Brettell Road, 1960s black country (ish)

[Jim smith-wright]

After all, in an exhibition, you do want people to be able to see the model — so I am guessing the light level has to be somewhat above that of a real dark night with heavy cloud cover? It might be more realistic if it was so dark nothing was clearly visible, but it wouldn’t transport people back to to the time and place you have modelled.

Thanks. On the first version I had a more enclosed and lower roof which made the layout a lot darker than it is now and a fair few people said it was too dark. Also much of the lighting was a lot brighter meaning it looked a lot more contrasty.

Some images from it's first ever show (not taken by me) can be seen here.

scaleforum2017

 

[Overseer]

This weekend I was helping Tim at Railex (helping in the loosest term - I was there anyway!) and had a very interesting chat with a chap about lighting on layouts. He explained that lighting is what he does and he was obviously somewhat of an authority on the subject.

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Anyway the subject of this image came up, Apologies for posting it again, I get people are probably sick of seeing it but I have added a bit of rain as some people asked for it. He explained that sodium lighting on a scale of colour gives a very high spike in the yellow range and doesn't output any other colours. For this image to have the colours it does it would need a white light source, I cant say its the moon because its raining! It actually does have a white light source as I have a string of dim-able LEDs on the wall of the shed that I use to infill my night pictures. He very obviously knew exactly what he was on about! People may have noticed that at night we sometimes see in black and white. It was something I was already aware about on a very basic level. Cameras are much better at picking up colour in low light than the human eye as anyone who recently saw and photographed the northern lights probably noticed.

So I could say that the above image has a certain degree of artistic licence to it. Or at least I could if it was deliberate but the reality is it wasn't. I hate it when people throw the term artistic licence around to justify missing something or some sort of mistake after its been pointed out. It's OK to miss things, just don't try and claim it was deliberate after the event.

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So by taking all of the colour out except yellow (and putting some back in for the lorry lights and inside the phone box) we have an image that more accurately depicts what you would see if you were really standing on a rain sodden bridge in the Black Country at the end of the 1950's. Two questions now though, The first is which of the two is actually the more pleasing, or nicer image? and the second is anyone actually bothered?

I think another version of the photo is needed. From my observation I think the grass and foliage should look blacker and the red bricks should still have some red colouring. Now I need to remember the theory to explain why.

Low pressure sodium street lamps are very yellow and have terrible colour rendition. Even with the take over of street lighting by LEDs low pressure sodium lamps still have a place, or a couple of places. They are often used at intersections to provide a differentiation and warning to motorists. The other use where they are still often found is in areas with street prostitution, the theory being the terrible colour rendition makes makeup and red lipstick look awful and therefore discourage punters. High pressure sodium lamps have more red spectrum in the light and better colour rendition.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I think another version of the photo is needed. From my observation I think the grass and foliage should look blacker and the red bricks should still have some red colouring.

I think you are correct as this photo of mine taken with a 35mm film camera back in the 1980s shows. It is the A41 in Aylesbury and although with camera shake (due to trying to steady the camera on a window sill) it does show the colour renditions under sodium light. Effectively everything is washed out to black and only the whites actually reflect the sodium light. Yellows and oranges will absorb the light and appear white.

Cameras are much better at picking up colour in low light than the human eye as anyone who recently saw and photographed the northern lights probably noticed.

Digital cameras are better at picking up colour in low light, film cameras less so as you are reliant on the colour (or B&W) film speed and emulsion which is generally geared for daylight. This image of Shipley was taken with a digital camera.

Anyway the subject of this image came up, Apologies for posting it again, I get people are probably sick of seeing it but I have added a bit of rain as some people asked for it.

No need to apologise. It's nice to see attempts at modelling something different weatherwise and it conveys the atmosphere. The only thing with modelling the damp or rain is the road and pavements turn to a pseudo-mirror at night and the volume of water (and it's dispersal) controls the light reflection. This is one of my early B&W photos of Dunstable West Street taken on a damp/wet winters evening after a shower of rain.



However, as with exhibition layouts, compromises have to be made to enable the viewer to see the detail. The effect of dimming the main lighting and switching on the street and house lights is sufficient to convey the notion of nightime to the veiwer - whose mind will fill the gaps.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

I think another version of the photo is needed. From my observation I think the grass and foliage should look blacker and the red bricks should still have some red colouring. Now I need to remember the theory to explain why.

There's a bright light source to the right as that's where the station is which is what's lighting the bushes. Also consider that while the world ends just in front of the chap at the bus stop the street lights would continue behind you if it was a real place

 

[Jim smith-wright]

The effect of dimming the main lighting and switching on the street and house lights is sufficient to convey the notion of nightime to the veiwer - whose mind will fill the gaps.

That's exactly it. Most exhibition layouts are very brightly lit so you don't need a lot of shielding to give the dark look. I'm probably the only layout owner who asks for the dingiest bit of the hall!

 

[Osgood]

Have you ever been tempted to wind the organisers up by complaining about a leaking roof right above your layout?

 

[Jim smith-wright]

Blatant plug. Brettell Road will be making it's one and only exhibition appearance for 2024 this coming weekend at Scalefour Crewe

scalefour.org/scalefournorth/

 

[Dave Holt]

Jim.
Look forward to seeing you and the layout on Saturday.
Dave.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

Scalefour Crewe was an excellent show in my opinion and feedback from my operators was that they all enjoyed themselves (thanks for your help guys). Thanks to the show organisers for inviting us. The layout seemed well received and many people were kind enough to say nice things about it. We seemed to be quite successful in holding people attention throughout the weekend.

As with any outing theres aways a period of reflection on how the show went. The layout seemed to fight us a little in the morning but settled down. The main issue being the cassettes were causing a few problems.


There were 2 areas with the cassettes that need addressing. Area A is that any stock that wasn't on the rails would strike the edge of the end stop supports and bring the whole train to a halt. It's unrealistic to think that everything on a cassette will always be on the track 100% of the time as the cassettes are moved around. Thats the point of them after all.

Area B is an easy fix. Theres a bit of wire that holds the connecting rail (which is loose at the end) in line with the rail on the cassette and agains the guide rail. These bits of wire were too straight meaning the joining rail could go the wrong side and all the stock would fall off. A little more of an angle to the wire will solve that.


First approach to fix problem A was to shape the end supports so that stock doesn't stop when it hits it. A few trials showed this to be effective but it merely gets the stock past the ends and it still stays off the track. Plan b was to make a re-railer from 30 thou plasticard so that any errant stock is pushed back on to the track. The advantage of this is that I don't need to reshape the end supports at all as the stock is on the track as it runs off the cassette. This is just a rough proof of concept of course but if I fit one to the end of every cassette, as wagons will need to run of their own cassette and through the loco cassette that gives 3 opportunities to re-rail any rogue wagons and if they are still off after all that then they deserve to go back in the box for attention back home!

Above is a little test video. The brake van is running along the edge of the cassette before the join.

Aside from the usual small stock of wagons that need attention either through failures or just a general refusal on their part to play nicely we had a few issues taking stuff in and out of the yard. There were also a few clunks when running through the slip which is a dead giveaway that something is not quite right somewhere. So on returning home and when I had just 2 boards up, allowing me better access to the slip this has been investigated, tweaked and one of the check rails replaced.

A Bachmann brake van (straight wheel swap, no compensation) does the testing.