vitalspark

You do on our trainset. Bachmann inspection saloon complete with a sooty roof..and brought up to date with a Scotrail 47/7. And yes some of the wagons are awaiting their next turn on the weathering bench.

Some lovely models there Tony. Attached Roys 60508 taken on Sunday and no doubt the last time I will view this on Retford. A lovely day with friends and the family but as I'm sure you will agree also a bit sad. Lets hope the future for this magnificent layout is positive. The group pic should be interesting ..I have an excellent shot of you doing the 100 yard sprint! Glasgow show now finalised and looking forward to seeing you and Mo once more. Dave.

Yes Tony but of course now that this has been highlighted it meant that all at the group went scurrying off to examine the tenders attached to their A4s hoping they might not need modified. My 60012 of course being a Coronation loco was wrong. Was unaware of this damn strip of course and was up to that point very happy with my paint finish. Thanks Tony/Chas!! Mod underway.

My goodness Tony what a compliment I just hope we can live up to it at the SEC in February! This will likely be the final outing for Alloa in Scotland so its receiving a bit of a spruce up for its last home show. Thank you again for your kind words. Dave.

The whistle that prompted the discussion. Photo courtesy of 'Landscapes'.

Well spotted Tony! It was being test run on Alloa to prove the new coupling bar and the big layout next door on which it will be at home had a full track occupation courtesy of Chas and the p/way gang! The Pullman cars are new and unweathered so wouldn't be used in that condition in service even if the layout was suitable and yes I have since fitted new bogie wheels courtesy of Alan Gibson. I have also redirected the aws pipework to follow the running plate to the end as prototype and bunched the cylinder drains with fusewire. The images I received by pm from Landscapes were excellent and I received a full engineers drawing for the WAR whistle from JRG1 so now well equipped to create the correct hooter! What great site this is for help and information. Keep you posted. (Look forward to seeing Mo and yourself at Glasgow in Feb and yes we will be running Alloa.) Regards Dave.

David I have just received your pm and excellent photos and have replied. Thank you again and thank you JRG for the detailed drawings and now with Landscapes detailed photograph I can go ahead and try to bodge something up! Should have posted here for help weeks ago but spent time researching this myself with little success. RMWeb and the forums at their very best. Thanks guys. Dave.

My eyesight is likely not that great either but with digital you can take several shots on manual focus and vary each. I use a by now quite elderly D90 body but I love the camera and it gives good results. I have the advantage that my daughter and her partner are pro photographers and they also use Nikon equipment several D4S bodies last time I looked so I can 'borrow' lenses or specialised flashguns if I need something to experiment with. The D3400 is a decent bit of kit and unless I'm mistaken can meter down to 30secs so well up to very low light with good depth of field photography. Trtust you are using a tripod and only advice I would offer is slowest iso probably 100 and smallest aperture probably f22 and let the meter do the rest. And don't forget to post the results. Kelvinbank is evocative and I see a mix of the elevated stations in Scotstoun with the tenement backdrop and the street level booking offices so typical of the Caley. Quite superb and well done. Dave.

Thank you for these comprehensive drawings they are very informative and as dimensions given will be huge help. I take it the operating lever would be at the rear so although this will be absent it does give me dimensions. Thanks again Dave.

No its the use of a 45mm lens with a very small aperture..up to f43..and a long time exposure in this case 6 seconds. All this is designed to give good depth of field which was the original post enquiry but I agree it can offer too much and in doing so has the effect of foreshortening the image. Somewhere in between is my preference. Thanks for your nice comments. Dave.

When providing images for a magazine we photographed Alloa with among other things a low angle lens with a min aperture of f43. This was used for close ups but also allowed good depth of field but actually worked too well at times with the very long exposures giving clarity to a bus win an over bridge 30 feet away making the picture look unrealistic! Cameras were Nikon bodies and all lenses Nikon but Canon Fuji or any of the other big names will all do similar lenses. We were fortunate in that we had access to the camera bodies and hired the special lense needed which cost wise was surprisingly reasonable. However..a decent camera phone will often give you exactly what you want without any of the expense and it can be slotted into areas where a dslr wont fit. Nikon D90 and stock short zoom f22 @ 0.5 sec showing reasonable dof. Again Nikon body but at f29 @ 6.5 secs. Layout is 34ft long and far end in pic close to 30feet. Finally a pic using the iphone and not even my later iphone X with the better camera but a 5S. The ability to get the phone into places where the big cameras can't go is a huge advantage as is its ability to auto compensate for low light and gives decent dof as long as you hold it steady.

Very nice shot of some of your 64B locos. Cant help noticing 60012 poking its nose out of the shed and thought I would post this pic of my own Hornby detailed and weathered example with a question/request for information regarding its whistle. The loco is a Hornby A4 originally Merlin so tender correct for 'Commonwealth' and includes the extra strip along nthe bottom from Coronation days which is required as Tony has correctly pointed out. It also has the aws pipework added along the edge of the running plate that all post '59 A4s should have but seldom seem to be included by modellers. Weathered and closer bar coupling fitted to tender completes the picture..but..the whistle is wrong for post '59 as no12 received Western Australian Railway whistle atvthat time. I have many photographs of number 12 from the early '60s and all show the different whistle but not in sufficient detail to allow me to model this. Does anyone have a decent high res pic that would allow close up? I doubt it would be difficult to reproduce if I knew what it actually looked like! Fingers crossed for a pic. Thanks Dave.

Can just make out the name Clara Tinkerbell on the door!

I'm impressed with the trees in 2mm..well done.

Superb and the model figure looks like a real guy photoshopped in!

Only you would notice that!

Superb pic and quite different. Well done.

Correct his beloved retriever in the TR was named Jazz. He is buried in front of the house and according to Roy was 'A Proper dog and not one of those wishy washy examples..' sounds like Roy!

Stunning! The weathering is superb.

Agree many shots taken on 4mm layouts are looking down to a degree. Attached couple that are low angle taken on Alloa.

A taste of what might have been perhaps? The train spotters won't find this one in their books!

What a stunning picture! The colour and weathering are spot on as is the track and ballast and the firemans face is so clearly defined that I thought I recognised him! Enough to make me change to S7.. Dave.

Agree with everything said and yes it was a funeral that Roy himself would have approved of. As Andy said Sally Anne and Geoff had everyone smiling with their marvellous and amusing anecdotes concerning 'Mrs Jacksons Boy'. RIP Roy you will be fondly remembered and sadly missed by many. Dave.

Another from Alloa. The wheels in the foreground are off a Standard 4 that came to grief after running away down the bank on a slippy rail. I know the signalman from the box and he tells me the brakes were pinned at the top of the hill as was practice but the train still overtook the engines braking power.

I hope I'm on commission Dave!