Ode to Gifford!

nevard_120403_cementQ_IMG_2928_BW, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.

Tuesday morning's photo I dedicate to Colin Gifford who changed the way railways were photographed in the 1960's. Until then photographers had recorded trains mostly as a strict 3/4 view, Mr Gifford changed that forever with the publication of Decline of Steam and Each a Glimpse. The latter book is rumoured to be re-released shortly with some new photography, and it will be interesting to see whether he influences modern railway photographers who in recent years have fequently been happy to settle for that 3/4 view again.

The photo above was taken on Cement Quay, the Ruston Bacyrus in the background standing on a temporary pile of sand for this shot.

• Some of Colin Gifford's photography

Land Reclaim

nevard_110812_cementQ_IMG_0716_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.

For the photo here of a Ruston Bucyrus I'm working on for Model Rail mag I poured a pile of sand onto the watery bit that ran until very recently along the front of Cement Quay Old Gravel Wharf. I was so taken with the look that I now want to build a small gravel pit layout.

I already have enough model railways so getting planning permission would be almost impossible, so instead I have decided to reclaim some the wharf area as seen above. Here we see the intital work using some 5mm foamboard to form the sub-structure of the gravel pit which will feature a spoil heaps and a large pile of gravel piled up to dry before transfering to rail. I might even include a little section of narrow gauge railway and another aerial conveyor.

Gravel pits and no reciprocity failure

nevard_110804_bucyrus_IMG_0705, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.

The model: Sentinel 'Mendip' poses with a single wagon next to a Ruston Bucyrus 19 'front shovel' on Cement Quay Old Gravel Wharf (try saying that quickly after 5 pints). The foreground is in fact a wharf, but for bit of fun you can instead see temporary big pile of beach sand.

The Ruston Bucyrus is a fettled with Corgi Trackside model and will be the subject of a 'Workbench' in the popular press shortly. I'm only showing its ugly side because most of the interesting stuff is on the pretty side and I don't want to give too much away at this stage.

Since more or less completing the Bucyrus seen here, I'd quite like to build a gravel pit layout, but with current space restrictions there is no way I'll be granted planning permission by the domestic authorities. So instead there will be a bit of land-reclaiming by turning some of the water along in front of the current wharf into a gravel pit - see here. I have a spare Walthers Cornerstone aerial conveyor too, so it will consist of gravel dumps to allow for drying prior to loading into wagons. I'm tempted to add a little narrow gauge tramway coming through from the rear too - who knows what will happen, so much more fun!

Photography: Rather than use studio lighting, for convenience this shot was taken under a single domestic light bulb hanging from the ceiling with a 4 second exposure. Digital photography especially when shooting RAW allows succesful results in the sort of lighting that would never have worked well with colour film without a great deal of trial and error correcting and filtering to compensate for the warm colour temperature which is probably only around 1800 kelvin; and that's before we even get to reciprocity failure!