Lord Dowding (Loco)

JohnC6

JohnC6

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This loco is infact 'Braunton' but has been re-named Lord Dowding for 2016, 75th. anniversary of the Battle of Britain. (Air Chief Marshall Dowding).

It was taken at Chalford near Stroud this morning. Paddington to Cardiff. I hesitated going there due to the inclement weather and on the radar could see rain coming in from Wales but it was reasonable light. About 5 minutes before it arrived the heavens opened with fine rain..heavy drizzle and of course the train had driven through it already and was dirty.I kept the camera under my raincoat until the last seconds.

On this occasion,having previously experienced a bit of trouble with sharpness of the front number I tried putting the lens onto manual focussing on a particular spot trackside, set the shutter speed at 1/640 sec and f7.1. The ISO was on automatic to retain these settings. It went to 4000. I didn't go to another location for its return at 8.00pm as it would ,no doubt still be dirty. Seems to have got the white number on the front sharp this time.

1zcj0c9.jpg
 
michael23 said:
Hi John, a worthwile getting wet I think, certainlya good spot of line for a picture, the highlights seem quite bright on my screen.
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Thanks,Michael. Yes,it was worth it .I suppose if we stayed at home only venturing out to photograph the locos when it's bright and sunny we'd get only a couple of times a year..lol

I'll take it back into 'Develop' (Lightroom4) and check those highlights. The sky was even lighter,almost white with that rain.I had to use the grad to take it down.It was a strange rain,very heavy and penetrating but at the same time fine. Next to me was a safety rail about 5 paces long coming up the slope from the track/crossing level and the signalman in the box shouted to me to get back as there was a train coming (my side) I was a pace or two from the crossing. So I went up the slope a bit,,"Ok ?" I said…""Back a bit further" he shouted..lol Very politely.The said train came and to be honest there was quite a rush of air with it which blew my bag/raincoat back a bit..it wasn't raining then.Lol. With hindsight,I should have taken a photo of the box. I'll do that sometime. There can't be many left . In the first photo here in the link it shows a mesh fence. That's gone and it's just a couple of metal bars.That's where I stood. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/68041-a-visit-to-st-marys-crossing/

By the way. I looked at the website for Midland Railway,Butterly and it's showing Duchess of Sutherland in crimson lake..which is much better than the green it is now.
 
shreds said:
Glad you nailed the number issue this time. (y)
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Thanks,Ian. I'm very pleased too. I wasn't going to give up..lol. Someone on here recommended 1/400 or 1/500 sec but I found that the recommended shutter speed,as a rule of thumb, is 10 X the speed of the loco.They do about 60mph at most locations I get to so I went for 1/640 sec.Add the manual focus and it does appear to have nailed it and on a poor day too so it should be much better on a good day and that will keep the ISO much lower too.I have that on auto now.Thanks again for viewing considering the last two posts.Ugh.
 
JohnC6 said:
Thanks,Michael. Yes,it was worth it .I suppose if we stayed at home only venturing out to photograph the locos when it's bright and sunny we'd get only a couple of times a year..lol

I'll take it back into 'Develop' (Lightroom4) and check those highlights. The sky was even lighter,almost white with that rain.I had to use the grad to take it down.It was a strange rain,very heavy and penetrating but at the same time fine. Next to me was a safety rail about 5 paces long coming up the slope from the track/crossing level and the signalman in the box shouted to me to get back as there was a train coming (my side) I was a pace or two from the crossing. So I went up the slope a bit,,"Ok ?" I said…""Back a bit further" he shouted..lol Very politely.The said train came and to be honest there was quite a rush of air with it which blew my bag/raincoat back a bit..it wasn't raining then.Lol. With hindsight,I should have taken a photo of the box. I'll do that sometime. There can't be many left . In the first photo here in the link it shows a mesh fence. That's gone and it's just a couple of metal bars.That's where I stood. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/68041-a-visit-to-st-marys-crossing/

By the way. I looked at the website for Midland Railway,Butterly and it's showing Duchess of Sutherland in crimson lake..which is much better than the green it is now.
Click to expand...

Nice to have a polite signalman, looks a nice area in that link. Its quite a feeling when near a train at speed, I remember being at Lichfield and a double headed class 90 on a container freight went through at speed,quite breathtaking
 
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