ParkeNd

This is a courier issue. The box has been part of a pallet load - and on the bottom corner of the pallet at that. The abrasion damage looks like it was cause by a fork truck being used to shunt the pallet across the floor during which it hit something else. Your photos should be sent to Hattons - no doubt about it.

Question - do you really learn by making mistakes, or just put yourself off photography? I would agree though that people did learn photography (but from their successes) when starting out with film. But starting out on digital probably many people never learn even about basic camera settings like f/ numbers and shutter speeds.

Three nuns are in the queue for confession. The first nun went into the confessional and confessed that she had held Brother Patrick's private in her hand. She got three Hail Marys and was sent to wash her hand in holy water. The second nun confessed that she had had Brother Patrick's private in her private and was given ten Hail Marys and sent off to wash her private in holy water. The third nun shouted after her "Can you hold on a couple of minutes so I can go first - I'm going to have to gargle"

Super photos. Thank you for adding them to the thread.

This is the sides of the platforms and the trackbed at Severn Bridge Station this summer. And the bridge over the farm track just before entering the station.

Although Photoshop CS4 will do the job, the two main specialist stackers, Zerene and Helicon, are easier to use and are free of disconcerting artefacts - little digital distortions like melted solder blobs in odd places. I trigger the shutter with the delayed action and focus on five or six definite points on the layout working from near to far, and take RAW files. Then I process one of the images only in Aperture 3 with no sharpening then lift the metadata and adjustments and stamp them on the other files giving me identical images except for focus point. Then whilst all 5/6 images are selected I export them to the desktop. I then line them up on the desktop in file number order with the closest focus image (lowest file number) at the top. I then start Zerene Stacker and slide the files in order into the input box. Align and Stack is a single command - though there is an option to use DMax, PMax, or both stacking algorithms. Alignment and stacking is then automatic and the image builds a file at a time in front of you. Then save the completed image to desktop. All that remains is to import the image into Aperture 3 and process it in PTL to correct lens distortion and verticals. I apply only moderate sharpening - in my view too many images are grossly over sharpened making them look artificial.

I'm new to focus stacking myself - and have become quite interested in it to the point of using it for all my layout photos. I use Zerene Stacker which I have found produces no artefacts whatsoever. Good stuff in my book. This is just one photo taken in the last month. It's an N gauge layout - just 5 exposures. Camera is a nikon D810 full frame DSLR and this shot used a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 lens and a sturdy tripod.

Just how 95% of these pictures have stayed out of sight for so long amazes me. The book is an absolute treasure trove - and just about everything that came before it was in black and white too.

Hi Jonathan, Thanks for the comments - glad you liked the photos. The orange hi-vis vests are harder to manage in photographs than the old standard yellow ones. Several shots do have to be discarded when the "glare" from the jackets is much brighter than the surroundings - my bike jackets can do that when caught at the right angle. But I accept this as something I have to work around as a guest at DFR. Having been a Logistics Manager all my life I knew (certainly in the last 15 years or so) that a responsible manager can suffer horrific penalties if anyone is hurt - especially not wearing a hi-vis vest. We used to make everyone wear one outside in the yards, even delivery drivers and customers - and they only cost 90p each when bought in bulk and were provided free. No doubt someone from DFR will respond - but I guess even for passengers wanting to know where the loo is on a station it's useful to have that logo when looking for someone to ask - and if they are worn with pride then I reckon that's all the better.

Thanks Arthur. Fortunately I know more about cameras/photography than trains.

It was foggy early on at home so schedule was :- 11.15. Buy new Neil Parkhouse book at Norchard. 11.30 Photograph 5541 arriving backwards at Norchard. 11.40. Coffee and cheese toaste at Norchard. 12.29. Photograph 5541 arriving then leaving Whitecroft. 12.40. Photograph 5541 at Parkend. 13.45. Arrive back home in Wye valley.

Wdnesday 28th October 2015. What in the calendar looks like the DFR last steam day this year - certainly on a weekday. And what a splendid day it was with 5541 travelling in the "right" direction - front ways from Lydney Junction to Parkend for a change. There were lots of passengers and the Owners Inspection Salon was in use on the train. Here is a selection of 14 pictures showing 5541 leaving Whitecroft, arriving at Parkend, running round the train, taking on water, hooking up to start back to Norchard in reverse, arriving at Norchard, and hanging around for a bit.

Got my copy today - loads of colour photos of Parkend Railway Cottages. All questions answered. Green. But now, like Arthur's copy. it's going away for Christmas.

It's Wednesday - and it wasn't Wilbert. Yippee - it was 5541 the right way round. Photos soon.

Thanks Arthur. I have Volume 1 and plan to buy Volume 2. Colour pictures of the Severn and Wye are so rare in books, and would be so valuable when modelling. For instance I am building anew Railway Cottages 1, 2, and 3 in their pre-rendered days and the only photos I can find are black and white - the very complex gutters and drainpipes aren't black - but what colour are they? I'm guessing a grey/green but a colour photo sure would help.

Thanks for the information. I was hoping it was going to be 5541 going in the "right direction" so I might have to have a rethink.

BR standard Class 4 MT on the SVR on a private charter to steel company UEF in around 1995 - so it's scan from a negative. It wasn't nearly such a boring loco as the class name suggests - I even got a cab ride.

I am very mindful that I haven't done this yet, and Wednesday 28th October is the very last mid week steam day for quite a while. I have somehow managed to mess up my left shoulder which is so painful that I am a bit "precious" about it when there is a risk of barging into others (like Warley Show in a month!!). Been X-Rayed and now we are 10 days into the long silence whilst they sit and do nothing with the digital shots they took. But i must manage to pull off these photos - hope it's 5541 on Wednesday. Fingers crossed.

A young curate was apprenticed to an experienced vicar but finally it was time to progress beyond just helping, and fetching and carrying - it was time for his first solo Sermon. As Sunday approached the young curate became progressively more nervous and tongue tied at his rehearsals - even in an empty church - until he finally couldn't get a single word out. But the old vicar had a solution - he told the young curate that just before his first sermon he took a few sips of whisky and it calmed his nerves. The young curate took this too much to heart and had a few glasses of whisky. The sermon went well, the congregation were hanging on his every word, and he didn't stop or even falter once. After the service the young curate asked the vicar how he had done - and the vicar had to admit his sermon was riveting. But just as the young curate was about to congratulate himself the vicar said "There was just one tiny technical error in your text - the Bible actually says that David slew Goliath - he didn't actually smash his f****** head in".

Thanks TimC. I met Ron Fisher at Parkend about two weeks ago and he gave me a paper slip pre-printed with the URL of all his photos currently scanned. I'm working through them and I have to say it's quite a legacy.

Following the news that slope tank prairie 5541 was "turned" using the low loader for the visiting Class 08 before it left I now plan to go and get some photos of it travelling the "right" way round like Wilbert does. There are much better photo opportunities with it facing that way.

Nowt wrong with that avatar either.

The feeling is mutual - 95% of the cars that pass me leave at least 6 or 8 feet os space including crossing the white line. Please don't bring your car down here.

100 bhp? Not worth getting out of bed for - almost lawn mower stuff nowadays. Even tiny three cylinder starter cars produce more than that. e.g. Peugeot 208 1.2 litre 3 cylinder 110 bhp in basic form. Lowest spec Ford Fiestas would be much the same.

So you scrape past cyclists with just a 3 foot margin ? That means in between my brake levers and the white line in the centre of the road. No wonder you have trouble with cyclists.