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On Shenston Road. Some recent photos.


Swindon 123
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Thanks for the kind comments guys.RMWEB has helped inspire me to try and complete Shenston road and up my   standard with the knowledge and fantastic modelling that's shared on here.   I must thank Paul James, a life long friend who has helped me develop this layout over the passed 14 years and also Kier Hardy who after moving to the area about 8 years ago becoming firm friends helped kick start a stalled project with some fantastic buildings and help with the dark art of the electrics. A lot of work is still required to complete my vision of a chunk of my childhood pre tops 70s,  in the industrial midlands but there is enough to now loose myself in time and recharge the creative batteries .  It can also be operated  to a later date with careful selection of the stock I have built up to revive my memories of working on the railway from the mid 70s to the grey era , present day hasn't quite got the magic for me.   Its getting there as long as I don't get distracted with new must have's. .I hope to show further progression through Paul's expert  camera lens ,  as my box brownie don't cut the mustard!!. Thanks for looking.

 

Greg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello all. Here are some more photos of Shenston Road and its rolling stock. (2nd attempt after making a complete hash of the first).

Mostly hydraulic influence this post with the odd Diesel Electric thrown in.

First D6327 in the down platform loop at Shenston Road with a freight

post-7146-0-17651700-1402329389_thumb.jpg

 

Next continuing the Cl22 theme, D6320 and D1028 'Western Hussar' in the steelworks exchange sidings.

post-7146-0-59471500-1402329375_thumb.jpg

 

Now continuing with Westerns, another view of D1023 on the Western Finale railtour in 1977 exiting the tunnel at the Wolverhampton end of the layout.

post-7146-0-47593900-1402329460_thumb.jpg

 

Diesel Electric interloper in the form of Cl31, 5809 waits in the Down Platform loop as D1028 'Western Hussar' passes on the Down main.

post-7146-0-82105600-1402329409_thumb.jpg

 

Before finally getting under way its self.

post-7146-0-90018200-1402329423_thumb.jpg

 

More to come as soon as I sort them out, (or take some more).

 

Paul J.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some more photos of Shenston Road for you all to look at.

 

D1028 "Western Hussar" stops at Shenston Road with a northbound train.

post-7146-0-14620500-1403349458_thumb.jpg

 

A general view of the station with a Class 108 waiting to follow D1028. The destination of Hunts Cross seems highly unlikely.

post-7146-0-09632000-1403349509_thumb.jpg

 

D337 approaches Shenston Road with a train of covhops.

post-7146-0-00328200-1403349528_thumb.jpg

 

Finally some of Greg's wagons in the guise of some 21T minerals. Chivers kits with the coal represented by foam. The packing from Heljan locos looks just right.

 

B31008. (Looks like the sign writer missed off a number. Not unknown on the prototype).

post-7146-0-49537700-1403349563_thumb.jpg

 

B312948.

post-7146-0-02338000-1403349601_thumb.jpg

 

Paul J.

 

B313542

post-7146-0-99097900-1403349615_thumb.jpg

Edited by Swindon 123
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Hello all,

Some more photos from the Shenston Road files. A couple of Greg's wagons included.

 

Cl 47, 1728 on a freight passes under the rail bridge by the steel works.

post-7146-0-90514100-1403783657_thumb.jpg

 

Part of the train consist incudes.

TTA TRL51667.

post-7146-0-80484700-1403783673_thumb.jpg

 

Coil K B934576

post-7146-0-26751600-1403783687_thumb.jpg

 

KEV BB935247. (seems to have lost the V in "KEV". The things you notice on a photo)

post-7146-0-82437500-1403783699_thumb.jpg

 

Hopefully Greg will be able to fill you all in as the origin of these wagons. One thing I do know is, the loads in the coil carriers are made from 13A fuse wire, patiently wound round a tube to create individual coils. Finally back to TOPS with 40141 on a train of cement hoppers.

post-7146-0-54676300-1403783714_thumb.jpg

 

Paul J.

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  • 2 months later...

Shenston Road must be one of my very favourite layouts. The weathering of the rolling stock and buildings is excellent, and it has just the right amount of detail, not packing to many details into a too smaller space (which is hard to resist I know). The grass and moss work is also just lovely.

I would love to know a little about how Paul achieves such fabulous photographs, the depth of field, and the realism in the lighting.

 

Do you photograph the model in natural light/direct sunlight?

Do you use a tripod to allow long exposures and a trigger lead?

and what lenses do you use? Primes to get the most light in I would presume.
Do you use split focus, combined in Photoshop?

Lovely to see the layout on Rmweb, although I always check the Emgauge70's website at the start of every month too.

Thanks you for sharing the photos.

Jamie

PS. I have ofen shown friends the below photo from the website, http://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/ , and asked if it is real or a model, it is so hard to tell. There was  slightly cropped version, that ended at the signal box, and that was impossible to tell if it was a model. I hope you don't mind my linking this image.

shenston_station37.jpg

Edited by Jamiel
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I have followed your layout Paul on the EM website along with 'Wibdenshaw' which I was fortunate enough to see in the flesh at Glasgow both are truly amazing!  Jamie your pic is superb - you're right it is almost the the real thing.

Bill.

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Shenston Road must be one of my very favourite layouts. The weathering of the rolling stock and buildings is excellent, and it has just the right amount of detail, not packing to many details into a too smaller space (which is hard to resist I know). The grass and moss work is also just lovely.

 

I would love to know a little about how Paul achieves such fabulous photographs, the depth of field, and the realism in the lighting.

 

Do you photograph the model in natural light/direct sunlight?

Do you use a tripod to allow long exposures and a trigger lead?

and what lenses do you use? Primes to get the most light in I would presume.

Do you use split focus, combined in Photoshop?

 

Lovely to see the layout on Rmweb, although I always check the Emgauge70's website at the start of every month too.

 

Thanks you for sharing the photos.

 

Jamie

 

PS. I have ofen shown friends the below photo from the website, http://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/ , and asked if it is real or a model, it is so hard to tell. There was  slightly cropped version, that ended at the signal box, and that was impossible to tell if it was a model. I hope you don't mind my linking this image.

 

shenston_station37.jpg

Hello Jamiel I hope I can answer you questions to explain how I've achieved the photos I've posted.

I use a Canon EOS 1100D with an 18-55mm zoom lens. It has taken me around 18 months to perfect using the camera so far, and I've still got a bit to learn and experiment with it. At least with digital cameras you can afford to trial and error and make mistakes without the worry of film costs!

For lighting I use whatever is available in the room the layout is situated. If it's a nice sunny day there is usually enough natural light, but if not, artificial light has to do. The camera will compensate for this although I'm still experimenting on the best settings to get the best results.

With regards to using a tripod I'll sometimes use one depending on the location, but some places it is possible to put the camera down at track level. I prefer to do this if possible. The very nature of the layout design makes for limited locations to take photos and what appears in the background and how easy it is to crop it out sometimes dictates where to place the camera.

The lens is a Canon EFS 18-55mm. I usually use the camera in Aperture Priority mode with the F. stop set as high as possible, (usually F25-F29), with the lens at 18mm focal length. This seems to get me the best depth of field. I leave the camera to sort out the shutter speed but as this is usually quite a long exposure I set the self timer to 10seconds, press the shutter and let the camera get on with it so as not to get any camera shake. I use he cameras auto focus to ensure the focus comes out correct, adjusting the focus point of the camera as required. This means I capture a lot of background in the image that is not wanted, but with the camera being something like 12 megapixels I have found it possible to crop out what is not required without much problem. It's the depth of field of the photo that is important in my mind.

As an example of this method below are a couple of photos. The first is the original one out of the camera.

post-7146-0-62358900-1411130954_thumb.jpg

 

Although a reasonably decent photo in itself with a good depth of field, it is possible to crop the photo to nearly half its size and just concentrate on the 40 and its train with out much loss in picture quality.

post-7146-0-21850300-1411130967_thumb.jpg

 

Apart from slightly straightening the cropped image I haven't altered it in any other way. Sometimes I will take multiple images of the same scene altering certain things like the cameras point of focus or the zoom length and then see which is the best shot, which I then post, but I don't combine multiple images to achieve one shot. Just getting a single shot altered to within the parameters to be able to post it on RM Web takes long enough. To do anything else would eat into serious modeling time.

 

I hope the above answers some of your questions. I've enjoyed taking photos of Shenston Road as for one thing it has made me learn more about how to get the most out of the camera. It's a never ending learning process that will continue for a long time yet.

 

As a parting gesture here's a photo I took. Is it real or a model. I'll leave you all to judge?

 

post-7146-0-05471900-1411132134_thumb.jpg

 

Paul J.

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Thanks Paul.

The exposure times and F-stops are very informative, and really helpful for anyone wanting to try to achieve the extremely high quality of photos you have posted.

The self timer is a nice touch to avoid any camera shake.

Have you tried using prime lenses? They would cut the exposure times down as they let in a lot more light than a zoom, but that said if the trains are static and the camera on solid base it is no problem.

Of course none of that would matter if the layout itself were not such a fantastic model.

I love the photos of the class 40 goods train. I would presume that the wagon shot is a model, perhaps something in the bricks in the background give it away, but wonderful work regardless.

Thank you again Paul for sharing more images of the layout, and for the tips on photographing it. Inspirational for both modelling and photography.

Jamie

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Hello Jamiel I hope I can answer you questions to explain how I've achieved the photos I've posted.

I use a Canon EOS 1100D with an 18-55mm zoom lens. It has taken me around 18 months to perfect using the camera so far, and I've still got a bit to learn and experiment with it. At least with digital cameras you can afford to trial and error and make mistakes without the worry of film costs!

For lighting I use whatever is available in the room the layout is situated. If it's a nice sunny day there is usually enough natural light, but if not, artificial light has to do. The camera will compensate for this although I'm still experimenting on the best settings to get the best results.

With regards to using a tripod I'll sometimes use one depending on the location, but some places it is possible to put the camera down at track level. I prefer to do this if possible. The very nature of the layout design makes for limited locations to take photos and what appears in the background and how easy it is to crop it out sometimes dictates where to place the camera.

The lens is a Canon EFS 18-55mm. I usually use the camera in Aperture Priority mode with the F. stop set as high as possible, (usually F25-F29), with the lens at 18mm focal length. This seems to get me the best depth of field. I leave the camera to sort out the shutter speed but as this is usually quite a long exposure I set the self timer to 10seconds, press the shutter and let the camera get on with it so as not to get any camera shake. I use he cameras auto focus to ensure the focus comes out correct, adjusting the focus point of the camera as required. This means I capture a lot of background in the image that is not wanted, but with the camera being something like 12 megapixels I have found it possible to crop out what is not required without much problem. It's the depth of field of the photo that is important in my mind.

As an example of this method below are a couple of photos. The first is the original one out of the camera.

attachicon.gifShenston Rd steelworks.jpg

 

Although a reasonably decent photo in itself with a good depth of field, it is possible to crop the photo to nearly half its size and just concentrate on the 40 and its train with out much loss in picture quality.

attachicon.gifShenston Rd steelworks-D337.jpg

 

Apart from slightly straightening the cropped image I haven't altered it in any other way. Sometimes I will take multiple images of the same scene altering certain things like the cameras point of focus or the zoom length and then see which is the best shot, which I then post, but I don't combine multiple images to achieve one shot. Just getting a single shot altered to within the parameters to be able to post it on RM Web takes long enough. To do anything else would eat into serious modeling time.

 

I hope the above answers some of your questions. I've enjoyed taking photos of Shenston Road as for one thing it has made me learn more about how to get the most out of the camera. It's a never ending learning process that will continue for a long time yet.

 

As a parting gesture here's a photo I took. Is it real or a model. I'll leave you all to judge?

 

attachicon.gifvan black & white. (Resized).jpg

 

Paul J.

 

Definitely a model, the real B733214 had a 2" scratch on the left hand door and a rivet missing from the end corrugations.

Excellent pics as ever Paul.

 

Mike.

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Definitely a model, the real B733214 had a 2" scratch on the left hand door and a rivet missing from the end corrugations.

Excellent pics as ever Paul.

 

Mike.

I think you'll find the scratch was on the right hand door.

 

Nice photos as ever Paul..... don't tell them about focus stitching! :) :)

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  • 2 months later...

Well a couple of months have gone by and I finally got round to taking some more shots of Shenston Road, coupled with the fact that Greg had finished a couple of new Westerns to add to his fleet. So first off a couple of shots of the new Westerns, with a couple of other locos thrown in. When I've finished cropping the other shots I'll post them.

 

First D1005 on a train of steel coils.

post-7146-0-99277500-1417115188_thumb.jpg

 

post-7146-0-28509000-1417115430_thumb.jpg

 

Note that on the one end the headboard clips have been removed from D1005 after repairs to accident damage. Don't ask me

which end this is as Westerns are not my strongest class. I'm sure Greg will be able to fill in that detail.

 

Next D1054, Western Governor on a train of Gulf bogie tanks and then a passenger.

post-7146-0-67167500-1417115288_thumb.jpg

 

post-7146-0-17190600-1417115481_thumb.jpg

 

To continue with the hydraulic theme for today, three from Gregs fleet.

D1028, Western Hussar on a coal train.

post-7146-0-93212300-1417116129_thumb.jpg

 

Hymek D7056 on a train of Bitumen tanks.

post-7146-0-24654600-1417115602_thumb.jpg

 

And finally "Teddy Bear" D9535 on a trip working.

post-7146-0-16774700-1417115614_thumb.jpg

 

Paul J.

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