MikeOxon

Thank you for explaining, Julie.

The moment we name nothing as "nothing", it becomes something

"I suppose it all depends on the exact period chosen." Indeed, plus ça change ...

That's a relief! I couldn't help the knee-jerk reaction when I first looked at the photo - it's a very nice shot Mike

I hope it wasn't really thundering through a red light!

Your wiring looks very neat and I like the clamps that you've used. What were you planning to use the Autoswitch for? I'm a bit behind the curve with all these electronic gadgets and still use plain old DC for control. Mike

Thank you for commenting, Claude. I was musing on how things actually get newer as we go back in time. Progress on my layout is slow because I keep getting distracted by building small models that catch my interest.

Thank you for commenting, Truffy. My aim was really to point out that you don't need a sophisticated (and expensive) camera for good model railway photography. The small camera even has some advantages

Most of my entries in this blog, so far, have related to locomotives and rolling stock. For most of us , these are the key elements of a model railway and involve a lot of scratch or kit building, since very few pre-grouping (and especially pre-WW1) models are available as RTR. Now, I am starting to think about scenery aspects and have realised that there is something of a paradox when 'turning back the clock'. We tend to think of 'older' as meaning 'quainter' and more 'weathered' whereas, in fact, the opposite is true! A new railway line in the mid 19th century had more in common with a newly-laid stretch of motorway than our current mental image of an overgrown and characterful branch line. Embankments, cuttings, and the track itself would all have a 'new' look, with none of the tangled vegetation and overgrown fencing that we see today. I think that, in a model, some compromises have to be made if we are trying to create an appealing layout but I will take account of these thoughts as I turn back the clock. After this bit of philosophising, a few pictures. I recently visited the Oxford Bus Museum at Long Hanborough (recommended if your interests extend to other modes of transport). One of the exhibits was a Governess Cart and I knew immediately that I wanted one for my layout. Dart Castings do a simple white metal kit (complete with pony), The few parts are nicely cast, with only a little flash that is easily removed (I use a finger-nail). Assembly looked simple enough but, although the instructions look good, they fail to describe exactly how the parts fit together and the illustration of the finished vehicle is not very clear. As a result, I assembled the upper sides the wrong way up, which was easy. I then realised that the upper rails were supposed to be raised above the side panels but fitting them this way up was by no means easy! There is very little contact area and no alignment tabs, to assist in holding the parts together. The final result, however, is an attractive little vehicle, perhaps for taking the children to the station for the train to school. Bear in mind that it is very small - the 'Mini' of the day - and needs a fair bit of dexterity to assemble. (No problem for the 2mm FS people, of course, but quite fiddly in 4mm terms Mike

A glass of wine is a great aid to modelling - so long as you don't pick up the wrong glass and end up with a mouthful of pva )

The poppies are brilliant - much better than before - afraid you'll have to replace those! Amazing the ideas that come after a glass of wine (as shown in previous post) Mike

I agree - those 3-way points do exercise the little grey cells a bit! I used SEEP motors, which have rather basic switches built-in and so far they seem to work ok. I don't know what they make the actuating rod from on those motors, but they certainly taxed my wire-cutters!

Well observed pic and very welcoming!

It was only when I looked at the photograph of "City of Truro", which I took yesterday, that I noticed that the nameplate was missing! About half of my track is in tunnel, so there was an evens chance that it had dropped off in the tunnel. Fortunately, I have a 'search and rescue' procedure. Some time ago, I became interested in the idea of shooting video from the footplates of my model locomotive. I found that there was a miniature video camera, popular with aircraft RC enthusisats, which was both very small and gave good quality results, recording HD video onto a micro-SD card.. The camera I bought is known as an '808 #11' and it is packaged within a car key-fob, as a rather dodgy-looking spy-cam. There is now a slightly larger, but conventionally packaged version, called the 'Mobius Actioncam'. You can read loads of information about all these cameras at: http://www.chucklohr.com/808/index.shtml In addition to having fun running the camera around my layout, I also mounted it on a wagon, together with a small LED torch, so that I could view inside the tunnels on my railway. I was surprised to see several bit of debris, fallen off passing trains, and was able to recover these through the various hand-holes that I provided in the baseboard. The small torch lights the track ahead and reveals any debris, as shown below: While on the subject of video, and since there are very few moving trains on these pages, here is a tiny movie that I call, with great originality, "Arrival of a Train". It shows my Stella-class 2-4-0, rebuilt from a Mainline Dean Goods, arriving at my station with a local train of four-wheelers. An original Mainline Dean Goods is waiting in the passing loop. (sorry it's so small - I was keeping within the 1MB limit) Mike

Although popular with several European manufacturers, tender-drive has never been well-regarded in UK, possibly because of some rather poor implementations back in the 20th century. Nevertheless, it does have some advantages, when modelling prototypes from the 19th century. Locomotives of that period were generally quite small, with open cabs, and most passenger classes used single drivers until quite late in the century. These characteristics create two problems for the modeller: there is little space, where a motor can be placed out of sight, and single drivers give poor adhesion. Some time ago, I found that I could place a Tenshodo SPUD power unit within the front bogie of a Tri-ang Dean Single but, if I were tackling the same problem again, I think I would go for a powered tender, even if a little less elegant as a solution. The disadvantages of a powered tender are the lack of 'daylight' under the body and, in some cases, a rather visible power-train. It is also necessary to provide a high coal load to conceal the motor, though I have several prototype photos to show that this is not as unrealistic as sometimes supposed. When I converted a Mainline Dean Goods to a representation of a 'Stella' 2-4-0, I initially accepted the rather noisy tender drive motor but then began to explore alternatives. Hornby produce the X9105 drive unit (available from suppliers of Hornby spares), which has a smooth-running, 5-pole motor and a reasonably quiet drive train. It also has the 7' 6" + 7' 6" scale wheelbase, used by many types of GWR tender. My first trial with this unit was to see if one could be fitted into the tender provided with the Dapol (ex-Airfix) 'City of Truro' plastic kit. This approach avoided 'butchering' the Mainline tender, while providing a similar outline from more easily manipulated components. Fitting the motor proved quite straight-forward. I had to either cut away or file down several protrusions on the inside of the tender side mouldings and also cut away the 'coal'. The rear part of the top and most of the sides could be retained, with a little filing to increase clearances. I then eased the motor unit into the body from below, with some thin black polythene sheet (cut from a waste-bin liner) to hide the top and provide a base for a 'coal' load. I fitted a miniature computer-style power connector to the front of the tender so that it could be used with different locomotives. My first application was to the 'City of Truro' kit, in which I replaced the plastic wheels with Gibson extended-axle drivers. Pick-ups on the locomotive were wired to a matching connector, for coupling to the tender. The result was a smooth and quiet running locomotive The Dapol tender is not too bad but does have irritations, such as raised panel mouldings that have to be removed with a scalpel, and it represents a later type, with filled-in side-sheets. I found that a white metal kit of a Dean 3,000 gallon tender, with etched coal rails, is available from Scale Link, so my next step was to try and adapt one of these in the same way. Although I had managed to squeeze the Hornby motor into the Dapol plastic body without modification, the protruding metal 'lugs' were too wide for the Scale Link kit. After carefully wrapping the motor itself in plastic sheet, to protect it from swarf, I skimmed off part of the lugs with a rotary cutter on my mini-drill - do not forget to wear eye protection, as swarf does fly about. I stuck strips of electrical tape on the inside surfaces of the white-metal sides to prevent any electrical 'shorts' and then assembled the kit around the motor unit. The end result is quite an attractive coal-rail type tender which, because of the weight of the white metal body, does not need traction tyres to perform well. I am now working on plans for some more Dean locomotives, which will be powered by these tenders. I am sure that there are several other tender drive units, with different wheel spacings, which could be used for other prototypes. It would be helpful if suppliers could indicate the wheel spacings or, perhaps, others could contribute a list of suitable modern units, to help in adapting these to different models. Mike

A familiar tale Don't forget to give your old locos a service - knowing old HD, they'll be 'good as new' . I look forward to seeing some pics when you are up and running. Mike

Looks great! I'm a great believer in computer-printed templates - they can save a lot of measuring. Next step down the automation route, I suppose, will be 3D printing. Just think: set it going one evening and the next morning you'll have n,000 sandbags or yards of duckboard, etc. Mike

Phew! Perhaps the uploader was feeling "sand-bagged" too Being a great taker of short-cuts, I would have been severely tempted to sculpt the trench-wall out of modelling clay. I hope you feel all the satisfaction that your work deserves. Mike

I tried a test load of some text and an image, which seemed to go through ok. Do you prepare text in a Word processor? You could try a text-only upload (I use copy and paste from Notepad) to see if this works and then add photos later if this is ok. Hope to see your new post soon!

Generally true - except it won't fit into such small spaces! To get equivalent depth of field, a DSLR must be stopped down much more, hence the need for more light. Changing the distance from the subject alters perspective so, for a 'realistic' shot, I like to take up a 'lineside' position. I frequently use a monopod as a camera support - more manoeuvrable than a tripod but with sufficient steadying effect for many situations. With a compact, I sometimes simply stand it on the track, or scenery, and use the self-timer to avoid shake. For the record, the settings for the shots I referred to were: a. post in "Cleminson to the Rescue" - Nikon D300s with Tamron 90mm macro lens, 1/125s@f/8, ISO400 b. this post - Panasonic TZ25 with 7mm focal length, 1/60s@f/6.3, ISO400 Mike

I've been reading the thread started recently by Robin2 on "Why have moving trains on layouts?" - ( http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/78169-why-have-moving-trains-on-layouts/ ) There've been lots of interesting and thoughtful replies and it has made me think. On the one hand, I couldn't build an engine without wanting to make it work satisfactorily and, on the other, I don't run trains very much but do enjoy setting up various static scenes for photography. I do find it relaxing, however, to run trains round and round a bit, after a hard evening's modelling, though the relaxation can be spoiled if some sort of fault appears Here's an example of one of my static scenes: I've added a bit of smoke and steam with Photoshop but, looking at it now, it desperately needs some people to give it a bit of 'life' and it's only when I looked at the photo that I noticed that the pigs had fallen over!. There's no doubt that taking photos is a great way to see all the mistakes and the unrealistic bits, so it can be a stimulus to improvement. I find that a small compact camera is often better for 'realistic' scenes than, for example, a more sophisticated DSLR, for a number of reasons. The compact is, of course, smaller and can be put into those places that a DSLR cannot reach. A more technical reason is that both the lens and sensor in the compact are much smaller, which results in a greater depth of field (more in focus) at equivalent camera settings. The compact can be thought of as, in effect, a 'scale model' of the sort of camera that might have been used during my chosen pre-Grouping period. Out of interest, I did a few calculations: The sensor in a typical compact measures about 6.2 x 4.6mm, whereas a 'whole plate' camera, as might have been used in the 19th century, had a sensitive area of 8½" x 6½" (216 x 165mm). From these figures, the compact represents a 1/35 scale model - not too far removed from 0-gauge! So, you can expect to get similar perspective and depth-of-field when using a compact to photograph an 0-gauge layout from 'realistic' locations. I took the photo of my GWR 'Siphon' that appeared in a recent post with a DSLR camera and it is obvious that only a small part of the image is in focus. I've repeated the shot below, using a compact camera, to show how much more of the scene can easily be kept in focus (the background sky is by Photoshop) Mike

I think that's a clever solution I trust you also have a cunning plan for dis/connecting the track at the hinge line. That inner curved track looks pretty tight, even for my 009 railway but, as long as your stock goes round it .... Mike

Metr0Land is right that this is more a Forum question than a blog entry but you might try a Hornby tender drive unit from, for example, Peter's Spares. I'm not sure of the Fowler tender wheelbase but perhaps the X1494 unit would do the trick. I've used similar units to power various models.

A very nice pair of models and beautifully photographed, too. Mike

I believe you are Dutch, so hope you will not mind my pointing out that 'lightning' (with 'n') and 'lighting' are two different things! I was a little disappointed not to see thunderbolts flashing across your scene I think LEDs will transform railway lighting. I have some LED spots that are equivalent to 50w halogen but stay perfectly cool - great for use around card buildings. Mike