Zoom

As a man modelling the diesel and electric era, post steam, pre tops, there's much inspiration to be had in the Bradford Barton photo album series of books. Some of my favourite shots are those where the aparent length of the train is visciously forshortened by the use of a telephoto lens. I strted to wonder if it would be possible to recreate this effect using a model after noticing that one image I'd taken with a very mild dose of telephoto had echoes of the real thing. After a bit of experimentation I hit on a formula, train on a curve, rail level camera, stood well back, max tele dialled in, crop the result tight to the train. Seems to work each time, here's one of my latest taken on Morfa. It's worth clicking on the photo to get the full effect with a larger sized image.

 It'll be interesting to see if it works as well once the scenery is in place. There are a couple of snags however, one is that the camera does need to be a good way in front of the train; this shot (with minimal cropping) had the camera a good ten/twelve feet away from the train. The other is that I'm not sure that this style would suit all subjects. I could see it looking a bit weird with pre group or narrow gauge models, a clash of styles rather than any technical incompatibility.

Fashion

Though my railway tastes are pretty wide ranging I've tended to stick to buying model railway magazines rather than those dealing exclusively with the real thing. I have picked up the odd issue when there's been a feature on a particular interest of mine. Until recently I had never considered Modern railways as being worth a glance. Last year i found two large cardboard boxes of old railway magazines at the local skips. I sorted through and put the old copies of Modern Railway magazines to one side while I trawled through Steam Railway and Railway World looking for anything Cambrian. I finally got round to Modern Railways and what an absolute treasure trove those copies from the sixties and seventies are. Because their style of coverage is current news reportage, rather thn looking back, they tend to cover the mundane as well as the memorable.

 

One feature that took my eye from this 1972 issue describes the new ships for British Rail's Sealink cross channel services. There's much detail in the report but it's the illustrations that caught my eye. Here's one of the obviously posed publicity photographs; just look at the characters.

In the foreground we have long haired specky bloke chatting up the crumpet (I believe that's the correct 70's terminology), just behind the guy with the shades and tash similarly tries his luck with the blonde. they could easily be extras from Life on Mars. It's the period details like this that the other railway magazines seem to miss out, because of their focus on the railway. I wonder if today's Railway Magazine will fascinate in the same way forty years from now.

Making Tracks.

I've had a burst of enthusiasm and activity, the track on Morfa has been extended in two directions. As I build all the track from ply sleepers, individual plastic chairs and rail it takes some time to make little progress; at max chat I achieve about half a length a day. The one bonus, and it's a biggie, is that I ballast at the same time I lay the track. Here are a couple of photos showing something of what is involved.

Though it's a long winded process there's pleasure in the rythym of construction and I'm really happy with the look of the finished length.

This is the Night Mail crossing the border ....

I've been playing with the camera this morning. The layout room is rather gloomy at this time of year, for part of its length Morfa is tucked along the back wall, and the result of trying some supplementary lighting brought out this 'night time' shot. My imaginary Pwllheli - York mails would cross the border in the night hours, just not the border the well known prose reffers to.

Cheaper by the dozen

On the workbench at the moment are the beginnings of a batch of small saloons. I've sourced six inexpensive German promotional tram models from e-bay, by dicing and slicing I can get two carriages out of each body. Here's what the donor and the donated parts look like.

Normally I dislike batch building, but there are advantages to be had. Here I'm progressing a couple of bodies to a relatively complete state. This allows me to cut out multiples of some of the added components, making templates for the awkward shapes like the vestibule end screens. I have ideas to vary the individual models, the most noticeable will be to have some to a UK style and the others to a more colonial pattern.

Sublime to the ridiculous.

Yesterday I headed off to Porthmadog to shop and to take a look at the Ffestiniog's vintage themed operations. I was struck that when it turns it's mind away from being a modern commercial enterprise to a guardian of history then it does a pretty fair job of it. Shame thinks I that this thought isn't uppermost more often.

 

It's a source of regret that their other operation, the WHR  (Caernarfon)  seems to have lost the heritage component of their DNA. On my way from Porthmadog to visit a friend in Cwm y  Glo, curiosity drove me to take a peak at the effective southern terminus of the WHR, Pont Croesor. It's a beautiful location with what has to be one of the best approaches to Snowdonia spread out in front of one, but man what an ugly wart of a station.

The wetter the better.

At the beginning of the month I had a very pleasant couple of days at the Llanfair garden railway show. I don't think it's any coincidence that it happens at the same time as the Welshpool and Llanfair railways gala weekend. I managed to get to the station at Llanfair a couple of times each day and many of the faces appeared at both events. I took several photos on each day and whilst reviewing them at home I came to the conclusion that the better ones were taken when the weather was at its worst. Here's my favourite taken at the height of Sunday's deluge.