dougattrenholmebar

As each one of the scenes in this series is produced, proving the concept, I also want to improve the quality of the productions. All my videoing up to now has been using Gopro cameras. First the Session 5 and latterly the Hero 10. Both camera's have produced satisfactory results and can be squeezed into the tiniest of spaces, however, for close up work they are not the best for the job. In this video I have have recorded the trains and the buildings in 4k 60fps using my Ipad tablet. The trains have been processed through a colour corrector to give a dirty and faded look which was part of the scene back in the sixties. Work has also been carried out to blend the trains more naturally into the scene. We are using the same trains as in the other videos in this series, two more are added here, a Class 20 descending the bank from the branch and a 08 Shunter depositing some wagons into the goods shed. The detail on the Goods Shed is worth noting. Look through the windows at the back, you can see the goods train passing behind, through them. There are lights on inside which illuminate the wagons inside. Birds are flying and lots of bugs about. This video was produced by using only TWO railway tracks on a shelf. The four trains in the foreground were videoed first and the the two new ones afterwards and then the two videos were merged together. There's quite a lot of people don't like what I'm doing here, but making a video like this is equivalent to build a physical scene on a traditional layout and for anyone who has no room for a layout, a shelf with a piece of track can produce results like this. Doing this sort of layout is also ideal for those with disabilities who cannot build a physical layout, a shelf and a laptop is all you need.

Continuing the journey away from the main layout of Trenholme Junction, two more scenes on the high level section of this country ride. There are 65 video clips and sound tracks included in these two scenes.

I built Trenholme Junction mainly from the traditional approach. Baseboards, track, buildings and scenery. All assembled the same as everybody else does. The end result was very good, although I say so myself. I spent many hours making videos, re-creating my chosen 1960's timeframe. Very difficult to make convincing content when you can see the ceiling and the walls of the train shed. This made me think about all the things that go on around a real railway scene. You see, most (if not all) model railways are a diorama where the trains move and everything else doesn't. A couple of years ago I set out to tackle the surroundings in which the model is set and have put moving skies, trees, grass, smoke into my videos substituting real world items instead of poor and inanimate representations. Most layouts have the odd one or two of static vehicles standing say at a level crossing or at a bus stop. Some layouts have vehicles which follow a wire. I have to say neither are very convincing. When I started the layout, I had Minic Motorways. The quality didn't match the modern day models. The traffic required on my layout has to be from the 1960's. To try and film real vehicles to use is a non-starter, but, there are lots of excellent diecast models around these days and I have used some from the layout and animated them. This is an experiment to see the possibilities of adding moving traffic into future videos. The railway line runs just inside of the fence and the trains have been omitted in order to simply show the traffic.

Here are another two scenes to add to this series. The scenes are the equivalent to any scene you would have on a physical layout. As described in the previous videos in this series, each scene is a permanent entity and can (as a physical one) be used over and over again. I'm building a library of both the components and these scenes for use in the future. For those of you with shelf layouts (or just a piece of track on a shelf) can do this and build a 'layout' where you don't have any space.

This video follows the trains in '....Out in the Country 2' further down the track. This series has been made using the straight upper level tracks on Trenholme Junction. I think that those of you who have shelf layouts should be interested in this idea. The first scene is that of a lane near where I live where the exit onto the road at the far end has been replaced with the level crossing gates and the trains crossing the lane. In the second and third scenes, the station, there has been a lot of fine detail added to create a station scene by creating separate 'components' The background video is a cloudy day looking at the Cleveland Hills. The station building is Hornby Goathland Station building. The platform is the rear wall of a Metcalfe Platform kit. The gas lamps are photos of the real thing The station name board is Peco Scenecraft The wooden fencing is Flexible Field Fencing The goods shed is a Wills kit The foreground is taken form the lane in Scene 1 I am in the process of creating a library of all my accessory components from the layout and have already created many background and foreground videos which can be assembled in any order. All the trains run on a shelf, once you have some track on a shelf, then that's the only thing you need to create this sort of 'layout'. If enough of you ask me to show you how its done, I'll make another video in the 'How to Video a Model Railway' series.

Despite the lack of interest in this sort of production, I'm carrying on making this type of video. One thing I've learned from building Trenholme Junction is no matter how big or complicated the layout is, there comes a point where you have made all the moves and videoed it from every angle. This type of video production gives an extended layout life. There are many skills attached to building a layout, and I've added video editing to mine. Putting a camera onto a layout and then simply uploading it to YouTube isn't good enough as far as I'm concerned. It needs to be edited into something which represents a true snapshot of what you are creating. I have made many videos which are point and shoot, but I've always edited them into a story. This, latest series, takes that method a little bit further. In this video, there are three videos and a still photograph used. The story is four trains passing by and videoing from the lane adjacent to the railway in four scenes. Video 1 is the foreground, various hedges from around where I live. Weeds are on every trackside. Video 2 is the trains. Videoed on the layout. Video 3 is the background. In scene 1 there is a disused lineside timber merchants' building which is not on the layout. In scene 4 the village is a model on the layout. All the videos have been recorded at various times and places. Recorded on a Gopro 10. Produced using Vegas Post production software.

Having built this model railway in the conventional way, laying the track, placing the buildings and then building the scenery I decided it would be good to be able to change the 'fixed' settings and completely change the look and feel of the layout. I have evolved the technique shown here which combines both the model and the real world. Any combination of seasons and fixed buildings can be assembled in any order. This video shows four trains travelling between two stations on the layout through lush summer vegetation with sunny and cloud strewn skies. The same video could be produced with a snowing winter scene and bare trees. On the layout, the journeys pass along a plain, four track, pretty boring section. There are many layouts which have super scenery which is probably what we are all striving for, many failing dismally but this way you can't beat the real thing.

Another short video exploring the use of special effects to produce smoke for steam engines. As well as the smoke effect I'm also testing an new video card for the other elements used to produce this scene. There are a total of nine different elements merged together here. The model is separated from the layout and the smoke effect is added, then the background and finally the foreground to make this composition effectively 'planting' the model into the real.

Here is a short video where I have been experimenting with special effects to add smoke from the locomotive into the scene. I feel there is room for improvement in the smoke detail, but this is a proof of concept offering. The video was produced using Vegas 19 Post Suite software.

Standing on the Upper North Station, a simple video watching the trains as they pass by.

Since I bought the new lighting system, most of the videos I've made recently have concentrated on the Main Station at Trenholme Junction, trying to get the best settings and angles. Lots of people ask me how these productions are done. This video is shot on the Upper North Station on the high section of the layout which is set on the 180 degrees bend. The model video was shot this week. The background in the Cleveland hills, the video was shot in Autumn last year. The two videos are joined together using Vegas Post video editing suite.

In this weeks video we sit at the southern end of the Main Station on Trenholme Junction. The Class 15 is on Station Pilot duties pushing the coaches into the platforms ready for the main line locomotives to be attached and the passengers to board. This exercise is to test the Hornby and Roco close couplers. Pushing the rakes into this station fully tests them across the most complex point work on the layout. No buffer locking or derailments. The buffers touch on the curves of the suburban set and gently squeeze together. The passing four car DMU has also been fitted with the close couplers and again they also squeeze together on the bends. The tightest bends on the junction are the medium radius points and all are coping well. Only another hundred coaches to fit and what about the 600 wagons......

Simple pleasures for a child from the 1960's. Sitting on a wall or beside the track and watching the trains pass by. This video shows the Main Station at Trenholme Junction. The four trains featured have all been fitted with close couplings. After much experimenting, the ideal combination seems to be the Hornby Close Coupling (R8220) and the Roco Close Coupling (40271). One of each is ideal for my curves. Two Hornby ones leave too large a gap and two Roco causes buffer lock on some curves and medium radius points. An unexpected side effect when using these couplings means the rakes run incredibly smoothly, even over rough track where derailments tended to take place before. This is especially notable on the rakes which use the widening mechanism on bends. (Hornby and Bachmann). In the past I've always tried to video passenger stock from an acute angle to hide the gaps, but this modification gives more possibilities, and, it looks so much better.

Thanks to the generous gift vouchers from my children and my Mum this Christmas, I have managed to add two five coach Hornby Gresley Suburban rakes of coaches to the rolling stock on the Junction. These models are truly superb. The five sets plus the 4MT 2-6-4 loco's were a common sight on the Middlesbrough to Whitby and Whitby to Scarborough lines, just down the road from here. We are at the north end of the Main Station, focussing of the North Bay Platform. A simple pleasure for and eight year old in the 1960's to sit on the platform, watching the trains pass by.

For this years Christmas video we are viewing the Main Station at Trenholme Junction from the veranda's of the South Signal Box. One of my favourite videoing positions on the layout. It's videoed in 5.3k, if you have a high definition device to view it on. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

In this weeks video we return to the southern end of the Main Station at Trenholme Junction and watch the comings and goings from the embankment at the Parcels Station. An 08 is busy removing a couple of vans from a recently arrived passenger train from the west country and placing them with another in Parcels platform to make up a new train. A 'rat' departs from the bay platform with a local suburban train, followed by the arrival of two four car DMU sets, one in the bay and one in the Main station road. another rat moves from the stabling centre road in the bay platform and couples up to the aforementioned vans and then, departs. The four car DMU set then leaves the main road, followed by the other, from the bay. A foretaste of what's to come, only diesels in this scene, all steam are on shed.

I've noticed a considerable drop in the number of the views my videos have got since I have been producing these composite videos. I wonder if they are not watched because it is perceived to be real and not a model. I'm not motivated by how many people watch my videos and so I'm going to carry on along this theme. This is the first time I've used a building as part of the scene. The merging together of the model and the real world is but a start here, I have plans to develop this theme even further. Thanks to those of you who continue to support me in this quest.

In this video, we are sitting at the throat of the Lower Marshalling Yard at Trenholme Junction, a simple pleasure enjoyed by me as a child, just watching the trains pass by. A debut for my 05 Shunter, bought about three years ago by my children for Christmas but never seen running on the layout before. Of the 120 points (switches) on the junction there are many with plastic frogs and short wheelbase loco's don't cope well with these. I have permanently attached a 'match truck' to the loco and changed the wheels of it to DCC Concepts pickup wheels and wired them through to the loco.

Each of these recent video's from Trenholme Junction has a different aim, although it might not be apparent to the casual viewer. Matching the lighting on the model to the light outside when the video is shot is very challenging (to an amateur like me). I have recently stopped videoing in the train shed using the fluorescent lighting which has been there for the last twenty years and have bought several LED purpose made video lights. Two advantages here, keying (the removal of the background) is more effective without the flicker and the lights are dimmable making it easier to match the light on the model with the outside world. A short video, again, and the length not reflecting the approximately 24 hours work to produce it. Video 1 Foreground, (real world) is shot in the lane with all the background removed. Video 2 Mid Section (model) shot on the model, Trenholme Junction with all the background removed. Video 3 Background (real world) is shot in the field nearby and nearer to the hills and on a different day, but similar weather conditions. All three video's are shot in 5.3k @ 60fps, merged together using Vegas Post editing suite.

This weeks video is short and sweet, watching trains passing the level crossing on the lane. There are four videos merged together here. First, (real world) is the foreground taken in the lane. Second, (model) Level Crossing Gates with (real world) hedges. Third (model) Goods shed and Signal Box. Fourth (model) Four trains as seen in last weeks (Watching Trains 44). For those with the appropriate devices, you can watch this video in 5k.

In this weeks video we are at the South West station at Trenholme Junction. Four trains passing through on a lovely late summer day.

Following on from last weeks video (Watching Trains - 42), the cameras are now at the Lower East station, following our trains around Trenholme Junction. We are following a couple of the trains from the previous ones in this series, passing through the station together with some others. The purpose of this video is to test the camera and the new version of the Vegas Post software I use for my productions. For those who like the technical details, this video is produced in 5k. This high definition is good at producing clear images of the trains at speed which is demonstrated when the first wo trains pass by. Pleased with the result and will be upgrading my camera with even better definition.

Sorry, don't have any list, would take too long to make them up, and, yes its still being added to. Thanks for your interest.

Thank you Dave.

Following on from last weeks video (Watching Trains - 41), the cameras are now at the southern end of the Main station, following our trains through Trenholme Junction. The steam loco and its container train has entered the Lower Marshalling Yard. We are joined by Bulk Grain train destined for the Whisky Distilleries and a Shunter with a train of and wagons waiting to cross the main lines near the southern signal box and through into the tunnel.