Wright writes.....

[RBAGE]

Martin,

 

I mentioned layouts which I've photographed in my list. 

 

Strictly-speaking, Fencehouses is not on the ECML and Barrie Walls' Wallsea isn't a prototype. 

 

I have pictures of Princes Street Gardens (in N), and Bert Collins' Hitchin was mentioned. 

 

Brian van Meeteren was a dear friend and mentor of mine. I owe him more than I can say, and his death some 14 years ago was a cause of great personal sadness. I never photographed his Kelston Road layout (featured in an MRC Annual in the eighties), though I did see the locos he'd built. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Also strictly speaking, Fencehouses isn't on any line (main or otherwise). However, it was on the ECML, if it could be described as such at the time, before the main line was routed via Durham.

 

Bob

[thegreenhowards]

Andy,

 

The other Kings Cross was built in N Gauge, by Paul Walker of Cirencester. It wasn't built in a loft, though. 

 

Tony.

 

Thanks Tony,

 

The loft based layout is in OO and very different to the N gauge one. Sorry if my post was confusing.

 

Andy

[Barry Ten]

Since there's been a bit of DMU discussion on Wright Writes, I hope this might be of interest:

 

 

It's a 3-car Class 117 unit based on the Lima model, with the resin conversion done to create the driving vehicle

that Lima never made. I added a Black Beetle bogie to improve the running, and lowered all the bogies to get

a better ride height. The model's been flush-glazed with the SEF packs (I know it's a matter of taste) and has been

backdated to the as-built condition with no marker lights and whiskers. I initially left it in plain green, but it looked so

dull that I recently added the cream lining. It's all very impressionistic but the base units are very old models of mine

so it has a lot of personal significance. I should also add that it's DCC-fitted and has a sound decoder, for those

so inclined.

 

As a complete contrast, tonight I scratchbuilt a pair of concrete buffer stops in 3.5mm scale, for an on-going French

project:

 

 

Such is the variety of this fantastic hobby!

 

Al

[Woodcock29]

Thanks Nick,

 

My apologies for not remembering that we'd chatted before. 

 

It's interesting that you allude to ECML layouts. A friend is giving a talk to his local society and requested some pictures showing layouts depicting the ECML. I was astonished how many I could supply. It is, without doubt, way ahead of any of the other principal main lines in the number of layouts depicting it. The list included pictures of...........

 

Kings Cross x 2

Copenhagen Fields

The Gresley Beat (not entirely prototypical, but it couldn't be anywhere else)

Welwyn North

Hitchin x 2

Biggleswade

Tempsford

Huntingdon North

Peterborough North x 3

Greatford

Little Bytham

Stoke Summit

High Dyke

Grantham

Gamston Bank

Retford

 

I might have missed some out. 

 

That's on the GN. I also have shots showing layouts based further north. 

 

I'll post some of the images later..................

Hello Tony

 

There is at least one layout being built based on Potters Bar (in France I believe) set in the 1930s and possibly one other. Can't remember the details at the moment though. The one I mention first has been seen on the LNER Encyclopaedia Forum I think - but no recent updates.

 

Looking forward to catching up later in the year.

 

Andrew

[St Enodoc]

Since there's been a bit of DMU discussion on Wright Writes, I hope this might be of interest:

 

blogentry-6720-0-93420400-1519335815.jpg

 

It's a 3-car Class 117 unit based on the Lima model, with the resin conversion done to create the driving vehicle

that Lima never made. I added a Black Beetle bogie to improve the running, and lowered all the bogies to get

a better ride height. The model's been flush-glazed with the SEF packs (I know it's a matter of taste) and has been

backdated to the as-built condition with no marker lights and whiskers. I initially left it in plain green, but it looked so

dull that I recently added the cream lining. It's all very impressionistic but the base units are very old models of mine

so it has a lot of personal significance. I should also add that it's DCC-fitted and has a sound decoder, for those

so inclined.

 

As a complete contrast, tonight I scratchbuilt a pair of concrete buffer stops in 3.5mm scale, for an on-going French

project:

 

lr2.jpg

 

Such is the variety of this fantastic hobby!

 

Al

I have learned a new word today. Thanks Al!

[Tony Wright]

Since there's been a bit of DMU discussion on Wright Writes, I hope this might be of interest:

 

blogentry-6720-0-93420400-1519335815.jpg

 

It's a 3-car Class 117 unit based on the Lima model, with the resin conversion done to create the driving vehicle

that Lima never made. I added a Black Beetle bogie to improve the running, and lowered all the bogies to get

a better ride height. The model's been flush-glazed with the SEF packs (I know it's a matter of taste) and has been

backdated to the as-built condition with no marker lights and whiskers. I initially left it in plain green, but it looked so

dull that I recently added the cream lining. It's all very impressionistic but the base units are very old models of mine

so it has a lot of personal significance. I should also add that it's DCC-fitted and has a sound decoder, for those

so inclined.

 

As a complete contrast, tonight I scratchbuilt a pair of concrete buffer stops in 3.5mm scale, for an on-going French

project:

 

lr2.jpg

 

Such is the variety of this fantastic hobby!

 

Al

That's great work, Al, 

 

Thanks for posting. 

 

With your interest in French HO, are you a member of the French Railways Society (formerly The SNCF Society)? The reason I ask is that I'm delighted that there's a selection of pictures I took of French railways in 1978/'79 now on the Society's website. We had a couple of holidays in France at that time (one touring, the other in Paris), and I took dozens of slides. On showing a friend, who's a member of the Society these slides, he asked if he could have them scanned. Apparently (in all ignorance) I'd taken some unusual subjects, including a 'Submarine' hauling a 'Rapide' at La Rochelle and one of the first shots of a brand new diesel type. There were also some pictures of some incredibly ancient 'boxy' electrics, dating from the 1920s, right at the end of their lives. 

 

During the two visits, I only met two other blokes taking railway pictures, and both were English. One shot not scanned was at the Gare de Nord, where, when taking a shot of an electric-hauled rapide awaiting to depart, I was blissfully unaware of the chauffeur pi$$ing against the buffer beam! With hundreds of passengers around. Is that typically French, I wonder? 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Tony Wright

[cctransuk]

 I was blissfully unaware of the chauffeur pi$$ing against the buffer beam! With hundreds of passengers around. Is that typically French, I wonder? 

 

The French attitude to micturating, (I learnt that one from Morse), is apparently 'Where'ere you be, let the pi$$ flow free' !!

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

Edited March 29, 2018 by cctransuk

[t-b-g]

There was also a model of York, which Bob Dawson was involved with but I recall it never got very far down the road to completion. Bob had a magnificent model of the hotel, which must have had many thousands of individual bricks, with him at a show quite a few years ago.

 

I am also aware of a model of Bawtry being built. I helped the builder out with a couple of photos of the goods shed I took before they covered it over with modern cladding.

 

Then there are the grand plans for Aimrex to have a 7mm scale model of York. If that comes off it will be quite something!

Edited March 29, 2018 by t-b-g

[Tony Teague]

The subject of model railway photography has popped up on another thread (Peterborough North), where I've posted some images. 

 

It's almost a hobby within a hobby. 

 

Anyone else like to share their layout pictures? 

 

 

 

 I don't suppose you have any more photos of anything Southern?

 

I have traditionally used the "TW" method for model railway photography - i.e. small aperture, long exposure, multiple flash etc, but having discovered that one of my cameras can do it, I have recently been experimenting with the "Andy York / focus stacking" approach.

 

I can't say that either one is easier than the other - I don't have a lens with as small an aperture as Tony's, and I am not as skilled with the focus stacking software as Andy, but here are a couple of attempts using each method - these also respond to Jack P.'s 'Southern' request!

 

Depth of field (TW approach - please excuse the sky!):

 

 

Focus stacking (AY method):

 

[nickrail]

Have been very interested in Nick's Leeds Central. I built an embryonic one in my loft over 40 years ago. I too built the underslung end-of-platform signals, but from Ratio kits. They are stationary aswell. They are all that was left of the layout after a house move in 1983.

 

sig1.JPG

 

Now I've moved a mile away from Leeds Central (with my modelling that is) and am developing my version of Copley Hill Shed.

 

chill1.JPG

 

And belated congratulations to Tony W on his much deserved accolade.

 

Dave Wisnia (Leeds)

Hi Dave

Nice signals (and good to see Copley Hill captured). I notice that you've given them a coat of matt/weathered black paint - as have I on mine - yet I've seen most versions of these particular gantries modelled painted white (as per most signal posts/gantries).  I'd be curious to know if anyone has ever seen a picture of white/clean pair of gantries at Leeds Central Station? I assume they just became dirty over time (it is Leeds after all...) but I'm more inclined to think that unusually, these were always blackened from the start. The other signal posts at Leeds were white once they were upgraded in the 50's. These gantries modelled were introduced in the late 30's (I think) as images of Leeds in LNER days (eg the inaugural test run of the West Riding Ltd) show a very different set of gantries for platforms 4 and 5.

This is one of my pair of gantries using MSE parts (and they do operate once I find a way of connecting them to an operating mechanism) but I was impressed how you'd accomplished it with those Ratio parts.

 

Nick

Edited March 29, 2018 by nickrail

[Enterprisingwestern]

Hello Tony, My signals will never be as exquisite as Steve Hewit's, but this was knocked up from brass rod and wire, and is operated by a MegaPoints Controller with optional bounce.

 

https://youtu.be/saBr22m-8kw

 

As for R-T-R DMUs, they all get stripped down to the bare bones when they enter the workshops... how can you do the model justice otherwise? That a great time to rip out all the nonsense and make it easier to customise.

 

Some good reading on here mostly 

 

You'll not be wanting the ex PO relays back then?!!!

 

Mike.

[St Enodoc]

I have traditionally used the "TW" method for model railway photography - i.e. small aperture, long exposure, multiple flash etc, but having discovered that one of my cameras can do it, I have recently been experimenting with the "Andy York / focus stacking" approach.

 

I can't say that either one is easier than the other - I don't have a lens with as small an aperture as Tony's, and I am not as skilled with the focus stacking software as Andy, but here are a couple of attempts using each method - these also respond to Jack P.'s 'Southern' request!

 

Depth of field (TW approach - please excuse the sky!):

 

SJPAB9A4698-202170218.jpg

 

Focus stacking (AY method):

 

SJP2018-03-29 09-36-57 (B,Radius8,Smoothing4)02180328.jpg

Tony, call me old-fashioned but I really do prefer the first one. The second looks completely artificial to me.

[jamie92208]

The French attitude to micturating, (I learnt that one from Morse), is apparently 'Where'ere you be, let the pi$$ flow free' !!

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

One of my Brit neighbours at our new home put it like this.   "You'll never see a French Man going to the loo in the house there's a lot of outside out there."

 

Jamie

[nickrail]

The subject of model railway photography has popped up on another thread (Peterborough North), where I've posted some images. 

 

This afternoon I tried a few experiments with an 'ordinary' lens, rather than the 55mm Micro I use from time to time. It's a Nikon 18-35mm zoom, mounted on the front of a Nikon Df. The aperture goes down to F.29, and I use it on the 35mm setting, focusing manually. 

 

Plonk the camera on the track, about 2' from the front of the loco, focus on the footbridge and away you go. 

 

Exposures were typically three- five seconds at the minimum aperture using the rooms strip lighting (of which there's plenty), the ISO was 100, the pictures were taken as tifs and I used pulses of fill-in flash to soften shadows. Backgrounds have, obviously, been removed. 

 

It's almost a hobby within a hobby. 

 

Anyone else like to share their layout pictures? 

 

Hi Tony, does your camera produce tiffs directly? And do you do any other post production on your images (other than losing background). I think my images suffer from not enough light especially in shadowy areas - is this where you'd add fill with flash? I manage to stop down to f32 and have 8-10 sec exposures and as you suggest, focus beyond the nearest point that I actually want in focus. Tell me , with long exposures, is reciprocity failure a thing of the past in this digital age? 

 

I've attached a shot of Little Bytham that you may be able to replicate, assume from station footbridge. It's DP2 on the up Yorkshire Pullman in October 1963 - it may have passed you at Retford a bit earlier. Picture scanned from Ian Allen Locospotters Annual 1968. The caption mentions that a further 50 of these locos were now coming into service on BR...well maybe not.

 

Nick

[Barry Ten]

 

 

With your interest in French HO, are you a member of the French Railways Society (formerly The SNCF Society)? The reason I ask is that I'm delighted that there's a selection of pictures I took of French railways in 1978/'79 now on the Society's website. We had a couple of holidays in France at that time (one touring, the other in Paris), and I took dozens of slides. On showing a friend, who's a member of the Society these slides, he asked if he could have them scanned. Apparently (in all ignorance) I'd taken some unusual subjects, including a 'Submarine' hauling a 'Rapide' at La Rochelle and one of the first shots of a brand new diesel type. There were also some pictures of some incredibly ancient 'boxy' electrics, dating from the 1920s, right at the end of their lives. 

 

During the two visits, I only met two other blokes taking railway pictures, and both were English. One shot not scanned was at the Gare de Nord, where, when taking a shot of an electric-hauled rapide awaiting to depart, I was blissfully unaware of the chauffeur pi$$ing against the buffer beam! With hundreds of passengers around. Is that typically French, I wonder? 

 

I ought to be a member, Tony, but I'm not (yet). I'm terrible at maintaining my subscriptions, and already being a member of two S&D societies, the NMRA, the RSPB and the British Interplanetary Society (!) I sometimes feel enough is enough. But it does look to be a well-run organisation.

 

Being married to a French woman, I need to be circumspect in my comments on the subject of national habits. However, I did once see a gentleman urinating into the back of an open-topped sports car near Gare du Nord. Presumably not his own car, although who knows? Perhaps it had let him down in some way.

 

Nothing will compare with the sight that greeted me when I turned a corner near Edinburgh Waverley a few years ago. Suffice to say a woman was squatting down in the street fully engaged in "the other function", as Barbara Woodhouse would have put it.

 

Al

[chris p bacon]

 The caption mentions that a further 50 of these locos were now coming into service on BR...well maybe not.

Little Bytham DP2 1963.jpg

 

Nick

 

 

They did, they became the class 50's after several layers of complication were added

[cctransuk]

DP2 ......Picture scanned from Ian Allen Locospotters Annual 1968. The caption mentions that a further 50 of these locos were now coming into service on BR...well maybe not.

 

 

I think that this would be a reference to the EE Type 4 (Class 50) - DP2 was the prototype in a Deltic bodyshell.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[Barry Ten]

 

 

During the two visits, I only met two other blokes taking railway pictures, and both were English.

 

I doubt it was him, but Hugh Ballantyne took a lot of French railway pictures in the 60s, enough that there's a very nice book of them put out by LR Presse in France:

 

http://trains.lrpresse.com/A-14747-images-de-trains-tome-25-un-anglais-sur-les-rails-de-france.aspx

 

Highly recommended.

[nickrail]

They did, they became the class 50's after several layers of complication were added

Hi Chris, sorry Dave (and John Isherwood). I never knew the workings of DP2 lived on in the development of class 50's - how long did it take to get there? Perhaps because they were more a West Coast engine I didn't take any notice... I always thought DP2 died at Thirsk.

 

Nick

[chris p bacon]

Hi Chris, sorry Dave (and John Isherwood). I never knew the workings of DP2 lived on in the development of class 50's - how long did it take to get there? Perhaps because they were more a West Coast engine I didn't take any notice... I always thought DP2 died at Thirsk.

 

Nick

 

You are correct, as after the Thirsk accident it was condemned.

 

It had served its purpose as a successful test bed for the engine and control system.  Then in true BR fashion the experience was disregarded and an order for 50 locomotives (class 50) was placed with so many changes they were effectively a new design.

[Tony Teague]

Tony, call me old-fashioned but I really do prefer the first one. The second looks completely artificial to me.

 

I understand what you mean - perhaps I have over-sharpened this one, however one problem that I have come across so far with the focus-stacking approach is that, clearly, one cannot use multiple flashes as TW does, because the multiple images are taken very quickly one after another - so one would need to increase the steady background light to get a better exposure - I hope that makes sense!

 

I used only the ambient light in my railway room on this shot and it may not have been enough. Conversely the 1st shot has the multiple flash approach which has increased the light considerably.

[Tony Teague]

Hi Tony, does your camera produce tiffs directly? And do you do any other post production on your images (other than losing background). I think my images suffer from not enough light especially in shadowy areas - is this where you'd add fill with flash? I manage to stop down to f32 and have 8-10 sec exposures and as you suggest, focus beyond the nearest point that I actually want in focus. Tell me , with long exposures, is reciprocity failure a thing of the past in this digital age? 

LeedsC4.JPG

 

I've attached a shot of Little Bytham that you may be able to replicate, assume from station footbridge. It's DP2 on the up Yorkshire Pullman in October 1963 - it may have passed you at Retford a bit earlier. Picture scanned from Ian Allen Locospotters Annual 1968. The caption mentions that a further 50 of these locos were now coming into service on BR...well maybe not.

Little Bytham DP2 1963.jpg

 

Nick

 

Nick

 

I think my response to St Enodoc partly answers your question; in the first of my two shots I used multiple flash fill-ins to lighten the otherwise shadowy areas of my picture, whereas I had to lighten the 2nd in post-processing.

The first shot used a 13 second exposure at ISO 50, f22, whilst the second was an integration of 10 shots each of 1/8the of a second taken at ISO 500 f.9; with hindsight I could probably have slowed the 2nd set of shots down which might have improved the outcome - I will try again!

 

Tony

(Edited to add further detail)

Edited March 29, 2018 by Tony Teague

[Tony Wright]

Hi Tony, does your camera produce tiffs directly? And do you do any other post production on your images (other than losing background). I think my images suffer from not enough light especially in shadowy areas - is this where you'd add fill with flash? I manage to stop down to f32 and have 8-10 sec exposures and as you suggest, focus beyond the nearest point that I actually want in focus. Tell me , with long exposures, is reciprocity failure a thing of the past in this digital age? 

LeedsC4.JPG

 

I've attached a shot of Little Bytham that you may be able to replicate, assume from station footbridge. It's DP2 on the up Yorkshire Pullman in October 1963 - it may have passed you at Retford a bit earlier. Picture scanned from Ian Allen Locospotters Annual 1968. The caption mentions that a further 50 of these locos were now coming into service on BR...well maybe not.

Little Bytham DP2 1963.jpg

 

Nick

Thanks Nick,

 

My camera takes tiffs directly, along with various jpeg sizes and RAW. I cannot get on with RAW, and if the images are for step-by-step features (which aren't used too big) I shoot on the highest grade jpeg. 

 

I think reciprocity failure is a thing of the past, though there is still 'graining' with digital the higher the ISO goes up.

 

Thanks for the shot of DP2 (I have it, by the way), though I'd question the date of October 1963. The MR/M&GNR girder bridge is still there in the distance, and that was demolished in the March of that year. The foliage and lighting suggest summer, so I'd say August/early-September 1962 (not long after DP2 went to the Eastern?). The picture was taken from Marsh Bridge, the footbridge, along with the station, was demolished in 1959.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

[jamie92208]

You are correct, as after the Thirsk accident it was condemned.

 

It had served its purpose as a successful test bed for the engine and control system.  Then in true BR fashion the experience was disregarded and an order for 50 locomotives (class 50) was placed with so many changes they were effectively a new design.

 

IIRC DP2 was produced using a spare production Deltic bodyshell that was available at, I think, Newton Le Willows.  The bogies were the standard ones that also ran under class 37's and the Deltics and the engine was certainly basically the same as that used in the class 50's.  However as mentioned above several layers of complexity were added to the design, particularly in the control area, before the 50's took to the rails.   There was an excellent pair of articles in one of the magazines fairly recently that was well written by someone involved in the process.

 

Jamie

Edited March 30, 2018 by jamie92208

[GRUNFOS]

I think DP2's engine went first into D417 and finished fitted to 50 037.

 

Paul.