GWR/LMS OO Gauge DCC RR&Co

I am afraid I have developed an irritating habit of flitting like a butterfly from one project to another ……..leaving a series of unfinished work in my wake.  Am I alone in this I wonder?

I have been detailing and weathering my Panniers off and on since January but somehow never got around to completing everything.


We have had gorgeous weather here throughout July……too nice really to spend time in the railway room. So I packed up the paints and panniers and set up outside   







Like the prototype, Bachman's panniers are very versatile and ultra reliable. They have always been fully employed on Granby……no sitting around on display or on the shed sidings.  In fairness there is one under the wheel drop but its not resting …..its very dead….one of the earlier split chassis versions.

The automatic coupling and uncoupling sequences I run require very precise consistent stopping. Its surprising how the performance of identical locos can vary……even with same chip and cv settings .Rather than use a variety of locos, each routne has specfic locos allocated.

The arrival of the 14xxs and the prairies finally being adapted to couple consistently meant some panniers were displaced and needed re allocating. So in addition to weathering, adding fire irons, engraved plates and coal I had to do some re- lamping. I also had to do some repositioning of crew …….I am afraid in the past I have cheated by only inserting one crew member into the viewing side of the pannier……murphy's law dictated that the re allocation meant some locos reversed their progress round the layout

I have tried to make each pannier weathering unique, not from a production line, but at the same time clearly all acquired in the same locale.

Here are some examples




I have used assorted locos as the station pilot, Prairie,Collet and Dukedog have all been tried. I have finally settled on a Pannier…… 5771. This is my attempt at light weathering……I visualise the pilot being the shed pet.

Previously I have coded the station pilot with white and red lamps at the ends of the buffer beam front and rear. Having consulted my GWR rule book I think a single red light at the centre of each buffer beam is correct for 1947……..a detail hardly of great importance but it keeps me happy  :roll:

 


By way of contrast here is  a heavily work stained 9643. It is destined to haul a short coal train on the lower level once I have completed the relay of the hidden sidings



5778 is the goods yard shunter. The shunters truck is permanently hooked up. The infill in the yard leaves a lot to be desired.The truck (now re branded Granby) has had pick ups added and a stay alive concealed in the tool box.


And now two for the price of one



Quite the contrast…….6757 is one of the most recent panniers whereas 7714 is my last operational split chassis……I guess it must be 15+ years old. So old that Modelmaster didnt stock engraved plates for its original # 7768………so it was renumbered to 7714 (still have to do the buffer beams)  which was shedded at Birkenhead in 1950. I dont insist that all locos on Granby should have a local connection but when I am obliged to renumber/rename I try and select numbers that were shedded in the North West.

Guess who punched in 7714 without changing the Cv and wondered why it remained motionless

These two are set up as a consist  (very easy with RR&Co) and act as bankers for the trains from Bersham Colliery when they climb the fearsome incline from the lower level

Finally a parade (or a pride?) of panniers……..all done and dusted (literally)

The Panniers are taking over the world !!!

( yes my Bachmann Pannier runs very well indeed - even my dead frogs don't stop it)

Nice loco's John, but what's happened to your pictures as they are very grainy?

[user=753]Phil.c[/user] wrote:

Nice loco's John, but what's happened to your pictures as they are very grainy?

Thanks Phil ……I am glad you asked that.

I was quite disappointed with them…..in fact intended, but forgot, to apologise for the poor quality 

In truth for about 6 months now I have been struggling to get the crispness and sharp focus that I used to achieve

Nothing has changed since I started the thread ….I use a 10 year old Pentax K10 SLR with a wide angle 16-45 lens.?

I typically shoot from 3-4 feet away then use photoshop to crop/ie enlarge

I either handhold …..basically point and shoot or mount the camera on a tripod, aperture priority at F22, for the loco shots, remote shoot

Is it possible the lens/camera need a clean/service? Or am I a poor workman blaming his tools?

I only use the camera for modelling photos…..don't particularly want to buy a new camera but maybe that's what I need to do…..10 years old must be pretty out dated technology?

Any advice much appreciated 

Kind regards

John


.

Hi John,
Have you checked your camera settings to see if they've changed, i.e. High resolution might now be on a lower setting?

Phil

I forgot to add that 10mpixels is acceptable for model railway pictures, your lens, f22', distance and tripod are all good, however, bad lighting will cause a drop in quality, so providing this is good, I can't see there being a problem.

A plethora of panniers… nice.
One wonders if the signalman has managed to train up his booking lad enough to allow the lad to look after the "shop" while the signalman ducks out for a swift pint at the Engine Inn?


cheers

Marty

[user=753]Phil.c[/user] wrote:

Hi John,
Have you checked your camera settings to see if they've changed, i.e. High resolution might now be on a lower setting?

Phil

Thanks Phil

Not sure about High resolution…..don't think I have that setting:oops:…….could you point me in the right direction?

The only changes I made were when I first noticed the picture quality deteriorating.

Instead of selecting the white balance and ISO value….I changed it to auto…..I will now revert to my previous habit !

A further question……what ISO setting would you recommend for the type of loco shots I attempt to take?

Cheers 

John

Hi John,
If you go into your camera settings menu you should see picture quality or words to that effect, their should also be, if I remember correctly "L" with high to low, it gives you the pixel/picture size of your pictures, you need the highest, you may also have the option to shoot RAW, which shoots without any camera enhancements so the pictures are pure, but to be honest I don't use this as my old Photoshop couldn't convert them to open.

I have white balance set to auto, but the ISO to 100, the higher it is the more noise on the pictures.

Hope this helps,

Finally a parade (or a pride?) of panniers……

Should that be a 'basket' of panniers?

Poop-Poop

Doug

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

A plethora of panniers… nice.
One wonders if the signalman has managed to train up his booking lad enough to allow the lad to look after the "shop" while the signalman ducks out for a swift pint at the Engine Inn?


cheers

Marty

Thanks Marty:thumbs

I am afraid the Engine Inn background is somewhat repetitive………and not very realistic…..it's a Townstreet cut out:oops:……but it's one of the best place to photo locos

If I were doing this all over again  I would definitely invest in a proper printed back scene and spend more time planning photo angles.

Glad you like the Panniers

 :cheers

[user=753]Phil.c[/user] wrote:

Hi John,
If you go into your camera settings menu you should see picture quality or words to that effect, their should also be, if I remember correctly "L" with high to low, it gives you the pixel/picture size of your pictures, you need the highest, you may also have the option to shoot RAW, which shoots without any camera enhancements so the pictures are pure, but to be honest I don't use this as my old Photoshop couldn't convert them to open.

I have white balance set to auto, but the ISO to 100, the higher it is the more noise on the pictures.

Hope this helps,

Thanks Phil…….just checked …..the pixel size and quality had not changed from the highest  setting but for some reason the contrast had been set a tad lower than the default…..don't ever remember doing that.  

I have set the ISO to 100…….will see how I get on I have just finished weathering  a 28xx and 56xx

Thanks again for the advice

Cheers

John

I need new glasses - I seem to be seeing double, or treble, or even quadruple and quintuple…………….

A great (pun intended !!) collection of locos there John. They do look good dirtied up a bit whereas my Gresley A4 "Streaks" are just perfect straight from the paintshop …………… :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Just make sure you have enough light on the areas John.

[user=753]Phil.c[/user] wrote:

Just make sure you have enough light on the areas John.

Good point…….I don't have a proper rig and that may be one of the problems :roll:

I went to IKEA and bought four of these jokers; then combined them into two sets of two.



They're skinny enough to get into tight places; and they have helped a lot.

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

I need new glasses - I seem to be seeing double, or treble, or even quadruple and quintuple…………….

A great (pun intended !!) collection of locos there John. They do look good dirtied up a bit whereas my Gresley A4 "Streaks" are just perfect straight from the paintshop …………… :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

   Thanks Peter….. I put off weathering the locos for almost a decade……..but eventually took the plunge when I realised what a contrast the pristine look was to all the grime I was creating elsewhere

It's a long haul (I have far too many locos:oops:) and I don't want to rush it

 :cheers :cheers

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

I went to IKEA and bought four of these jokers; then combined them into two sets of two.



They're skinny enough to get into tight places; and they have helped a lot.

Thanks Max that looks a great idea……..a trip to Ikea beckons!

I think I have resolved the photo problem I was discussing with Phil………….again thanks Phil for getting me going and subsequent advice  :thumbs ………what do you think of this batch? There a couple that look over exposed but the graininess has gone. Setting ISO to auto meant that in aperture priority mode the camera defaulted to a high ISO level, one assumes to keep exposure time to a minimum :roll:. Fix ISO at 100 and the camera had to set a longer exposure to match the poor lighting and F22 aperture……..some of these took 6 seconds!

Ok….. on with the story.

A few weeks ago I relaid the branch junction by the goods yard. It was painted and ballasted but the ballast was not glued down until I had thoroughly tested it. The last test was to run the long coal trains to and from the colliery.


Here is the up train headed by 56 xx 0-6-2T approaching the junction




On the other track two panniers wait to assist the train up Cynwyd bank. They have a while to wait……in model terms its quite a long train…..over 7' which is about the longest I can manage on a 20'x10' layout.

Before running the train it got the weathering treatment



I am rather pleased with the result……..I think I have captured the work worn look that you expect to see on a loco that spends its day running to and from a colliery.

Apart, that is,  from lamps that are far too clean and the rather wobbly spare!

This is another veteran from Granby II. Started life some 20 years ago as 5667. When ordering engraved plates Modelmaster didnt stock that number. No bad thing really because 5667, like most of the class, spent its life in South Wales.

6694, on the other hand was shedded at Croes Newyd (Wrexham) in 1950 …….success!





I have tried to convey a sense of the length of the train with the following shots












Fnally the Brake van emerges from the tunnel






Meanwhile on the other side of the layout the empties train travels past Granby Goods shed on its way back to the colliery












6698 (used to be 6600) was also shedded at Croes Newyd and sadly also has an over clean wobbly spare lamp

Both trains successfully travelled more than once over the new point. I had a bit of a scare in the facing direction when one wagon derailed……but it turned out to be out of gauge and easily fixed.

So all is well and I can fix the ballast and move on to the next stage of track relaying!


Meantime I will leave you with this which hopefully captures the spirit of Granby !