Troysdale Wagon & Loco works

[mumbles]

perhaps it may be my 8 year-old Fuji finepix 1.3 meg camera???

It may well be. I'm no camera buff, but to get the foreground and background in focus you need to be able to manually change aperture settings [I think LOL], and that usually means a longer shutter speed to capture the light [again I think that's it, been a while since I studied photgraphy or used manual camera]

Nice shots though all the same... and where did you get a model of David Jason for a crane operator!

Cheers
Michael

[zabdiel]

There was a shot in this months model rail that said it had been created with the aid of computer software which merges photos to overcome depth of field problems when photographing models. It didn't say what software was used though...

[DriffCharlie]

This weeks update...Lighting....

This week I have been messing with led's and resistors to find a happy medium,not too blue/white, not too yellow, I bought lots of led's & resistors from hong kong/china etc.. scouring ebay they're not too expensive, anyway the pictures show my results so far,These piccies are of the large workshop




I will try for better pictures later but for reference these are standard 5mm WARM WHITE 3v (?) leds, in parallel running through a 1K5 1watt resistor powered from a 12v regulated power supply, they give a nice realistic 'spot' on the ground and also supply a nicely "just adeqaute" type of internal glow to the large workshop.( I have always favoured the light of "grain-o-rice" bulbs but am happy that these mimic the same light very closely but obviously without the heat!!)

Next came a yard lamp to illuminate the loco coal/water area, this is scratchbuilt from some dowel, scrap wood and the lamp top came from my 2-year-old daughters mosaics tub . This uses the same led as the workshop but only running through a 1k resistor so its a fair bit brighter than the others.
in daylight...


and a couple of night views...




Then I decided to light the forge in the blacksmiths shop, obviously a red led this time, and at the moment its left a bit too bright as it needs a few "coals" scattering over it...
daylight shot...


same shot by "night"..



and lastly a general "night" shot of the progress so far...


Enjoy,

Charlie

[guitardave_1]

As Michael said, the 'genuine' way to increase your depth of field (so that both foreground and distance can be pretty much in focus) is to use a smaller aperture, indicated by a larger 'f number'. I can't say whether the camera in question gives you the ability to do that.

There was a shot in this months model rail that said it had been created with the aid of computer software which merges photos to overcome depth of field problems when photographing models. It didn't say what software was used though...

I'd guess they'd used Adobe Photoshop or something similarly advanced. It's not an easy technique to master, as you have to get the two (or more) images to be blended as close as possible to one another in terms of exposure, colour etc. You then need a fair knowledge of editing software to convincingly blend the two together without any apparent join.

[Lofty]

There is an old but interesting thread regarding 'depth of field' extracted from Brian’s layout - Find it here

[zabdiel]

Thanks for that Lofty. I've bookmarked that (using the funky new features of the forum) for reading properly when I have time.

[DriffCharlie]

Hi all, best time of the year at my house...wife's bonus time . Anyway kids & her spent all day out shopping as usual , But I was upon their return I was handed a carrier bag with the greeting " here's your pressie". Well I was speechless, heres me expecting clothes or perhaps a "power-tool" to use around the house, but oh no..its only an all-singing-all-dancing tiny little Panasonic SDR camcorder .

Well of course I had to dissapear into the shed and try it out, Here is my first ever attempt a filming a model railway, its my very first time at trying to launch a video on the 'net, and boy has it been a struggle .

So here goes with "a little shunting at Troysdale" hopefully it shows why I am so impressed with Kadee couplings,
anyway I hope it works OK & enjoy, If you have any tips for improving video & uploading speed especially please comment



Charlie

[mumbles]

Hi Charlie
Nice 1st video. Some demon shunting there!
Did you use the kadee magnets full size or did you cut them down at all?
Cheers
Michael

[DriffCharlie]

Cheers Michael,
I used the "under-track" Kadee magnets and used them full size,, I think their a big improvement on the "above-track" ones not just for looks but the fact they are much wider which makes them work better in my opinion.

Cheers

Charlie

[DriffCharlie]

Hi all, well after my first video I have has several people ask if I can show the Kadees' working from close-up.
Here goes with another video in the series, ive given it a (awful?) voice-over explaination, bear with me as I said earlier I'm new to this movie malarky but hopefully it will get better



Also I have done this little video of a modification to my stock to prevent unwanted uncoupling which seemed to happen all too often to me on permanent magnets



Enjoy and HTH

Charlie

[mumbles]

Hi Charlie
Nice vids, good clear demonstration. Great credits too
Michael

[DriffCharlie]

Cheers Michael, I know many people like yourself will know all that info already but it should help people thinking of changing to or struggling with Kadees.

as for the credits... well its easy when you know how ..eh

Cheers

Charlie

[DriffCharlie]

Hi, I have never been totally happy with the backdrop/scenics to the rear of Troysdale. It wasted too much space but I needed the rear space for the traverser/fiddle yard because I insisted on having the traverser "within" the baseboard size. Since my renewed interest in photographing the layout and my nice pressie of the camcorder it also showed the backdrop was too low as well.
Yesterday The BIG hammer and saw, pliers, etc.. came out and totally wrecked Troysdale, I then cleaned the mess up and went inside to mull ideas around in my head.

The story goes... The repair/service of stock for the line was creating havoc in Troysdale's town station, blocking the platform,lines, sidings,etc.. so a new site was required solely for the service/repair yard. At the far ond of the town was a suitable plot of land but in order to get access a tunnel would be required to be constructed. The relevant licences were granted to build a "cut & cover" tunnel and to divert a local stream underground, at the same time.

So this morning,suitably refreshed I started the planned re-construction and a few hours later had acheived something I "MIGHT" be reasonably happy with.

This means I now get to have a much higher backdrop, I still have the traverser on the board, but I have scenery ABOVE the traverser giving another third again in depth to the layout. Another bonus is I can now use the terraced houses I made for the old layout to depict the "end-of-town". Its quite amazing how a few little changes can move "location" from remote hillside to "almost-urban". Heck I even have a road access to the site now.

As they say a picture says much more than words can so heres a few of them too













Enjoy

Charlie

PS Only plaster & polystyrene taken from sustained & properly managed sources was wasted in this re-development

[TOM M]

hi driff charlie do you personally think the kade coupelings are hard to assemble and use i was thinking about using them but they look really hard to assemble

thanx

p.s. your layout is brilliant

[DriffCharlie]

hi driff charlie do you personally think the kade coupelings are hard to assemble and use i was thinking about using them but they look really hard to assemble

thanx

Tom, no they are not Hard to assemble but they are "fiddly" being so small, ther are only 3 parts to the gearbox then the coupling of your choice. the only thing I do once assembled is to "weld" the gearbox together with a tiny touch of the soldering iron as using glue per the instructions is fraught with danger as the glue can wick itself into the gearbox and render it totally useless.
your other much easier option is to use modern stock with nem type coupling mounts then you can just buy numbers 17,18,19 etc.. and simply clip them in. ( I tried these at first but they were not suitable for me due to my very tight radius curves as they are not as articulate as the "gearbox" type couplings).

HTH

Charlie