Lapford station in N gauge.

[xotGD]

That’s good. I was struggling to think of another one!


Ok I’ll take that Hexagon. Thanks very much.


Thanks AH. I was wondering if that shot was of an initial test run of a Skipper for gauging maybe? I just can’t remember where I got the photo from unfortunately.

In other news. Today I’ve renumbered a couple of my locos, both of which I’d lost a nameplate from (at least once) and finally decided to just renumber them to different locos. So my Railfreight general 47209 Herbert Austin has become 47147 which was a loco I had on a summer Saturday working in Devon in 1988 and my Dutch 33046 Merlin is now 33030, which was actually one of the very few non named Dutch ones surprisingly.
View attachment 145608

I even did the little numbers on the front and this was after some very helpful advice from @D1511 who (along with some other very useful advice) pointed me in the direction of Railtec Transfers who supply the numbers as a complete set quickly and for a very good price.

Very nice! Here's the real thing for comparison...

 

[Cowley]

Great job, sir! Not sure of the value of any tips of mine though, as the first thing I read when my Railtec decals arrived was to NOT use the decal fixing product I mentioned!
However, if you hadn't found the treasure trove that is Railtec's decals site before, then I'm happy to have pointed you to that! I'm about to get busy on some PCAs with my new Blue Circle Cement decals and running numbers this very evening, thanks to Railtec!

I like your Lapford sign too......my suggestion might have also been to use N gauge ballast to emulate the stones (presumably) originally used to make up the letters of the sign, but that would have been uber fiddly and I doubt it would have looked any better than what you've done!

Thanks @D1511. It’s all been useful because I’ve had a think about things before charging in!

Very nice! Here's the real thing for comparison...

View attachment 145873

Ah lovely. We’ve got a set of ballast wagons on Moors View, I might try and set up a similar (but colder!) photo tomorrow evening.

I made a new YouTube video this weekend. It probably won’t run very well on a full TV screen due to the quality of my old iPhone 7 but it’s ok to watch on a small screen.

I’m going to do three videos featuring the whole fleet that I’ve collected over the last few years and this first one covers classes 25, 31 and 33.

A couple of questions to those of you that watch these sort of things though:

What’s a sensible length of time for a video like this to keep your attention? Is 7 minutes too long?
Also, what things do you want to see? Is it scenery, trains, talking/explaining or something else? It takes quite a bit of time to make them so it would be good to know what people actually want to see!

 

[takno]

A couple of questions to those of you that watch these sort of things though:

What’s a sensible length of time for a video like this to keep your attention? Is 7 minutes too long?
Also, what things do you want to see? Is it scenery, trains, talking/explaining or something else? It takes quite a bit of time to make them so it would be good to know what people actually want to see!

I tend to prefer watching people explain how they do things like scenery rather than the running, but a nice short running video with a decent number of changes of shot, and a bit of a story behind the train rather than "this is my 37 going round and round" is good. I also watch most model railway content at double-speed though because I find it all needs a bit of livening up.

 

[Iskra]

I think a mix of:

- Modelling 'explainers'/tutorials.
- Rolling stock chat/reviews
- Train running sessions
- Explaining what the layout is portraying, and possibly the different sections of it and the quirks

...Seems to be what the most popular model rail youtubers are doing so that probably works.

I think an explanation of the layout and the lines' history/service history is probably quite an important one for you to cover, because if you haven't read this thread or the magazine article and aren't from the area, you probably have no clue where Lapford even is to be honest (no offense intended, it's just a very long way away geographically from most people down that neck of the woods and away from the mainline which people would be more familiar with).

 

[Cowley]

I think a mix of:

- Modelling 'explainers'/tutorials.
- Rolling stock chat/reviews
- Train running sessions
- Explaining what the layout is portraying, and possibly the different sections of it and the quirks

...Seems to be what the most popular model rail youtubers are doing so that probably works.

I think an explanation of the layout and the lines' history/service history is probably quite an important one for you to cover, because if you haven't read this thread or the magazine article and aren't from the area, you probably have no clue where Lapford even is to be honest (no offense intended, it's just a very long way away geographically from most people down that neck of the woods and away from the mainline which people would be more familiar with).

That’s really useful actually. You’ve given me lots of ideas there @Iskra, thanks for that.

I tend to prefer watching people explain how they do things like scenery rather than the running, but a nice short running video with a decent number of changes of shot, and a bit of a story behind the train rather than "this is my 37 going round and round" is good. I also watch most model railway content at double-speed though because I find it all needs a bit of livening up.

Again you’re also suggesting a bit of explaining might be a good idea.

God the worst thing about it is listening back to your own voice going blah blah blah (and I don’t half sound like my dad these days).

 

[Class15]

Thanks @D1511. It’s all been useful because I’ve had a think about things before charging in!


Ah lovely. We’ve got a set of ballast wagons on Moors View, I might try and set up a similar (but colder!) photo tomorrow evening.

I made a new YouTube video this weekend. It probably won’t run very well on a full TV screen due to the quality of my old iPhone 7 but it’s ok to watch on a small screen.

I’m going to do three videos featuring the whole fleet that I’ve collected over the last few years and this first one covers classes 25, 31 and 33.

A couple of questions to those of you that watch these sort of things though:

What’s a sensible length of time for a video like this to keep your attention? Is 7 minutes too long?
Also, what things do you want to see? Is it scenery, trains, talking/explaining or something else? It takes quite a bit of time to make them so it would be good to know what people actually want to see!

Gave you a comment Cowley

 

[Cowley]

Gave you a comment Cowley

I saw that. Thanks very much.

 

[Ashley Hill]

I also watch most model railway content at double-speed though because I find it all needs a bit of livening up.

The line speed through Lapford is 55mph not 110!

 

[takno]

The line speed through Lapford is 55mph not 110!

All the effort manufacturers have gone to to create engines with realistic slow crawl speeds is sadly lost on me. Mind you, I watch cab ride videos at 4 or 5 speed, so it's mostly only real life that feels a bit off the pace.

 

[BrianW]

A couple of questions to those of you that watch these sort of things though:

What’s a sensible length of time for a video like this to keep your attention? Is 7 minutes too long?
Also, what things do you want to see? Is it scenery, trains, talking/explaining or something else? It takes quite a bit of time to make them so it would be good to know what people actually want to see!

Great video of a great layout.
It takes longer to read the captions than you allow.
And words on the signs.
Take time for the train to get into the platform, or the shot, and to leave? I appreciate the 'dead time' while the train is in the platform may seem boring and better shortened.
Your 'dad's voice' is fine- much better than many a mono-tone drone
Don't give up- the great is the enemy of the good. Don't take time editing and reediting. Enjoy and move on to the next one ....

 

[Cowley]

The line speed through Lapford is 55mph not 110!

Yeah I think I might have got a bit carried away with a couple of the run pasts.

All the effort manufacturers have gone to to create engines with realistic slow crawl speeds is sadly lost on me. Mind you, I watch cab ride videos at 4 or 5 speed, so it's mostly only real life that feels a bit off the pace.

I’m quite hot on it at shows as things speeding around everywhere just looks unrealistic.

Great video of a great layout.
It takes longer to read the captions than you allow.
And words on the signs.

Useful, thanks for that. By words on the signs do you mean road signs etc Brian?

Take time for the train to get into the platform, or the shot, and to leave? I appreciate the 'dead time' while the train is in the platform may seem boring and better shortened.

Points noted.

Your 'dad's voice' is fine- much better than many a mono-tone drone
Don't give up- the great is the enemy of the good. Don't take time editing and reediting. Enjoy and move on to the next one ....

Yes I think you just have to learn and move on really, otherwise you can tie yourself in knots going over previous mistakes and worrying about them.

 

[BrianW]

Cowley,
Firstly noticing my post was #1000- I think that tells of the interest in your layout. Since Feb 2020. Interesting seeing progress. Congrats- that and Forum moderating!
Regarding signs- I think I had in mind what I imagined to be a sign on the rear of the single storey part of the station building, seen as the train is at the station at around 6m05 just as you switch viewpoint to train departing. I couldn't just 'pause' on the frame- it was here and gone in an instant. I appreciate that few if any will have much interest in that. Not a 'mistake at all- a learning opportunity?

 

[Purple Train]

Yeah I think I might have got a bit carried away with a couple of the run pasts.

There is or was a Tyne & Wear Metro layout on the circuit (this was a few years ago), I think called something like Roundtrees Sidings where the operators would always give spectators the controls if they showed sufficient interest (both children and grown-up children, from what I could gather ) Apparently I was slightly unusual in strictly adhering to the 15mph limit into the station!

I'd be a useless operator of a main-line layout as I really dislike tearing round in a hurry - I think I'd be safest building a shunting puzzle

 

[D1511]

I’m quite hot on it at shows as things speeding around everywhere just looks unrealistic.

Maybe you should have tried some of that slow speed running when backing up that class 31!
Seriously though, that was great, and I enjoyed it.....without having to fast forward through any of it!
As others have said, a bit of background to location and how you went about modelling it would do your endeavours more justice than just footage of locos running about, (even although they look amazing!) but it all depends on what the purpose of it is. If the intention was to show how superbly realistic your model is and the quality of the scenic details, then mission accomplished!

 

[Cowley]

Thanks to all of you above for the nice comments and useful advice. I’ll definitely take what you’ve said onboard for the next time I make one.

@BrianW - I made this one a while ago now but the first five minutes goes into a bit more detail about the layout:

It’s not perfect but it explains a bit about how I broke the separate scenes up and what it was like there in the era I’ve set it in.

 

[Iskra]

Thanks to all of you above for the nice comments and useful advice. I’ll definitely take what you’ve said onboard for the next time I make one.

@BrianW - I made this one a while ago now but the first five minutes goes into a bit more detail about the layout:

It’s not perfect but it explains a bit about how I broke the separate scenes up and what it was like there in the era I’ve set it in.

A great little video that one

 

[Peter C]

I made a new YouTube video this weekend. It probably won’t run very well on a full TV screen due to the quality of my old iPhone 7 but it’s ok to watch on a small screen.

I’m going to do three videos featuring the whole fleet that I’ve collected over the last few years and this first one covers classes 25, 31 and 33.

A couple of questions to those of you that watch these sort of things though:

What’s a sensible length of time for a video like this to keep your attention? Is 7 minutes too long?
Also, what things do you want to see? Is it scenery, trains, talking/explaining or something else? It takes quite a bit of time to make them so it would be good to know what people actually want to see!

I've just given this one a watch (late to the party, I know - my apologies), and it's brilliant! I always appreciate a bit of narration or some good captions on a model railway video because otherwise I find I can get bored easily just watching trains go by (or when the presenter drones on for ages at the beginning and all you can see is their face...). I think the sounds coming from the engines really help to build the atmosphere in the clips too. Also I think the handheld nature of the filming makes it feel more informal, in the best way - it's like we're getting to have a little look in on a slice of life, and I love that.

Personally if I was to ask for anything more, it would perhaps be a video looking at some of the scenery, or perhaps even one looking at how you detail/weather the stock? That'd be very interesting but of course also quite fiddly I imagine! As I say, I really do like the narration so 'plenty of it'!

-Peter

 

[takno]

I've just given this one a watch (late to the party, I know - my apologies), and it's brilliant! I always appreciate a bit of narration or some good captions on a model railway video because otherwise I find I can get bored easily just watching trains go by (or when the presenter drones on for ages at the beginning and all you can see is their face...). I think the sounds coming from the engines really help to build the atmosphere in the clips too. Also I think the handheld nature of the filming makes it feel more informal, in the best way - it's like we're getting to have a little look in on a slice of life, and I love that.

Personally if I was to ask for anything more, it would perhaps be a video looking at some of the scenery, or perhaps even one looking at how you detail/weather the stock? That'd be very interesting but of course also quite fiddly I imagine! As I say, I really do like the narration so 'plenty of it'!

-Peter

The key to a good how-to video is to have 2 or 3 cameras running all the time while you're doing stuff, which makes it expensive and time consuming to edit. The curse of YouTube is that there are so many people spending a lot of time and money that amateurs tend to look, well, amateur. Not that it isn't worth trying, but it might get disappointingly little attention

 

[Cowley]

The key to a good how-to video is to have 2 or 3 cameras running all the time while you're doing stuff, which makes it expensive and time consuming to edit. The curse of YouTube is that there are so many people spending a lot of time and money that amateurs tend to look, well, amateur. Not that it isn't worth trying, but it might get disappointingly little attention

This is the thing isn’t it? I could end up spending more time making not very good videos than I actually do making real things for the railway, at which point I might as well replace myself with an AI version of me that doesn’t snap tiny telegraph poles by not paying attention to where my very real sleeves are…

Anyway, thanks for the comments everyone. I’m unveiling my very dirty (in a clean sense) parcels train that I’ve been putting together recently. This being something to run with my Western, Warship, Hymek and green 47 towards the afternoons of the steam session we run on Moors View on Saturdays at shows (Sundays are purely 1980s diesels, mmm…).

I started this thread for a bit of research and bought myself an LMS 50ft full brake, a couple of green ex Southern Region vans, an ex GWR Fruit D, weathered the very life out of all of them (but wiped the dirt off the numbers as mentioned in that thread), fitted close couplings, and this where I’ve got to now:


Dirty.


Ah, pretty dirty. Should they be more dirty though? I don’t know, maybe…


We had a final Moors View team meet on Wednesday and I took a couple of fun photos (I’ve posted these on Rmweb as well so apologies if you’ve already seen them).

1968 and Hymek leaves with the steam heating turned right up:


And a couple of steam shots:



Quite pleased with that last one.

Erm. I think that’s it for now.

 

[hexagon789]

This is the thing isn’t it? I could end up spending more time making not very good videos than I actually do making real things for the railway, at which point I might as well replace myself with an AI version of me that doesn’t snap tiny telegraph poles by not paying attention to where my very real sleeves are…

Anyway, thanks for the comments everyone. I’m unveiling my very dirty (in a clean sense) parcels train that I’ve been putting together recently. This being something to run with my Western, Warship, Hymek and green 47 towards the afternoons of the steam session we run on Moors View on Saturdays at shows (Sundays are purely 1980s diesels, mmm…).

I started this thread for a bit of research and bought myself an LMS 50ft full brake, a couple of green ex Southern Region vans, an ex GWR Fruit D, weathered the very life out of all of them (but wiped the dirt off the numbers as mentioned in that thread), fitted close couplings, and this where I’ve got to now:
View attachment 146894

Dirty.
View attachment 146893

Ah, pretty dirty. Should they be more dirty though? I don’t know, maybe…
View attachment 146895

We had a final Moors View team meet on Wednesday and I took a couple of fun photos (I’ve posted these on Rmweb as well so apologies if you’ve already seen them).

1968 and Hymek leaves with the steam heating turned right up:
View attachment 146898

And a couple of steam shots:
View attachment 146896

View attachment 146897
Quite pleased with that last one.

Erm. I think that’s it for now.

That last one and the one with the 'heated' Hymek are just brilliant

 

[Cowley]

That last one and the one with the 'heated' Hymek are just brilliant

Amazing what you can do with a bit of cotton wool ahem, real steam…

 

[hexagon789]

Amazing what you can do with a bit of cotton wool ahem, real steam…

Indeed

 

[Iskra]

That parcels rake looks stunning.

I don’t think I’ve ever really seen steam heat rolling stock in snowy conditions, but even so I think that looks really good and actually represents any stock throwing up deep snow quite nicely too, which I have encountered quite a few times- so it’s doubly convincing in my book

 

[Peter C]

The key to a good how-to video is to have 2 or 3 cameras running all the time while you're doing stuff, which makes it expensive and time consuming to edit. The curse of YouTube is that there are so many people spending a lot of time and money that amateurs tend to look, well, amateur. Not that it isn't worth trying, but it might get disappointingly little attention

Ah yes that's true. Personally I wouldn't be looking for a super high-end video, just a bit of a 'here's how I did it' type thing (so not a full step-by-step guide). Maybe more of a Blue Peter-esque 'here's one I made earlier'...

Anyway, thanks for the comments everyone. I’m unveiling my very dirty (in a clean sense) parcels train that I’ve been putting together recently. This being something to run with my Western, Warship, Hymek and green 47 towards the afternoons of the steam session we run on Moors View on Saturdays at shows (Sundays are purely 1980s diesels, mmm…).

I started this thread for a bit of research and bought myself an LMS 50ft full brake, a couple of green ex Southern Region vans, an ex GWR Fruit D, weathered the very life out of all of them (but wiped the dirt off the numbers as mentioned in that thread), fitted close couplings, and this where I’ve got to now:
View attachment 146894

Dirty.
View attachment 146893

Ah, pretty dirty. Should they be more dirty though? I don’t know, maybe…
View attachment 146895

Oh now those are looking superb @Cowley. I'd say the weathering is pretty much perfect on them - the van directly behind the 'Western' in the last shot is brilliant with the faded paintwork - I've seen people do that with 08s in particular before and if done well (as you've done) it works superbly.

We had a final Moors View team meet on Wednesday and I took a couple of fun photos (I’ve posted these on Rmweb as well so apologies if you’ve already seen them).

1968 and Hymek leaves with the steam heating turned right up:
View attachment 146898

And a couple of steam shots:
View attachment 146896

View attachment 146897
Quite pleased with that last one.

Erm. I think that’s it for now.

Even though they might be fairly simple, I think those are great! The 'Hymek' with the steam heat is very impressive. Having been on a set of Mk1s in the snow with the steam heat on, I think it looks marvellous!

-Peter

 

[Gloster]

In my collection of model vans those that can be dismantled have been so treated and the clear window plastic then given a dirty white wash. The vans in pure parcels use just about never went through a carriage wash (some were probably held together by the dirt) and the glass in the windows was opaque. This wasn’t so with the special vehicles (postal sorting carriages, News vans, etc.) or with the Mark 1 BG (Brake Gangway): the latter could equally be used on passenger trains and be cleaned with the rest of the rake.

 

[xotGD]

That steam heat shot is just great.

The steam pipes must be very narrow diameter in N gauge, and I didn't realise that you could fit a working boiler into a model Hymek.

 

[Cowley]

That steam heat shot is just great.

The steam pipes must be very narrow diameter in N gauge, and I didn't realise that you could fit a working boiler into a model Hymek.

I just sent some nanobots into through the roof.

 

[Gloster]

I have just realised that Moors View is N-gauge: I had previously thought it was 00. So the standard of the layout is even more impressive than I had thought.

 

[4COR]

Love the parcels rake - looks super!

 

[Cowley]

I have just realised that Moors View is N-gauge: I had previously thought it was 00. So the standard of the layout is even more impressive than I had thought.

Oh that’s nice, thanks @Gloster. A lot of the stock we run is the stuff I run on my layout.

Love the parcels rake - looks super!

Thanks. I actually managed to get two rakes out of it at one of the shows recently - A late 1960s and an early 1980s set. I’m still thinking about getting a Siphon at some point once I’ve caught up on finances…