Here comes another blog about WIP stuff, I’ve been trying to look for objects I’ve not touched but would like to publish for everyone to enjoy and this is one of them in its current form. Actually, I was messing with it on the train this morning but a power cut saw to that – knocked out both of my desktops and one had 3DSM open as I use a thin client. Thank you Scottish and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN), maybe it might be time to invest in a UPS? If you’d like to help, please click the “donate button”.
Anyway, looks like this, I was planning to texture it today just quickly, so players have something to paint. That didn’t go well either – train delay which meant I couldn’t switch the desktops on afterwards. That’s another issue for another blog that I have to be careful what I talk about. Sorry.
Forgotten, but to be honest, I don’t think this item has much interest in it, the only thing I know is that this Westinghouse People Mover, first installed in 1971 was installed at one airport – Tampa Bay Airport in the USA. That was it, only 2 cars known unless you know more? Please add a message below. These are the only 2 known cars of their type and seem to be the first ones after the Pittsburgh Skybus Project – that’s another model for another blog, but the SkyBus looks very different. For a start, a doorway on one side, no end windows and just a vehicle that you could only see out the sides with 1960’s computer tech. Rumor has it, it wasn’t even computerised, it was actually manually driven on a circuit. One vehicle still survives too. Still, enjoy this small model. Best worked in shuttle mode.
(Also, unlike other models, this one is actually quite light on the system resources, 4,000 polys in total – or there abouts.)
EDIT (16/07/2025): Rather than make a new post, I thought I’ll add to this one. If you want to play with it (possibly moans about missing track – so you may need to change that), you can play with the underground station. I’m reluctant to release the track at the moment as I am not sure of the licencing conditions of the concrete texture and I have to go out somewhere to find a suitable texture – good luck to me. As for the station:
Its high poly, its also pre-rendered with the textures, so they are baked on the station itself – reskinning maybe hard, but you are welcome to try and show me what you have come up with. Download here
All through looking through my hard drive. I know a lot of people have been looking for my content for years and isn’t available anywhere anymore – this is what this site was suppose to address, but while clearing out my hard drive and putting what is left as there is a lot of duplicates on said NAS/Hard drive, I came across this folder from a previous site:
I had to edit some of the files out, but yes, that is a LOT I need to put up, in addition to what’s up already. This will take a long time to sort, so don’t expect anything to be instant (sorry). To add it and document everything, probably takes around 30 minutes an object – plus I need to validate and check it works on modern Trainz (TS2019+) which some items won’t. Pack it, etc.
I also found a reskin file for the Class 141, so that will be uploaded ASAP, so if anyone wants a fiddle, be my guest. It will be the second source item on the site (finally). Then there is the issue of space. I may run out. If that happens, I’ll start hotlinking everything off the site or talk nicely to the owner, but I got 5GB and still got some way to go. For those interested, the size so far of what’s in that folder is:
Ok, not as bad as I thought, but getting that way!
Look out for more to add of older releases in the future. For reference, if I remember correctly, this was put onto a self hosted server. Yes, I had one of those in days gone by, Internet Information System 6.0 tied to an IP address and on 24/7, I could do it all over again as I have the equipment. Its just the time and knowhow as I would use Linux these days, with a VPN server for more fun. A good way to use up your capacity. The connection is fast enough, around 2.5GB/s fibre, but then its limited to the port of the computer – which is 1GB/s as it is an old Lenovo.
Going off subject slightly, for those messing with PCs and have a network to yourself, I seriously recommend having a play around, but just for gods’ sakes! Isolate your computer! Its how you learn. Also remember, a new hole in the network is a new hole that introduces security risks.
When I produced this site, I never thought I’ll be going through my past and present catalogue of Trainz content nor the extent of how much I made, I mean just look!
The worst bit is that is scratching the surface. There is a lot more I haven’t added and there is more in the files directory that I need to catalogue and post on the page. If you think that is bad, my Trainz install is someting else of a lot of self made stuff.
Shows you that even though I am quiet most of the time, in the background, I am actually working away.
So I’ve worked on this site long enough and I thought I’ll start publishing it. That was the hard part. Another plugin added to allow me to move over from the sub folder to the main site. First attempt didn’t work, so I had to erase it and start again. This time it did! And just exactly how I wanted it.
It has taken me EIGHT years to get to this point, from concept to final product. I had several tries, and a lot were unsuccessful.
I tried “Artisteer”, I went from WordPress to Joomla with no success for the templates, I tried other template builders and other web authoring tools (Dreamweaver, WYSIWYG, NetObjects) and all this in my spare time. I couldn’t even open up my old site in NOF and it was the same version.
All it took was a new site with an accidental discovery, I could do what I always wanted to do, create a template using WordPress and that was 3 weeks ago from memory. A static to a dynamic page. It took me a long time to get here but I f inally done it.
It is based on WordPress’s Twenty Twenty Five theme with a lot of customisations, so you will see some WordPress-like stuff in here and the side bar will disappear on some pages as templates – I’ll fix that in due course. As I was creating this one, I found another experimental WordPress site I started in 2016 that I forgot about, so I amalgamated all the posts over to this site which is why there is a gap between 2018 and 2023. Actually, this site was started because my mum suggested it with my mental health issues, to start blogging all over again and talk about it – anything previous to those doesn’t exist as it was on Joomla (which got deleted), I do have a “Live Jornual” out on the web somewhere which was from 2003 to 2008 when I got too busy.
Still, feedback is welcome and here is a screenshot of the current site together with the old WIP site and the test page from 2017. I hope it will look more like it in the future. Also somewhere, I have an open office drawing somewhere and that is the original concept.
Comments? Please let me know. I’ll update my CV in due course with the web addresses and the rest of the pages.
And I worked from home today, spending quite a bit of time on it.
This must have been the most frustrating aspects of creating a WordPress site, but I cracked it finally. The good news is once I create it as a template part, that’s it, it all automatically updates when it refers to that template part…. That was the easy bit!
The hard bit? I did some settings changes and I wanted a load of images to represent stops on a route map, so I created a load of images (the LinkedIn, Facebook logo and donate button come from their respective owners and added to the site that way, reduced to fit the side bar).
Previous for a few days, I created a navigation bar with just links to pages, seen in the below screenshot, it may disappear by the time you look at the page.
(Lost the image)
But… that’s where the fun changes, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the images to accept a link, until I looked at the top bar where I made a UI change in the settings… oh…! Now it works. Next task, to get it to change colour when you hover, it will look slightly weird but I’ll try and keep the affect down, the plan is to go orange.
It took me YEARS to work out how WordPress works and now I am learning it in less than 7 days. As for the links to the LinkedIn and Facebook profile, I have customised it in that I used a HTML modification and good job I remembered good old <a href=””> </a> tags! <img src=””> is another one, <p></p>, <list><li></list>, I think I got the basic ones covered. The most ironic part is, how WordPress is driven, its basically a giant database with some PHP coding to pull and push data, so a simple query of “SELECT aboutme FROM pages” in the background. I think I got the syntax right for SQL, someone comment if I am right or wrong.
But anyway, all the links and HTML files are actually stored in a database and then spat out and shown on your display. The images aren’t, they are just linked to an area on the site.
If you are wondering “can I do this in another database like Access?” In theory, you could, but it won’t be web capable and in fact, most computers couldn’t access your site. However, if you wrote a VB program, you could output the data to a VB file and have it display locally.
(Oh as for the file I used, here is the raw unedited file I used to create the bar with. Its mostly all standardised and I turned on the layers and and when required).
EDIT: Oh the buttons, if you want the PSD files, you can down them by clicking this text.
Something you may of noticed that’s been added to the sidebar is a donate button. I’ll be clear first, it is completely optional. I’ve tried to put it in an unintrusive space, so you don’t get bombarded with it being put in your face and this will be the only place I will “promote it”. I’m not going to push it in everyone’s face as I am not like that. I’m not driven solely by money. I got targets, I got desires, agreed, but money is the root of all evil so I’m trying to not get corrupted by money and its problems.
The reasoning behind it is simple. I’ve had a few comment on my work and its quality despite being unfinished and the time I have. I don’t take commissioned projects on for similar reasons (dysfunctional family, stress and other work commitments), but if you want, you can keep me going. I don’t care if it is £0.01 (1 pence) or £100.00, I’m grateful for anything. I also do everything in my spare time. As in, on the train from home to work and back. Even then I have a WiFi battle!
To give you an idea of my likes and expenses and one is going to quite wild, as of 29/06/2025:
A 2 Litre bottle of Tesco’s Coke zero – £0.49 (49p)
Regular sized Latte for the morning commute with discount – £3.30 approx
Tescos meal deal – £3.60 (3 items, sandwich, side and drink)
Lyca Mobile 5GB plan – £5
Online storage – OpenDrive – $9.99 a month or around £8. Its unlimited though. Not sure of the security aspect, I’ll be honest, the program looks older than the hills and doesn’t have versioning, but it works. There are other options, TeraBox which is based in China and I’m a bit questionable about it as you have to upload/download through their app. OpenDrive does have a WebDAV option though. OneDrive is preferred though but its limited to 1TB and the upgrade goes to 2TB. A lot of my work collectively is already near the 2TB limit.
Waitrose shopping SBC – £10 a time
Keeping this site going – £20 (thank god!) a year. If you want to have your own site hosted by my friends, please talk to www.cadence.net.uk (Cadence Networks). I’ve been with them for years and despite what I have said in a previous blog post, I’ve have had no issues with them at all. Just I’m unfortunate with the issues I’ve suffered has been all external and they have had to act. No, they aren’t sponsoring me to say this, its all genuine.
Renewal of the domain – £31.61 for 2 years ☹ It was cheap at one point.
Keeping my wessexelectricnut mailbox going (As I write this, doesn’t work with the site for enquiries, so its on my burgess.world inbox) for a year – £60, although admittedly, it’s a Zimbra Hosted box with a briefcase that reports it has “unlimited storage”, until I broke it recently. Don’t ask – turns out 11GB of meshes was too much for it to handle.
Cheap laptop – £150 (believe it or not, a lot of my work is made on laptops with Intel HD based graphics processors)
Used Toughbook – £500 – £1,500 (acceptable for use).
Expensive laptop – £2,000
Ultimate desire, Panasonic Toughbook FZ-40 with 5G modem – £4,200
In the immediate term, I’m trying to get enough money together to get my own house with a mortgage, at 39, its not easy. My dad is trying to tempt me in staying at home but at times, I’ll admit, its becoming increasingly difficult as I do a day job (Train Planning), then have to do a ton of tasks when I get home related to him and the dogs. Getting to work, travel is fortunately cheap, I drive and park at my nearest station, that is because the travelling time by train caused conflict between my dad and me because to him, the evening wait for 45 minutes between trains to my local station is unacceptably long when Southern changed their timetable. He also has a vendetta against Southern. So £25 of petrol in my 29 year old Renault Clio (yes, the one that has the bonnet that flips the opposite direction to most cars – think Clio Williams. Actually, how many bonnets are hinged at the bumper than the scuttle these days?) is thankfully frugal on petrol – despite the hammering down the A27.
Parking is thankfully free as I work for the Train Operating Company, Rail travel is free for the local TOC but since the transfer from First to DFTO, everywhere else is now chargeable at Priv rate (75%, no more free travel for 10 boxes a year on Avanti, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, Lumo or other First Group TOCs ☹ and no Friends and Family discounts on them too! And no, other DFTO companies, we don’t get free travel at all on them).
The only other big issue is one of my friends likes lots of holidays, but he has a different job and he gets a hell of a lot more than me. I don’t have any secondary employment, so its just my main source of income. Cost control on holiday can be difficult and he can be a bad influence, where I look at reducing my costs (and my weight), he goes out and orders quite a lot of food – which is actually quite costly these days.
So, there you have it, that’s the reasoning behind the sudden appearance of the “donate button”. As I said, its up to you. I’m not forcing you to pay and I don’t want anyone to struggle financially, if you can afford a penny or a quid or whatever your local currency is as I am British, I’m grateful for anything.
I thought with WordPress, this would be my only site, turns out I forgotten one! Oops. I had a wordpress.com account with a blog that I was planning to turn into a full site and mess with WordPress, then transfer things over, its not the first time I’ve done that, I created a few internal WordPress sites (they didn’t work – surprise surprise) and get used to new features and create the site I’d like to see. I’m closer now than I have ever been.
So, to complete everything including posts from 2016 (when I was actually Train Presentation), I’ve exported them and included them into this blog. You can see how slowly or quickly things have developed. However, as I write this, I am in the process of shutting down the site – this one provides the purpose. Also there is a long gap between posts. I gave up for a while but then my mum suggested as my mental health keeps collapsing (and inspired by someone who I now blocked who is a social media influencer with her ADHD problems) to actually create my own blog and you will find a few reoccurring theme with my life problems, women and not talked about but still an issue – jobs.
From memory, I started that one as my site (not the first time, I’ll get on to that) got blocked. It got blocked because my account got compromised when it ran Joomla and someone kept sending spam emails from my account. This was in 2013. So I tried to get it unblocked unsuccessfully until around 2018, I managed it by submitting a ticket. It all stayed relatively stable, it was mainly used as a file dump, but I had a WIP site built with Netobjects Fusion from about 2019 while I try to mess with Content Management Systems with no success. I also uploaded a few tools and things people will be interested in… until…
It got blocked again in 2024, you’ll never believe the reason – and I was off to a Wetherspoons in Petersfield, so it was the last thing on my mind when that flashed up.
Yep, a file that has been on the site for 6 – 7 years, apparently having Malware. Don’t panic, I got the original source somewhere, it was written in Visual BASIC 6 – but what I have also done, is scanned it with online scanners and it came out clear. When I move the WIP stuff to here, you will find a program file missing, I’m sorry, see above. I’m not risking my site again! I am not blaming my hosting provider either, they explained it was a third party that contacted them to tell them about it.
So “webmasters” on your personal sites, just watch out! Seriously, some people will try anything to knock your site off.
So an entry of (another?) gripe about how WordPress works. Its a bit alien to me, its a bit troublesome to me, but I wanted to replace my WIP site with a site that’s got a CMS system, since its easier to update and everywhere else is going CMS. Plus for mobile use, its rather flexible.
So I came up with a few ideas and the original one was to use a single WordPress site, then I messed with template, then I struggled to deal with templates. I used Joomla! before and that was OK – until I had no access to my site and thought I’ll start from scratch. It was all over blue, so the new idea is to have blue bands top and left.
Kind of like my first example:
Still online, but may not be for much longer, although I don’t know for how much longer as it comes to the big problem of time. Splitting my time up dealing with IT issues at home, developing, gaming (I don’t do much of that these days), work, travelling and being a carer. This is is why I started rebuilding the site it as the original site which ironically is on its own folder I guess you could call it, looks like this:
Also, it was made with NetObjects Fusion and I can’t open the original file in the latest version, so I can no longer update it. Great! Its one of these WYSIWYG and if I am totally honest, like back in the day, I could of done the whole site from scratch with just HTML coding and a little Javascript here and there – its not hard if I am brutally honest.
So, I tried many plugins (I love WP plugins!), many ways and if I am honest, I am not sold on the “Blocks” idea as I am looking at freeform – as in the page is a drawing board. But many items of software to develop the site and the templates and I got to a point where I was going to use my static webpage as a site. However, I also wanted to split off my WIP entries and my personal entries for a good reason, firstly I keep getting HTTP 500 error on this site, the second is to make it easier to find. So I opened another WordPress blog for that purpose.
I was going to amalgamate both into one site with folders that are addressed from a static webpage. It looked like a good idea until you realise that it doesn’t look right (the tool is my dads suggestion by the way):
(Through a remote connection) The trouble with the blogs is that the separate page, you would have to scroll down horizontal pages – from a user perspective, this is not good. Its awful in fact! It would certainty not look very professional, but does my site do anyway? Then there is the issue of accessibility, this is going to be a bigger concern going forward. Unless I create static pages for every single condition, its not going to work, so hopefully, WordPress has a plugin for that. Normally, I use really small text size which a lot of people can’t read, its just what my eyes are used to, then someone goes “I can’t see it, its too small”.
The argument shouldn’t be “Well change your monitor settings”, it should be “how do I make the site work for them?” A temporary increase in text in the site, would work, along with being able to accommodate those who are colour blind.
Then came the next idea after messing around on my WIP site, still a lot to do and I’m working an hour at a time figuring things out.
Ok, its a little more advanced than that, but this version has different plug-ins installed which this blog doesn’t have. Why couldn’t I have access to them earlier? Anyway, theres a LOT of work to do, considering I’m spending less than an hour a day on it, mostly as I write this, the train to London and back (hence why one is over an RDP connection). There also will be a HTML site and that will be my CV, I’m working out how to produce a HTML version and link it to my LinkedIn profile for future employers – which I don’t think it will be that popular. Also on that site, the email form (surprise surprise) doesn’t work yet and I am looking into why
I’d love to hear what everyone thinks and if you can add a comment, please do. Is it too blue? I might also try and add a button for dark mode as I don’t like black on white, but white on black instead.
So I’ve mentioned about life with ASD, but I’ve not really talked about life as a redhead, a natural one as I’m naturally ginger and a bloke. One thing to get used to, you are the only ginger for miles. It’s estimated that there are about 1.5% of people on this earth with natural red hair, the UK has the highest proportion of redheads however, but there are unique problems associated with red hair.
Not the obvious, so keep that off the comments please! What better time to talk about it during a heatwave in the UK and there is a reason for that.
Here is my new best friend, SPF 50+ sun cream. At the moment, I feel like I am married to the bloody stuff. But anyway:
Summers = death!
No, really! The problem is that a lot of redheads have really fair skin and anything more than 20 minutes in the sun is a death sentence. Over a UV of 3, you better run and hide in the shade as nothing will stop you burning, nothing! Oh, stock up on that SPF 50+ and after sun, you WILL need it a lot! Either that or the first sign of sun, you’ll be heading for shade before you burn to a crisp in about 5 minutes flat.
– Compliments
Get used to them, you’ll get that a lot “Oh, I love your hair colour”, “I wish I could have your hair colour”, “It’s soo beautiful”. Etc etc, but….
– Insults
Expect to have a barrage of them, I mean A LOT OF THEM. Ginger P word (I wish that was considered a racist slur, but who’s going to listen to me? I find it offensive as it’s embarrassing. I can’t use the same phrase to anyone with a different hair colour). Ginger nuts – maybe I should throw a pack of them at someone, get back in your biscuit tin. I’ve heard it all. The annoying bit? I’ve challenged the BTP on this, but the insults are not defined as racist and I think they should be defined as race hate, but the abuse? So, if someone has a different skin colour to me, they can go to the police and get someone done for race hate with little evidence. The moment you are a ginger with the same problem? “Sorry, not interested”.
Support
As above, don’t expect any, society doesn’t want to know, the police don’t want to know, the politicians don’t want to know, no one wants to know, until redheads are gone for good, but by then, its too late anyway, we are already going extinct, it won’t be long until we literally are.
– Pain
What pain? I wondered why I can get away with twisting my ankle, cutting my skin and so far, not breaking a bone. Oh, that might be because of my milk input? Anyway, a friend of mine screamed out in pain after he hit the wooden bit to his bed more recently. Me? Ahh, that’s nothing, I keep going. Scientifically, redheads do have a higher pain tolerance, it seems to be true, I’ve somehow tripped into a road in Bognor Regis (kerb was high), twisted my ankle, got up, hobbled for a bit and continued like nothing happened – until the next day that is.
– Dating and sex (for blokes?)
In my unique case? Forget it! Seriously, it’s a joke. To add to the insult list “Sorry, don’t date gingers”, time and time again. That is the highest rejection reason, if not the only I got through my entire life. I did try to date a ginger and the result? “Gingers don’t date other gingers” which is sort of true, because everyone assumes we are bother and sister. Seriously!? Mine 2 sisters have dark hair, I was the only one cursed with the ginger gene, even that wasn’t suppose to happen according to my DNA. I tried to keep this off my blog but go on, you must know, sex life is non existent, I mean, non existent compared to other blokes. In fact, with the whole scheme of things, spend more time on my own than I do with a parter and it has taken a toll on my mental health. Considering I’m nearly 40, without kids, no marriage and only just getting a stable job. I also have ASD so here () and here () explains my ASD problems.
Did I mention also I am even more rare than you think? You see most redheads have green eyes, it’s a recessive trait. I have blue eyes which is also more dominant but rare as hens teeth in redheads.
– Highly visible
From a mile away. Honestly, I don’t need to see the person in my eye line before I get the abuse. However, in a large crowd? Oh spotting me is easy as hell. I’ll never get lost as that orange flashing beacon on my head is always lit saying “I’m here, I’m here! FIND ME”
– Other cultures.
UK? One thing, foreigners? Completely different experience. Why? They are more likely to be struck by lightning than to see a redhead. Not that I can tolerate hot climates. I can’t at all. I’m happier in the northern hemisphere and well away from the equator or even tropics of cancer. The further north I go, the better it is. Cooler weather? Love it! Hot weather? Hide. Anyway, other cultures for these reasons don’t tend to get redheads, so there is a lot of superstition that goes with it. Like seeing a yellow car. Oh and you get a LOT of attention.
In fact, it’s considered unlucky to have redhair (look above), but if you rub a redhead, it’s meant to symbolise good luck in a number of cultures, for someone that doesn’t like being touched. Interesting.
It’s hard to replicate and it’s hard to dye.
Yeah, don’t think about it. Really, don’t. Best keep the hair.k
Honestly, I wouldn’t wish having red hair on anyone else, until society changes its outlook. It wouldn’t be hard, but that requires legislation to change and to be frank, it will never happen. Until enough of us make a noise.
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://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)
