S - East Lancashire Railway
37419 - EW&S
37420 - Regional Railways  - The Scottish Hosteller
37421 - EWS
37422 - Regional Railways  - Robert F Fairlie
37423 - Transrail - Sir Murray Morrison 1873 - 1948 Pioneer of the British Aluminium Industry
37424 - Transrail
37425 - Regional Railways  - Sir Robert McAlpine/Concrete Bob
37426 - EWS
37427 - EW&S - Done
37428 - 2 tone grey - David Lloyd George
37429 - Regional Railways - Eisteddfod Genelaethol
37430 - Transrail - Cwmbran
37431 - Intercity - Bullidae

This list is based off the list from the Autumn 1998 (yes that far back) Issue of ModelRail, with one minor exception: 37428 by then had been re-named and repainted in Royal Scotsman Maroon, but I have chosen to to back date it to early 1998 as 2 tone grey.

Hopefully these should be done before another year passes.....