Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

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paulper
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by paulper »

[quote="cyberdonblue"]Thanks everybody for your advice and assistance. Yet again I've learnt something new about Trainz (and showed my true ignorance to one and all :lol: ) Innis, I have seen what you are referring to somewhere too. Like you, however, I can't remember where. I seem to remember thinking that that system was a bit over complicated for a thicko like me though, but then, I was being a bit flippant at the time because I hadn't got any great interest in anything other than Boat's run of the mill ATLS stuff.

Anyway, to lighten things up a bit, here are a few pictures of WIP. The first picture is of how I started out with the horrifyingly compact layout at Buxton. It looks quite different now, as you can see from the second WIP picture.

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Hi Dave,

What road is that in the above shot?

Thanks,
Paul
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

Hi Paul,

According to CM it's a built in road. It's called "road with sidewalk" by hgkn kuid2:93607:37024:1.

Cheers

Dave
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

I thought I was supposed to be building a railway... :? :shock:

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Pomona Docks as they used to be, on the Manchester Ship Canal


The railway in the background now has to be seriously reworked in order to get everything on the right level and heading off in the right direction. Nightmare doesn't begin to describe the work involved :D

Cheers

Dave
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

:D
A little more progress. I feel like the mad professor stuck in his lab these last few days :lol: . I seem to have become obsessed with the area around the former Old Trafford Carriage Sidings and Throstle Nest Junction (just outside the sidings - and what a lovely name.) Sadly everything in these pictures is virtually erased from the face of the earth nowadays. There are two tram lines and one railway line where all this (below) once existed. It wasn't until I started working on this bit that I discovered just how much railway Manchester has destroyed and replaced with mickey-mouse trams (built on the old track beds, of course.) A cheap and very nasty way of providing non-road vehicle public transport. I have built only about a third of the sidings in this particular area and I won't even be attempting to recreate what was around the docks; partly because I'm not sure T:ANE could cope with so many sets of points and partly because I definitely couldn't. Knowing that so so much has been destroyed though just makes the picture at the end of this small series seem all the more sad.

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Sneaking past the site of the old Old Trafford Station (it was on the line passing overhead.) The line going over the top here is now a tram line and there is a sort of Old Trafford Station just by the tunnel mouth in the distance of the next picture.


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Same place but viewed from a little higher. The former Old Trafford station is where I have roughly placed a couple of platforms. There is a small tram station on this site today. The upper line is merely a tram route now and the low level doesn't exist as such. The tunnel has been completely filled in and built on and the lower railway line to the right is now a tramway which connects to the upper level via a slope. A large tram depot occupies the land to the right of this picture.


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The other end of the tunnel in the first picture. All filled in now, of course.



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The view when exiting the tunnel. There was a signal box here at this junction (in the middle) and I'm very tempted to put it in for effect but I'm not sure the Semaphore signals available in Trainz could do the job of signalling trains into Manchester Central.


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Following the right hand route in the previous picture brings you to the sidings at Old Trafford.


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Old Trafford Carriage Shed and Sidings.


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A more overall view of the area.


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The Google Earth view above covers the modern day area of the pictures I have posted. As you can see, sadly, there is nothing left anymore. A railway line and a tram line is all you will find around this spot today.


That's the beauty of Trainz, though, isn't it. You can stick two fingers up at the Councils and Governments of today and put all the railway back in again :lol:

Cheers

Dave
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by PFX »

Great to see your progress on this Dave.
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chazi898
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by chazi898 »

Loving the progress I'm seeing on your route Dave! Its nice to see someone building routes getting closer to me in real life/ that Im familiar with :D
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

Thanks fellers. I seem to be getting bogged down in canals at the moment - not literally, of course :lol:

I've still got Aylesbury - Marylebone bubbling away quietly in the background too. I hope to have that finished and on the DLS early in the New Year (though it might not go down a bundle being as it is "merely" T:ANE. ;) )

Cheers

Dave
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

:D

It's been a while but I'm glad to report some fantastic progress, thanks to Gary Green (greeni.) He's come up with a superb depiction of Manchester Central and I've had great pleasure installing it in situ and having a play with it. Keep an eye out for his station kit on the DLS. It comes in 3 parts and it's very versatile. I've got those walls in mind for a couple of other places already.

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Manchester Central


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Manchester Central: There's still much to do to fashion a station front but everything looks fine at this point.


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Manchester Central


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Manchester Central


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Manchester Central


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Manchester Central


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Manchester Central


:D

Cheers

Dave
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by PFX »

That's absolute class, and top job too from Gary in creating that.
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

Can't believe it's nearly 2 years since I've posted anything of this route. I was suffering a bit of burn out on my Aylesbury route so I decdided to have a fiddle with this one again; but you know when you sometimes get a bit carried away... ? :?

Chinley Station today

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All Our Yesterdays, all of a sudden...

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There's a bit of artistic licence here (with the modern bungalows on the right) and there's a bit more with the point work at the Sheffield end of the station (there were too many single and double slips IRL for Trainz to cope with.)

It's been heavy going with this part of the route because I wasn't going to include it so I've got no UTM files for this area (but I have got the DEMs.) There's been a lot of measuring and guessing and staring at Google Earth to say the least but the day disappeared in a flash, I must say.

Buxworth Station (formerly known as Bugsworth but the local gentry weren't keen on the name and had it changed when the railway was built.)

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After Chinley, the route will travel via the triangle junction to Chapel en le Frith and rejoin the Peak Lines at Blackwell Mill so I'll have the full circle in place from Manchester.

I'll post more as and when.

Cheers


Dave ;)
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by PFX »

Keep cracking away Dave, even WIP the shots are looking the business.
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

Still slaving away...

South end of Chinley Station (as it used to be)

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The signals in the picture above are there just for effect. I believe Chinley had colour light signalling from sometime in the '60s but I'm not 100% sure at the moment.

As I've got no 3D stuff to work from I got the ruler and the compass out - well, loads of them actually...


Working out the approximate route going south and east...

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...and somehow arriving at Chinley North Junction (below) [Chinley North Junction 1971 style]

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Believe it or not it took a full day (and about 3 restarts) to get this (above) sorted - along with the viaducts and the triangle junction (behind camera, as it were) too. Trainz is not at all keen on junctions that are not virtually flat and that's a big millstone round your neck when you're trying to model a railway in the Peak District. It's very heavy going and, as I said, I had no intentions originally of including this bit. However, it's very rewarding when it starts to come together ;) .



Cheers


Dave :D
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cyberdonblue
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Re: Midland Main Line Derby to Manchester

Post by cyberdonblue »

The circle is now closed and this side of the route is finally joined up to the track roughly laid by TransDEM "on the other side." Still a long way to go, years probably at this rate :D .

North (bottom,) South (top right) and East (top left.) The three Junctions at Chinley

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The above are all double-tracked (except for the North Junction which was quadrupled,) as in their hey day.

(below) Chinley North Junction with a Sheffield to Manchester service coming round from the East Junction.

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(below) There's quite an incline between here and Chinley Station down the hill, somewhat exaggerated by having to keep things at the top on a fairly even keel for Trainz to cope with it.

In reality the route still climbs gently along both the right and left offshoots.


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(below) Chinley South Junction. Anyone who knows the area will instantly spot that I haven't included the four lane monstrosity of a bypass that cuts through below the railway here nowadays - and I'm not going to bother either.

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More progress as and when.

Cheers


Dave :D
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