3D Photograph Collection

Pendon are pioneers of 3D scale model photography

As well as their visual interest, these photographs illustrate the craftsmanship of Pendon modellers in ways that aren't readily apparent during a museum visit.

The photographer, Paul Ellis, developed at Pendon the specialised techniques he uses to create 3D images of scale models.

The first set of photographs, the '2018 Series' were published by BRM magazine in early 2018.

The '2019 Series' is a later set published by BRM in Autumn 2018.

The 'Mega Panorama' was first shown at The London Festival of Railway Modelling in March 2019.

Viewing the 3D photographs

You need anaglyph 3D glasses to view the photos. They can be obtained from Amazon. Search for 'anaglyph 3D glasses' where you will find several options from around £2.00 per pair. Anaglyph glasses are the ones with one red and one blue lens. Friends of Pendon can obtain a pair from the Friends Secretary.

When you view the photos, put on the anaglyph 3D glasses and give your eyes a moment or two to acclimatise. The thumbnails expand to full size when you tap or click them.

'2018 Series' Photographs

These photographs were exhibited at Pendon over New Year and Easter 2018.

Goods Train through The Vale: The GWR mogul locomotive, leading its goods train west through the Vale of White Horse, has just emerged from the tunnel under the chalk downs and is held at a signal in Pendon Parva Station. Just west of the station the route divides, with one main line leading to Oxford and the other to Bristol. Technical: 130mm f/22 0.3 sec, 16 images/stack,30mm baseline, ISO 400.
GWR Class 4300 No. 8350: Heading a goods train is 2-6-0 loco which was built in Swindon in 1918 and was one of 342 of these successful George Jackson Churchward ‘Mogul’ mixed traffic engines produced between 1911 and 1932. 8350 was first numbered 5350 but was one of 65 renumbered when modified to better cope with sharp track curves. They later reverted to their original design and numbers. This example was withdrawn in 1959. Technical: 500mm f/8 1/4 sec, 25 images/stack,10mm baseline, ISO 400.
The Harrow Inn: The Harrow Inn is busy with people arriving on foot, by car and by cycle, and with drinkers outside enjoying the good weather. The pub, still busy today, is the largest in Wanborough, Wiltshire. It has long traded as an inn and parts of the Grade II listed building date back to 1747. Technical: 85mm f/16 1/6 sec, 28 images/stack, 30mm baseline, ISO 400.
The Bullnose Morris: A Morris ‘Bullnose’ Oxford four seat tourer sits proudly on its artillery wheels whilst the owner takes refreshment in the Harrow Inn. Variants of this model were made at the Morris factory in Oxford from 1913 to 1926; it was a successful model with in excess of 150,000 produced. Technical: 85mm+12mm ext f/16 1/6 sec, 25 images/stack,10mm baseline, ISO 400.
The Tandem: Parked outside the Harrow Inn is a trusty tandem cycle. It’s ideal transport for going to the pub where, on a lovely day like this, the riders can to sit outside and enjoy a ploughman’s lunch with pints of beer. Not too much beer though- on a tandem we don’t want disagreements as to the best way home! There are many cycles in Pendon, tiny in scale and impressive in detail. This model is only 12mm tall. Technical: 85mm f/16 0.3 sec, 26 images/stack, 20mm baseline, ISO 400.
The Tiler: Here he is, working away re-tiling at Finch Hill in The City. ‘Not all new tiles, of course. Got to make do and mend. After all, it’s only a shed- even if it has got to be weatherproof.’ The owner’s chatting away to a neighbour by his front gate. Technical: 50mm f/16 0.4 sec, 5 images/stack, 35mm baseline, ISO 400.
Upper Mill: Upper Mill and the Miller’s House are reflected in the tranquil mill pond. Outside is a GWR ‘Express Cartage’ Thorneycroft truck collecting the miller’s sacks. The mill, situated in Kingstone Winslow, Ashbury, Oxfordshire, was in use as a mill until the 1940s. It is now a Grade II listed house. When being modernised in 1964 a builder’s stone plaque bearing the carving ‘I&W I&N 1792’ was discovered. Technical: 50mm f/22 0.5 sec, single images, 35mm baseline, ISO 400.
Duck's Stores: Duck’s, formally Croft’s and Wickens’ Stores has proudly served the village since 19c. This model, made by Stephen Williams and completed in 2012, has, like all Pendon models, been painstakingly constructed; for instance the extensive roofs have approximately 31,000 tiles, each one individually painted and carefully weathered. The prototype is still a village store- ‘Hendred Stores’ in East Hendred, Oxfordshire. Technical: 50mm f/16 1/4 sec, 8 images/stack, 15mm baseline, ISO 400.
The Grocer’s Shop: The shop, with its wooden barn close by, is well established in the village. The prototype is on the main street in Upper Wanborough in Wiltshire. With possibly 16c origins the building has long corridors which may at one time have been used for spinning lengths of rope. At one time it was an inn known as ‘The Ship’ Technical: 50mm f/22 0.3 sec, 20 images/stack, 10mm baseline, ISO 400.
Priory Cottages: There are 3 cottages in this Pendon model. The original building is on The Causeway at Steventon, Oxfordshire and was a 14c Manor House which became a grange served by monks of the Abbey of Bec in Normandy. Ownership passed from the church and later it was leased to tenants and used as 5 cottages. The building is now divided into 3 houses, 2 of which, one containing a great hall, were gifted to the National Trust in 1939. Technical: 15mm f/16 1/5 sec handheld, single images, 65mm baseline., ISO 400.
The Carpenter’s Arms: The pub is adjacent to the Marsh Lane crossing on the main GWR London to Oxford railway line and to a now abandoned canal. The original is in South Marston, Wiltshire. A Georgian building, it was a beer house that Arkell’s Kingsdown Brewery bought in 1881. It is close to the London to Bristol railway line. Technical: 85mm f/16 0.4 sec, 26 images/stack, 15mm baseline, ISO 400.
Pendon Parva Railway Station: This GWR station on the London to Bristol and Oxford main lines is served by an original design footbridge and surrounded by goods yard, sidings, and other railway buildings. Adjacent is an hotel, houses and a coal merchant’s. The model is based on Culham Railway Station in Oxfordshire on the London to Oxford main line and is still in use today although the Grade II listed Brunel designed building is now used for non-railways purposes. Technical: 85mm f/16 0.4 sec, 20 images/stack, 35mm baseline, ISO 400.

'2019 Series' Photographs

A selection of these 3D photographs were exhibited at Pendon over Easter 2019.

Pen Tor Road Branch Line. The auto train engine, a GWR 0-4-2T 4800 class, number 4837, simmers quietly as it waits for passengers from a stopping train on the main line platform, which is just out of the picture to the right. The train entering the down platform is the workmen’s train about to pick up some of the staff who work in the dockyard at Porthkerrick. The engine is a GWR 633 class 0-6-0T, number 638; it was built in 1872. Technical: 18mm f/8 0.5sec 31 images/stack 25mm baseline ISO 200
Pen Tor Mainline Station. In charge of the Up Cornish Riviera is GWR 6000 or King class 4-6-0 locomotive ‘King Henry VIII’, number 6013, as it speeds through Pen Tor Road station on its way to Paddington via Bristol. Coming into the station on the Down line is GWR Duke class 4-4-0 ‘Mounts Bay’ number 3273 with an all stations stopper from Exeter to Plymouth. The Main Line station building comes from Ivybridge and the footbridge, from Saltash, has glazed sides so as to protect passengers from the strong sea winds. Technical: 18mm f/5.6 0.4sec 20 images/stack 5mm baseline ISO 200
The Doctor Calls at Godfrey’s. ‘Godfreys’ is a row of timber framed cottages on The Causeway at Steventon in Oxfordshire and were at one time part of a farm owned by the Godfrey family. Next door are Priory Cottages which featured in the previous BRM ‘Pendon in 3D’ supplement. The doctor is making a house call at Godfreys, using his modest open top car- an Austin Seven ‘Chummy’. The car’s headlights are on top of the scuttle, showing it was made before 1927 when the lights began to be installed on the front wings. The car originated in Kent; the number plate, JG 7749, is a Canterbury registration. Technical: 150mm f/11 0.5sec 29 images/stack 15mm baseline ISO 200
Excursion Train on Dartmoor Viaduct. A GWR 43xx class Mogul, number 8350, is in charge of an excursion train as it makes its way over the viaduct towards Porthkerrick, taking passengers to the coast. Technical: 21mm f/8 0.3sec 21 images/stack 20mm baseline ISO 200
Fishing from the Bridge. An idyllic scene that captures a lazy sunlit summer day in rural England in the 1930s, with children playing and fishing for minnows in a chalk stream at West Hendred. This model, which can be viewed beyond the Carpenter’s Arms and Railway Level Crossing in the Vale, perfectly captures the scene and mood and derives from an original photograph and careful measurement of the stone bridge. Technical: 250mm f/16 0.6sec 126 images/stack 60mm baseline ISO 400
Goods & Breakdown Trains. The breakdown train with 0-6-0T number 856 in charge trundles past Pendon Parva Signal Box and takes the Bristol line whilst GWR 0-6-0T class 1854 locomotive number 1751 leads its Up Oxford to Reading Transfer Goods train eastwards. Technical: 150mm f/11 1/4sec 23 images/stack 25mm baseline ISO 200
Old Meets New. As horse transport began to give way to motor vehicles a new opportunity presented itself to go-ahead blacksmiths and others who turned their hands to catering for the motorist. Here we have Saxel’s Garage where the wheel and axle of a lady’s carriage are receiving attention and a gentleman waits for the garage owner to leave the Austin Seven he is servicing and fill up his Bullnose Morris car with BP petrol. The original Saxel’s Garage was family owned and located at Standlake in Oxfordshire - the corrugated iron workshop was built c.1928. Technical: 210mm f/11 1/4sec 26 images/stack 25mm baseline ISO 200
The Waggon and Horses Public House. Three men and a dog rest outside the Waggon and Horses public house in Pendon Parva. This was Pendon founder Roye England’s first model and was a copy of the old ‘Calley Arms’ in the middle of the village of Wanborough, Wiltshire. The building still remains as a cottage although the thatch has long gone and the roof is now tiled. Technical: 30mm f/8 1/4sec 36 images/stack 35mm baseline ISO 200

2019 'Mega Panorama'

This 3D panorama was exhibited at the 2019 London Festival of Railway Modelling. It required over 500 individual photographs of which 250 were stitched together to create the 23 ft long and 3 ft high image, possibly the largest 3D anaglyph print ever produced.

The full panorama, covering about half of the Lower Gallery.
An enlargement of the left hand portion of the panorama.
An enlargement of the second portion of the panorama covering Pendon Parva Station.
An enlargement of the third portion of the panorama.
An enlargement of the last (4th) portion of the panorama.

Pendon recaptures scenes from the English countryside as it was in the 1920s and 1930s using exquisite models to explain a past era and a different way of life.

Pendon Museum Trust , Long Wittenham , Abingdon , Oxfordshire , OX14 4QD