That famous quiet time of year

Yet again it has been ages since I've found a moment to waffle on about what I've been up to with the video camera. Sorry about that.

In the run up to Xmas I finally cracked and worked out how to make our first Bluray. So we now have the year in the life 2013 available on Bluray... I hadn't been convinced that quality difference was significant but having seen the same footage side by side on DVD and Bluray I have seen the light. Although a Bluray disk is 50Gb I couldn't quite get all 4 hours and 40 minutes of the DVD programme onto it but with a few judicial omissions it times out at about 4:30, still enough for even the most hardened F&WHR fan I should have thought. The DVD has sold getting on for 300 copies already, the Bluray is way behind that but nonetheless is selling better than I anticipated; which is nice.

The plan is that from now on we will release all new stuff on both formats so when Fred 2 is finished we'll do that too. I guess that I'll have to redo Fred 1 in case people want to get both. What I have started to prepare is a combined FR and WHR traveler's view. I've gone through and replaced a large number of shots taken with the old A1E camera because the lower quality of the lens and sensor becomes much more obvious. It's also good to keep the journey sections up to date. The WHR one is pretty good now but the FR one has a big hole where Harbour Station used to be. Once the work is finished this winter I'll be able to get some nice new shots and finish it off properly. I've used the WHR one to update the DVD version anyway so it hasn't been a waste of time.

On the subject of winter works I've been out and about keeping up to date with progress on the new layout. With all that's going on the latest package timed out at about quarter of an hour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pEmZmmkuC8

It includes Xmas trains using the new pointwork at the water-tower end and the last passenger trains on the old layout, the end of an era and the start of a new one. Also featured is the dreadful weather which has caused such damage elsewhere, it was close but we got away with it.

An interesting development is that we have been in contact with Visit Wales and have found that they have a large supply of top quality footage of various notable bits of Wales including the FR. I haven't seen it all yet as there is about a Tb of footage but the bits of footage taken from a helicopter look great.

In action at South Stack trying to hold the camera down

One very useful function for this material will be to add in quite a few of the missing sections of a package I'm making to encourage visitors aboard a cruise-liner to come ashore and 'do' Snowdonia. They've given me a very vague brief which is really just a list of places and the instruction that it must have male voice choirs as the sound track. Basically it needs to be as cheesy as possible... right up my alley.

Meantime I've been plodding away on Fred 2. The footage is pretty good stuff but I'm struggling finding archive to illustrate some of the topics covered. I'm still aiming for an Easter release so I need to get my finger out and finish it.

The year is over...official

Well it is finally on sale! Three disks, four hours and forty minutes... an epic.

I've been working away at this for some weeks now, making sure all the captions make sense and are spelled right and that I've fitted as much material onto the three disks as is possible. Disks 1 and 2 are 99% full and disk 3 is 96% so I couldn't have crammed much more on.

This is the introduction - it settles down a bit after this

As I type this the prototype Bluray is burning in the computer.

 

This will be our first Bluray so it has been a bit of journey of discovery. They come in 2 sizes, 25 GB and 50GB and I have completely filled the 50 GB one. I've had to leave out a few of the less exciting chapters and the extras but it still times out at about 4hours and 30 minutes so that should keep people satisfied. The bland disks are much more expensive than DVDs so it will cost more than the DVD set, I haven't settled on a final price yet. We don't have a Bluray player in the building and I don't have one at home but the plan is to upgrade the shop TV in the spring.

 

Last week I went out for a ride on the WHR between rain showers to get some footage of the autumn colours in the landscape and the Glaslyn in full spate in the pass. It was very pretty and so I've put up a package that I quickly edited on YouTube.

 

The camera set up in the open carriage

 

 

 

 

Another month flashes past

Yet again its a month since I've had a chance to keep up to date with Festshopman's comings and goings... there have been many.

The two most significant outings for the camera have been shooting the interview footage for the next Fred Howes programme.

 

We were a bit better prepared this time and set off for Dduallt Manor and Campbell's Platform. This is a private road so I had asked permission before hand. It is still quite a stomp up from where we parked to the platform but once I'd stopped wheezing and panting we started shooting with a quick catch up on Sophie's career and then it was straight on with the track and the history.

 

I used the Zoom stereo recorder to grab some background sounds including trains passing.

 

Last time we only had one personal mic but this time both of them had one which will make the editing easier as I won't need to spend so long fiddling about with the sound levels to hear Sophie. I also used the new monitor to help get a better picture and check focusing, it all makes for a heavy pile of kit to cart about but the results are worth it.

We walked up the line from Campbell's to Dduallt and stopped along the way to get some footage. Fred is obviously 'track safe' and was in contact with control the whole time so we were perfectly safe. It would be foolish to do this otherwise as if a surprise train comes along there is nowhere to hide. Fortunately for us the only surprise train was a 'Greasers express' which we knew about and on which we bummed a lift up to the tunnel.

Once we'd talked about the making of the tunnel we walked down to the spiral. Inside the tunnel was damp and unpleasant, also dark so it was worth having put the photoflood and a headlamp in my backpack.

An unusual place to get a shot of EoM

 

After getting some footage at Dragon and Dingle we stomped back to Dduallt to get a closing story and catch the down service train back to Campbell's. Once we got the car out of the mud all was well and we all went our separate ways, tired but happy with a days work. I've subsequently had a quick edit of the basic footage and the results are favourable; all I have to do now is find suitable footage and stills to illustrate Fred's tales. Hopefully the DVD should be out some time in the spring.

 

 

 

 

The other big video job this month has been Steam 150 - Part 2 - 1863 and all that! I've just finished editing and am reasonably happy with the results. The main part of the 'Year' chapter is the gravity train which I and the cameras rode on on Friday. I used the GoPro clamped on the side of a wagon for a couple of shots on the way up and left it running for most of the down, gravity trip. Sadly the battery gave up just after Cae Mawr but before that it got some very useful shots. Otherwise I had the main camera on a low tripod in a 3 ton wagon about halfway along the train of 60 wagons. It is rather limiting having to sit down and have the camera low but for H&S reasons it is also fair comment. Each wagon has about 1ft of slack in the coupling so as the train slows and accelerates the wagons cannon into each other in addition to bouncing along without any suspension. It all makes for a rather lively ride but is quite exhilarating at speed.

 





 Up

 Down

I remembered to take a cushion too.

 

There was plenty of other action to try to catch too, in fact there was so much its impossible to get everything with only one of me.

 

 Nice new Mk1 quarryman's coach - need a go on that

 

I tried to get to some locations about the line rather than just stations as you get a more interesting picture and also there are less people getting in my way. This weekend has seen some fantastic instances of spatial unawareness but people, they just wander straight in front of the camera. Never mind.

 

Just down from Rhiw Goch 

Above 3 gates crossing 

Hafod y Llyn

 



This is a quick and dirty edit of a few bits slung together

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx3alY-IGds

 

This is the short version of the slate train

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxydHnBHR0U

 

And this made me laugh

 

 



Superpower and all that

Can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. Time flies when you are having fun and I've had a couple of weeks of holiday too... in which I did have fun.

Since Shrewsbury I've done quite a bit of video work, not all of which is immediately obvious as it hasn't appeared anywhere yet. I've been getting the Year in the Life 2013 into shape and have definitely decided on a 3 disk set as there is just so much to fit in. It was either that or do another Cob Widening DVD on its own which it doesn't really need yet, if I didn't do that now then no one would see what has gone on since the end of 2012, so 3 disks it is. We don't want to make it unaffordable so it will come out at £22.50 which will pay for the extra disk and the more expensive 3 way case.

I've been editing together a rough cut of the introduction using the music from last years one as a guide track and it is looking quite pretty. I just need to drop some shots from 1863 and all that weekend in and it will be fine. Once I finish posting this I'm off to the garage to start work on the music.

The biggest videoing project I've done recently is obviously Superpower. This was a three day shoot and I managed to amass about 4 hours of footage. Part of the fun was shooting the model railways which constituted a part of the gala this year. I used the GoPro to get a passengers eye view of Bron Hebog, a superb 009 layout of Beddgelert and the S curves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oL7gPM2BhBA

This link will take you to a longer version of this video on the Blog for the layout, definitely worth a read.

http://bronhebog.blogspot.co.uk/

There was never going to be enough for a stand alone DVD so I wanted to get a 20-25 minute package to add to the year in the life. It ended up as about 30 minutes but I didn't want to lose any more from it. The editing was a long job and took me just over 12 hours which I did on the Monday after the weekend. I made a rough edit which came out at about 40 mins and then went through and added captions chopping out some more at this point which took out around 5 minutes but my main aim on the day was to get a 10 minute YouTube package uploaded. In the end I had to bin some really nice stuff to get it short enough and even then I could only get it to 12 and a half mins. This is what you see here.

I came back to have another look at the year in the life version a day or so later and cut it down to the final half an hour version.

Rain coats on: the sun didn't shine all the time

Nice to see K1 back in action for the weekend

Princess made a guest appearance on the platform at Dinas

I don't think I mentioned my new toy, the new larger monitor which you can see mounted on the camera in a couple of the pics above. It is connected to the cameras HDMI output and is really helpful in being able to see the whole picture easily, this allows me to be sure that I've framed the image properly and it also means it is easier to see what I am doing when panning the camera. We got it half price too as it was end of line.

Having been working on various other bits and pieces I uploaded a couple of high speed runs to YouTube which people seem to like, I've done the FR and the Port to Rhyd Ddu bit of the WHR. The second WHR section remains elusive although I have put the wheels in motion to get a special train run to shoot the remaining section with a Fairlie as the Garratt mounted camera was unwatchable.

FR HST

WHR HST

Prince has just had a an outing to Birkenhead which I didn't go to but my second unit - Mr Focus or Chris Parry as he is known sometimes took some nice shots on his DSLR stills camera. I've still to edit this but I'll pop it up on YouTube as soon as it is done, hopefully tomorrow.

Castles and parks dept

To paraphrase Arkwright 'its been a funny kind of week'. I've been out with the camera but I haven't been on the railway but I've been videoing our engines, nonetheless.

First of all I went to Penrhyn Castle, the National Trust owned stately home which was built by the Douglas-Pennant family who owned the Penrhyn Quarry (and much else besides). Hugh Napier is part of their collection and has recently returned there in the company of Princess. On Thursday, the quarry Hunslet was in light steam so it seemed a good day to go and have a look. I also got some footage of Charles, sat forlornly in his cage in their museum. They also have some other interesting exhibits relating to industrial railways, mostly local but not all.

 

To complete the story of the PQR I drove down onto the quayside at Port Penrhyn and grabbed a few shots of the old port buildings there. While I was shooting one of the port officials came over and asked what I was doing but he seemed happy when I explained.

 

Next I drove up to the quarry and got a few shots of the inside of the place as it is now. Although still a working quarry it also has a zip wire for people to zoom down you can drive up into the quarry to their car park and see enough for what I needed.

 

To finish off the days shoot I drove up into the hills behind the quarry where you can actually see Penrhyn Castle by the Menai Strait and the quarry at the same time.

I'm making a chapter for the Year in the life DVD about the locos on tour in August and this will be part of it but it seemed like a YouTube edit was a good idea and this is what follows.

Yesterday it was off to Shrewsbury where Prince has been hauling the Ashbury coach up and down 100 yds of track in the flower show. I was amazed at the number of people in the show and they all seemed to want a ride. Excellent publicity for the railway.

 

I took a lot of footage, if I didn't get what I wanted when I came to edit then it would be too late. I even clamped a camera onto the loco for a few different angles. I was delighted that while I was going round the show getting a few GVs (general views) I heard the band master announce that the brass band on the band stand were about to play 'Men of Harlech' so I videoed the whole tune and used it as a background for the whole package. It is just the right length and nicely atmospheric. Anyway you can decide for yourself because here is the very thing...

 



 

After rain... midges

It finally rained the other night so I decided that I'd go and get some footage of FR trains and their waterfalls. The most notable one being at Tanygrisiau where the line crosses over the Afon Cwmorthin. Unfortunately the tree growth over the last few years has meant that the falls and the train are virtually invisible from the road where you can get to video it. However I got a few shots around the area and a reasonable crack at the shot I went for... sort of. After the train passed I walked up above the line to get some shots of the falls from above.

 

What waterfall?

How do the car drivers know when to come past to knacker my shot?

I must come back on a sunny day and get this shot with a train in it

 

After that I drove down to TYB to one of my favourite locations on the FR, Creau bank. Because it is surrounded by trees it gets overlooked but it is pretty much as tall as Cae Mawr. The stream which passes under it has a wooden bridge over a waterfall and it is all in a very pretty little valley which leads down to Llyn Mair below.

 

It was a while before a train was due so I contented myself getting some pretty shots of the water and so on. I thought that there would be more water than there was but this area is always damp being in the temperate rainforest which the side valley with TYB in it creates.

 

 

 

This is a bit of a new thing, shot on my phone so you can see the camera set up

 

Anyway once the down and up trains has passed by, I went back to Port to pop an antihistamine pill and then edit and upload the following little package. I set the pictures to a tune called After Rain as this seemed appropriate. Some people have commented positively on this and others moan; it is impossible to please everyone all the time but most of these shots have very little natural soundtrack and it also allows me to use the shot at TYG which has the car passing in front of the camera which you see in the still picture.

 

Here is the video, I rather like it.

 



 

Quarry Hunslets are like busses.

Well, OK they aren't very like busses except that they seem to come along in groups in my life.

 

In this instance its King of the Scarlets, or is it? It seems that like most of the preserved locos in this and its related classes, all is not what it seems. Because of the way in which they were used and maintained in the quarries, boilers, frames and tanks all got swapped around to keep the fleet running. This one has Maid Marians frames I believe and the tank from a different one... any way we call it King of the Scarlets and now it has taken the space which Princess formerly occupied in Spooner's.

 



The process of getting her inside was pretty much the same, but in reverse of how we got Princess out.

The grubby state of the loco is explained by the fact that when she was sold in 1965 she went to Canada, was put into storage and stayed there until repatriated earlier this year. The paintwork had been slapped on before the sale in 1965 but otherwise she is in ex quarry condition. The dirt is what 50 years in a barn can do for you..

A bit of fresh timber wouldn't go amiss

 

Next year she will leave the bar and go to Stafold Barn for a careful restoration which will get her running but keep the work worn look of her.

 

You can see the video of the process here. It looks quick in the video but took all day.



Apart from that I've been out and about with the camera capturing the railways in the sunshine, just in case it doesn't last.

 

 

Today I popped out onto The Cob work site and got some up to date shots of the work, over the last week they have laid some track past the signal box which now has windows with glass in and everything. Plenty to do still.