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The Hintock Branch-1930's Dorset Joint GWR/SR Workings in OO


john flann

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David, the short answer is, not any time soon. In present circumstances to do so would stretch credibility too far. But I have thought about and if I did it would need a change of locale and a new story to support a Joint GWR/LMSR branch in Somerset, for example. Also a host of other changes. As it is now I think IHintock has a proper balance.

 

Nonetheless, i appreciate the interest, not only of yourself and of others.

 

Now to more everyday Hintock activities,

 

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The pannier has brought down from Sheepcroft Yard the SR vans loaded with perishable fruit and vegetables, it will then run forward pick up the bogie brake van that has been loaded across the platform and attach it to the rear of the train....

 

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...the made up train stands in the loop and the train guard as not yet had the opportunity to change the tail lamp around... 

 

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... a closer look...the driver and signalman exchange a few remarks...

 

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....and with the arrival if the local passenger from Weymouth and an exchange of tokens the van train can leave for the SR at Dorchester where they will be attached to a perishable express freight to Nine Elms and Covent Garden.

 

An everyday working in my sequence of operations.

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Hi John, so much going on and all so plausible, nice mix of Southern and Great Western stock as usual, excellent story again, I must learn from the Master, ahhaha.

 

Thanks John for again sharing your Story and pics.

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Hi John, those last set of pictures are wonderful. The slightly warm lighting giving a feel of an early summers morning or evening. As always the story is everything and so believable. A wonderful bit of modelling.

 

All the best

 

Andy

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Hi Andy,

 

Thank you, those remarks are appreciated about that set of pictures, the story  line and modelling but particularly in regard to the photography and where I had hoped for some comment. from you. And I was not disappointed.

 

In this case and as you say they are not quite as clinical as previously and have a warmer nature. They are beautifully sharp too and fine detail is apparent. What I did was to experiment with the lighting; customarily I have used incandescent with a touch of florescent, plus halogen-bit of a dogs dinner-and here it was predominantly florescent  with he halogen to highlight certain aspects. Some were tinged green and these were the better ones without it.

 

I think I need experiment further with my camera settings, but overall like you i am delighted with the results. They are more like art rather than a technically correct study.

 

If you have more thoughts on the subject, given your own photographic experience and knowledge, I'd be interested to know them. Basically I am a point and shoot photographer. All the theory and the like goes straight over my head-and I'm not interested. My camera is a lot cleverer in that regard than I am. and I'm happy to let it get on with it

 

My regards,.

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This is an advertisement.

 

post-3088-0-10222500-1432610027_thumb.jpg

 

Members might like to know that the story of The Hintock Branch is now in the form of an on-line book.

 

This can be seen and read at http://www.hintockbranch.com

 

The transition from website to book format is the work of my eldest son Christopher, who owns the Hintock site and acts as webmaster. I am grateful for his interest and hard work in getting it completed and presenting the subject in such a pleasing and professional format. (He has no particular interest in model railways as such, other than that he is aware of how much I enjoy the hobby.)

 

If I am correct, I think this is among one of the firsts in the model railway field.

 

If you look, I hope you read and find the format easy to follow.

 

The book is not entirely up to date as recent developments at Hintock are not yet covered. These will be dealt with by Blogs over time.

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Excellent, John. Well done to yourself and Christopher.

 

A very fitting record of a lovely model railway.

 

Yet another reason to settle into a comfortable chair with a glass of port. ....not that I need a reason.

 

Rob.

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Excellent John, I have read the introduction over breakfast and will begin to read the rest later today. Thanks to Christopher for the brilliant idea, and to your self for providing such worthy material.

 

Well done Young Man. (that's YOU, not Christopher) hahah

 

EDIT = John I have just put a link / plug into the Lunester Lounge for the Book,

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67999-lunester-lounge-railway-related-topics-only/page-366

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This is an advertisement.

 

attachicon.gifHintock-Branch-Now-05-25-15.jpg

 

Members might like to know that the story of The Hintock Branch is now in the form of an on-line book.

 

This can be seen and read at http://www.hintockbranch.com

 

The transition from website to book format is the work of my eldest son Christopher, who owns the Hintock site and acts as webmaster. I am grateful for his interest and hard work in getting it completed and presenting the subject in such a pleasing and professional format. (He has no particular interest in model railways as such, other than that he is aware of how much I enjoy the hobby.)

 

If I am correct, I think this is among one of the firsts in the model railway field.

 

If you look, I hope you read and find the format easy to follow.

 

The book is not entirely up to date as recent developments at Hintock are not yet covered. These will be dealt with by Blogs over time.

 

The railways not bad  :jester: , but the website is really nice.  So well constructed, nice clear and well sized text for reading, well proportioned links, good quality photos when they are expanded and above all a very interesting read.

I think Christopher may have more interest than you give him credit for John, to portray your railway, and modelling skills in such a presentable manner deserves the highest praise.

 

I know you have a couple of short videos on Youtube, but I could not find a reference or link to them on your website.  I think some video content on the website would enhance it even further, if it is embedded that would be much better than an external link, as clicking on a Youtube link takes you away and then you can become distracted from what you were originally doing on the site you were on.

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Mikkel, Rob and Andy I appreciate those particular remark as I do the likes of others. Thank you all.

 

Mick, I too appreciate your interest and comments: Christopher and I did work very closely with each other on this and it took a long time. All done on=line as we are over 500 miles apart, he in Montana me in Utah. Chris would be the first to admit to his lack of interest in things railway as such, but here he does in what I do and achieve and wishes to present it in the best manner possible. That he has done and as I have already said a lot of the books presence is due to his efforts. It's that what interests him for he is very much bound up in computer possibilities and the advance of the digital age. This is the second digital book that he and I have done together the first was ( http://www.gunnerflann.com/) and we are in course of a third.

 

You are quite right about the lack of reference to the videos and such. They are actually dealt with in a  series of Blogs that somehow didn't get attached and that both Chris and I missed. In fact I looked this morning, saw they were missing and got on to Chris about it. As soon as he can he will rectify the matter. That you noticed and thought about it shows how closely you read the book through.

 

My regards to you all,

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Andy, OTT yes, but fun and indeed it is. Previous time I rode  it  was years ago. It was videod one Sunday afternoon at Christopher's home in Montana and various other members of the family can be seen. Helmet no, never worn one and cycled miles. They weren't invented then.

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Like you, I used a dog's breakfast of lighting when I first started photographing my layout as it was to hand. Naturally, I assumed that the white balance controls would sort it all out. Wrong. (Always remembering that I have a uni edumacation in photography!) I was mixing the overhead fluoro tubes in my man cave which are supposedly daylight corrected and horrendously expensive (I didn't put them in the ceiling) and compact fluoro work lights I purchased cheap from the local hardware so i could place the lighting where it was needed. However, once I had installed the permanent overhead LED strips (bright whites) into the overhead front edge of each diorama, the colour immediately became crisper and cleaner. Two strips of LEDs were used on each diorama - 1 x 3528 which was the original strip but was not powerful enough, so I added 1 x 5050. A full 5 metre reel of 5050 LEDs is rated at 72W so a one metre strip would be 14.4W plus the 3528 at around 4.8W makes for a nice bright, clean, but very sparkly lighting (masses of individual reflections off shiny surfaces). The strips were eventually run off a transformer rated at 9V instead of 12V as at full power, the light was more blinding than comfortable to work with.

Just as a note (slightly OT), I have a 20cm strip of 12 x 3V LEDs running off 2 x 1.5V AA batteries (cheap alkaline Varta) which will form the basis of the interior lighting of my coach kits and so far, the lights have been continuously on since 28th April (today that makes it 720 hours). I have been slowly converting all the lighting in the house to LED where possible, as they are instantly on and consume far less power.

If you have access to a strip of LEDs, give them a trial to see if you like the result. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/16FT-5M-12V-Flexible-300-LED-5050-SMD-Strip-Light-White-Car-Light-7-/200790213077?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ec00781d5#ht_3694wt_1141

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Ian, I have read your comments and of your experiences that together have set me thinking; always a good notion and I can see some possible benefit using LED's. So next time I am in Lowes I shall check them out.Thank you.

 

Meantime i have taken some more photos using my mix of lights and some of the results, that are quite pleasing I shall post probably tomorrow. 

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Go John! Just be sure you don't buy the one metre strip for $49.95 like Jaycar and other electronic shops (and lighting shops) try to sell you! They are no longer worth that much by a long way. For our purposes, the strip only has to be the correct colour. We don't need waterproof, or a fancy hand controller or a pulsing flashing light show in millions of colours. What you do need is a strong enough transformer to drive them (measured in both volts and amps). Be sure to check the total amp draw of the full reel and determine how much of that you will use to give you the power of the transformer that will handle the job without overheating. One layout I have worked on used two strips - one 3528 in cool white and one 3528 in bright white. Visually, it was an amazing rendition of sunlight. Bright whites can slide towards the blue a bit too much sometimes and need "filtering" with a warm white to give you the output colour you need for good photography.

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Hi John

 

While different temperature lights can have big affect on how a picture looks a lot can be done to resolve this by having a camera that you can manually set the white balance/colour temperature on. In some instances it might be difficult because of multiple light sources, for instance in a sports hall. There I would set the balance for the more dominant light. I try and keep a piece of white or neutral grey card in my bag to set my white balance with in the lighting I am going to use. If not use a known white object to help set the white balance.

 

A lot can be done with lights and it's best to experiment with different types, using then on there own or mixing them with others. Some people think that natural daylight is the best to use, but this is not always so. The harsh light of a midday sun can over saturate a picture and give it a slightly blue cast, whereas a early morning or evening can give pictures a warmer more pleasant hue.

 

The one thing I find useful is having a camera that will store its pictures in RAW format as well as JPEG. RAW format is, in basic terms, a digital negative. It holds all the information that the camera captures at the time of taking the picture, therefore you are able to do more in the way of post processing to get the colour balance and contrast that you want. JPEG is a lossy compression format that discards some of the information in a photograph so that you can have smaller file sizes. This information can not be recovered and makes post processing that much harder to get the picture you want..

 

I hope this might help., I am no expert, just self taught and still learning from experience. My biggest tip would be to experiment, take lots of pictures, use different lights or filters and try reflectors to bounce light from windows. These could be bright white card or kitchen foil folded over a  metre square board.

 

Mind you why am I telling you this. Your pictures leave little to be improved on, but if this helps i'm glad i could help.

 

Wishing you all the best

 

Andy

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Andy, it's very kind and generous of your time in giving me the benefit of your practical photographic knowledge. it is all very useful and parts of it I can adopt i shall do so. But unlike you with your adjustable camera mine thinks for itself, which is just as well as all the finer points escape me. And on its own it seems to do pretty well

 

You have also been kind enough to compliment me on various affects I have produced: these are mostly though sheer happenstance rather than any cleverness on my part. There you approach it from how it can be achieved, with me it just sometimes happens. That is primarily from my lighting set up-the dogs dinner approach- and I can never remember nor do I try to recreate anything similar in later shots. As I get older I find the effort involved in setting the lighting up single handed gets more of a burden so I am seeking ways I can make it less so. One is to use more florescent lighting and on lighter stands and there I have had some success but the results seem softer and not what I seek.  .

 

There again our ways part a little; you I think aim for the artistic shot in all respects, whilst go for a good composition and shot in an eye catching manner too complement an article.. I do this because all my photography is directed toward satisfying an editor and with a view to publication in a periodical,( and not forgetting the members here too.) Then the editor can manipulate the image, with more sophisticated means than I, in any manner desired to achieve the affect he wants. I don't attempt to do it for him. This current flurry of photography is because an article is being planned.

 

Having said all this and bearing in mind your saying I seem to get pretty good results, here a few more to contemplate. They feature my 3F which is not the most photogenic of locos. But I let the results speak for themselves.

 

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The S&DR goods stands ready to depart.

 

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Right away!

 

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Ready with the tablet and off

 

 

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Thanks for those comments John, and another group of fantastic pictures. The colours look as though they could have been taken outside as they match daylight colours very closely.

 

Rather than flourescents, which can result in a green tinge to pictures, I would suggest looking at some LED panel studio lights. These are light, excuse the pun, dimable and cheap to run. They also give off very little heat and flood the area with light. You could suppliment the LED lamps with a small spot light, LED or halogen. You can then use various colour gel filters in front of the spot to change the colour of the lighting in various scenes.

 

Without knowing the sort of budget you are thinking of or suppliers in the States, it's difficult to suggest suitable sets but here are some links for you to look at to get an idea of what is out there.

 

www.prokit.com

 

www.promaster.com

 

Below is a short video of the Promaster lights in use.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXs4oCrv5yY

 

http://www.studio-flash.com

 

The big problem, as I have found out, is affordability. Especially if they are not being used to create an income. But it would make your lighting consistent, easy to set up and cheap to run. Plus they can also be used for video work.

 

At least with digital cameras it costs nothing to take photographs, apart from the memory card to store them on. And you can take as many as you want if you are not happy with the results. Can you imagine how long we would have to wait for updates on RMweb if we still took pictures on film, sent them away for developing and then, when we got them back, we were not happy with them.

 

Keep up the great work John, I look forward to seeing more of Hintock.

 

Andy

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Mick; you will be pleased to know that the Blog is now where it ought to be and there you will find two references to the videos of Hintock. They were well received and next time Chris is here and time and circumstance allows he will shoot some more for your delight.

 

Andy: again my thanks for your time and depth of knowledge, I'll check that out with interest and report back. .

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Mick; you will be pleased to know that the Blog is now where it ought to be and there you will find two references to the videos of Hintock. They were well received and next time Chris is here and time and circumstance allows he will shoot some more for your delight.

 

Andy: again my thanks for your time and depth of knowledge, I'll check that out with interest and report back. .

 

I replied on your blog.  I'm sure everyone here would welcome more video of Hintock.

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Yes, I would not like to let Hintock go any further OT.

 

As Andy suggests may please any other comments on this particular subject be kindly dealt with by other means.

 

Thank you. I pride myself on an uncluttered life-when I can manage it!

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Andy, as you have happily satisfied both Mick and JohnD and as you are in agreement with the notion that the Hintock thread is the better for remaining On Topic, perhaps you will withdraw your answer and Mick and John delete their questions.

 

And I will do likewise with any of mine referring to them.

 

I trust this is agreeable to all parties.

 

The information relating to photography should remain: there we all need to know as much as we can and where your own practical common sense knowledge is so very helpful.

 

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Always remembering AndyP's comment that no post is complete without a picture, please see the above. The substance has been seen just previously but I think the composition/lighting affect is pretty good. I particularly like the stance of the signalman (although the loco crew don't seem very attentive to him), the tender view of the loco and the cascading roofs to left. and the very upright WT to right-plus everything else in the scene. One of my better shots.

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