Category: Trainz Work In Progress

So I thought I’ll post the latest progress, the 3Dmodel below probably doesn’t do it justice as it is a plain colour, mainly to allow a smaller file size.

However, below is a rendering taken from my program of choice – an older one too. (Mainly because developing in modern versions isn’t easy at the later versions tend to s*** themselves with the outdated plugins and data structures!)

So the static rendering gives an idea how thigns are looking at the momnet.

But what is also interesting is that I used this model again as I like to during mid development is mess around with it. So, I created a 57ft coach (basically its a seating bay taken out) which has the wrong seating moquette and gives an idea what I am thinking of creating next. The good news is development would be easy as of 3 coaches, 2 are identical as both end coaches are essentially the same bodyshell with different underframes. I am also looking at a way around that, but thats the easy part.

The DEMU on the other hand, I’ve built 3 vehicles of the “Hampshire variety”, but someone where I work pointed out that there is so many variants, its difficutl to keep track fo them, he was right! The Hampshire units have a lot of differences – but only on their trailer coaches. The Berkshire units add to the complexity, but are easier to deal with. Most of the problems stem from the DTCL coaches, where the compartment behind the drivers cab seems to be different on ALL of them. Some drawings show a second class compartmen, some show a luggage compartment, some show a first class compartment, etc. 2052101/205205 was even more unique as it was refurbished. Being refurbished meant it had a lot of nice additions to it, except it seems to carry all second class accommodation, I’ll have to look over the drawings again, but of the 33 units produced, its a nightmare.
(Not forgettting the 2 car Hampshire units that were formed to go over the Watercress Line and then augmented with an EMU trailer.). Just enjoy my suffering!

Oh and I found some inaccuracies, the body is too rounded which made modelling the windows on the doors harder. Looks like a rebuild is in order.

Not WIP as such but when I get some spare time and references, I do still work on it.

This meant to be for Trainz and I think the file is released (you can download it here: https://www.wessexelectricnut.co.uk/files/wip/trainz/PRRB.cdp)
So I’ve been looking through my files as I’ve had 2 hard drive failures, one on my main desktop that luckily recovered most of the data and was safe, I later put that down to a system error corrupting files and the install of Windows 7 at the time.

The later one actually happened more recently and I thought Iost everything I moved from May 2024 – my last known backup. The hard drive? Dead, completely dead. It was also installed in a NAS, a 4TB hard drive that was mixed with another 4TB hard drive and that was set up in RAID 0 (Striped) – BIG MISTAKE. Its a 2 bay NAS drive with RAID 0 and 1 capabilities and I thought I needed more than 4TB of space. As it turned out, I didn’t. I planned to go back to RAID 1, basically mirrored and I was in the process of doing so, before I could get hold of a hard drive though and budget for it, the troublesome drive decided to crash, completely. When I mean crash, I mean non recoverable. I discovered more recently that I had more data than I realised, recovered lots from hard drive recovery programs and recovered more than 90% of it. Luckily, also, the highly sensitive bits are actually on a Microsft OneDrive, so isn’t affected. (I also have a strategy in place as well now – like I did then for highly sensitive files, but it didn’t work).

So here is another mesh to enjoy and view without Trainz that I discovered

Its a ParkRoyal railbus, I have found plenty of reference except the cab profile and some interior bits and its been an interesting project, I have more railbuses to upload over time that will prove interesting and in some senses still in development. Just waiting for time and resources to come my way to finish it off – the worst bit has been the Leyland/BUT/AEC engines, or in one case, the Meadows engines.

(Please note, I’ve reduced the quality substantially on this model)

I thought I’d upload a model for everyone to be mesmerized by.

Its LEV 3 – well a hybrid of LEV 2 and LEV 3. I’m not 100% sure on its history so I can’t write up an entire history of it, but I do know that it started life at Wokington, bodied using Leyland National 2 bus parts, mounted on a frame, sent to Derby for trials, then ended up in service on various branch lines around the country. As a research vehicle, this is one of the very few that carried passengers for evaluation and trials. There are plenty of photos of it online where it was in service on the Severn Beach Line which is between Bristol and Severn Beach. (Also passes near a landmark between St Andrews Road and Severn Beach, that being the Prince of Wales Bridge or the Second Severn Crossing).

Sometime afterwards, it was sold to Northern Ireland Railways to work on the Coleraine to Portrush branch, having a reputation of finding “the very end of the line”. Trials then concluded and then sold onto the Downpatrick & County Down Railway in Northern Ireland where it resides to this day.

LEV2 however, has had a much rather less fortunate history, built as a demonstrator for the USA, it reportedly ended up in service with Amtrak who later found it a liability as it was too light to operate some level crossings, also known for its reliability issues. It got sold onto Cheat River Railroad, who operated it for some time before selling it onto Connecticut Trolley museum -during this time, there was an active effort to bring LEV2 back home, sadly, it was reported that the new owners were not as cooperative as the UK based groups had hoped and was listed as “scrapped” in August 2021.

Nothing to see here, just a test

(Now with textures)