RobAllen

Inspired by @KNP's excellent photo of 9319 with the background in in focus on Little Muddle, I decided that I really should learn how to do these types of shots. My Fujifilm X-H2 has a focus bracketing feature, so I googled how to use it and created 60 images all with slightly different focus points from front to back. I'm glad that the camera can do this automatically. I already own Affinity Photo, and via more googling, I discovered that it has a "Focus Merge" menu item. I clicked it, added the 60 photos and pressed OK. After some whirring and clicking, it produced this image of 7412 at Melcombe Road. Quite happy with this and now I know how to do it!

For both Wells and Bridgwater the loop is outside the platform. This gets tricky in space available (~8ft long including curve x 17 inches wide). I'll have another look though as at this point, I'm not committed to a particular plan.

Didn't take long to change my mind!

I’ve just caught up with your thread. I’m impressed!

Thanks to the wonderful RMweb Mods for moving my thread. Now that I'm starting the build, I think it makes more sense for Holcombe to be in Layout topics.

Morning all. Took advantage of the sunshine to prime baseboards in the garage, even though it's 3°C.

Slow going, but have primed the baseboards now! I want the sides to be white to match the rest of the room, but it would makes sense to paint the top a dark brown or similar colour.

Shocked that it's Friday already. On the plus side, I have made some moves this week that might lead to more work.

This thread showcased his fantastic modelling. My condolences to his family and friends.

Same here. Unfortunately, I don't have the space to have two separate desks, so I put away and get out again as required.

Unexpected £1500 repair bill to get my car through its MOT will curtail spending on Holcombe's infrastructure. New plan for this month is to get the baseboards painted and determine a way to fix them together such that I can remove a board easily as they are sitting on a cupboard.

The whole speaking loudly and slowly to perceived older people irritates me. My dad had a stroke which has affected his ability to speak, not his ability to hear or understand. However people in his life who should know better talk to him as if he's lost all his faculties and use a really loud voice with him. It's disrespectful.

I enjoyed a bit of modelling yesterday building the Finetrax point. Today I've been taking decorations down and tidying up ready for the working week starting tomorrow. A couple of days ago, it dawned on me that I could do with a test track, so I might have a go at putting some track on some wood, solely for running in locos and other testing type activities.

Happy New Year Lez.

Happy New Year Kevin. You have certainly achieved your goal.

Happy New Year to you and yours too 👍

Happy New Year. May it be a good modelling year.

Love the loading ramps

Happy New Year Rob. Hoping for a good one.

Happy New Year Chris!

About 2 hours after I started, I finished. The instructions are reasonably clear, which is nice. I started by measuring my 100% template and called it close enough as my rule isn't good enough to measure to the 100th of a mm: It's useful to get it right though as you measure the size of the closure, wing, check rails and switchblades from it: Filing down after each cut is vital, but then the rails slide into the chairs easily and I started to believe that I could do this: Fitting the point and splice rails for the crossing was easy enough, though I was surprised by how far "up" the point rail, the splice one was: It seemed to match the template, so I imagine that it's correct. The check rails were next and these required bending. I over-bent the first one and hand to back it off a bit. Hopefully, it's okay as getting the angles to match the template was beyond me: I then assembled the tie-bar without taking a photo. The only thing that wasn't completely clear to me was which way up it went. In the end I decided that the pin heads went down and the pint shafts were on top. The stock rails are then inserted: Next up is to cut the switch rails, insert them and solder them. I think that I cut them too short and it's not clear exactly how much overlap the switch rail should have over the tie bar. I didn't allow enough I think, but of course, I've cut them now, so have to live with what I've done. Soldering was easy enough though and I was by now adept and working out which way up the rail should be: After checking all the positioning, a little superglue holds it all down and now we have a complete point! I've added the joiner wires for the switch, check and wing rails, so all that's left to do is to add the dropper wires.

Have started building the point. Initial observations: I'm remarkably intimidated by this whole process as it feels that I could get it wrong so easily. Took me a while to open the packet 🤣 My eyesight isn't great even with my monovision contact lenses and isn't really good enough for this level of detail. I'm using a magnifying lens which is helping, but I need much more practice. The bullhead rail has a top and a bottom. Working out which is which was really hard for me, even with the magnifier. The advice to mark the top with a pen is a good one. I think that my printer has printed the template to 100%, but my ruler/eyesight combination means that it could be out by a mm and I wouldn't be able to tell. I suspect that it doesn't really matter if it's that close anyway. The note about filling the cut rail before inserting into the chairs is on point. So much easier when you do this. 45 minutes in and I've managed to do the two closure rails. I guess experience helps a lot in these things! Making a cuppa before I continue.

I should be reading the instructions for building a point, but got distracted…

Christmas brought me a 3F! Merry Christmas everyone.

Next batch of mince pies in the oven. Mother-in-Law is arriving later today, and I purchased extra sherry yesterday… Merry Christmas all.