Computer Coloured Monochrome

[Nortonboy]

I do like the Whitby photo but if I might add a bit of constructive criticism. You might want to look again at the building behind the engine. it looks a little cold and flat. Materials can alter your perception of true colour and when you recreate that colour it is sometimes necessary to emphasise minor colour tints to create the right feel. By way of example, if you were to paint a human iris pure black it would look cold and flat. add a bit of red or purple and it creates depth, warmth and life. Stone is a curious one. It can be cold and warm but it is rarely uniformly grey or brown from stone to stone and, even within a stone as the facets reflect and absorb light differently. When you paint it you add in a huge variety of browns, blue, reds and greens. I appreciate that this might be creating a large amount of work to a fairly insignificant area of the photo but it holds true for reflective materials such as shiny paintwork too. Shiny apple green looks different when its stood next to garter blue on a sunny day.

[Albergman]

Is there anyone alive today who can remember seeing NER Pacifics at work? Very very few people if any I would think.

I'm sure there are a few of us still tottering around! I grew up in Dunfermline, Fife and most of our family travels were by rail. As a keen train spotter till the age of 12 when we emigrated out to Canada in 1951 I saw many of the Edinburgh based A3's and A4's at my station. A "grand day out" would be a train ride across the Forth Bridge followed by trainspotting at Waverley or Haymarket. I could go on ... but just one.

My favourite A3 memory was the day of our emigration, June 14 1951, when we took the night Scotsman to Kings Cross. I ran down the platform to see which engine was on duty and it was Humorist. The engineer helped me up to the footplate when he heard we were going to KX with them. I didn't sleep a wink all night and was off at every stop to see great engines that I'd never seen before.

So, yes, there's a lot of us still around and I for one thoroughly enjoy what you are doing here.

Frank

[Darwin4975]

A shame to have a page with words but no pictures, so here's one appropriate to celebrate the continued inclusion of Scotland in the UK.

Windsor Lad is accelerating strongly past Haymarket MPD with a Glasgow express in 1952. The Waverley pilot J83 makes a charming contrast in this picture, which is again from the camera of John Robertson and courtesy of The Transport Treasury.

An interesting feature is the landscape format. In the days of black and white photography there were many different sizes and formats available depending on the camera used.

This picture is based on a negative of the long thin variety, and the photographer filled the top half of the image with sky by tilting the camera upwards slightly. Cropping away the top sky area, the landscape effect is enhanced as well as giving better balance between sky and ground. Such a picture would have been impossible to achieve with a 35mm camera.

[Postman Prat]

Hi Darwin

One of the best yet!!

[Albergman]

OH MY!!

What a beauty and the landscape format makes it look quite modern.

Yet another "one of the best".

Frank

[strang steel]

Yes it is another wonderful piece of artistry.

However, and this is really only nitpicking, I think the buildings between the A3 and the J83 are to bright and 'flat'.

That is to say with the sun shining, even buildings in the background would have an equal amount of contrast as the locos/track in the foreground.

It may be that with the film of the day and the focussing, the camera has not captured this properly in b/w which makes the colouration that more difficult, and it is probably down to guesswork - but to me it would fit in better.

[Darwin4975]

Pleasing it may be to see colour pictures of Gresley pacifics in BR days, but these are scenes which could have been taken in colour at the time. For me the real attraction of CCM is to work with pictures that pre-date colour photography.

Here is a Robinson 4.6.0 of Class B4. Little is known about this photograph (apart from it being another gem courtesy of the Transport Treasury.) All 10 of this class were fitted with 'flowerpot' chimneys in early LNER days but all received the shaped GC type as seen here from 1935, -so this scene is 1935 or later. The engine, No 6095, was the first built and between 1935 and 1942 she alternated between Immingham and Lincoln sheds. This scene may well have been taken at Immingham with the engine being prepared for work. It has a Sunday morning look about it to me. In LNER green (as all the GC 4.6.0s remained after 1928 -unlike the GC Atlantics which became lined black), this engine will have kept green until given wartime black in the early 40s. She was scrapped in July 1947.

When assessing a raw black and white picture for suitability it's always a bonus when there is a variety of other features present such as houses in the background. The larger the range of colours the more interesting the end result becomes.

[mick b]

Lovely photo.

The Tender would have been Green lined out on the top fairing and on its front edge not Black . The under frame would be lined out in Red as per the steps on the Loco. Buffer housings were normally Black. Handrails would be Green to match the Green sections of the Loco. Wheels would when new have lined white on the rims and around the wheel centres.
Wagons would be Dark Greys not Brown. The GW (R ) one normally would be darker shade than the LNER NE version , both could be faded and dirty.

Have a look at any current Hornby Locos such as the NRM Flying Scotsman ignoring the modern overhead warning signs that gives a good guide to LNER Livery layout.

[Stirling O]

Once again fabulous work, which brings to us sights we were never able to experience for ourselves. What is also particularly interesting about this CCM is the fact that in the background we see an ex Hull & Barnsley 10 ton, 5 plank, open wagon, i.e N E lettered wagon number HB 4707, one built by Charles Roberts in 1914.

[Darwin4975]

Informative comments such as these are much appreciated. Colour errors can quite easily be put right in most cases. I use as reference The Big Four in Colour and LNER Locomotives in Colour plus the 'Typical Painting Specs' listed in the Preliminary Survey. I should have remembered the black buffer casing, which I knew. (There is a subconscious aversion to black and grey which is understandable -but getting it right is the most important requirement.)

ANY errors in pictures posted here, please don't hesitate to say so. DW

[greenglade]

great pictures.....really brings the LNER era to life...love it...

Pete

[Woodcock29]

Looks terrific

I think the handrail at the rear of the cab and the front of the tender should be black - others please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also the tender frame would be lined in red, ie the bottom of the frame, cutouts and the axle boxes.

The driving and bogie wheels would have originally had a white line dividing the black centre from the green and likewise the tyres.

Can't wait to see the whole finished product for the B4 - might even stimulate me into building the old McGowan kit I have but with a Bachmann O4 boiler.

Keep up the good work.

Woodcock29

[Woodcock29]

Looks terrific

I think the handrails at the back of the cab and the front of the tender would have been black - others please correct me if I'm wrong.

The tender frame would have originally had a red line along the bottom and around the cutouts as well as the fronts of the axle boxes.

The front of the cab and tops of the splashers were green - although maybe the photo is depicting and accumulation of grime?

Keep up the good work.

This one might even stimulate me into building the old McGowan kit I have sitting in the draw but with a Bachmann O4 boiler.

Looks terrific

I think the handrail at the rear of the cab and the front of the tender should be black - others please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also the tender frame would be lined in red, ie the bottom of the frame, cutouts and the axle boxes.

The driving and bogie wheels would have originally had a white line dividing the black centre from the green and likewise the tyres.

Can't wait to see the whole finished product for the B4 - might even stimulate me into building the old McGowan kit I have but with a Bachmann O4 boiler.

Keep up the good work.

(If this reply comes up somewhere else its because I hit the wrong key when I first wrote it!)

Woodcock29

[Darwin4975]

Locomotives in black livery are not difficult to deal with using CCM so long as there is a good range of colour elsewhere in the photograph. However it can become tricky when the black engine is not only very clean but polished as well. The station pilots at Edinburgh Waverley were a splendid sight in the 1950s as their crews spent many of their spare moments whilst on duty with a polishing cloth in their hands. Here is J83 No 68470, one of the east-end pilots awaiting the call to action in 1958 shortly before the pilot duties were handed over to diesels. (A rail colour prints image.)

For comparison, a transparency of the same locomotive and location on a different occasion is also shown. Note the lack of sharpness.

[52D]

Lovely as usual. NBR or NER subjects keep em coming