If you enjoy these daily posts, feel free to buy me a bev https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3
If you enjoy these daily post, feel free to buy me a bev https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3
Monochrome Monday
If you enjoy these daily post, feel free to buy me a bev https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3
In the distance, outside the pickled winkle factory, Comical Ned (with the funny shaped head) tries to capture the attention of Beryl who has just arrived in her Austin 7. Ned has had a crush on Beryl for years, he likes the mature ladies. Beryl however is after an engine driver, or any man who knows how to use a big spanner and is a dab hand with a grease gun - her car is unreliable and her joints regularly need attention to loosen them up.
Click to enlarge….
A wet chilly February Friday In 1968. Somewhere a little north of Preston, a Black Five 4-6-0 speeds past our intrepid photographer (there with permission I hasten to add). His Rolleiflex loaded with uprated Ilford HP4 b&w film capturing this gritty image inspired by celebrated ‘new wave’ photographer Colin Gifford. Click to enlarge …
Shortly before the photographer was flatten by the engine, he took this snap from his folding step ladder. Within the tunnel on Cement Quay. Such are popular with steam rail tour photographers, as they all line up in a row taking identical shots whist comparing ladders and the biggest f2.8 pro spec zoom. Click to enlarge.
If you enjoy these daily post, feel free to buy me a bev https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3
Before Mulder & Scully were celebrity UFO & alien hunters, they were cops on the beat seeking bodies in dumped cars. But their inner passion for trainspotting always delayed findings, getting those numbers always held more attraction than 10 day old rotting flesh. This of course worked in their favour career wise, being semi useless ensured speedy promotion out of harms way. Click to enlarge…
Tidy Tuesday. Ivo’s Bentley looking rather tidy, posed in the tiny goods yard at Catcott. A narrow gauge steamer has just arrived piggyback style for the nearby narrow gauge peat railway recently taken over by preservationists . A Poole bound goods thunders through right on cue.
I have 1000s of negatives, digitization using a traditional scanner would be a very long drawn out process unless you have super expensive bulk scanning gear. The result of this method appears to give a good results for my needs, the workflow in my case probably 10 times faster than traditional scanning with the gear I have. The resulting quality is easily good enough for a double page spread in a magazine or at least A3 print. I’m presuming you are confident shooting RAW and have basic Photoshop skills, plenty of stuff online if not. Click on the images below to enlarge if need be
Sholing Railway station. Summer 1982. Kodak Plus X negative, ‘scanned’ using a DSLR, a tripod mounted Nikon D5200 in this case with a 55mm Micro Nikkor set at F11 (a sweet spot aperture wise and enough depth of field should the negative have a slight bow). I used an iPad with a plain white image as a makeshift light box, and a 35mm film holder from an old scanner.
Saturday morning down by the canal. Doug, Colin, Pete and Dud are suspicious of Barry Bullhead who is charming them with a crate of illicit hooch. This is most unusual, for Mr Bullhead is a time and motion man from the Ministry of Misery. Reg and Comical Ned (with the funny shaped head) peer over from the platform, suffering marginal FOMO. Nasal Nigel, eager to try out his new flasher mac pops up from the undergrowth like a meerkat “Oh, mother won’t be impressed, booze in the workplace, whatever next? I’d better go and investigate”.
#frontandrearendfriday - it’s a new thing don’t you know… deep down in Cornwall (which oddly looks just like Combwich), the final section of the Atlantic Coast Express arrives. Beattie the tank engine wiggles with joy “it’s my racy friend all the way from that there London 🥰”. Click to enlarge …
It's Wednesday, and the 9.05am Highbridge Wharf to Evercreech goods rumbles through
Catcott Burtle. A good mixed load this morning, coal, pickled winkles,
canned guff, frozen fried egg sandwiches, jellyfish in aspic, full-sized
fibreglass cows and Belgian chocolate teapots. Click to enlarge
A
classic West Country branchline scene from the summer of ‘59. It’s
almost as if all the little people and train are posed for the camera.
That rose-tinted parallel universe is such a great place to be. And of
course they all went to the nearby pub as soon as the train passed. Click to enlarge.
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| A run around loop allows for a short train and small tender loco, the loco here being a Hornby J15. Much use was made of ready made items, this can be a more affordable option than scratch or kit-building for those on a limited budget. Photo copyright Chris Nevard. |
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| Looking through to the terminus - Hotchpotch Road. Photo copyright Chris Nevard. |
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| Both scenic boards - the scene here is around 5 feet long split over two boards. Photo copyright Chris Nevard. |
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| 'The Smoke Junction' - the recent run of exciting ready to run smaller locomotives being ideal for a layout like this. Photo copyright Chris Nevard. |
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| 'Hotchpotch Road' - the buildings are from PECO and Ratio kits, the track is PECO set track. The wonderful laser cut sign on the signal box is from www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk Photo copyright Chris Nevard. |
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| The layout can be stored in 3 boxes, the left hand box being used for the fiddle yard and storage. Photo copyright Chris Nevard. |
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| On the pick-up goods, Guildford shed's No. 33019 simmers in the goods yard at Porth Emmet Railway Station - click to enlarge. |
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| 5 x 4 feet of roundy-roundy trainset joy. Operation is surprisingly fun, with much of the charm being to simply let a train run round and round and round and round and round and round.... Click to enlarge. |
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| Day 2 in to the build, two 5 x 2 foot boards allow the layout to be split down the middle for ease of transit. 5 x 4 feet is quite a big area to cart about as one piece. The laser cut baseboards were supplied by www.timhorn.co.uk |
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| Combwich West Station , as a train from Bridgwater arrives. |
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| The morning service has just departed Cannington Halt and is passing the timber yard Sidings. |
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| Combwich West Level crossing |
A personal quickie I worked on last week for me between commercial jobs, all on a 3x1 plank. The inspiration is the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, a mostly unfenced railway that ran next to, or actually along the road in deepest Cambridgeshire through to the 1960’s. Give it a Google.
The wonderful town buildings were a lucky secondhand find, they just had to be used, they were very much the catalyst for this speedy project. The buildings are at least at least 30 years old and once lived on a much bigger layout which has since been broken up. Sadly I have no further information to hand. If you know of the layout or the builder, please comment in the comments section.
The windmill is an Airfix/Dapol kit knocked up in the spring, in reality such a structure would have fallen out of use a good century before the railway came. The rail served shed with door is a chopped up Bachmann colliery wash-house modified with pitch roof and doors. Its use is a mystery, maybe a paintshop for pumpkins or storage for pedant’s ruck sacks. The other shed, another ready to plonk thing that had been gathering dust.
Track is PECO, ballasted with sieved grit from our local common. The cheapo quickie cobbles were created using the empty shell of a ballpoint pen pressed in to Das clay. All in all around 18 hours work, this project being more an assembly of existing bits than a true build.
It will link in to other modules in due course to allow through running. At some stage it will live in an illuminated diorama case to fit it with my other layouts. Track has been aligned so it can connect to my other layout Brew Street. I’ve Brew Street booked in to the Rochdale Expo In April 2019, so will probaby add this module.
Click on photos above and below for a bigger view...
