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Take a little walk to the edge of town...


Ben B
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BEN-BUCKI_SPON-LANE_HORNBY_AUSTERITY_NIGHT_DEC_2020_04.jpg.8521e5604812eb143b7e41af80f650e4.jpg

 

Lacking a 00 layout at the moment, the plan is to develop Spon Lane into a somewhat bigger shunting plank during 2021, so I thought I'd have a play to see what sort of locomotive looks good on the line.  Really it's an excuse to have a play, and get some more photographs with different models from my eclectic 00 collection.  It's also because I like doing railway photography for relaxation, and with Lockdown Part 2, I didn't have a lot of opportunities for taking pics in the great outdoors.

 

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I'd acquired a big box of pre-built Kitmaster locomotives for another of these photography dioramas, and started with the J94 (well, it's a BR-liveried take on the loco), but the simple nature of the kit with the moulded handrails etc was a little too obvious, and it also hadn't been built straight on the chassis.

 

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The problem was my only other Austerity is this very nice Hornby issue from a few years back, but it's still in Longmoor livery.  I suppose it could be a loco that Spon Lane Works have hired-in from somewhere...

 

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Trying to disguise the livery with close-ups and greyscale.

 

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The pic seemed a little boring, so I added a Hornby figure climbing up into the cab.  The phone was having trouble focusing.  The SLR is a bit big for getting in to such a small set though.

 

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Trying it in slightly hazy colour.

 

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Deliberately soft-focussed shot of the loco, I also tried washing the colours out a bit to see how it looked.

 

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The LMR livery is really obvious again here, but I liked the lighting.  Playing around with a separate white-LED desk lamp and some more white paper over the top of the set, to make it look like a damp, late-Autumnal afternoon.

 

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Loved the reflection of the window on the pavement here.

 

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Having waited for the sun to set outside, I tried some more night shoots.  I was more bothered about the general shape of the Austerity on a steamy, foggy night than creating a sharp pic.  I just wanted something with a bit of atmosphere really.

 

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I added a few figures in the gloom, partly to explain why the loco has no working lamps.  Perhaps it's just parked up outside the works whilst the crew are on their tea break.

 

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Monochrome.

 

Next time, the same again but with a different loco :)

 

 

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  • Ben B changed the title to Take a little trip to the edge of town...

BEN-BUCKI_SPON-LANE_HORNBY_HOLDEN_NIGHT_DEC_2020_02.jpg.13900c1cb5e19aada22ccfe10b6eb25f.jpg

 

Having had some success with the pics of the Austerity, it was time to try some other locomotives.  Small, and somewhat cheaper, it's the venerable Hornby Holden tank loco.

 

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I really like this model- I have, somewhere in a box at the in-laws, the blue Crew and District Quarries version from the early 90's, one of the first non-Thomas locomotives I had as a child.  I'd have preferred to use that one for the shoot, but hey, lockdown.  So instead I borrowed this one off my youngest.  There's an antique (well, tat) shop in town that's had one of these in the window since I moved to the area a decade ago.  I keep thinking I ought to buy it, and probably would if the shop looked in the least inviting or in fact ever looked at all open.  It seems to be one of those haunted shops where the owner either died decades ago and nobody realises, or one where he doesn't feel the need to bow to the crass commercialism of actually selling things to the public.

 

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After the relative detail of the Austerity, this one is a bit simpler, and things like the moulded-on handrails stand out quite a bit.  But then again there's a reason the Austerity costs what it does, and I got this new for £15...

 

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It was also proving a bit tricky to focus on.  Should have used a tripod and done focus-stacking.  Maybe next time.

 

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Still, I liked the slightly more antiquated look of the model compared to the Austerity.

 

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I'd liked the reflection in the pavement with the Austerity shoot, so tried it again here.  Window bars not as sharp this time though, sadly.

 

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Again, looks considerably more moody in greyscale.

 

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I thought I'd have a play around with some figures too- all the ones I had available are relatively basic, but keeping them out of focus helps disguise the fact a bit.

 

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The open cab means this one really needs a crew.  Unfortunately the only figures I had that fit in the cab are about as old as I am.  The slightly better, painted figures from my foster-daughters layout all have big squares of plastic glued to their feet so she can stand them up, and they wouldn't fit the cab of the Holden.

 

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As with the other shoots, I tried a few pics at night.

 

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Overall the shots didn't turn out too bad, and the Holden does seem to suit the set.  Maybe with a bit of weathering and a few details added.  It gave me the taste for trying something with retro models, so I delved even deeper into the past for the next loco, back to Triang days...

 

 

BEN-BUCKI_SPON-LANE_HORNBY_HOLDEN_NIGHT_DEC_2020_01.jpg

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  • Ben B changed the title to Take a little walk to the edge of town...

BEN-BUCKI_SPON-LANE_TRIANG-POLLY_NIGHT_DEC_2020_01.jpg.d351715e51de804f124a41f1db5f7d42.jpg

 

Having tried out a reasonably retro model with the Hornby Railroad Holden, I decided to go back in time further, with a Triang Polly.

 

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A considerably more basic item, the moulded handrails being quite obvious.  But I like the vintage look of the loco, especially the flared smokebox surround.

 

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Probably should have weathered the loco a bit before the shoot, but then I did only acquire it as a parts-donor for another model.

 

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Cranking up the steam effects a bit.

 

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And greyscale too, which seemed to suit the vintage look further.

 

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Playing with the graininess of the shot too, looks a bit film noir now.

 

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Embracing the time-travel aspect of the shoot, by borrowing a certain police box from Younger Child's model railway :)

 

 

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So, having done pics with a few different steam locomotives, I wanted to try something with diesels.  Spon Lane is meant to be set in the late 70's to early 1980's, and so the finished layout is likely to be heavier on diesels than tank locomotives.  I'd already done a couple of sets, one with the Hornby R&H 48, and the original shoot with a rather chunky Triang dock shunter.  The final layout will probably have something like a Sentinel as the motive power, but I wanted to see how a few different diesel locomotives looked.

 

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When I was first building the layout, I tried out my ancient Hornby 'Devious Diesel' from my childhood collection, establishing that an 08 was a bit on the large side for the Cakebox.  I still wanted to see what an 08 looked like, as it would be the most logical loco for exchange traffic with BR.  In the same box of battered old kit-builds that had provided the Kitmaster Austerity for the shoot a few posts back was this equally tatty 08.

 

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I was having to shoot this from high-up to disguise the fact it has no con-rods or motion parts, and in fact doesn't even sit properly on the rails dur to a twist in the chassis.  It did show that an 08 sits nicely with the sort if layout I might end up building though.

 

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Getting ridiculous now- Spon Lane is meant to be set in Langley Green/Oldbury, and accessed off the former Oldbury Town branch.  Research (and some verrry hazy childhood memories) would seem to indicate that BR traffic on the real branch was mainly operated by 31's and 25's.  The nearest I have is an old Hornby 29, which is far too large for the Cakebox, but I just wanted to see what a medium-sized BR Blue diesel would look like with the setting and steam/fog effects.

 

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In reality it would be far too heavy for the bridge, something I'll need to address with the actual layout when I get round to building it.  Another deliberately grainy, soft-focus photo, to try and capture the atmosphere of a cold, foggy, late afternoon in the early 80's.

 

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I think it looks a little better in greyscale personally, and it does show I probably ought to factor in some BR exchange traffic with the final layout.

 

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Something a bit smaller for these pics- the venerable Railroad class 06.  My childhood BR blue example was in storage, so I had to make do with one that had been hastily repainted black for another shoot (a Holyhead Breakwater-inspired piece).

 

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I liked how the yellow stood out a bit in the shots.  But then, thanks to growing up near the trackbed of the old Pensnett Railway, I have a soft spot for wasp-striped diesel shunters...

 

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Again, wish I'd taken more time on the shoot and done focus-stacking.  I always thought the 06 was a small diesel when I was a kid, but with the onward march of technology, it's a right bruiser compared to the modern stuff like the R&H 48, and I think from looking at these tests that the kind of layout I want to build will be more suited to the smaller industrial locomotives for the internal user fleet.

 

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Another not-wonderfully-focussed shot, but I was more bothered about seeing how something with a lot of yellow in it's colour scheme looked among the drab brickwork and glowing windows.  I know yellow is the current Network Rail colours, but I've always thought of it as a 1980's BR thing, thanks I think to my old Hornby Cowans-Sheldon crane set when I was a kid.  I think something brightly coloured among the browns, blacks and greys of the final layout should stand out nicely.

 

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On which note, the final diesel shots from the session, with my Bachmann Wickham.  This was very much an impulse purchase a couple of years ago from Hattons, when I was part-chopping some old Lima N gauge bits.  I think it's a wonderful little model, very characterful and, again, attractive in 80's BR yellow.

 

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It's not completely out of place on an industrial layout either; in one of Gordon Edgars marvellous "Industrial Locomotives and Railways of..." books, there's a shot of a Wickham being used as a works shunter at a concrete pipe factory in Barnstaple.  I really like the idea of doing a really tiny micro layout with one of these as the works locomotive, pushing a few homemade flatbed wagons about.

 

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So that's it for the diesels, and a bit of food for thought when it comes to designing the final layout.  The final shots i did with this photo session used a steam loco model that was a bit more modern, the superb Hattons Andrew Barclay...

 

 

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BEN-BUCKI_SPON-LANE_HATTONS-KATY_DAY_DEC_2020_04.jpg.cb60947ca92e6d53dc59d3dddc574a1a.jpg

 

Having tried out how the old Hornby Holden, and even older Triang Polly looked on the set, I decided to try out a somewhat more modern industrial steam locomotive model.  I've bought this Hattons Andrew-Barclay "Katy" as a donor for a conversion, but whilst I'm waiting to start that project, I thought I'd see how a colourful tank loco looks on the test piece...

 

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Definitely going to need some detailed figures for the loco crew with this one on the eventual final layout.  I liked the 'autumnal morning' atmosphere of this pic.

 

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Another monochrome experiment, with extra gloom.

 

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The fox puts in another night-time appearance on the old towpath.

 

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Edit to include more grain on the monochrome shot.

 

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Trying some without the steam effects (partly because the generators were starting to play up).  I just wanted to see how it looked as if the loco was out working on a rainy night.  Really needs a lamp fitting, and a less zombie-like figure in attendance.

 

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This is probably one of my favourite shots from all the recent set.

 

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Deliberately softer-focussed shot, again trying for an atmospheric pic.

 

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And a final greyscale version.  I think it's only the gap in the wall on the right, and the overscale condensation puddles on the pavement to the left that ruin this pic for me.

 

I think this series of shots with the different models has helped established exactly what sort of locomotives I'm going to want for the final layout build next year anyway, and it was a fun little lockdown project, doing the photographs.

 

 

BEN-BUCKI_SPON-LANE_HATTONS-KATY_DAY_DEC_2020_01.jpg

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