Stoke Courtenay

[checkrail]

40 minutes ago, AlfaZagato said:

It'd be a shame if they cited 'lack of evidence.'

Let's just say that @Islesy's reply on the Accurascale Siphon thread is a tad ambivalent. If it ever was GWR policy to paint the ends of NPCCS black there seems to be little photographic evidence of it, even allowing for the fact that b & w photography and railway grime get in the way.  It's a difficult area, and Accurascale may well be correct.  But in the meantime I've painted the ends of mine with Railmatch GWR coach brown.

[gwrrob]

2 hours ago, checkrail said:

Yep, I remember that too, and repainted mine. And I've recently seen written evidence for this re horse boxes.  Never seen any for siphons though.

 

Paul has sent this :

 

 

Shame there wasn't this discussion when livery samples were shown, eh? Always the way!

The HMRS GWR Livery Register is my bible in these situations, but as I mentioned, it's still ambiguous - folk need to take into account that the Siphon isn't freight stock, it's coaching stock!

 

I'm leaving mine black.

[checkrail]

A quiet moment in the coal yard at Stoke Courtenay. I think that with my stepson's help and expertise I've finally managed to get Affinity Photo to work with my new iMac.  Tomorrow will be a day of experimentation. More anon.

 

John C.          

[BWsTrains]

On 30/06/2023 at 23:32, gwrrob said:

I vaguely remember a discussion on the Hornby horsebox thread which resulted in me repainting the model with black ends.

 

As per @checkrail's comments on the siphons remaining brown, GWR.org has guidance here.

 

Horsebox end colours changed twice, from original Crimson Lake to brown then black ("possibly mid- to late 1930s"). Beetles went from grey to black.

[Limpley Stoker]

2 hours ago, checkrail said:

A quiet moment in the coal yard at Stoke Courtenay. I think that with my stepson's help and expertise I've finally managed to get Affinity Photo to work with my new iMac.  Tomorrow will be a day of experimentation. More anon.

 

John C.          

Lovely picture- absolutely no fuzzy bits except the horse’s feathersj!

[checkrail]

It turned out that the key to splitting MP4 files (created by taking shots in 'post focus' mode on the Panasonic TZ100) was a piece of video conversion software for Mac called ffWorks (related to FFMpeg as suggested by @Nick C of this parish).  It cost just under £24, though you can have three trial uses before having to pay.  With my stepson Dan controlling my screen from many miles away we installed it and produced yesterday's pic, splitting the video with ffWorks into its component frames then loading them onto Affinity Photo 2 for focus merging. 

 

I'm trying it solo this morning, and it's taken me a long time.  This is because I'm a slow learner and still getting to grips with the Mac way of doing things after 30 years of Windows. Anyway, here's the first result, showing '8750' class 3603 shunting coal wagons.

And there's more good news!  With ffWorks you don't have to load the still frames one at a time onto Affinity - it just loads them all together and immediately gets to work aligning focus and then merging. When I get used to it it's going to be a pretty quick process and a big improvement on doing it with Windows Media Player. 

 

The less good news (for others) is that I just glimpsed something on line saying that there was not a ffWorks for Windows, but suggesting that equivalents were available.

 

John C.

 

[checkrail]

Started to lose the plot a bit when trying to process a third pic and had to hook up with Dan again. As it happens he was sitting at his computer and patiently guided me through the unfamiliar bits. So here's another shot, featuring 5000 Launceston Castle on a Plymouth express.

 

 

John C.

Edited July 16, 2023 by checkrail

[checkrail]

And another.  Getting (slightly) easier all the time. 

 

John C.

[1466]

6 minutes ago, checkrail said:

And another.  Getting (slightly) easier all the time. 

 

John C.

Lovely ! The Castles were such handsome beasts and you’ve captured the consists of varied coaches so well .

[checkrail]

Castles rarely offend!  Here's another, 5041 Tiverton Castle, with the new Accurascale Siphon G behind the loco. 

 

The siphon has had a bit of weathering and new gangways. 

 

I think the third photo shows the handsome lines of the Castle quite well, especially in full screen mode. What lovely engines they were.

 

John C.

[88C]

Castles never offend.

 

Brian

[checkrail]

A couple more of the Accurascale siphon. this time in a parcels train with its older Lima cousin marshalled behind it.

 

As the new siphon will normally only run at the top or tail of a passenger train I fitted it with folding paper gangways at the inner end and some plastic ones (Hornby I think) at the outer end.  The end board is a brass MJT item from the spares drawer.  The suspension brackets are nice, though the Lima model has these too (if not quite as refined).  Will probably give this vehicle a couple more coats of Dullcote.

 

John C.

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Another wonderful thread which has somehow evaded my attention - I’ve just had a quick but very enjoyable skim through the last few pages and each photo you’ve posted has given me that familiar warm fuzzy feeling that the GWR always does. The way everything looks and feels ‘right’ is quite remarkable, the layout definitely has atmosphere and that sense of place that a lot of us strive for in our modelling. I actually thought it was 7mm at first glance.

 

I’ll be going back to page one and settling in for good old read 😉

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Rugd1022

[Rugd1022]

I meant to add in my previous post - it’s like looking through the various and much treasured Bradford Barton ‘GW Steam…’ books, only in colour 😉

[checkrail]

Many thanks @Rugd1022 for kind comments.  I know just what you mean about that warm feeling we GWR fans get when we come across anything emblematic of the company. Hope you enjoy your browse through the thread.

 

John.

[checkrail]

Here's another view across the coal yard, from a different angle, with the wagons out of the way.

 

John C.

[Rugd1022]

2 hours ago, checkrail said:

Many thanks @Rugd1022 for kind comments.  I know just what you mean about that warm feeling we GWR fans get when we come across anything emblematic of the company. Hope you enjoy your browse through the thread.

 

John.

My other half and I were down at the Glos & Warks line a couple of weeks ago just sitting and gazing at 7820 ‘Dinmore Manor’ simmering away in the platform at Toddington, all was right with the world for a few brief moments. Don’t get me wrong, I admire lots of things about the other companies but we both have family connections to the Great Western going back to the 19th century, so it feels rather special to us. Her dad was a booking boy in Slough Middle box from 1946 to 1951 and relatives on both sides of her family were employed at Swindon Works going way back. In my family, my mum’s maternal grandfather and two of his brothers started as engine cleaners at Westbourne Park (broad gauge) shed before moving to Old Oak when Churchward opened the new depot there in 1906, then 77 years later I was a second man there.

 

 

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, checkrail said:

Here's another view across the coal yard, from a different angle, with the wagons out of the way.

 

John C.

Lovely scene John, it looks so real, as if we are eavesdropping on the workers 😎

 

54 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

My other half and I were down at the Glos & Warks line a couple of weeks ago just sitting and gazing at 7820 ‘Dinmore Manor’ simmering away in the platform at Toddington, all was right with the world for a few brief moments. Don’t get me wrong, I admire lots of things about the other companies but we both have family connections to the Great Western going back to the 19th century, so it feels rather special to us. Her dad was a booking boy in Slough Middle box from 1946 to 1951 and relatives on both sides of her family were employed at Swindon Works going way back. In my family, my mum’s maternal grandfather and two of his brothers started as engine cleaners at Westbourne Park (broad gauge) shed before moving to Old Oak when Churchward opened the new depot there in 1906, then 77 years later I was a second man there.

 

 

To sit at any preserved railway and just watch the world go by is lovely.

 

You have quite a railway family there - must be a few family tales 😎

[checkrail]

New version of recently-posted King and train pic, originally  posted during the focus merging hiatus - hopefully a bit crisper now throughout the scene.

 

John C.

[Rugd1022]

Lovely work John. Certain elements of the layout have definite echoes of the classic Bradford Barton GW albums...

 

 

 

 

 

This end of the layout is very much like the west end of Truro station, all that's missing is the 'black bridge' which spans the entire site near the ends of the platforms...

 

 

Your earlier comments about the old Lima Siphon Gs are right, they still look the part with a little bit of fettling (I've got one here somewhere which I ought to dig out and finish, albeit in BR blue)...

 

 

I haven't read the whole thread yet (I'll get there!), but can you tell me about the water tower - is it scratch built or based on the old Airfix kit...?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[checkrail]

Wow -  I love your juxtaposition of pictures!  Funnily enough I was in Truro at the weekend (my daughter and her family live there), and on Saturday afternoon we walked the trackbed of the old Newham branch (destination being the Skinner's brewery tap).

 

And Stoke Courtenay's signal box is the Truro box, as commissioned from Bachmann by Kernow Model Railways.  That was also the source of the water tower, based on St Ives.

 

John C.

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Lovely work John. Certain elements of the layout have definite echoes of the classic Bradford Barton GW albums...

 

 

This end of the layout is very much like the west end of Truro station, all that's missing is the 'black bridge' which spans the entire site near the ends of the platforms...

 

 

Nidge I'm not sure if your text referred to this particular photo - which is of course the east end of St Erth looking in the Up direction.

[Rugd1022]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Nidge I'm not sure if your text referred to this particular photo - which is of course the east end of St Erth looking in the Up direction.

No Mike, I wasn’t referring to the St.Erth pic when I mentioned Truro, it was the pic below it of the Prairie on the layout I was referring to ;)

 

Tell you what though, I’m getting seriously drawn back into this GW / WR malarkey, despite buying some rather nice SR books this past fortnight. Layouts like Stoke Courtenay are like modelling catnip! I wish I had the room to build something similar in 7mm.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Rugd1022

[checkrail]

The Newham branch wasn't last week's only railway ramble.  Out in the Peak with a pal the other day we came upon this MR wagon* at Middleton Top on the former Cromford & High Peak Railway - which I know has been the subject of some excellent modelling.

 

John C.

* Or at least it's an old open wagon with 'MR' lettering.

[checkrail]

Well, this focus-merging on Mac, using ffWorks and Affinity Photo 2, is proving to be so fast and easy compared with the old way that I'm afraid I'll be inflicting lots more pictures on you.

 

Here's the start of a sequence featuring 3603 returning to Hackney Yard with the branch goods from Earlsbridge.

 

 

John C.