Project Welsh Pony: Progress Report

Time for a bit of an update on another project, the long-exposure railway shoot which spawned out of the "Inter-City" series I did for the South Square open call last year.  The plan this time is to have a train in the shots, with a camera rig moving at the same speed (so the train will appear fully focused and 'frozen' in a blurred landscape).  I'm also planning to do some passing-by shots, replicating the sorts of pics I sometimes do from the lineside with real trains. 

I've tentatively set a shoot in October for this, to give me a deadline to work towards, at least for the concept pics, and this has given me a list of things required- the locomotive "Welsh Pony", a short train which can be illuminated for night-time shots, and a length of track.

When I did the Britannia Model Village project the track was "Triang Big-Big" O gauge track sprayed brown and badly hot-glued to lengths of wood.  By "Intercity" a slightly more elegant solution was attempted, with semi-permanent lenghts of track ballasted with small bits of garden gravel; looked better, but the gravel went bloody everywhere.  This time I needed a better solution that was more portable, looked more realistic, but which was more robust too. 

It was planned to keep this project both easily storable and transportable by having it fit into a couple of delivery crates from work, which dictated the lengths of the track to no more than 44cm.  Toy train track from various cheapo sets was glued onto bits of reclaimed wooden planking, which was in turn attached to a hardboard base.  To join the tracks together on shoots, short bits of plywood were placed underneath, with holes drilled to accept coach bolts and wingnuts.

Seen above is almost the entire available track- its not much, but it doesn't need to be for the concept shots... if they work out as planned, I can make a bit more for the main shoots.

In an attempt to disguise the track going off-scene, I'm using a model railway technique and having track curving off under a bridge (loosely based on a bridge on the Welsh Highland Railway that I use for one my regular photography locations).  It doesn't need to be massively detailed, as its going to be a blurry background item, hence why its cobbled together from cardboard and bits of scrap wood.  Hopefully when its plastered up with other detailing, it wont look quite so basic.  Again, it will do for the concept shots.

To disguise the edges of the track boards, I glued on lengths of sloped card (mountboard)...

...and then did another trick from the later stages of the Model Village project, and glued on strips of hanging basket liner as grass...  More detaililng required soon, but its getting there.

 

A quick progress report on "Welsh Pony", the main bodywork is done- detailing parts left to fabricate include the distinctive front handrail (which is an annoyingly fiddly shape), a working headlamp, and a couple of other odds and ends.  The chassis also needs some attention to raise the ride-height slightly, then its time to paint it up.