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Deneside - BR North Eastern Region


Brian D
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3 hours ago, Brian D said:

the old style 405? lines

405 lines indeed. 625 lines when BBC2 arrived in the NE in 1966 (approx). 

I like your Coal Holes in the back yards too.  The small door provided a foothold for climbing over when required!

Paul.

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We didn't have a TV aerial...we had Rediffusion cable TV. Channel A was BBC1, Channel B was ITV..then the radio channels..Who thinks cable TV is a modern invention 

Baz

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20 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

405 lines indeed. 625 lines when BBC2 arrived in the NE in 1966 (approx). 

I like your Coal Holes in the back yards too.  The small door provided a foothold for climbing over when required!

Paul.

 

Thanks Paul.  My overwhelming memory of my Aunt Sarah's outhouse/coal store was the toilet which adjoined the coal store. 2 or 3 inch gaps at the door top and bottom did not encourage you to linger in the winter!  I remember when BBC2 switched to colour and for months before any programmes where broadcast, all you could see was the test card.  Good grief, test card, God save the Queen when programmes finished at about 11.30pm - the world has changed indeed, not necessarily for the better me thinks.

 

19 hours ago, Barry O said:

We didn't have a TV aerial...we had Rediffusion cable TV. Channel A was BBC1, Channel B was ITV..then the radio channels..Who thinks cable TV is a modern invention 

Baz

 

Funnily enough, when me and Mrs D got married in the early 70s, after a couple of months living with my parents here in Essex, we managed to get an unfurnished rented flat in Vauxhall, not far from the Oval cricket ground (we were both working in London at that time).  Cable TV was the order of the day in that flat provided by a company called British Relay - happy memories.  Thanks for the prompt, Baz.

 

Regards,

Brian

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Now that the terraced houses are more or less complete in Little Easington, I have started work on the road that climbs the hill in that corner of the layout - I am tempted to call it "Hovis Hill" but will probably call it "Seaside Lane", an equally steep hill that climbed away from the pit in the direction of Easington Village.  I am using 2mm thick greyboard to construct the skeleton of the hill and will cover it with mounting board to form the road surface.  As apparently a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some pics of the build of the skeleton which must mate or fit with the two long terraces.

 

IMG_20190412_154604.jpg.fc5386f60efcd154364bf7262e881670.jpg

 

IMG_20190412_170402.jpg.c06d0b9ce92e45bbe3631e068535e7d9.jpg

 

IMG_20190412_170711.jpg.30fecc41e745f78ab26f0f23d232c172.jpg

 

IMG_20190412_174041.jpg.ff9677330efa39e0538bf72d2619a088.jpg

 

IMG_20190412_174300.jpg.d7eaef342ca2bc26a831f2aff23bc534.jpg

 

It all seems to fit together well on the layout except for a slight level issue where the short recently completed terrace adjoins the road as indicated below.

 

IMG_20190412_180000.jpg.c7b21d191338ac1ac075ec50b05cfec0.jpg

 

I'll ponder a solution over the weekend - we have a visitation of relatives this weekend so no more progress will be possible until Sunday afternoon.

 

Regards,

Brian.

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11 minutes ago, calvin Streeting said:

nice... :) love a sloping street 

 

and re minor issue, dont be scared of not having pavement level with road (see photo of Frome), or think last of summer wine etc. and maybe add some steps

 

Catherine-Hill-Frome.jpg.29ddd469e0e40de15f53ee7bf0171b64.jpg

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion Calvin - I'm sure there is Street like that in Durham (Gilesgate?). Food for thought. 

Regards

Brian 

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1 hour ago, Two_sugars said:

I'm sure there is Street like that in Durham (Gilesgate?). 

 

There certainly are, . . and round the back of the bus station behind St Margarets.

 

 

John

 

Thanks John. I'll check that out on Streetview. 

Regards,

Brian 

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Work on "Seaside Lane" (aka Hovis Hill) continues.  The top surface has now been added, mounting board as I previously mentioned.

 

IMG_20190415_154905.jpg.2762d8a7ff890b16a866b352de417fca.jpg

 

IMG_20190415_161512.jpg.d6fe4d3dda381bdf21208c4231558ee1.jpg

 

IMG_20190415_163728.jpg.c9ce1a1c0b3c2ab825e5d0f620acf714.jpg

 

I'll paint it grey (+ talcum powder for texture) before adding the footpaths.

 

Meantime, another video has been added to my YT channel featuring a trip on the Kent & East Sussex Railway on the 2013 "Hop pickers' Weekend" - a charming railway and very busy that day.  You can find it here...

 

 

Regards,

Brian

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18 hours ago, calvin Streeting said:

Nice :) works well and adds to perspective very nicely

 

16 hours ago, Two_sugars said:

What's me fatha's owld car doing parked in the alley?

 

 

John

 

14 hours ago, manna said:

 

G'Day Folks

 

Visiting yer muvva.

 

manna

 

... or it could be the insurance man or the doctor. 

 

IMG_20190417_143519.jpg.de44900c469b6c6ff979d16459b27cfc.jpg

 

Regards

Brian 

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Taking up Calvin's suggestion I have been hacking around the road structure and adding further support for the short terrace...

 

IMG_20190419_163148.jpg.e8eec3569b5d7f641db162bfbe50bf69.jpg

 

...so that the little retaining wall structure I added to the underside of the terrace...

 

IMG_20190419_161501.jpg.c142d1414c499a066e974100addba8bc.jpg

 

...can be accommodated thus.

 

IMG_20190419_163406.jpg.4a3083c752092c3fc53f392b93c54fc4.jpg

 

 

IMG_20190419_163838.jpg.88241803330bf9db0aaba590e4e7eafc.jpg

 

The ground surface adjacent to the retaing wall will look a bit like this.

 

IMG_20190419_163838a.jpg.f8eb83a0d998c069223e928c363307c3.jpg

 

I think I have some left over handrail  stanchions which will be fitted on this corner to stop the locals falling over the drop.

 

Regards,

Brian. 

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This week, and before continuing with the scenics in "Little Easington", I thought I better finalise the photo back scenes so I have been experimenting by creating more panoramas in Photoshop Elements and transferring the image into TurboCAD (which enables me to print on multiple sheets of paper) before printing the results on plain A4 paper (for now).  I then glue the multiple sheets of A4 together to form long temporary back scenes.  This is ongoing but I have enlarged the back scene behind the end of the U shaped layout from an A4 landscape high strip to an A4 portrait high strip which covers the entire end wall of the shed and comes part way along the RHS to the pub - this is a reverse panorama of Whitby taken from the heights of Whitby Abbey.  I think it is quite effective but I need to suss out a way of merging the ends of each separate panorama.  I expect there is a way of doing this in Photoshop Elements that I've not discovered yet.

 

In the meantime, I have uploaded another Deneside video to YT majoring on coal movements.  Here is the link.  The new back scenes are visible in the video but there are still gaps and areas that I have already decided to replace.

 

 

Regards,

Brian.

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On 27/04/2019 at 17:13, Brian D said:

 

This week, and before continuing with the scenics in "Little Easington", I thought I better finalise the photo back scenes so I have been experimenting by creating more panoramas in Photoshop Elements and transferring the image into TurboCAD (which enables me to print on multiple sheets of paper) before printing the results on plain A4 paper (for now).  I then glue the multiple sheets of A4 together to form long temporary back scenes.  This is ongoing but I have enlarged the back scene behind the end of the U shaped layout from an A4 landscape high strip to an A4 portrait high strip which covers the entire end wall of the shed and comes part way along the RHS to the pub - this is a reverse panorama of Whitby taken from the heights of Whitby Abbey.  I think it is quite effective but I need to suss out a way of merging the ends of each separate panorama.  I expect there is a way of doing this in Photoshop Elements that I've not discovered yet.

 

Regards,

Brian.

Brian,

 

Merging photos (or panoramas of previously merged photos) is relatively easy. There are many programs dedicated to this task. The one I use is called MAGIX PanoramaStudio. The difficult bit is printing such large photos out on a humble A4 printer. What I've always done is to print out A4 'windows' on the panorama, with each one overlapped on its neighbors by ~1-2cm.  Then you can line up the 'overlap' (by eye) and cut through the overlap with a knife and ruler. The 2 parts then line-up perfectly with zero overlap and you simply tape up the join on the back of the print out.

 

To easily print out the overlapping 'windows' you need Adobe Acrobat (or similar). That has a 'poster' printout setting that lets you control the page size and the overlap. It's a bit fiddly, but at least there is a preview so you can make sure it's what you want before committing to paper (or print it to a PDF file you can save for printing later ...). Saving to a PDF also has the advantage that you can print a 'draft' and if it's okay then print a 'final' version.

 

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9 hours ago, ISW said:

Brian,

 

Merging photos (or panoramas of previously merged photos) is relatively easy. There are many programs dedicated to this task. The one I use is called MAGIX PanoramaStudio. The difficult bit is printing such large photos out on a humble A4 printer. What I've always done is to print out A4 'windows' on the panorama, with each one overlapped on its neighbors by ~1-2cm.  Then you can line up the 'overlap' (by eye) and cut through the overlap with a knife and ruler. The 2 parts then line-up perfectly with zero overlap and you simply tape up the join on the back of the print out.

 

To easily print out the overlapping 'windows' you need Adobe Acrobat (or similar). That has a 'poster' printout setting that lets you control the page size and the overlap. It's a bit fiddly, but at least there is a preview so you can make sure it's what you want before committing to paper (or print it to a PDF file you can save for printing later ...). Saving to a PDF also has the advantage that you can print a 'draft' and if it's okay then print a 'final' version.

 

 

Thanks for the info.  I agree, if you only have an A4 printer then printing long backscenes is a pickle.  It seems that your process is just as convoluted as mine.  Here is a screen shot from TurboCAD where I have imported the panorama from PSE and I have adjusted the number of rows (one) and columns (multiple) to achieve a multiple print out of A4 sheets to glue together.

 

IMG0.jpg.c471b8c4280ae9e58edd8219218fc10c.jpg

 

Thanks again for your interest in my ramblings.

 

Regards,

Brian.

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Brian,

 

Just for 'comparison', attached is a sample panorama from the Peak District that I created from 5 individual photos of mine taken from the same spot (I never use the camera's own panorama feature as it produces a single much lower resolution photo):

 

P1120813stitched.jpg.eb59016507868f3e26526e9b6b531625.jpg

 

I converted this to a PDF and printed it in Acrobat using the following settings with a 2cm overlap:

1659312752_AcrobatPosterPrintSettings.jpg.c02f72d1edf4eccd4ecc9de9892ddfa1.jpg

 

The resultant (large size ...) PDF is attached below.  If you browse through it you will see the 'cut marks' that allow for exact alignment prior to cutting through the overlapped elements of the printout. This is what gives a 'perfect' splice, and one that is hard to distinguish.

 

I hope this helps you to prepare your own quality panorama printouts.

P1120813stitched - poster print.pdf

 

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21 hours ago, ISW said:

Brian,

 

Just for 'comparison', attached is a sample panorama from the Peak District that I created from 5 individual photos of mine taken from the same spot (I never use the camera's own panorama feature as it produces a single much lower resolution photo):

 

P1120813stitched.jpg.eb59016507868f3e26526e9b6b531625.jpg

 

I converted this to a PDF and printed it in Acrobat using the following settings with a 2cm overlap:

1659312752_AcrobatPosterPrintSettings.jpg.c02f72d1edf4eccd4ecc9de9892ddfa1.jpg

 

The resultant (large size ...) PDF is attached below.  If you browse through it you will see the 'cut marks' that allow for exact alignment prior to cutting through the overlapped elements of the printout. This is what gives a 'perfect' splice, and one that is hard to distinguish.

 

I hope this helps you to prepare your own quality panorama printouts.

P1120813stitched - poster print.pdf 6.72 MB · 1 download

 

 

Each to their own I suppose. If I was looking for an exhibition standard backscene I would use professional printers to provide a continuous role. However, I'm not so I'm happy to tinker using my own images on A4 spliced strips. Using TurboCAD I can also reverse or mirror images which is what I've done with the Whitby panorama. 

Regards, 

Brian. 

 

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Just a quick update to say that I have been concentrating on finalising (and replacing in some instances) the photographic backscenes, this on the basis that I really should always work outwards from the backscene to the baseboard edge but haven't been :o.  This process all kicked off when I realised that I couldn't really finish off the landform scenics in "Little Easington" until I had removed the temporary photo backscene and sorted a permanent solution.  Anyway, this work is well advanced now - more pics when completed.

 

In the mean time, I offer another video (when uploaded) for your enjoyment or otherwise.  This one features the Bluebell Railway which I always enjoy visiting, especially so of late as they now have a model railway exhibition weekend usually close to my Birthday.  However, this video, although shot on my Birthday, was made in 2013 before I think that they instigated the rail show weekend.

 

 

Regards,

Brian.

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Apart from the colliery area/fiddle yard enclosure backscene, all the other backscenes from the fiddle yard entry/exit around to Deneside station have now been replaced so there are now no gaps in the back scene.  I am reasonably satisfied with them although the backscene alongside the viaduct might yet get replaced.  To celebrate, I sent the cam truck round so you shouldn't now be able to see any gaps in the backscene.  Check it out here

 

 

Regards,

Brian.

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Hi Brian,

 

this is one of those layouts that inspire people to get on with it.

 

Being a Northumbrian by birth the whole concept of the layout

brings back many memories of the locos based at North and South Blyth,

Sunderland South Dock and Hartlepool in the last days of steam.

 

Thanks for making me smile.

 

Regards,

 

Trev.

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22 minutes ago, Sludger said:

Hi Brian,

 

this is one of those layouts that inspire people to get on with it.

 

Being a Northumbrian by birth the whole concept of the layout

brings back many memories of the locos based at North and South Blyth,

Sunderland South Dock and Hartlepool in the last days of steam.

 

Thanks for making me smile.

 

Regards,

 

Trev.

 

Hi Trev,

Many thanks for your kind words.  I am glad you saw the connection with the North East, that indeed was my intention so I must be doing something right :D.

The layout has come a long way since the build started but there are still some areas to complete - the principal area is the colliery where all the buildings are just mock ups and there are still areas of bare baseboards.  There is still a little scenic work to be finished in "Little Easington" and close to the signal box and more signalling is needed.  I am in no rush so it will happen when it happens.  I have an Oxford Rail J27 on pre-order and I am really looking forward to seeing that on the layout by the way.

Thanks again for your nice comments and interest.

Regards,

Brian.

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