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Harlequin

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  1. Harlequin

    Quote from C J Freezer

    By Harlequin,

    I found this sage-like quote from C J Freezer recently:
     


    I do not subscribe to the theory that it is somehow better for a modelmaker to rely solely on his own resources, making every item in his own workshop [snip].
    In pure model engineering, where construction is the object of the exercise and the pleasure lies in the work involved, the idea makes sense, but where, as in a model railway, the question of operation arises, then short cuts via the cheque book or credit card have very considerable validity.  

    "Model Railway Signalling" Page 60.
  2. Harlequin

    Improving Photos with "Focus Stacking"

    By Harlequin,


    Focus stacking
    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.
     
  3. Harlequin
    I have a Bachmann City class "Killarney" fitted with a YouChoos sound project and I love the wheezy, squeaky straining sounds that it makes, which seem to fit this venerable class of loco very well. However, the sound always had the unmistakable quality of coming from inside a thin plastic box.
     
    Last week I had a brainwave that would solve two problems at once: I could replace the awful moulded metal coal load with something that both looked better and that would transmit the sound better from the speaker, which is directly below it. My thinking was that there would be enough gaps between the big lumps of best Welsh loco coal to allow sound to pass through. So here's what I did today:
     
    1. Remove the supplied coal load and use it to form an equivalent shape cut from insect screen mesh.

     
    2. Cut a new aperture in the tender body under the coal load.

     
    3. Test fit the new mesh

     
    4. Glue loco coal to the mesh using Copydex. The first layer had to be done carefully to avoid clogging the mesh with glue. A couple of further layers were added mainly to fill in gaps in the first layer rather than to add depth.

     
    5. Fit the new load. You can see daylight through it, which is exactly what we want!

     
    6. Here she is back on the test track. I might need to fill gaps with more dabs of Copydex and more lumps of coal as I watch her over the next few days - but it looks reasonably convincing at first glance.

    (Maybe the tender is a bit overfilled?) I might also glue some lead inside the body to replace the lost weight of the original coal load.
     
    So there it is: A speaker grille made of coal!
     
    The sound is definitely clearer but still a little "plasticky" if I'm honest. Perhaps a bigger speaker would fit in the space...?
     
  4. Harlequin
    Over the past few weeks it's been hard to motivate myself to do anything, aside from drawing stuff on the computer, which is always satisfying.
     
    So this weekend I decided to just do something, anything just to get myself going. So I built a workbench for model making so that I don't monopolise the dining table any more.
     
    The work surface is 18mm ply with a frame of 50*50 PSE bracing for strength and to straighten out the ply, which was a bit warped.
     
    Sides and shelf are 12mm birch ply.
     
    The legs are a bodge up so that I could get the job finished before work on Monday - 50*50 PSE braced by 12mm birch ply. Time will tell if they need more bracing...
     

    Ply surface and frame being glued up in my shed.
     

    The finished article (apologies for bad photo - not enough light).
  5. Harlequin
    The entry for Llanglydwen station on disused-stations.org.uk was recently updated with three high-res vintage photos.
    Here
     
    (You have to click the "here" links to see the larger versions.)
     
    The new photos are wonderfully evocative and look like photos of a model. The station, a small hamlet, a road, a river, a bridge and a level crossing are all compressed into a small area with verdant countryside all around.
     
    It's almost too good to be true!
  6. Harlequin

    Driver Albert Pibworth on the GWR

    By Harlequin,


    Pibworth
    My Grandma did a lot of research into our family history and she published the collected results. Consequently, I’ve known for a while that the famous LNER driver, Albert Pibworth (known as “Old Pib”), was a distant relative of mine.
     
    The Pibworth family can be traced back to the village of Pebworth in Worcestershire in the 16th century. Although they spread far and wide, the branch leading to Albert Pibworth (and me!) came from the villages to the south west of Newbury. He was born at Enborne in 1864, very much in Great Western territory but in 1883, after a brief stint on the Western, he moved on to become a GNR railwayman.
     
    This relocation and change of employer causes some minor confusion with casual railway historians and irks me slightly because I’m a GWR fan. To me, it would be more satisfying if he’d been a famous GWR driver!
     
    However, the story and the modelling possibilities got more interesting recently when I discovered that he drove an LNER A1 Pacific on GWR rails in the famous 1925 exchange trials.
     
    I wonder if his Berkshire origins gave him any prior knowledge of the route?
     
    References:
    https://www.meccanoindex.co.uk/Mecmag/MMissue.php?MID=5932&Missue=3001&id=1632768767
    https://www.meccanoindex.co.uk/Mecmag/MMissue.php?MID=5945&Missue=3001&id=1632768980
     
    From “Our Family Story” by E. A. Martin
    James Pibworth, Albert's father, born 1821 at East Woodhay. His brother Thomas Pibworth, my ancestor, born East Woodhay 1830.
    Thomas Pibworth was listed as a Linseed Oil Maker in the 1861 census.
     
    Thomas would have walked to his work in Newbury. He was unlikely to have used the train that passed through Enbourne on its way from Southampton to Newbury, though many later Pibworths were to find eventual employment on that railway.
     
    Thomas had a great many relations! His elder brother James, the third of the family, was married and had four children. The fourth of these was the only Pibworth to achieve national fame! His name was Albert, and he was born in 1865. When old enough to begin working he got a job on the railway - the employment that seems to have been favoured by many Pibworth men. At that time, Newbury was a junction of some importance, with lines going off in five directions. Albert worked on the railway (not for long in the Newbury area) for 46 years. He became one of the best-known drivers of his time, known affectionately as “Old Pib”. He was the driver in charge of the train that made the first non-stop run from Kings Cross to Newcastle, with the engine “Flying Fox”. In 1928 he won even greater praise for the longer run from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, with the “Flying Scotsman”! Soon after this achievement, he had to retire because of ill-health (1929). About this time he and his wife were living at Wash Common, in a house he called “Belitha Villa”. Why did he choose this name, “Belitha”? - Was it the name of an engine he specially remembered, or perhaps even the first that he drove? 
     
    In September 1929 he died, and was buried in the churchyard at Enborne. A simple gravestone gives his name and the relevant dates, but there is no mention of his achievements.
     
    Newbury Weekly News - 1965
    ‘Old Pib’ - buried at Enborne - used to drive crack ‘Flying Scotsman’
    The “FLYING SCOTSMAN” presented an unforgettable sight for railway enthusiasts lining the platform as with whistle shrieking she roared through Newbury at 80 m.p.h. on Sunday evening. This famous locomotive, now privately owned and restored to her former LNER appearance, was pulling a special excursion from Weymouth to London.
    The “Flying Scotsman” took just six minutes to cover the distance between Hungerford and Newbury, and unknown to many of the enthusiasts aboard her passed within half a mile of the grave of the man who drove the locomotive on the first non-stop London-Edinburgh run in 1928.
    He was Mr. Albert Pibworth, who is buried in Enborne churchyard. A simple stone makes no reference to his record-breaking achievement or to the fact that at the time he was regarded as one of the greatest engine drivers in the world.
    Career’s Peak
    “Old Pib” as he was known to thousands of railwaymen, reached the pinnacle of his career towards the end of his 46 years on the railway. At the age of 63 he made history by driving the “Flying Fox” non-stop from Kings Cross to Newcastle. He shared the footplate on the even longer record-breaking run to Edinburgh.
    Mr. Pibworth, a member of an old Newbury railway family, who lived at Wash Common, retired in January 1929, through ill-health and died a few months later aged 65, on September 16.
     
    Pendennis Castle and Flying Fox publicity photo

     
    Victor Wild
    Driver Pibworth’s regular engine from new was 4475 “Flying Fox”. It was selected for the 1925 trials but it ran hot and it was replaced by 4474 “Victor Wild”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Gresley_Classes_A1_and_A3#/media/File:LNER_Pacific_4474_on_King's_Cross_turntable_(CJ_Allen,_Steel_Highway,_1928).jpg
     
     
  7. Harlequin
    I knew that somewhere here I had a box full of Plastikard and some bottles of "Mek-Pak". After searching in my loft and my back bedroom, and getting distracted by old forgotten model spaceships and some great treasures, I found it! (Never throw anything away!)
     
    I have a selection of plain and embossed sheets, and bits of: an army tank kit, spaceship kits, wagon kits and signal kits. Also a selection of extrusions of different sections, some fencing and some valancing.

     
    Some of the bottles still have something in them...

  8. Harlequin
    I fixed the corner braces to to the top corners, hoping that they might make the unit less prone to twisting but they don't make much difference. So I might omit them from future versions.

     
    To give an idea of the amount of twist in the unit: If I lift one corner off the ground then I get about 2cm deflection before any of the other corners also start to lift. The worry with that is that it might be enough to crack scenery or cause fittings to become detached.
     
    I suspect that cross bracing across the entire unit would stop the twisting - and of course a track bed will do exactly that. In the interests of lightweight construction it might be OK to allow a small amount of flex in the base units and rely on the track beds, risers, backscenes and other superstructure to stiffen them up.
     
    So, the next job is to attach a track bed and then re-assess the flexing. I made a start on that:

     

    I also made a loco cradle to help with servicing delicate steam locos. Hopefully the foam will grip the model without crushing or bending details like handrails and whistles...

  9. Harlequin
    This afternoon I worked on using the parts to put together one baseboard.
     
    Cut the parts to exact length in the mitre saw. This ensures that the parts are exactly square and gets rid of any rough corners.

     
    Cut the PSE that strengthens the ends of the frame. It's not the best quality and although it was reasonably straight and not twisted it was badly bowed so I ran the pieces through the planer just to square things up a bit without changing the dimensions too much.

     
    Glued the PSE to the end frame ply. I might add some screws later.

     
    Cut half depth slots in the spine and rib pieces using the depth stop in the mitre saw.

     
    Did a dry run on the workbench:

     
    So far so good. No major disasters, yet...
  10. Harlequin

    History in reverse

    By Harlequin,

    We hear today that the Government want to break up the GWR franchise and open more branch lines...
     
    It sounds like history is being replayed in reverse. Are we going to see the "London and South Western" franchise or the "Moretonhampstead and South Devon" franchise?
     
    The logical end result is that they'll propose the reinstatement of broad gauge!
     

  11. Harlequin

    Old Pib

    By Harlequin,

    I've just been checking through the family history that my Grandma very carefully pieced together to find out exactly how I'm related to "Old Pib", Albert Pibworth, one of the drivers of Flying Scotsman on the first non-stop run from London to Edinburgh.
     
    I know lots of people claim this sort of connection but I'm pretty sure my connection is genuine.
     
    Albert's father was James Pibworth one of whose siblings was Thomas Pibworth. Thomas => Hannah Purton => Rosa Ann Hall => Edith Annie Martin (Grandma) => David William Martin (Dad) => Me
     
    So I reckon that "Old Pib" was my Great-great-great cousin - if there is such a thing...
     
    Phil
  12. Harlequin

    Minories PDF

    By Harlequin,

    I have updated my Minories PDF.
     
    Edit: I noticed a small but annoying mistake in version 18 so version 19 is attached.
     
    Minories 19.pdf
     
     
  13. Harlequin

    Polarity tenderness

    By Harlequin,

    I am trying to make one working loco and tender from a pair of secondhand Hornby purchases, Tintagel Castle and Beverston Castle.
     
    A previous owner of Tintagel has removed all the pickup wipers from the tender. (If it was you please say Hi because I'd love to know why). It runs haltingly over track where a little Barclay 0-4-0 has no problem.
     
    Beverston was sold as a non-runner but its tender has a full complement of pickup wipers. Thus, the Beverston tender matched with Tintagel loco should produce a working Castle loco (with some small livery tweaks).
     
    When I paired them up and placed them on the programming track the DCC programmer reported shorts. After trying a few tests I placed the combination on an isolated, unpowered section of track and put a multimeter across the rails. Dead short!
     
    So, the left hand wheels of the loco are connected to the right hand wheels of the tender by the connector plug! (And vice-versa, of course.)
     
    Did the previous owners fiddle with the wiring? Is that why Beverston was a "non-runner"? (I tested the motor and I know that works fine). Or do Hornby chop and change the wiring of the loco-tender connection between products?
     
    The upshot for me is that I've now got to do some very fiddly soldering...
     
    P.S. I hate those tiny plugs under the tenders - so fiddly and so much potential for damage while you've got the loco upside down.
  14. Harlequin
    I drew up a quick set of plans for the bridging section to get it straight in my mind:

    I made the side panels and the track bed all the same width, 140mm. That made cutting a bit quicker and simpler.
     
    Some ribs with holes drilled through them for wiring in the same style as the main boards were glued under the track bed:

    I added PSE timber pieces to reinforce the ends, provide a good solid support and some extra thickness for whatever locating and fixing parts I decide to use.
     
    To help locate the track bed properly I glued some support pieces onto the side panels:

     
    Then with the aid of a 6ft level to act as a straight edge, lots of cramps and some weights, I glued the track bed to one side panel, then the other.

     
    And here's the bridging section temporarily clamped into place between the other baseboards:
    It will need a bit of fettling to allow it to drop in and out easily while maintaining tight tolerances and accurate alignment at the junctions.

  15. Harlequin
    I bought some pattern makers dowels at the Exeter MRS Exhibition:

     
    I also bought some cheap plastic saw-horses from B&Q:

    A little bit of modification allows the baseboard frames to locate securely on them.
     
    Things went awry when I tried to fit the pattern makers dowels:
    I used a 25mm forstner bit to make very neat pockets to house the dowels but because I was using a hand-held drill it wasn't exactly perpendicular to the surface and so the pockets did not have consistent depths. The dowels didn't quite line up when I offered them up and there was a step in the baseboard surface.
     
    So I had to resort to bits of cardboard packing and PVA glue to try to even out the depth and a 25mm spade bit to expand the hole. Urgh! It ended up a bit bodgy:

     
    But the two boards do line up pretty accurately, in the end:

  16. Harlequin
    I made some more progress on my open frame baseboards today.
     
    I glued and screwed the side pieces to the ends to create a flimsy frame.

     
    I drilled out some holes in the rib and spine pieces. The exact position of these holes isn't really important but for neatness I clamped the ribs together and drilled through all 5 at once.

     
    Then I glued the ribs and spines into their grid pattern. Some of the fits were a bit loose so I had to weigh everything down while the glue dried.

     
    When the grid was set, I fitted into the frame and glued and pinned it in place.

     
    Some of the pins were too close to the edges of the ribs and they split but it's not a problem because the edge stiffeners will be glued over the splits
    The two spines don't meet the ends, as expected because I had to plane the PSE pieces down to remove the bowing in them. It just means that I'll have to fix some blocks to join them to the ends.

     
    I'm not worrying about squareness yet. I'll get the unit exactly square when I fix the edge stiffeners and corner braces. However I am worried that it might not be strong enough - the acid test will be for me to sit on it while it's only supported at the ends...
  17. Harlequin
    I realised I needed to make a roundy-round test track so before I get into making the complex baseboards for Hampton Malstead I have decided to make some simpler baseboards for the test track using the same basic techniques.
     
    Here's the plan for one of three identical boards which I will arrange in a U shape with a thin bridging piece across the top of the U to allow a continuous circuit of track to run around.
     

    Open baseboard.pdf
     
    I brought a sheet of 9mm ply up to the workshop during the week and ripped it into 6 smaller pieces: Long for the sides, spines and stiffeners, medium for the ends and ribs and the remaining short bits for corner braces

     
    This morning I sliced them into 78mm and 69mm strips. It was hard to get straight edges on the 1440mm long pieces even in the table saw because the fence wasn't long enough and the sliding table only slides 1200mm. (Note to self: Maybe design basebords that are only 1200mm long next time.)

     
    I Googled the problem and the simplest solution was to clamp a long straight edge to the table to form a longer fence. I used my 6ft level and some tricky adjustment was needed to get the fence set at the right offset. I think it improved things a bit but the edges were still not as straight as I'd like.
     
    So, I now have a stack of ply parts to make two baseboards, plus some extras so that I can select the best ones

     
    Meanwhile, outside:

  18. Harlequin

    Live train data

    By Harlequin,

    While searching for info about signalling diagrams I came across this interesting site that shows Network Rail's live info, as used by signalling staff and train operators:
    http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps
     
    E.g. Paddington:
    http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/d3_1
  20. Harlequin
    I had an idea to knock up some pointwork. Left work early to go to the local model shop and bought some code 75 points, track and joiners.
     
    After battling out of town through the rush hour traffic jams I realised I hadn't thought to buy any insulating joiners!
     
    D'Oh!
     
    Project on hold for a few more days now, sadly.
  21. Harlequin
    I noticed that the new bullhead rail large radius points are still being described as 60in (1524mm) radius when we all know that's rubbish. They simply can't be if they are to give a 12 degree turnout angle and a 2in (50.8mm) separation between parallel tracks.
     
    I emailed Peco and they said the 60in radius is a "nominal" figure because the points include "combination curve"s. This is also rubbish because either "nominal" means the overall effective radius of the points, which you can measure and is not 60in, or the "combined curves" include some smaller radius sections as well as the 60in radius to achieve the 12 degree turnout and 2in track spacing - in which case they should be quoting the smaller radius. (If that's the case they may as well say the all their points are "nominally" infinite radius - because they include straight sections... ;-)
     
    They kindly gave me a phone number so I called and explained that mathematically the 60in radius is impossible for the large radius point, given the angle and spacing constraints. The person I spoke to:
    Was very resistant to accepting that the radius they had been quoting all these years was wrong. Said that it would be confusing to customers if they changed it now. Said that the radius was "given to them" by the original designer of the point and he probably worked it out by laying known radius curves onto a paper drawing to see which matched. Said that it doesn't really matter what the radius actually is as long as trains run smoothly over it...

    I said that I understood the problem of changing the quoted radius now but in the long run it must be better to give correct information rather than incorrect.
     
    Not very satisfactory, really...
     
    Phil
  22. Harlequin
    Here is a design for a portable folding fiddle yard to complement the "Minories in Streamline OO" design that I recently updated.
     
    It's presented as a PDF so that you can see it in high resolution, zoom in and out and turn the various layers on and off.
     
    The two parts, Minories and Fiddle yard, fold up into small, equally-sized boxes that could be easily transported and set up almost anywhere.
     
    Minories Folding Fiddle Yard 20.pdf
     
  24. Harlequin

    Giant feline

    By Harlequin,

    I just worked out (for obvious reasons) that my fat little cat is 67ft 6in tall at the shoulders in 4mm scale. That's roughly 20.5 metres - slightly taller than the Angel of the North.
     
    I dread to think what her tonnage would be...
     
    ;-)
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