'Trainspo' - Peer Reviewed Railway Photos

In an effort to fill the void in my life (well bored tea-break shaped void anyway) that has been left by the demise of Fotopic, I've been dabbling in other photo hosting websites, including various groups on Flickr. It was through this that I came across Trainspo.com which seemed to have a far higher standard of photography that simply hundreds of similar shots dumped to an enormous folder online. Their mission statement of sorts is:
"we would like for you to only upload high quality photos. It is better to upload just a few, yet high-quality, photos than a lot of mediocre ones."

Which I think is a laudable aim. to help enforce this, upload slots are restricted to a maximum of 5, and are only renewed if photos are considered by peer review to be of a sufficient interest and quality.

I hope I've managed to upload some interesting shots, and they are located here: http://trainspo.com/Widnes.Road/gallery/ The best part was having to carefully sift through the last ten years or so of photos to pick ones I felt were interesting or of use to modellers rather than dumping 100+ images at a go online.

As for a replacement for fotopic's incredible usefulness when looking for a particular detail shot for railway modelling, it's not perfect. I'm still looking for something as infinitely searchable for such delights as different headcode / disc combos on early 80's Class 40's and other delights...

My favourite shot I've uploaded to trainspo so far is the one below, not because it is particularly well shot, the lighting on the loco front is unfortunately out, but because of the setting and memory of watching kilometre long coal trains snaking through the Australian countryside. Fantastic.

The demise of fotopic... a chance to reflect

As has been sporadically picked up on various railway blogs over the last week or two, the photo-sharing website fotopic has ceased to be. Having gone through various death throws over the last year or so it would appear to have finally expired at the start of March.

This is a pain for a number of reasons; not least of which is the sheer efffort required to move everything to another image hosting website, not to mention the loss of the ability to search millions of railway images for a particular detail shot for model railway projects.

However it does mean now that I have started a flickr site, Widnes Road Flickr Site I will be far more selective on what I upload, due to a 300Mb / month limit. This does have the advantage of making me thing rather more carefully about which images I want to put online, and not simply batch load 300 at a time, half of which are just a slightly different angle or zoom. Less is, as they say, more. Todays selection is Hungarian Railways (MAV) V43 class electric V43 1108 taken at Budapest station on 3rd August 2010.

A short trip to Cornwall

A quick picture update

OMWB - New Bachmann / Rail Exclusive Class 03's

Happily running in on the excellent DCC Concepts Rolling Road are the latest arrivals for Widnes Road; a pair of the new Bachmann Class 03 Shunters - No. 03371 & 03160. Both models are a limited edition run of 500 commissioned by the erstwhile Rail Express Modeller magazine but now being delivered by the separate company 'Rail Exclusive'.

First impressions are that this is a much needed model to fill a big gap in the BR Blue Era modellers stable. Detail differences are faithfully captured and they will make good weathering projects when I have a little more time and after my modelling room has been rebuilt after the flood from earlier in the year as at present I'm limited to a test track on the dinner table. They need a good run-in before a straightforward conversion to DCC using a 6-pin direct Lenz Silver decoder in each loco.

DB ICE at London St Pancras International

In what I truly hope is a first taste of great things to come, Deutsche Bahn in a superb piece of publicity tested a pair of their ICE-3 sets through the Channel Tunnel this week, including evacuation tests to demonstrate the potential for additional services from London to Europe culminating in the display of one of the ICE-3 sets, suitably vinyled with Union Jack ICE logos and displaying ICE service No. 9970 to Frankfurt (M) Hbf via Koln and Rotterdam at London's St. Pancras International station today, the 19th October.

Widnes Towers

I managed to do some more work on the area to the rear of the depot today. Having trawled the internet I found a very useful website for backscene elements at: http://www.cgtextures.com/  from which I downloaded an excellent block of flats.

The Great Flood

Over the summer I had planned to start work on the final scenic board for Widnes Road, an extension to the left of the level crossing which splits with one road heading to a short, single platform face for DMU traffic and a through road passing under a skewed bridge to a short fiddle yard to enable through trains.

Unfortunately a burst pipe in the ceiling above my modelling room put paid to that idea, and instead the last two months have been spent repairing damage to the house and to a lesser extent, Widnes Road. Luckily the main leak missed all the layouts but there was still a bit of work required. I did manage to complete one piece of new scenery, rather than just replacement; and that was a block of flats to fill in a blank space at the rear. With the addition of some figures and vehicles I'm pleased with the result so far. I just need to add some photoshopped images to the back skypaper to fill in the gaps.

GEWR - Garden Railway Starts Running

GEWR - Major Civil Engineering Ends!

The first of these pictures was taken on the 4th April 2008; the last on the 11th July 2010. Between these two dates some 3,200 bricks, 4 tonnes of sand, half a tonne of concrete and 24 bags of cement had been used to build the structure for the GEWR (Great Epping Wall Railway).

I had originally planned only to use walls for the curves, with all the straights simply on decking planks set onto posts; but shortly after the first two curves were built we made the decision to built it on wall in its entirety. Now it is up and running I'm glad we made that decision, as other than treating the top wooden deck that the track is laid on, it requires no treatment or maintenance and should easily last twenty years plus.

Widnes Road - High Quality Images

A brief update and an excuse

If anyone actually reads this, you may have wondered why I've not updated lately. The first image goes someway to showing that Widnes Road is back up and running having been stacked away since the exhibition. There are some more images to follow when my friend Jim, who took some high quality images with an SLR has processed them. This was simply one I took with my 'point and click' after I'd set the lighting up.

The second image explains the absence. I got distracted by my birthday present to myself. A brand new Triumph Street Triple motorcycle. A truly fantastic piece of engineering, and  provider of some of the most fun it is possible to have. Normal service will now resume; as I have a couple of blocks of low-relief flats to construct...oh, and a pub and row of shops.

Bye for now, 

Paul

Some pictures from the Welwyn GC Exhibition

Living the life of a somewhat subterranean railway modeler its not often that what I build has the benefit of good natural lighting. Last weekends exhibition in Welwyn Garden City was a real opportunity to take some photos, as it was blessed with excellent lighting on a bright spring day. Despite only having a compact digital camera with me I was pleased with the results.   

There is a few months until a good run of four exhibitions in close succession in the Autumn. This means I can get cracking on the parade of shops which will form the other side of Widnes Road and complete the western end of the layout. A combination of kit-bashing and detailing is the order of the day. I'm on the lookout for any company that does the basic components for shop interiors in 4mm and a decent kit to base a detailed public house on.

Widnes Road Signal Box - Part III

The completed signal box complete with interior and lighting has been installed on the layout next to the new level crossing. The through main line is laid ready for the extension of Widnes Road to allow end-to-end operation using two fiddle yards.

Widnes Road Signal Box - Part II

Having spent some time making a fully detailed interior, some decent internal lighting was required. A strip of three white LED's provided plenty of light and was easily hidden in the roof.

Widnes Road Signal Box

The new signal box for Widnes Road level crossing is taking shape nicely; the Ratio Midland region box with a fully detailed interior.

Widnes Road - Level Crossing

The level crossing at the western end of Widnes Road starts to take shape; the gates are Wills, the pedestrian guards are made from styrene rod filed to triangles. Next task is to complete the signal box to go alongside the crossing which will have a fully detailed interior.