View allAll Photos Tagged develop
85 New Housing On Rushbrook Lane With Minolta Dynax 7000i Camera With A Minolta 24mm F2.8 Lens Kodak Tri-X 400 ISO Film Developed In Ilford Ilfotec LC29 1+19 6-10-2025
Developing at home really showed me how photography is like an amazing sort of magic, organic and incredible act of nature and man.
Developed some software to remotely control (via a PDA) a server computer in a smart environment (e.g. conference room). This was part of research done in 2004 at the Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore, in the Context-Aware department. It relies on the EventHeap to control the remote machine.
real threasure for me...its super tank for 35, 127 and 120 film in one + thermometer:). From GAF corporation and made in N.Y. not in china like in this days:)
The Advanced Passenger Train (APT) was one of the most ambitious railway projects ever undertaken by British Rail. Developed during the 1960s and 1970s, it was intended to transform inter-city rail travel by allowing trains to run substantially faster around Britain's existing, often tightly curved railway lines. Rather than requiring the enormous expense of building entirely new high-speed routes, the APT would use active tilting technology to lean into curves, allowing higher speeds while maintaining passenger comfort. Its story encompasses remarkable engineering achievements, difficult industrial relations, financial and political pressures, technical problems and, ultimately, the cancellation of the project. Its technology nevertheless influenced later generations of high-speed trains, including Britain's own Class 91 and the Pendolino trains that eventually introduced tilting operation on the West Coast Main Line.
The origins of the APT can be traced to research into railway vehicle dynamics undertaken by British Rail during the 1960s. The work was particularly associated with the Railway Technical Centre at Derby, where engineers studied how railway vehicles behaved at high speed. The fundamental problem was straightforward: Britain's existing railway network contained numerous curves, many dating from the nineteenth century, which restricted the speed of conventional trains. Straightening the railway would require enormous expenditure, whereas a train capable of safely negotiating curves at higher speeds offered a potentially much cheaper solution.
The concept of tilting trains was therefore central to the project. An APT would detect the curvature of the track and actively tilt its passenger vehicles into the curve. This reduced the sideways forces experienced by passengers and allowed the train to travel around curves substantially faster than a conventional train. British Rail envisaged speeds through curves approximately 20–40 percent higher than those possible with conventional trains.
The first major stage was the APT-E, meaning Advanced Passenger Train–Experimental. Built by British Rail's Research Division at Derby, this was a four-car articulated experimental train consisting of two power cars and two trailer cars. It was not intended to carry ordinary passengers; instead, it was essentially a mobile laboratory for investigating the technologies required for the eventual passenger train.
APT-E was powered by gas turbines, an unusual choice for a British train. Each power car contained gas-turbine equipment derived from British Leyland technology. The train incorporated articulated bogies, active tilting, advanced suspension, sophisticated braking and lightweight aluminium-alloy construction. It was intended to explore virtually every major technological problem that would have to be solved before a practical high-speed tilting train could be produced.
APT-E made its first proving run on 25 July 1972. Testing subsequently demonstrated that the concept could deliver extraordinary performance. On 10 August 1975, APT-E reached 152.3 mph, establishing a British speed record for non-electric traction. Two months later, it covered the 99 miles between London St Pancras and Leicester in just 58½ minutes, averaging approximately 101 mph over the route. The experiment therefore demonstrated that a train could achieve dramatically higher average speeds without requiring an entirely new railway.
The gas-turbine concept was ultimately abandoned. The fuel crisis of the 1970s made turbine-powered trains much less attractive economically, while the successful electrification of the West Coast Main Line provided a strong case for developing an electric version. The project consequently moved towards the APT-P, the Prototype Advanced Passenger Train.
The APT-P was intended for actual passenger operation and was specifically designed around the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Glasgow Central. The route was ideal for testing the concept because it was already electrified but contained numerous curves that limited conventional train speeds. APT could exploit its tilting technology to shorten journey times without requiring wholesale reconstruction of the railway.
Three APT-P trainsets were authorised, producing six train units in total. They were constructed by British Rail Engineering Limited at Derby between the late 1970s and 1980. The trains were classified under the TOPS system as Class 370. Their unusual formation placed powered vehicles in the centre of each train, with articulated passenger vehicles extending towards the driving ends. The complete train could comprise two coupled units.
The APT-P was unveiled to the public on 7 June 1978. It represented an extraordinarily advanced train for its time. Its features included active tilting, articulated vehicles, powerful electric traction, sophisticated braking systems and a high degree of computerised control. British Rail intended the trains eventually to operate at up to 125 mph, with a target journey time between London and Glasgow of approximately four hours ten minutes.
Crewe became particularly important to the APT programme because of its position on the West Coast Main Line. The prototype trains were allocated between Glasgow Shields Electric Traction Depot and Crewe Electric Traction Depot, and Crewe became one of the principal locations associated with their testing and operation. The surviving APT-P vehicles at Crewe Heritage Centre are consequently an especially important part of Crewe's railway heritage.
The transition from engineering prototype to passenger service proved extremely difficult. The APT-P contained numerous technologies that had never previously been integrated into a single British railway train. Engineers had to make the tilting system, suspension, braking, traction equipment, control systems and passenger environment work reliably together. Problems with the tilting system and other equipment delayed the programme, while the pressure to demonstrate the train publicly increased.
One of the most controversial features was the tilting system itself. The train could lean into curves, but the system had to work smoothly and reliably while remaining imperceptible and comfortable to passengers. The technology was revolutionary, but the combination of new control systems and unfamiliar passenger sensations created problems during testing.
There were also difficulties with the hydrokinetic braking system, which was an important part of the APT's high-speed operation. The train needed to be capable of stopping safely from much higher speeds than conventional trains, while its braking system had to work reliably in conjunction with the conventional friction brakes. The APT's braking technology was technically sophisticated but contributed to the difficulties encountered during the programme.
The problems were compounded by the decision to introduce the APT-P into passenger service before the design had reached the maturity originally envisaged. The first passenger services eventually began in December 1981, operating between London Euston and Glasgow. The launch was heavily publicised, but technical problems caused cancellations and delays, and the trains did not perform with the reliability expected of a mature passenger service.
The press reaction was particularly damaging. The APT had been presented as the future of British railway travel, so its problems attracted enormous publicity. Passengers experienced faults and delays, while the tilting system was unfamiliar to some travellers. The project's reputation consequently deteriorated rapidly.
There is an important distinction between the engineering potential of APT and the circumstances surrounding its introduction. The project is often remembered simply as a technological failure, but that description is misleading. The experimental programme had demonstrated genuine high-speed capability, and many of the technologies developed for APT subsequently became fundamental to successful high-speed trains. The failure was substantially one of development, timing, funding, industrial and political circumstances, and the decision to introduce an immature system into passenger service under intense public scrutiny.
By the early 1980s British Rail was also developing other high-speed technologies. The High Speed Train (HST) had already demonstrated the commercial potential of 125 mph inter-city travel, while the East Coast Main Line was moving towards electrification and the development of the Class 91 and Mk4 trainsets. These competing programmes reduced the political and commercial imperative to continue the increasingly troubled APT project.
The APT-P passenger experiment was consequently short-lived. The trains were withdrawn from passenger operation, although individual vehicles continued to be used for technical research. Development work continued for a period because British Rail still recognised the value of the technology, but the original vision of an APT fleet operating throughout the inter-city network was abandoned. The remaining prototype trains were ultimately withdrawn in the mid-1980s. Crewe Heritage Centre records the APT-P as having continued in testing until 1986.
The cancellation was a major disappointment for British railway engineers, particularly because the underlying technology had been so advanced. Yet the project did not simply disappear. APT research contributed directly to subsequent British railway developments, particularly high-speed electric traction and tilting technology.
One of the clearest beneficiaries was the British Rail Class 91. The Class 91 locomotives, developed for the East Coast Main Line, incorporated technology derived from the APT programme. The Mk4 coaches developed for InterCity 225 services also benefited from knowledge gained during APT development. The East Coast Main Line consequently received a successful high-speed electric system that incorporated lessons learned from the earlier experimental programme.
The APT's influence eventually extended beyond Britain. The technology and intellectual work surrounding active tilting helped demonstrate that high-speed operation on existing curving railways was practical. Later successful tilting trains, particularly the Pendolino, adopted the fundamental concept and refined it with modern technology. When Pendolinos eventually entered service on the West Coast Main Line in the 2000s, they effectively achieved part of the objective that APT had pursued decades earlier.
This makes the history particularly ironic. The West Coast Main Line was the railway for which APT had originally been developed, yet the trains that ultimately provided widespread tilting passenger service there were not British Rail APTs but Alstom Class 390 Pendolinos. The Pendolino technology demonstrated that the basic idea behind APT was sound even though the original British project had failed to achieve operational maturity.
The surviving APT vehicles provide an unusually tangible reminder of this history. APT-E is preserved at Locomotion in Shildon as part of the National Railway Collection. It was delivered to the National Railway Museum on 11 June 1976 after completing 23,559 miles of testing over 225 running days.
Several APT-P vehicles survive at Crewe Heritage Centre. Their presence is especially appropriate because Crewe was one of the major railway centres through which the prototype trains operated. The surviving vehicles allow visitors to see the unusual articulated construction, central power cars and passenger accommodation of a train that was intended to revolutionise the West Coast Main Line.
The APT's significance has subsequently been recognised by the engineering profession. APT-E received an Institution of Mechanical Engineers Engineering Heritage Award in 2013. The award recognised it as the world's first self-propelled active tilting train and noted its pioneering work in computer-designed wheelsets and active suspension.
The project also deserves recognition for the sheer ambition of what British Rail attempted. Engineers were trying to create a train that could run substantially faster on existing infrastructure, negotiate curves at dramatically higher speeds, maintain passenger comfort, brake safely from high speed and operate economically. They were attempting to achieve this with technologies that were at the very frontier of railway engineering in the 1970s.
The APT was therefore not simply a failed train. It was a research and development programme whose most visible prototype failed to become a production fleet, while many of its ideas succeeded elsewhere. Its experimental gas-turbine train established remarkable performance records; its electric prototype demonstrated the practical potential of active tilting; its research influenced later high-speed electric trains; and its basic concept eventually became commonplace in tilting trains around the world.
For Crewe, the APT has a particularly strong significance. Crewe's railway history began with the Grand Junction Railway in 1837 and developed through locomotive manufacture, steam, diesel and electric traction. The APT represents another stage in that story: the attempt to make Britain's existing railway infrastructure perform like a new high-speed railway without rebuilding it from scratch.
The surviving APT-P vehicles at Crewe Heritage Centre consequently represent far more than an unsuccessful British Rail experiment. They embody a period when British engineers were attempting to solve one of the fundamental problems of railway transportation: how to make trains substantially faster without replacing the railway itself. The project ultimately failed as a commercial passenger train, but its ideas survived. Modern tilting trains operating around the world are, in part, descendants of the technology developed during Britain's extraordinary Advanced Passenger Train programme.
So after using it a few times, here are my thoughts:
The picture taken was developed in it also.
I bought it because I love gadgets and I liked the idea of temperature compensation.
The first time I used it, my reaction was "meh". Mostly because I focused on the negatives of it. Temp compensation for the blix? Odd. It wanted me to use it for the rinse cycle? Not just odd, but wrong.
It wasn't until the second and third time, I started to really enjoy not paying attention to the time.
I no longer needed to time my developing and turn a knob every 30 seconds. I a also like the idea of using less chemicals to process the same film. (300 - 350ml for two rolls instead of 800ml or so when doing black and white).
I also used the computer and made a few custom programs for the black and white film I use.
I didn't love it at first, but now I can't imagine not having it.
Camera: Nikon F90X
Film: 35mm Kodak Ultramax
ISO: 400
Self Developed in C41 using the AGO
Scanned with Epson v600
On December 24, 2024, I picked up my venerable Leica M3 year 1956 (see below for details) for a photowalk in Lyon city, France. I went to Fourvière, enjoying a not too cold (6°C) and clear sunny weather.
My Leica was loaded with a 36-exposure Ilford HP5+ film. I equipped the Summicron 2/5cm lens with a Hoya HMC AUV screw-on 39mm protective filter plus the Leitz shade hood for all indoor scenes, and outdoor I mounted a push-on 42mm FOCA (France) Yellow x2.5 filter and a generic cylindrical stainless steel hood that, unfortunately, induced some vignette if not perfectly aligned, that should be corrected during the processing). I should find a 39mm screw-on filter more safe to use with my Summicron 2/5cm,
Expositions were determined for the indicated 400 ISO (28 DIN) using an Autometer III Minolta light meter fitted with a 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the shadow areas and erected for the filter absorption if any.
The outside temperature was about 6°C with a bright sunny weather in the afternoon. Typically exposures outdoor were made at 1/250s with apertures ranging from f/8 to 11 and 1/50s or 1/25s at full aperture f/2 or f/2.8 indoor.
Documentary smartphone picture
My Leica fitted with a FOCA yellow filter and a Genaro stainless steel hood (not recommended causing some possible vignette)
December 24, 2024
69005 Lyon
France
After exposure, the film was processed in Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developper at dilution 1+25 and 20°C for 6 min. The film was then digitized using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were processed without intermediate files in LR and edited to the final jpeg pictures. All views of the film are presented in the dedicated album either in the printed framed versions and unframed full-size jpeg accompanied by some documentary smartphone Vivio Y76 color pictures.
About the camera and the lens :
This Leica M3 circa 1956 (Ref. Leitz ISUMO), double stroke, was sold to me with a Leitz Wetzlar Summicron collapsible normal lens 1:2 f=5cm of the same period equipped with a 39mm screw-on protective filter, a 42mm push-on Leica lens cap and an original Leitz shade hood (Ref. Leitz IROOA).
The camera was serviced in Paris, France, in 2018 by Gérard Métrot at Photo-Suffren, (a Leica boutique) who worked on the maintenance of camera's of famous French photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau. The camera was inspected by Odéon-Photo, Paris, another historic Leica place in Paris, in April 2024.
I sourced at the same time in Germany a stunning Leitz Leica leather bag (Ref; Leitz IDCOO) of the same model that appeared on the back cover page go the Leica brochure year 1954. This bag can accommodate the camera and a mounted Leica-Meter type M. The interior in covered with a carmin velvet in perfect condition.
The Leica M3 is one of the most iconic range-finder 35mm camera of the 50's and the 60's. It was produced in Wetzlar, Germany, in different versions at 226178 exemplars, between 1954 (n° 700000) and 1966 (n° 1164865, www.summilux.net/materiel/Leica-M3) . The Leica M3 was the result of the study of a "super-Leica" that was started before WWII and only achieved in the 50'S.
The greater improvement of the M3 compared the classical Leica's was in a magnificent and very complex range-finder combined to the view finder permitting the framing with the two eyes open, integrating the frame in the real and normal vision. The shutter integrates too the normal and the slow speeds in the same barillet. The film advance of this version of Leica M3 is also the typical "double-stroke" advance that was exclusive to the Leica M3 first versions.
The camera was transported to me from Paris to Lyon, France on April 26, 2024 and the bag arrived the day after.
When born a baby has all working senses, but they still need to be developed. Follow the link to learn how developachild.net/how-to-develop-senses/