I really wasn't sure if Team-ALCO are still doing a payware release of Victorian Railways Hudson R class.

Anywho, I've already starting to do my project of Victoian Railway's R class steam loco,



This is the progress I've done so far already.

I've got the info and instruction that I got from the steam4me tutorials.
the progress is still far from finish.

Once all the configuration is done and it's on the tracks. It's gonna be one good locomotive to run.

I'm doing a few version of the R class.
Here's what my project hopefully will include

VR R class 4-6-4
Coal Burner version - VR black and red Regular service version
aka R704, R707, R761

Coal Burner version - Preservation VR Black and Red
R761 - w Steamrail headboard version 1 & 2
R766 with Steamrail headboard from early 1990's
R766 with VR scheme with Red and Dark olive green
R766 in VR Maroon Red with yellow lining
R707 with City Of melbourne plates and roadnumbers in gold and blue

Oil burner version - Preservation
R711 & R766 - WestCoast Railway colour scheme with 2 giesel chineys
R711 - Todays Steamrail VR Blue & Gold with single chimney

Hope that should give you the whole Info

Cheers,

Bloody good on ya Josh! It’s good to see people have a go! I take my hat off to Josh, it looks like a complicated process, way out of my league. Keep up the great work Josh, at that rate your going we’ll have VR R’s on our gauge quicker than we think!! Awesome work

Thanks C501.
A little update,
I've taken off the boiler despice that I got more things to add.

I'm waiting for an e-mail from Steamrail, cause I'm gonna see if i can get permission from them to go to Newport so that I can take pictures of R761 with heaps of photos of everything of the loco so that I can be able to get stuck right onto it and finish this project off.

I got a question,
Has anyone got like an old photo of an Oil burner R class tender (not 711) so that I can do the tender that has an oil tank in it would be very appreciated.

Hey Josh,
You may or may not have seen this photo but its on http://www.victorianrailways.net/motive%20power/rsteam.html



Is this photo to old because its black and white?

Cheers,
Matt Oaten

Ah!! excellent find there Matt Doesn't matter if it's old, Though It would be better if the photo was a litttle bit larger and more high quality, But that's ok, It's defenantly useful. Thanks for that find
Just what the fat modeler controller is after. That was one little thing i was after before I continue on.

I fully appreciate that alot Matt, thanks heaps.

G'day Josh,
I dont know if you are still working on the R class or not but I found some more pictures on my computer of a oil class R class, in this case R 748 , taken by my good friend John Ward.




Cheers,
Matt Oaten

P.S liked your SOP video on youtube

G'day Josh,

I must have missed this thread the first time around.



Mate, I wouldn't worry whether anyone else is doing an R, I'd keep working on yours if I were you. The MSTS scene is big enough to have multiple versions of models, and I think it'd be a shame if you stopped now. Continuing the model would be a great learning experience for you and there's nothing like the satisfaction of having your own model running in the sim.

So, you have my full support.

Cheers,
Matt

Matt Austin,
I haven't cancelled the project and gaven up, I've put it on hold till I got some proper pic reference. I am still gonna do it, I just needed some good pics for it, Like the cab, I could've use the cab pic form the TA S class, But I wasn't sure if what would be an option, same with the cabviews from the Payware S class. I needed not just the pics of the body, But also the HQ of the bogies (Including the bogie tender) I'm still steaming ahead on this project, I just needed to think what parts are needed and take some time on thid project, I don't want to rush on this.

Matt Oaten, Thanks for the pics, Just what I needed (even the rods and the valve gears on the driving wheels.) Something I defenantly needed.

And one more,
I'm trying to find a side on view to make it easier for you to model.
I'll keep looking

Cheers,
Matt Oaten

P.S I have decided to watermark John Ward's name on pictures for copyright reasons.

Hi Matt Oatrn
That's quite alright, And Thats nice of you if you did find some full-on side view without any angelling on it.

It's mostly the bogies the Outside cabs, the rods, Valve gear, every little part details is Only something I need.

The rest I can manage, Like the Drawing sideview of the Tender, Boiler and all others I'll say later on down the track.
I've decided to do the tender first, So that It's easier.

Once that's all done, Then I'll do the engine. And when Everything is all set to go, I'll see if Team-ALCO can configure the ENG file to get it to configure in it's correct configuration. And I'm gonna pass it on to the BETA testers and once they got it the thumbs up, SHe'll be wheeled out steaming out of my Henty Workshops

If you're going to do R704, make sure you have the right colours; they were significantly different. You'll also need to get the side plate right; R704 had commemorative plates for the Festival of Britain at Glasgow.

You may also wish to consider R719 and R748 in oil-burning configuration, R707 fitted with PBC equipment and possibly something like R710 in workshops grey for something different.

I'd go as far as saying to not even bother until you get a copy of Hudson Power: the definitive R-class reference. It's berluddy hard to find - it's popular and out of print.

Get a couple of Train Hobby books - as much as I loathe them, they make good MSTS skin references, and people scamming Train Hobby for freeware redresses the balance IMHO.

G'day Guys,
A couple of photo's taken by me of R 704 at the ARHS.






Cheers,
Matt Oaten

You could also consider doing R704 as it apparently appeared for the aborted 1953 Royal Tour for King George VI, who died before the tour could be done with the Royal Coat-of-Arms fitted to the front*.

I wish you luck with the endeavour and look forward to your finished product.


*Ref: The Era Of The "R" Class Locomotives In The Victorian Railways - S. Watson and A. Cameron.

Matt Oaten
That's excellent Pic reference for the locos.
Even the Cabview, That's absolutely what I'd needed.

Ninthotch.
About the Train hobby books. If you don't mind me asking.
Are they expensive to buy do you know? The Copy of "hudson Power"
I heard about that book. I'll have to browse online and get info about that book. Thanks heaps.

You'll need two books; both are scarce.

Hudson Power is rare, and has been out of print for some years, and copies when they do come up are very sought after, and therefore command a high price. You would be lucky not to have to part with less than $100.00 for a copy.

The Era of the "R" Class Locomotives of the Victorian Railways is another good resource, but it is rarer still. It is also out of print, and no, I don't plan selling my copy. It's on loan itself...

Train Hobby "books" (if by books, you mean poor copies of several very good slide collections) are usually $50 each. There's enough colour references to get things like weathering and the individual variations right.

This may help




Cheers,
Matt

I've just done a search on Abebooks
<http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=The+Era+of+the+%22R%22+Class+Locomotives+of+the+Victorian+Railways&x=20&y=11>
$22.00 at Syber's Books in Melbourne

Something else once again,
http://eurekamodels.com.au/news10th.html



Cheers,
Matt Oaten

The R class locos had a red band on the tender frame , it was changed to the red band on the tender to line up with the red lines on the loco.

Well, This is something I didn't think of at the first place.
Before I do the loco. I'm gonna start by scracth and do the tender first. Once that's all done then work on the loco.

Thanks heaps to you guys for enough reference I need to do this.

Have you had a look at the WCR version of R711 hosted on the Steam4me website for some clues to constructing your model?

I have tried reskinning this to make up fairly crude versions of some of the surviving R class engines R704, R707, and R761, but the texture mapping is a bit weird, one small area on the boiler gets coloured red because it is taking the texture info from the red smoke deflectors image in one of my modified ace files. One of the limitations of reskinning. I need some better photos of certain areas including for example R761's cab plate as mine is a bit blurry. The new boiler colours are a bit bluish too-probably the photos I was working with. Got some fairly good photos of R704 at the museum a week ago, but the locos location makes it it a bit difficult to get some views.

Also I am not even trying at this stage about attempting to change obvious issues like the double chimney to single and the tender back to a coal version as I don't have a 3D train modelling program or the knowledge at present.

J515 the model was actually designed that way with the texture mapping to make it almost impossible to reskin.

Yeah, I remember the discussions that went on to ensure that it would only ever be useable as a WCR loco.

I did build a freightanim shape to disguise some of the WCR details, but it that was years ago.