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To take good photos of model railways it's really important to control the depth of field or focal depth of the image. This is best demonstrated by @KNP's wonderful photographs of his masterpiece, Little Muddle. This blog entry describes my first experiments in improving depth of field in my photos. Why Depth of Field matters Definition: The Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and furthest objects that are acceptably in focus. I'm not a photography expert and I don't claim to understand all the technicalities of depth of field but in a nutshell, the closer the camera is to the subject, the smaller the depth of field. Or to put it another way, when the camera is close to the scene only details at a very specific distance from the camera will be in focus and the rest of the image will be blurry. (This is to do with the angles of light rays entering the camera.) Real world photos have a much deeper range of good focus because of the greater distance between the camera and the subject. (Technically, because of the smaller angles at which the light rays enter the camera.) So small depth of field is a problem when photographing models for two reasons: When you focus on a particular item of interest it means that many other details are out of focus. E.g. you focus on the smokebox of a loco and then the cab, which is only a few centimetres further back, is blurred. The lack of focus is not just annoying in it's own right but it's a dead give-away that you photographed a model, no matter how realistic your detailing was! Focus Stacking So we want a way to increase the depth of field when photographing our models and this is where technology comes to the rescue in the form of "Focus stacking" or "Focus merging". A focus stacking algorithm analyses several photos taken at different focal lengths and mixes the best focused parts, the sharpest parts, to create one good image. How to do focus stacking To apply focus stacking you need to: Capture your images digitally. Many compact digital cameras and Smartphones have very good lenses and high resolution sensors and are perfect for this task. Capture a number of images without the camera moving. To ensure that the camera doesn't move while capturing the images you need you ideally need some sort of tripod. A mini tripod with a swivel mount and flexible legs is ideal. Capture images at a range of focal distances. You could attempt to refocus manually between each shot but it's much easier and more reliable to let the software on the camera do this for you. Some cameras have that feature built-in and there are apps for Smartphones to do it. Collect the images together and process them in a suitable software package. Many high-end photo processing software packages have the ability to perform focus stacking and there are some free apps and utilities. My first experiment I used my Android SmartPhone, a OnePlus 3, mounted in a swivel head on a small tripod. To capture the images automatically I installed a free app called, OpenCamera, which gives much more control than the standard Android Camera app. Here it is in operation: The two large sliders on screen set the front and back focus points for the stack. The smaller third slider is the zoom factor. The software is set to take 16 images in this example but it can take up to 200! [Edit: OpenCamera requires a phone and a version of Android that allows apps to control the camera focus.] To process the images I first tried an open source desktop application called CombineZP but I found it to be difficult to use and not very reliable. In the end I settled on Affinity Photo, a highly accomplished and very affordable desktop photo editing package which has a good focus stacking feature. (This was a hard thing for me to do because the Affinity software is "the competition" in my professional life!) Here are two of the raw images, numbers 2 and 12 from the stack of 16: You can see that image number 2 is focused near the smokebox door of the loco but the background is out of focus. And image number 12 shows the background train in focus but the loco is blurred. Then the full stack of 16 photos was given to Affinity Photo and it produced this result (after cropping): You can see that the process works and it was quite easy once I had gathered together all the necessary tools. I will do some more experiments and try some creative ideas.

Well I ran out of cash for all those juicy Bachmann Mk.1s I need for my 1961 period express / through services, and so turned to that cheaper knock-off the Hachette Mk1 SK which has some resemblance to the Bachmann Mk1 .... to see if with a little work (which cost me nothing but time which being retired I should have lots of. but somehow don't really) I could make something approaching the quality of a Bachmann Mk.1 BTW - why use the Hachette rather than Hornby? because I want the close coupling mechanism, which has been kept in the Hachette Since every layout in the BR mk1 period needs loads of SKs, a Hachette coach is a reasonable substitute if you can cope with the chunky prism effect of the windows, the solid under frame detail, the moulded roof detail and handrails and the plastic axles in the bogies. Some of these things are not to hard to deal with - for instance, the solid under frame can be cut about to give daylight. The wheels can be replaced. The roof detail can be detailed with replacement vents and wire pipes. What if you want to turn it into a different coach altogether - like me, finding that I've run out of money for the CKs I need for my maroon Pines Express rake (not finding a Bachmann CK on eBay for less than £25, i need two, and one needs to have Commonwealth bogies etc)? Well, i thought I'd give it a go having got quite a few Hachettes to play with. So for my first CK, I had bought very cheaply an early Triang CK, happened to be in green 'completely knocked down' and I'm having a go at putting the sides and the interior into a Hachette SK, and transferring the Hachette's windows once I've painted and lined the sides. It isn't that hard, a bit slow, but will save me at least £20 which for me is worthwhile. However, you discover those minute differences between Mk.1s by different manufacturers, like the window sizes, (Triang / Hornby almost 0.5mm bigger all round), side length (Hachette at least 1mm longer) and side height (Triang / Hornby slightly lower) and possibly the side profile (Triang / Hornby could be flatter) ..... So what I've done is, so far: Hacked the under frame so daylight shows - reasonably successfully Removed the windows from the Hachette sides I want to use in the CK sides Removed the window bars from the Triang CK sides Removed the lining guidelines from the CK sides Thinned the ledge at the bottom of the sides to fit into the Hachette chassis slots for the sides Added microstrip to the inside of the CK window openings as they are slightly bigger than the Hachette windows Cut off the SK positioned vents in the roof and drilled holes in the CK positions to take new white metal vents Carved off the SK style water pipe detail and rain strips Also had to add microstrip to the ends of the CK sides as they are fractionally shorter than the Hachette sides Still to do: Make and stick on a wide strip with slots pointing in at the top of each side to mimic the strip on the Hachette sides that the roof locks into Rub down sides Restore some lost hinge detail on sides Paint and line (Maroon), add numbers Glaze with Hachette windows plus some kit master windows for the corridor side narrow (2ft) ones Add grab handles and door handles Fix roof vents Add rain strips in correct location for CK Add toilet tank fillers Detail interior (more about that later) Assemble Make and fix tank filler pipework Do something about those wheels which don't run that well in the cheapo plastic bogies (I've crudely cut and filed them to take P4 wheels) See if it will run (!) Some photos of the sides sitting in the chassis before I attached all that microstrip with original roof ... Corridor side, some blurry Hachette originals in the background Compartment side We'll see if its worth while in a bit

Progress has been made on various projects I thought I'd share. First up, on the small river bridge, I re-drew the 3d model for the girders and added the walk-way and handrail supports. These were threaded with brass wire and bent to shape. The result makes for a fairly unique bridge, certainly one in the 'you couldn't make this up' category. While I've been waiting for paint to dry I decided to start preparing some trees. I'd bought some tree armatures sold under the brand name 'Footpath' by Model Scenery Supplies. These seemed good value to me at £9.85 for 5 armatures about 140mm tall. As supplied they are a little squashed together in the packet, the wire is well twisted, but on the recommendation of MSS I applied a little solder to the major joints just to stop them unwrapping. The wire is quite robust but nowhere near as painful on the fingers as picture wire or brake cable. I found that a little extra winding is worthwhile at the ends of the branches, this probably took about 5-10 minutes per armature. I've added some bark (sorry I don't know the source, it was just a plastic bag in my scenics box labelled 'bark'!. I mixed whatever this was with some PVA and painted it on in a number of layers. Finally I thought I'd show a bit more progress on the Crownline J20. The tender is now fitted with a revised sprung chassis and a motor fitted to the gearbox. The loco has moved 'on jump leads' along a test track and seems to do so smoothly and without binding. I've now got to a point where the 'hot work' has been done on the boiler so stuck on a couple of the parts which I had 3D printed. I wasn't happy with the rather prominent washout plugs just being represented by a half-etched circle so I drilled these out a stuck a more detailed fitting behind the boiler cladding. I also printed the sandboxes, complete with the flange around the base, rather than use the fold up etch from the kit. I retained the etch cover on the front though. Now what else can I do to procrastinate over static grass? David

Just came across an old photo (well from 2016) of a posed shot on my yet to be dismantled (before house move) partly complete weston super mare S&D of a very GWR scene with my rather lovely Bachmann City 'City of Bath' renamed and numbered as 3440 City of Truro just before I disposed of it as being surplus to my requirements on Ebay (sob sob) ... well it will get resurrected as a monstrous hybrid of Airfix kit with a Bachmann mogul Swindon No.4 boiler on to make amends for the rather undersize thing the Airfix kit has and a P4 chassis built of very ancient Perservence bits kept for many years in the odd bits drawer ... thats a back burner project all right. Just FYI City of Truro is about to work an excursion from WSM, surrounded by some junior GWR colleagues .... (incidentally City of Truro worked several excursions around Bristol and even spent time at WSM Locking Road at the head of the Westward TV publicity train during its first restoration to service by WR between 1957 and 61). .... looking forward to seeing this kind of scene soon!

I was very please to accept an invitation to run some stock on the Manchester Model Railway Club's "Slattocks Junction" P4 layout recently. As the layout is set on the Manchester to Rochdale line, it is the perfect setting for my locos as I hope the photo shows. Besides railways, in various scales, I have a great interest in the cotton mills which dominated the landscape of my native Oldham during my childhood so, I have been pleased to be able to help in some small way with encouragement and some architectural information in the marvelous model of "Alpha Mill", which appears , or rather dominates, the background of the photo. The photo was taken by my good friend, David Clarke who, as explained in earlier entries, painted, lined and weathered the featured loco. Here we see Caprotti fitted Black 5, 44741 at the head of a parcels train passing the mill and then on to the canal bridge. Besides 44741, I took three other locos which ran with varying degrees of success. My Stanier 2-6-4 tank ran faultlessly, the Crab struggled a bit with the weight of an 8 coach passenger train, whilst Jubilee 45701 ran well but had an intermittent short as did EE type 4 diesel, D211. Later investigation of the Jubilee revealed a brake hanger had become dislodged and was catching one of the driving wheel flanges. Unfortunately, this required a major disassembly to put right, but this has been achieved without damage to the finish. I think the diesel was just on the limit of curvature it can accommodate. Anyway, thanks to all the guys in the Manchester club for their warm welcome and kind hospitality and allowing me to play trains for an afternoon. Dave.

This loco, allocated to Stafford shed and will be numbered 48755 had a Fowler tender so it will be a little different from my other 8F. This model is well travelled and must be the ultimate in collaborative modelling. My friend David Borman built the chassis (Comet) and tender (Brassmasters) . Dave Holt detailed under the cab and modified the front pony truck. I then fitted balance weights to the drivers and the cylinder drain cocks (both Brassmasters) before painting the chassis. The body is a Hornby one with lots of additional details (mainly from the Brassmasters 8F detaing kit) plus some Comet etches and has been modified to fit the chassis. Still needs some work on the body before painting particularly around the steam pipes into the smokebox. The eagle eyed will notice the grey body is different from the black one as it has the boiler bottom.

On the left is another 'quicky' P4 conversion using a Gibson conversion pack sold by the EMGS, and the source for the EMGS manual sheet for the conversion. It has been renumbered to 47465, a Bath Green Park loco in the 50s and 60s. On the right the first loco I've ever built, from scratch in plasticard running on a Perseverance etched chassis and Gibson wheels as S&DJR No.24 as running in 1929. If you look you can see the obvious height difference - because I didn't realise when making up the chassis that it was designed for a brass loco with very thin footplate - and my plasticard loco has a footplate over 1mm thick - so a bit more work there to lower the body before I add brake gear. The height is really critical if using Dingham couplings, it needs to be within 0.5mm for them to couple easily. The loco took over 20 years to finish as I began it as a student and then it languished incomplete for many many years! Note the chimney is thicker than the usual 'Jinty' chimney. Looking at the photo HC Casserly took in 1929 at Radstock of No.29 when brand new the chimney doesn't look thin - compare with 47465. some pictures of the Bachmann chassis during conversion