Ladmanlow Sidings and other C&HPR locations

[Mrkirtley800]

Strange isn’t it, that daughters never invite dads to romantic dinners, and it is fatallyeasy to embarrass them, I do it by starting to sing.  I think I am pretty good, but obviously my daughter does not agree, neither do her two girls.

Derek

[Alister_G]

Yes, singing and dad dancing are definitely the weapons of choice...

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

1 hour ago, Bogie said:

Your daughter's dinner guest is not into trains?

 

That my friend is the more worrying aspect.  You will have to lay down some ground rules here Al.

 

I'm afraid he's into lorries, not trains. However, he is a big Land Rover fan, so all is not lost.

 

Al.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

You're setting a dangerous precedent Al, who wears the trousers in your house?

Evicted from the kitchen this week, who knows where it could all end.

Also that table doesn't look like it could withstand a "romantic dinner"

 

Mike.

[westerhamstation]

Hi Al, don't forget to leave some photos out of when she was little. All the best Adrian.

[Andrew P]

Hi Al, Good to see ewe today at The Small Layouts Show mate, and spending most of your day watching Mutton I noticed.

 

Inspired?

 

I think we all were.

[Alister_G]

3 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Hi Al, Good to see ewe today at The Small Layouts Show mate, and spending most of your day watching Mutton I noticed.

 

Inspired?

 

I think we all were.

 

Great to see you George and the gang to day mate, and thank you for the tea!

 

It was a great little show with some very interesting layouts of all sorts, but yes, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to closely examine Mutton, and quiz Rob about how he does stuff.

 

I reckon George was getting broody about a bit of 00 scale

 

Cheers mate.

 

Al.

[NHY 581]

Mange tout, Al. 

 

 

Great to see you today. Having chums visit is a very pleasant way to pass the time and I have to say Andy, George and of course yourself, along with many others, did not disappoint. 

 

Very much worth the journey. 

 

A smashing day out and thoroughly enjoyed by this Welsh type who was once again made to feel very welcome. 

 

 

Sheepbloke

[Alister_G]

Likewise Mr Rob sir.

 

A very great pleasure to meet you and see Mutton. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

 

Hope you had a better journey home.

 

Al.

[NHY 581]

Yes Al the trip back was fine. A lot less water. 

 

Already looking forward to next year if it's on. 

 

Rob 

[Alister_G]

Well, finally the status quo has returned and I have reclaimed the kitchen table for it's rightful purpose - railway modelling!

 

 

 

And not only that, but I have taken over most of the rest of the kitchen as well!

 

 

This embarrassing bit of carpentry is the top for the layout, which will incorporate the lighting, and here you can see me wiring it up.

 

You saw earlier in the thread that I bought two 2-metre strips of LEDs, one in warm white and the other in daylight tones. The two metres length is far too long for the 4 foot layout, but the beauty of these strips is that you can cut them up at various points along their length, and then join them up with some wire and they still work!

 

So what I've ended up with are two longer pieces of 4 foot length, and two shorter pieces, giving me 4 strips in total to light the layout with.

 

The LED strips have been stuck to some aluminium angle, screwed to wooden battens and held in a frame. They aren't fixed in place yet, as I want to be able to finally adjust them once the lid is on the layout.

 

Here's what they look like:

 

 

and lit:

 

 

So here's the top section temporarily in place on the layout, showing the lighting levels:

 

 

 

With the two long strips - daylight in front, then warm-white - at the front of the layout, and the shorter strips towards the back to fill in.

 

Here's looking up from track level:

 

 

The aluminium angle acts as both a baffle, a heatsink and a reflector, and I think works very well.

 

I have bought two dimmers for the LEDs, so I can balance the levels of the warm-white and daylight strips. I'll get some photos of those later.

 

In other news, I am finally retiring my current camera, a Fuji FinePixF70, as the zoom has packed up, and the autofocus is getting dodgy. It's 12 years old, so has done well, really.

 

Here's the replacement:

 

 

A Canon Powershot SX620HS. So I will be learning how to make it work, hopefully...

 

I will try and do some comparison shots from the two cameras later, just for interest.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al

 

[Bogie]

50 minutes ago, Alister_G said:

Well, finally the status quo has returned and I have reclaimed the kitchen table for it's rightful purpose - railway modelling!

 

That is a welcome relief.

 

Why anyone would think a kitchen should be used for anything else is beyond me!

 

[chuffinghell]

8 minutes ago, Bogie said:

 

That is a welcome relief.

 

Why anyone would think a kitchen should be used for anything else is beyond me!

 

 

 

I thought a kitchen was for making a brew whilst waiting for glue to dry or a soldering iron to warm up?

 

Those were my feelings about the dining room which I have since occupied, it was far from a hostile takeover though. Prior to the invasion I seeked permission from a higher power

 

The dining table has also now become my ‘work station’ since I ruined it with a bottle of thin superglue that feel over, sorry dear 

[sb67]

Glad you got your workbench back, I'll look forward to seeing some more pisc, I like the overall view of the layout, there's a good feeling of space despite it's small size. 

Verry nicely done.

steve.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Dare we ask if the dining table played a successful part in the liaison it was subjected to previously?!!

 

Mike.

[NHY 581]

Nice update, Al. 

 

Lighting a layout is a definate sub-plot to the layout itself. 

 

 Top stuff. 

 

Rob 

[Alister_G]

3 hours ago, Bogie said:

 

That is a welcome relief.

 

Why anyone would think a kitchen should be used for anything else is beyond me!

 

 

3 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

 

 

I thought a kitchen was for making a brew whilst waiting for glue to dry or a soldering iron to warm up?

 

Those were my feelings about the dining room which I have since occupied, it was far from a hostile takeover though. Prior to the invasion I seeked permission from a higher power

 

The dining table has also now become my ‘work station’ since I ruined it with a bottle of thin superglue that feel over, sorry dear 

 

In a small terraced house, the options for modelling are really quite limited, and I don't want to take over the dining / sitting room, as it's the only social room of the house, so it has to be the kitchen. Thankfully it's large enough to allow me to use the table without compromising the cooking functions.

 

This week I'm on my own, so I can afford to spread out a bit...

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

1 hour ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Dare we ask if the dining table played a successful part in the liaison it was subjected to previously?!!

 

Mike.

 

I think so - he didn't mention being poisoned or anything...

 

Al

 

[Alister_G]

53 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

Nice update, Al. 

 

Lighting a layout is a definate sub-plot to the layout itself. 

 

 Top stuff. 

 

Rob 

 

Thanks Rob.

 

Looking through the threads I follow there seem to be quite a number of folk wrestling with lighting at the moment, Kev on Little Muddle has just done his, as you've probably seen.

 

It can definitely be the making - or breaking - of a layout, especially for photographic purposes.

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

[NHY 581]

Totally agree..

 

The lighting will affect everything.....certainly in my case my approach to weathering.  

 

I double check my progress when weathering under the layout lighting. 

 

 

Rob. 

[chuffinghell]

52 minutes ago, Alister_G said:

 

 

In a small terraced house, the options for modelling are really quite limited, and I don't want to take over the dining / sitting room, as it's the only social room of the house, so it has to be the kitchen. Thankfully it's large enough to allow me to use the table without compromising the cooking functions.

 

This week I'm on my own, so I can afford to spread out a bit...

 

Al.

 

luckily our terraced house has two reception rooms, so I’ve adopted the smaller one at the front of the house and the larger one in the middle is the living room

 

I had the whole week to myself last week, unfortunately going to work interfered with my play time 

 

Chris

[chuffinghell]

1 hour ago, Alister_G said:

 

Thanks Rob.

 

Looking through the threads I follow there seem to be quite a number of folk wrestling with lighting at the moment, Kev on Little Muddle has just done his, as you've probably seen.

 

It can definitely be the making - or breaking - of a layout, especially for photographic purposes.

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

 

Lighting wasn’t even something I’d considered 

[Alister_G]

As I mentioned I bought two dimmers, one for each colour.

 

These simply plug in between the power supply and the LEDs, and are controlled by a small RF handset.

 

 

 

You can see I've labelled them up as WW and DL, so I don't get the two confused.

 

Sadly, this didn't help my confusion...

 

As if proof were needed, here's a bit of video of me wrestling with the lighting. It's a bit "stream-of-consciousness", as I haven't edited it...

 

 

It appears that both dimmers and handsets work on the same signal, so it isn't possible to independantly dim each circuit. For the moment I can have one or the other controllable, but not both.

 

I will look at getting a different make and model dimmer for the other colour.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

Camera Comparison.

 

I set up a tripod, and took a photo with the old Fuji camera, using just daylight - not the layout lighting.

 

 

Then, without moving the tripod, I replaced the old camera with the new Canon.

 

At the same level of zoom, it simply wouldn't focus, and there is no manual focus adjustment that I can see. So what we got was this...

 

 

Not my finest photo, I think you'll agree...

 

I had to pull back the zoom quite a bit to get a sensible photo:

 

 

But the colour reproduction is a pretty good match for the Fuji, maybe slightly redder?

 

Next up, we'll see how it does in Macro mode.

 

Al.

 

 

 

[Alister_G]

Camera comparison cont'd,

 

Using the layout lighting now, as daylight is fading, I placed some stock and took some photos, with the cameras both placed in the same place:

 

In each case, the Fuji first, Canon second:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm, need time to review these I think.

 

One thing immediately obvious is that the lens on the Canon is on the opposite side of the body to the Fuji, so placing the camera body in the same place results in slightly different shots.

 

Also, the lens on the Canon is slightly wider angle than the Fuji, I think.

 

Things to ponder upon.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.