Photo shop

I've been messing around with a new app " photo shop touch " some of which has enabled me to colourise old black and white shots of the Lynton line and also lately to add photographs together. It's a very simple and easy to use app and within a few minutes quite nice results are possible.
Heres a photo shop of Lew in Lynton using this app. Now I'm of course no expert in this but can share that the approach I've used is to use very subtle toning so as not to be too vivid in the colours. I'm quite pleased with the results so far and it's quite an enjoyable way to spend a half hour bringing to life these old photographs .

Taw enters Lynton

Just messing with my camera and producing a photo set of Taw entering Lynton , running around her train and exiting again. Just a bit of fun before getting on with baseboard construction again.

Taw in ex works condition

Taw was one of the original 3 locomotives ordered with Manning Wardle and delivered before the opening of the line. My model of Taw is in original condition before changes made to the cab. I intend to add a locomotive crew to this model and look forward to get her running with the new Peco coaches behind.

Baseboard progress

The baseboard exiting the station  has had a little more surgery as the next photographs show. The baseboard cut rather easily and I'm beginning to see how I can now add the hillside both to this board and the other 2. It's going to require some fancy joinery and as we already know from my fiddle yard exploits this is not necessarily one of my strong points. However , undaunted by the prospect and instead enthused by what could be I shall press on. At this stage in the process what we see is quite a mess of a baseboard but taking views around these boards I'm still encouraged .

Taw repaired

After the disaster that was the condition of Taw received in the post I am pleased to show her back in steam again. No fault is attached to the seller of the locomotive and just a little TLC was required to make good again. So here she is in Lynton Station happily with chimney re attached. Im sure this locomotive will look good with the newly released Peco coaches.

Rip it up and start again

In previous posts I described how I wish to produce a more realistic departure from the station and enable the scenery to drop down below rail level giving a truer impression of the station on a hillside ( see the post " going round the bend " Friday 13 th June) . Well I have made some progress in that direction as the following pictures show - and in the space of a few hours demolished my previous half finished scenery and sketched out how the exit could appear. The funny little yellow lines you see are not double " no parking " lines but chalk to help guide me for future cutting down of the board. I have used a black and white photograph of Lynton station to gauge the amount of base board that I will cut back. In some ways quite sad to rip apart something that at the time I was obviously pleased with but at the same time a grin on my face that I'm sure any demotion expert must have as the ball and chain strikes. At this stage it's not a pretty site is it. However I'm looking forward to reproducing an impression of the famous views seen in old black and white photographs.

Behind the scenes

Well I'm not sure why the management team decided this was required but built it was. "A fiddle yard is but a standard for any layout boy ". Well for those about to entertain the general public but in my case ? Well... I have to go back to the NEC Warley 2012 to explain . Helping to exhibit Bob Barnards excellent layout Barnstaple to Pilton required a fiddle yard to be built in time for the Warley show- was it really 2 years ago? Having a future need for my own layout I duly set about it. The result wasn't exactly a disaster but I do feel that had I cross examined my fellow exhibitors a little more harshly I can imagine they did not think this was the best piece  of woodworking they had encountered . Anyway with a bit of adaptation this will be used as the fiddle yard on my Lynton layout. Oh and yes that's me helping at the show.