At last I have finished No 2002 Earl Marischal and uploaded it. I'm quite pleased with it as it was a locomotive that I wanted to illustrate for some time.
The Silver Jubilee coaching stock has now been changed (or most of it) to show the coach ID letters in blue.
After receiving an interesting email I am mulling over the possibilities of including end and rear views. I think that I'll publish one or two and see how it goes.
Tata
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Catch Up
I haven't posted anything for quite a while, I notice. I wasn't sure if this blog thing was a good idea. Any way, I'll try it again for a while.
I'm still staggered at the number of hits that I'm getting on the site - nearly 45000 in 7 months. This relates to over 15000 visitors from all over the world. When I started to produce the illustrations I did it purely for me. We've all seen lots of black and white photos which don't bring out the grandeur of the locomotives while coaches - well, they're just coaches. But put them into colour and that's a whole new ballgame. So I shared them by creating a website and I'm glad that I did.
There will be errors, of course, bound to be if one is trying to interpret a verbal description of a colour from 50 or 100 years ago. Thank goodness some clever people collated lots of information at the time before it was all lost.
Since the last post there have been quite a few changes. The 1937 LMS Coronation Scot is now posted together a page showing the whole train. I've numbered them from one set only but, in fact, there were three sets all with different numbers of course, but the sets were identical.
The NBR is at last represented with a Reid Atlantic. I had a lot of trouble deciding on the colour for this one, in fact, according what I read, the NBR had the same trouble at the time.
Others include No 2510 Quicksilver, 46228 Duchess of Rutland, a Raven Pacific, etc. And so it goes. LNER No 2002 Earl Marischal should be posted this week.
A bit of a controversy regarding the colour of the identity letters carried on the Silver Jubilee coaches. I have always been sure that they were stainless steel and about 10ins in height. Harris (Gresley's Coaches) states that they were blue in colour and only 4ins high. Recently I had a mail from Nick Campling who tells of a conversation with the paint shop foreman at Doncaster who was in the paint shop at the time of the construction of the coaches. The foreman stated that the letters were, in blue, a cobalt blue. This would about RGB 30-0-163 or #2700A3 on a monitor set to 2.2gamma at 6500K. This is obviously good provenance and my illustrations of the letters on the Silver Jubilee coaches will be amended accordingly.
Enough for now. Regards
I'm still staggered at the number of hits that I'm getting on the site - nearly 45000 in 7 months. This relates to over 15000 visitors from all over the world. When I started to produce the illustrations I did it purely for me. We've all seen lots of black and white photos which don't bring out the grandeur of the locomotives while coaches - well, they're just coaches. But put them into colour and that's a whole new ballgame. So I shared them by creating a website and I'm glad that I did.
There will be errors, of course, bound to be if one is trying to interpret a verbal description of a colour from 50 or 100 years ago. Thank goodness some clever people collated lots of information at the time before it was all lost.
Since the last post there have been quite a few changes. The 1937 LMS Coronation Scot is now posted together a page showing the whole train. I've numbered them from one set only but, in fact, there were three sets all with different numbers of course, but the sets were identical.
The NBR is at last represented with a Reid Atlantic. I had a lot of trouble deciding on the colour for this one, in fact, according what I read, the NBR had the same trouble at the time.
Others include No 2510 Quicksilver, 46228 Duchess of Rutland, a Raven Pacific, etc. And so it goes. LNER No 2002 Earl Marischal should be posted this week.
A bit of a controversy regarding the colour of the identity letters carried on the Silver Jubilee coaches. I have always been sure that they were stainless steel and about 10ins in height. Harris (Gresley's Coaches) states that they were blue in colour and only 4ins high. Recently I had a mail from Nick Campling who tells of a conversation with the paint shop foreman at Doncaster who was in the paint shop at the time of the construction of the coaches. The foreman stated that the letters were, in blue, a cobalt blue. This would about RGB 30-0-163 or #2700A3 on a monitor set to 2.2gamma at 6500K. This is obviously good provenance and my illustrations of the letters on the Silver Jubilee coaches will be amended accordingly.
Enough for now. Regards
Sunday, 5 July 2009
North British Railway (NBR)
It's about time that I added an illustration or two to the NBR section. The problem is that the liveries are confusing, to say the least. E F Carter's book gives some information but even that (usually my mainstay) is less than clear in areas. So, if anyone has any information or leads that I can use please mail me at - mail@elegantsteam.com.
Opera Browser
I downloaded Opera Browser tonight. Anyone who runs a web site needs to know how that site will look like on different browsers. I knew that while Internet Explorer and Firefox are the most popular browsers that my visitors use and handle the site well I noted that Opera is the third most popular. So I downloaded it and tried it out. The interface was rather different, of course, but there was no steep learning curve. Two features that stand out are the Speed Dial and the Magnify tools. These I will use when testing - very useful indeed. Anyway the site looks good on Opera so there we are - another useful tool.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Visitors
Elegant Steam (www.elegantsteam.com) has now been on the net for 5 weeks and in that time it has received over 4000 visitors. Amazing!!! When I first started it I thought that there would be a small interest but the sheer number of visitors is rather astounding. The site is non commercial butI have to admit that I have wondered that if I produced colour prints, say, in A3 size, what would be the reaction ? I have to say at this point that I am not thinking of going commercial. My illustrations are really for my own enjoyment and if someone likes them as well, that's great.
Have you ever had the aggravation of waiting for something to happen and it doesn't? I'm at that stage at the moment. Living in Southern Spain with a wife and two siamese cats means that any books I need have to be sent for from UK (sometime USA). Usually they arrive in a week but, right now, I'm waiting for two books on Pullman cars in order to finish an illustration of a 6PUL composite diner. And I'm still waiting !!
Today I added a Google translator to a few pages on the site. I tried it out in preview and it seemed to work OK when translating into Spanish. I just that it will do the same when translating into other languages. We'll see.
Have you ever had the aggravation of waiting for something to happen and it doesn't? I'm at that stage at the moment. Living in Southern Spain with a wife and two siamese cats means that any books I need have to be sent for from UK (sometime USA). Usually they arrive in a week but, right now, I'm waiting for two books on Pullman cars in order to finish an illustration of a 6PUL composite diner. And I'm still waiting !!
Today I added a Google translator to a few pages on the site. I tried it out in preview and it seemed to work OK when translating into Spanish. I just that it will do the same when translating into other languages. We'll see.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Streamlined Trains
I started my web site - www.elegantsteam.com - only 5 weeks ago and can't get over the surprise of seeing so many hits, over 2100, on what is, after all, only of interest to steam railway enthusiasts. British ones at that. Analysing the stats tells me that the LNER is currently the most popular and, digging deeper, I find that the streamlined trains, ie, the Coronation, the West Riding Ltd and the Silver Jubilee, take pole position for viewing.
I don't find this altogether too surprising as I, too, have always been fascinated by them. The sheer glamour and bezazz of these trains can only bring out "Wow" sounds. This reaction can only be got from photographs, eyewitness acounts and the few films that are available for most people but for me ? A bit different as I saw the West Riding Ltd on several occasions when I was but a boy. Even at that young age I was speechless at the sight of this magnificent blue train and wanted to see it again and again. Of course, I was in love with the A3's and all the A4's, but that blue train !! The nonchalance of the driver as he leaned out his cab talking with my Dad, the huge bulk of the blue A4 locomotive. Memories such as these tend to be burned into one's brain so that it was as yesterday.
However, currently I'm working on the Silver Jubilee set. As will be seen on the site I already have Coach A. I'm now working on Coach C, an all first open. I think that I have the grey sides slightly better than those published so I'll probably rework Coach A.
Another project, still in planning, is the LMS 1939 Coronation Scot set in red and gold. The coach sets were definitely one-offs and need some research before I put pen to tablet.
That's it for today. Keep visiting and I hope that you enjoy. I don't get much feedback, negative or positive, so I must be doing something right!
Brown Jack
I don't find this altogether too surprising as I, too, have always been fascinated by them. The sheer glamour and bezazz of these trains can only bring out "Wow" sounds. This reaction can only be got from photographs, eyewitness acounts and the few films that are available for most people but for me ? A bit different as I saw the West Riding Ltd on several occasions when I was but a boy. Even at that young age I was speechless at the sight of this magnificent blue train and wanted to see it again and again. Of course, I was in love with the A3's and all the A4's, but that blue train !! The nonchalance of the driver as he leaned out his cab talking with my Dad, the huge bulk of the blue A4 locomotive. Memories such as these tend to be burned into one's brain so that it was as yesterday.
However, currently I'm working on the Silver Jubilee set. As will be seen on the site I already have Coach A. I'm now working on Coach C, an all first open. I think that I have the grey sides slightly better than those published so I'll probably rework Coach A.
Another project, still in planning, is the LMS 1939 Coronation Scot set in red and gold. The coach sets were definitely one-offs and need some research before I put pen to tablet.
That's it for today. Keep visiting and I hope that you enjoy. I don't get much feedback, negative or positive, so I must be doing something right!
Brown Jack
Friday, 29 May 2009
Thoughts on my Web Site
When I started my web site at - www.elegantsteam.com - I thought that a few people would visit to gaze at their favourite locomotives and think of times long ago when they were much younger and the magnificent machines would represent going somewhere different, for some people anywhere different. That might still be the case but if it is then there are a lot of folks who want something different in their lives. In these troubled times I don't blame them.
Back to the point - Nearly 150 people have visited my web site over the last three days. I am amazed. I don't rate myself as a top notch illustrator and I'm not. However I have to say I'm pleased with my results so far. If I'm not happy with an illustration then I bin it and start again.
So - Thanks to all those that visit and I hope that they bring back happy memories.
Back to the point - Nearly 150 people have visited my web site over the last three days. I am amazed. I don't rate myself as a top notch illustrator and I'm not. However I have to say I'm pleased with my results so far. If I'm not happy with an illustration then I bin it and start again.
So - Thanks to all those that visit and I hope that they bring back happy memories.
Monday, 23 March 2009
And in the beginning
It's taken a long time to to get up the ?? courage to start this blog and I'm still not sure why I've done it. Anyway, it's done now and I'll just have to see what happens. I have views like anyone on lots of things. Don't we all ? Some, of course, are best kept to ones self, but there is a lot of good stuff to share, I'm sure.
One thing that I notice already - I will have to keep an eye on my grammar. It's the only way, I think, to make sure that I say what I mean. God knows I have much trouble in getting to grips with Spanish grammar without making a hash in my own language.
So - today is the start. Let's see how it goes.
Tata
Brown Jack
One thing that I notice already - I will have to keep an eye on my grammar. It's the only way, I think, to make sure that I say what I mean. God knows I have much trouble in getting to grips with Spanish grammar without making a hash in my own language.
So - today is the start. Let's see how it goes.
Tata
Brown Jack
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