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Postcards from Pendon


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  • 4 months later...

I spent the final day of my UK holiday at Pendon as it was far enough away from Heathrow but not too far. I didn't take any photos as there was no chance of having the windows lowered for there were too many children there and the opportunity for them to "touch" the model would have been too great. On the the Dartmoor scene the operator has a computer screen showing via CCTV what's in the storage sidings under the Dartmoor hill and I was told that kids spend more time watching the computer screen than actually looking at the Dartmoor scene itself. I watched the Dartmoor Scene and did my best to ignore the CCTV screen.

The operator also showed me what Pendon uses to clean the rails. It's an in house made wagon with a board that rubs along the rails weighed down by heavy weights. They use an old Pannier Tank itself covered in weights so that it looked like a hefty saddle tank to push this wagon around both the Dartmoor scene and the Vale Scene lines. The public never sees this combination in action. They don't use track rubbers or any kind or proprietary track cleaning vehicles.

I was also told that Roye England's first loco 5624 which was sitting on the turntable at Pen Tor Road is now a static loco and would require a fair amount of work to rejoin the operating fleet of locos.

There has also been talk of using the loco products from Hornby and Bachmann but it has been voted down as people want to see the scratch built locos and stock in action and not modern locos and stock operating at Pendon. Besides the modern Hornby and Bachmann products would all have to be converted to EM gauge and I think they would detract from the Pendon experience. If it did happen what next, Scaledale and Scenecraft buildings?. No. Pendon shows us all what can be achieved in 4mm scale by modellers of enormous talent. Using proprietary models would see the standards that Pendon is renown for slip down to a what everyone else can do. If that happened there would be nothing to show what modellers of enormous talent are capable of producing. I know I'm treading on thin ice writing this but Pendon IS very special and I hope it always remains that way and that they never move model wise with the times.      

One staff member said that she was not looking forward to the completion of the Vale Scene as the public would no longer be able to see how the scenes are created on the model and how the structures were placed into the scene. I wholeheartedly agree with that view. Sure they can have photographs on how it's all done but seeing it there in front of you is much more convincing and gives one a better understanding of how it's all done.

Edited by faulcon1
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  • 7 months later...
  • RMweb Gold

As well as making even more coffee than last time, I was able to sneak a mobile phone photograph while nobody was watching. I think.

 

I was amazed at how good the result was - there is absolutely no processing involved here, it is reproduced exactly as taken.

 

post-2194-0-97015000-1529766595_thumb.jpg

 

I know it's not straight and the tops of the chimneys are missing, but it's intended to demonstrate the ability of the camera rather than the camera user.

Edited by Mick Bonwick
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  • RMweb Gold

A most enjoyable day at Pendon with thanks to Andy and Mick (& team) for their efforts.

 

Here are my first two focus-stacked images:

 

post-14629-0-62719400-1529872698_thumb.jpg

 

The first is made up of 23 images and the second comes from 18:

 

post-14629-0-83849100-1529872741_thumb.jpg

 

These are quite low-res / small filesize versions but I am pretty happy with the larger ones that I can see.

 

On reflection, it is clear to me that the camera I used is no match for my DSLR - but it has other strengths like focus stacking and is a better size for this particular job.

 

Tony

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I have been visiting Pendon since the 1970s (living in Oxford helped !) and was last there in April. Chatting with the staff the Midland & South Western Junction line was mentioned, whereupon he was kind enough to run a train on that line, just for me ! It was much appreciated. Pendon is a truly amazing achievement which every modeller should visit if they possibly can. Thanks for the excellent photos in this topic. 

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Many thanks to the various photographers who have posted their pictures on this topic thread. For those of us far from Pendon (other side of the world in NZ) having these photos for reference or just looking in shear awe, it is appreciated. 

 

I have had the fortunate of visiting Pendon twice- once in 1980 and once in 2010 and the difference in progress of the Vale scene, but also the whole museum presentation was, as was expected, amazing. On the second visit I was very priviledged to be allowed inside the Madder Valley scene as they ran some trains as a test run for a forthcoming open day. That was very special. Also being invited behind the Vale scene into the storage yard area. Different perspective from there!

 

A wonderful and unique museum which deserves the support of all thinking modellers...

 

I hope to go back there again, but hopefully not with a 30 year gap! 

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Did you get plenty of coffee?

 

Not as much as usual. ;)

 

To be fair Phil and I were busy talking with Paul Atterbury upstairs at lunchtime and gassing with fellow mag folk. An excellent day and thank you to all - Graham's organisation was superb.

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  • RMweb Gold

A few more images not needing focus stacking - those will be along in due course.  These taken in the afternoon on the Vale scene

 

 

attachicon.gifIMGP7844.jpg

 

attachicon.gifIMGP7851.jpg

 

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attachicon.gifIMGP7960.jpg

2 great sequences Colin!

Tony

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Pendon is a truly amazing achievement which every modeller should visit if they possibly can. 

I absolutely agree but hang my head in shame at not yet making the trip!

Really must go asap and repeat the "Thanks" for all the stunning pictures.

Cheers,

John.

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  • RMweb Gold

I'm slowly working through my images and getting used to the photo-stacking software; here are a couple more:

 

post-14629-0-22126200-1530199860_thumb.jpg

 

post-14629-0-26043200-1530200070_thumb.jpg

 

Tony

 

[Edited to add a larger version of the 2nd image as I felt the original small one did not do it justice]

Edited by Tony Teague
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  • RMweb Gold

This might prove interesting for you. Here is a single shot of the almshouses with the best depth of field I could manage

 

post-12721-0-84175500-1530266550_thumb.jpg

 

And here is the same view using 3 different focussing points and combined using Helicon

 

post-12721-0-84964200-1530266594_thumb.jpg

 

 

Opinions?

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Here are my focus stacks using Helicon. I have found it brilliant to use, really easy and effective. It's quite fun to watch the process happening as the PC finds the best-focussed pixels one at a time.

 

A point to note, I use .PEF Pentax RAW files. Helicon works with .DNG "standard" RAW files, so you need to do a batch convert using a free download from Adobe before you process them in Helicon. For me this is preferable to Combine P where you have to convert the RAW images to JPG before you focus stack. As I do most of my balance, colour and exposure adjustments on the RAW image that creates a lot of work  for me.

 

Helicon's a winner for me, but not sure if I will buy it - to be honest I'm uncertain how much I will use it to justify the outlay, against doing the extra work to use the free Combine ZP. Perhaps when my own layout is good enough to be photographed regularly ………

 

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post-12721-0-20805200-1530268416_thumb.jpg

 

 

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Opinions?

 

Both are technically good so I think it's more to do with personal preferences on depth-of-field dependent on subject matter.

 

Many DSLRs do struggle with white balance in the Vale Scene (my Canon's horrible for it) so it's worth looking at the post-processing stage at white balance/vibrancy/contrast settings. A couple of samples.

 

Colin_Alms.jpg

 

Colin_King.jpg

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This might prove interesting for you. Here is a single shot of the almshouses with the best depth of field I could manage

 

attachicon.gifIMGP7924.jpg

 

And here is the same view using 3 different focussing points and combined using Helicon

 

attachicon.gifg20 final.jpg

 

 

Opinions?

 

Leaving aside the colour & light, in the single shot the whole of the building is more evenly focused, the stack looks to have a bit out of focus halfway back on the building (2nd 3rd dormers), perhaps it needs more individual shots? the background is more obscured in the stacked on though. 

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