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SKEW BRIDGE - Attic Layout


mick
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40 minutes ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

Take the free stuff out of Windows so you have to pay for the replacement.

That's what they appear to have done. I know movie maker wasn't anythng special, it was pretty basic, but even so, where's the replacement? I still used windows paint for some basic tasks (yes I know!!) but that appears to have gone too. Maybe I really need to get a grip and move with the times.

By the way, I'm beginning to think that my inability to post on here without ctrl/F5 is something to do with the ebay website. It always seems to be after I've been on there. Just happened again.

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12 minutes ago, mick said:

That's what they appear to have done. I know movie maker wasn't anythng special, it was pretty basic, but even so, where's the replacement? I still used windows paint for some basic tasks (yes I know!!) but that appears to have gone too. 

I still like Paint! too. They've only removed the icon for that but it is still there.

Use the search at the bottom of the start menu for paint. You might be lucky and find movie maker is still there too.

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So, thanks to Barry I've been able to upload a short video using Windows Movie Maker (good enough for what I need to do) showing a few of the trains I had running earlier this evening. They're almost exclusively on the down line but after such a long break away from the layout I'm having to work it all out again.

 

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Also from this evening's session I took the following photos.

One of the things that really strikes me when running trains round is just how big the Tilcon stone hoppers appear when you're positioned on the lineside. I'm not sure it quite comes across in the photo. I have in the past been tempted with O gauge but when I see these up close I feel perfectly happy with OO. It's the perfect gauge/scale.

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The steel coils have to be one of my most satisfying weathering jobs I really like the look of them and they look great passing by in a long rake.

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I'm also pleased with the Cawoods hoppers now that they've been weathered too. It really does bring them to life.

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A non-too familar 60 on the Gypsum today. I'm not entirely sure that this would ever have hauled the Gypsums while painted blue but I thought I'd give it a run as it compliments the wagons.

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But one of the annoying thngs with some locos is the fact that you can't turn off the tail lights. I'd sooner have non-working tail lights than ones you can't turn off. I place a piece of tape across the contacts to stop them showing - just haven't got round to iot with this one yet. The Gypsum wagons look nice with their dusty container frames.

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I haven't thought about this before, at least I don't think I've raised this point previously, but do you think our videos and photos reflect our experiences of the railway?

In my photos and videos I do seem to show trains from low down viewpoints, at track level almost (when I can get the camera down there in the available space that is), because that's how I remember it. I used to stand on the lineside with trains rushing past me and experiencing the breeze.

I was never a rail enthusiast so I didn't really see trains from a more distant viewpoint hence there's probably much less of those types of camera angles in my videos and photos. Just a thought.

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27 minutes ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

I think we all view the real railways from trackside or bridge level. Can't think many of us were lucky enough to fly helicopters for trainspotting 🤣 so that seems a bit unnatural.....

But unless you're chasing Flying Scotsman around there aren't so many standing in the cess side while trains pass by and it's that experience I want to recreate, not the one where I'm sitting on a bank in a cutting or top of a hill looking over it. Anyway, you don't need a helicopter these days to get images from above - there are drones that enable you to do that at much less cost. Perhaps that's another type of vantage point worth recreating?

Cab ride videos as you mention are another example of attempting to recreate personal experiences

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2 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

I just meant 99% of the time we stand over our layouts looking at them from heli-view...

That's more or less the point I was trying to make although I probably never explained it clearly.

Most people stand over their layouts looking down on them or sit down looking across at them. Most people film and photograph them that same way probably because that's the viewpoint they've always had of the real railways - from the other side of the fence - looking over, down or across as the case may be. Wouldn't their videos of a model railway be filmed likewise as they attempt to recreate what they remember seeing?

I wondered if it was possible to tell if someone had once been a railway employee just by the way they made videos of their layout, because I tend to do it in a way that wouldn't have been accessible to the general public (unless you were one of those chasing FS as I've already mentioined!). In my videos I like to make it appear that I'm standing right alongside the track as the trains trundle past which is where I often found myself. While I'm watching the footage back I waft a pad of paper about in front of me 😀

Edited by mick
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There are 12 full length storage roads on the non-viewing side of the layout and 3 sidings and a loop on the viewing side which allows me to run a good variety of rakes during any one session. Realistically you wouldn't expect to see some of the trains on more than one occasion over a period of a few hours, such as the Gypsum, Tilcon and Cawoods, possibly even the HEA hoppers. Perhaps I could get away with running the steel train more than once but the majority of traffic would certainly have been multiple sets of MGR and HTA hoppers.

Even with 15 storage roads I am unable to put all my stock out at once so there are 100t tanks, Autoballasters, Plasmor opens, and additional steel wagons that are currently in storage boxes that could add to the variety of trains on view, not to mention passenger workings.

But when I make videos it always seems to be the same collection of locomotives working and so today I made a start weathering two additional loco's that can join them to add some variety. Both have been photographed before and should already have featured in the thread.

31233 is  a Hornby class 31 which has had the factory sound reblown with Howes. I've had this one quite some time and it's hardly ever run so it's not surprising that it screeched like hell when I first set it in motion though it has quietened down now after a drop or two of lubricant.

I've started off with a wash painted over the body and wiped off with paper towel and cotton buds. From what I remember class 31s were always in need of a good clean so that's the way I'm heading with this one. I'll be finishing it off with the airbrush in a day or two. 

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Although not really intended to do much running 09012 will often be seen idling away in the sidings but even so, it's far too clean so it's had similar treatment to the above and is now also awaiting attention from the airbrush.

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Class 60s play a big role on the layout hauling all types of traffic and so another member of the class will be very useful. I tend to keep these only very lightly weathered as here with 60070 'John Loudon McAdam' with the Loadhaul logo. Again it needs the airbrush to finish it off.

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Although still in need of its chassis weathering and a dusting along the body, 31123 is pictured here reunited with the chassis.

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Edited by mick
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I've done quite a bit of filming over the last two days while I've been up in the attic and so I'd better put a few of the clips together before I'm overwhelmed with them all. So here's yet another video featuring among others, the two loco's I've started weathering today.

 

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I've made a start weathering my rake of 14 Bachmann 100t TEA tank wagons. I'd had enough seeing them in their shiny black livery and having to leave them in a storage box because they looked completely out of place on the layout.

I've been using enamel paints through the airbrush along with some added weathering powders but there's still work to be done, especially the addition of oil leakage down the sides.

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There's a video currently uploading showing them running behind the class 56 which I'll link to once it's done.

 

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They look much better now Mick.

Ive got to be honest - I find petroleum tank wagons a bit of a minefield - the rtr offerings never seem to be quite the right type of vehicle or the right livery for the train and time period I want to replicate (they are either 1950's & 60's or sub-sector liveries). Hence why I don't have any. I would dearly love some bitumen / heavy oil tanks (used to be very common in my area back in the 1970's and 1980's) but even the long awaited Bachmann model doesn't cover the different types seen.

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8 hours ago, ba14eagle said:

Ive got to be honest - I find petroleum tank wagons a bit of a minefield - the rtr offerings never seem to be quite the right type of vehicle or the right livery for the train and time period I want to replicate......

Same here Iain.

The ones I remember, and which I'd hoped to replicate, were black but without any branding. They were used to deliver oil to local power stations. I don't even remember how many vehicles there were but I'm almost certain it wasn't 14 as I have. 

I just don't fancy the task of removing the branding as I've tried one and it's a pain to be honest so I'll just settle for what I have. They look okay running which is the main thing for me so instead of local power station delivery it will just have to be another bulk trainload passing through and perhaps overlook the branding as well as the fact that they all have the same running number.

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I used to see similar wagons in Russia and counted up to 60 in a train. I lived not too far from the track and the noise brought my childhood back because the wagons slammed together uder braking and the other way when moving off, so you gout that clatter and rebound down the train. They were filthy and stinking of spilled oil.

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On 16/10/2021 at 09:28, roddy said:

I used to see similar wagons in Russia and counted up to 60 in a train....

The ones I remember were only about 9 wagons in length I think, maybe even less than that. I didn't have much to do with them but do remember them in local power stations. They too were often covered in oil spillage, as you would expect, and accumulated track dirt.

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I suppose this can be looked upon as progress in a way.  I have 56003 and 60007 both in the black and orange Loadhaul livery already running on the layout but beneath the boards I also have duplicates of both loco's, purchased some time ago with the intention of renaming them. At one point it seemed I might never get round to doing it and I even considered selling them both not too long ago but today I've finally made a start.

I attempted to contact 'Shawplan' by email to place an order for nameplates but I've since discovered that it's nigh on impossible and it appears he doesn't reply to any requests, not even from traders who stock(ed) his products! Apparently he's a one man business and a very busy man, which I can appreciate, but I think customer service should be any businesses main priority. If it's too much trouble then employ someone.

Anyway, Fox Transfers were willing and able to help and within a couple of days I had received my order. 56003 is destined to become 56006 'Ferrybridge Power Station' while 60007 will change to 60008 'Gypsum Queen II'.

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Here's 56 00(6) 'Ferrybridge Power Station', awaiting the numeral 6 on the down loop alongside 56 003

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And here's 60 00(8) 'Gypsum Queen II' alongside 60 007. 60 008 requires a decoder hence why it's standing on the ballast rather than on track.

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I've had a bit of a clean out over the past week or two, trying to get all the railway things in order, and I've renewed my interest in older coal wagons. The 16t minerals in the photo below were from the time I weathered my 16 tonners a number of years ago. They'd been left just as you see them here, 'chassis-less' in the main, and only partly weathered in most cases. I've used some weathering powders on the insides where they had already been painted (trio in the centre top), and used enamel paints on the unpainted inners (quartet to the right) to provide a base for weathering powders later.

There's also a trio of 21t hoppers, two that I had already weathered externally so I've now given them a coat of enamels on the inners, and the other one is a previously untouched wagon but I had some paint left over so sploshed it on the inside to give that a key for weathering.

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Hopefully I'll be able to keep doing some work on these and get them finished sooner rather than later.

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