A Day in the Life of Peckforton Station

ge_rik

British narrow gauge (esp. Southwold and W&LLR)
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At 11 minutes, probably a bit over-long, but difficult to decide whether to miss out some of the more repetitive train movements or show them all (in condensed form). Anyway, it'll be something to look back on when I become too old and decrepit to run a full operating session.....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Reu9Z0_RRyM[/youtube]

Did you spot the annoyingly 'undeliberate' mistake? It's fairly early on so no need to waste 11 minutes - though I am pleased with the last couple of minutes of the video.

BTW - this is the first season I've been able to run a full service with battery locos - just got one more loco build in the offing.

Rik
 
Absolutely spot on ! 11 minutes of my life well spent. I've run schedules before, and they've always ended up where they started, but yours is so much better. I really like that the steam shift ends, and the railcars work the evening service. Also its comes across that copper ore traffic pays the wages, which is how it would be in practice.
A lot of work went into that video and I suggest everyone immerse themselves in it for 11 minutes - as I look at the empty scrap of land where Lighthouse Island will be built, its a timely reminder of just what we should be aiming for.
 
Really nice - it captured my attention all the way - really relaxing! Love the sounds of the railbus - very effective indeed!
 
Thanks chaps. Yes, spent a fair while on this. Delighted you stuck it out to the end. Had to compromise a bit on some of the sound effects as I couldn't find some which were quite right and when I tried slowing them down in Audacity they became distorted - too complicated to slow down the frequency of chuffs without making the chuff itself too drawn-out.

I think the clock is a bit too prominent but it wasn't until I rendered the video I knew it would still remain in the frame. One day I might try improving the video - Peckforton: the Director's Cut!

Rik
 
Fantastic, most enjoyable, thanks for sharing :)
 
Thank you for posting. Great to see a railway working to a days timetable. Very enjoyable. Doug.N
 
That's one busy little rural station! Excellent!

I did notice a young lady lurking somewhere about 4 mins.
 
Absolute Magic! Cant normally hack more than 4 minutes of a train vid but was glued to this until the end......and such a collection of amazing rolling stock.
 
bobg said:
That's one busy little rural station! Excellent!
I did notice a young lady lurking somewhere about 4 mins.
Thanks.
Yes - it's called job demarcation - she insists on doing the garden while I play trains ......
I know it's tough, but I grin and bear it! :D

Rik
 
55.5 said:
Absolute Magic! Cant normally hack more than 4 minutes of a train vid but was glued to this until the end......and such a collection of amazing rolling stock.
Thanks Roly, that's very reassuring - I tried to make it into a story (hopefully with a happy ending) - though I did wonder if it was a bit too long

Rik
 
Stainzmeister said:
Superb Rik. Very well done. A great record of your railway indeed.
I was hoping to see your wonderful stream area in the video though......
Hi Paul
Maybe next time. I need to make the bridge and then detail the new Mill siding, so no doubt I'll be tempted to bring out the camera once more.

Rik
 
I enjoyed this a lot. Now if you can get the daylight to play along with dawn and dusk .... then :o
 
A super film, I enjoyed it immensely and will be back for a second and probably third viewing , as said above the only improvement would be changing daylight, but that would mean an early start!
 
Aww gee, thanks folks
We does us best - but really pleasing when us efforts am appreciated.

Oddly enough, the later clips were filmed during the evening - though maybe not quite as late as the times shown on the clock. I`ve tried editing the clips to see if I can adjust the brightness to match the time of day but it also dulls down the headlights on the railmotor and the pw trolley. Looks like I may have to do another video where the train movements coincide with real time ..... now there`s an idea.

1-uvs140511-037.jpg

Rik
 
Fantastic work Rik. I like the different camera angles you can find just around a station. The one with the empty wagon in the foreground with a few lumps of coal is spot on.
The railmotor sounds terrific. How do you empty and fill the ore wagons?
Is the 'error' a train sitting on the siding and then not being there with no commentary?

No-one else has asked, so I will - how did you put the clock on there; and get it to move smoothly?
 
gregh said:
Fantastic work Rik. I like the different camera angles you can find just around a station. The one with the empty wagon in the foreground with a few lumps of coal is spot on.
The railmotor sounds terrific.

Thanks Greg. Cheated with the railmotor - dubbed on the sound in the editor - actually paid for that sound clip as I couldn't find any others of a Model T which were suitable. I'd like to try programming a sound chip with that sound somehow though (another Picaxe project?)

gregh said:
How do you empty and fill the ore wagons?
Two rakes - one empty and one full - if you look really closely you'll see the empties have plastic wheels and the full train has metal wheels (waiting for more income to replace the plastic wheels)

gregh said:
Is the 'error' a train sitting on the siding and then not being there with no commentary?
Just spotted that myself. It's puzzling me too. The vast majority of the filming was done during an actual operating session but I did have to go out and film a couple of extra shots when when I realised I'd missed a train movement. What puzzles me is I don't think that shot was one of the extras. I know I shifted the wagons along the siding a few times to position the camera (eg the wagons in the foreground were originally further up the siding), so maybe I forgot to wheel them back.

The 'undeliberate' mistake I spotted was misspelling 'passenger' on one of the captions - a typo.

gregh said:
No-one else has asked, so I will - how did you put the clock on there; and get it to move smoothly?
I found an animated clock on Youtube with a green-screen background .....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIcSapc8CTE

..... and then paused it and took snapshots at the critical times - I then clipped the clock video animation into the relevant chunks for the animations between the snapshots. My video editor enables me to insert picture in picture and do a green-screen (or any other colour) transparent matte. Bit of a fiddle but you know how it is when you get the bit between your teeth .....

Rik
 
3Valve said:
Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Brilliant.
Thanks Gareth
Feedback I've had from the 16mm NGM forum indicates a few people found the caption animations annoying - they suggested having them fade in and out more discreetly. Did you find them obtrusive?

Rik
 
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