Image Stacking

I've been playing with my camera again!  One frustration I have in photographing all my little trains is the shallow depth of field one always gets with n scale. So, today I made a small project of going the other way, and the result is the image above.

The locomotive is a Dapol LNER B1.  I'm not really blown away with it's running properties but I'm reserving judgement till I've given it more of a chance.  Right now major landscaping work is underway on the JaggyBahn and the track conditions are poor, so a full review is a long ways off.  Anyhow, the image you see here is a stacked composite of 5 images, each taken with slightly different focus at a set aperture.

Full size image here.

Gear: Canon 60D, 100mm macro lens, F11, 1"3, 400 ISO, small tripod, Zerene Stacker software.

So obviously it's still not perfect, some areas are a bit soft and the dust (which was invisible to the naked eye) looks terrible.   For my next attempt I'll go with perhaps 20 exposures and computer control to focus the lens.

Minitrix 12619: BR Class 58

This was a Christmas present from my wife in 2010.  It is a very smooth performer, one of my best running locomotives.   It starts very reliably and can crawl along with the best of them. The DCC install was a very simple plug and play job, once some small screws are located under the tender.  The headlights are under powered, it is hard to see the illumination, even in a dark environment.  The rear lights are very clear however.  I did contemplate opening this up and looking for trouble with the front lights but all the mechanism is in the boiler, (the tender houses the decoder only), so I decided not to press my luck.  The parts diagram makes clear that there's an awful lot going on in there. and this is no simple plastic shell diesel body.  If you look back a few posts you'll see a silly video I made in which this engine is featured prominently.  

The German class 58 was built in 1920, taken out of service in 1953.  It does not really belong on my Swiss layout, but it'f of the right period and region so it's not too far off either.  


The manufacturer says: Locomotive and tender made of diecast metal. High efficiency motor with flywheel. Close coupling between locomotive and tender. Motor and gear drive in the boiler. Digital connection in tender.  5 axles powered through side rods, 2 traction tires.

The allure of HO

Sometimes HO really rubs it in.  Sure, going HO would have meant everything would br really compressed, and I'd not get long runs, and probably only have a single mainline and no real sense of travel, but then something comes along and reminds me what I'm not getting in N.   I'm not getting the crazy level of detail, I'm not getting the big sturdy models, the larger selection, and most annoyingly, the really cool new bleeding edge tech like dynamic steam.  Check out the video below.  Note that the steam comes from the pistons, not just the stack.  Then take a deep breath, because this is a $700 toy!

Updated the video link.