a picture a day....

For today: " Down by the tracks.... a man and his best friend. "

@trumpettrain posted:

Mark - what a great looking scene!!  Two engines on the point and one pushing on the rear ... WOW!!!  I really like you backdrop too   It really brings a deep flavor of rugged mountain railroading.  Is this a Western Maryland coal train?  

Pat, thank you very much!  Yes, all three engines are Premier Western Maryland H9s.  Mountain railroading is what I am hoping to accomplish in a small room.

Lee just paint the mold mark a different color and it can be the company logo on the back of his shirt.

A little junk along the side of the road as you enter the junk yard.

Patrick, as long as he has that hotdog his little buddy will always be his best friend! Great scene!

Trussman, maybe a junk yard, but I know a guy that would pay good money to get that car to restore it with his son!

Great photos everyone, I hope you all have a great week. Be safe and have fun!

Trumptrain, the picture with the little dog is so cool, also the B&O gondola is a cool looking scrap car, very nice scene, a man with his best friend, near a train yard. Wow.Happy Railroading Everyone

Patrick I echo Larry’s complement. I like that B&O gondola

Caught this in St. Louis today don’t see many of these anymore

Various shots around the layout this evening:

Lee, great photos from around your layout! Thanks for sharing the amazing detail from your layout!

Lee P51 - great photos taken of your layout!!  

For today: " WM BL2 switching a small yard .... Verne, on the ground, prepares to couple the engine to a boxcar as conductor Evan surveys his switch list."

@p51 posted:

Various shots around the layout this evening:

The last one is fabulous Lee. Thanks for sharing

Thanks, guys.

Here's more from last night:

More excellent photographs, Lee!!  Not only is your modeling excellent, your photography skills really show off the modeling well!

@p51 posted:

Thanks, guys.

Here's more from last night:

WOW!!! Lee all of these shots are spectacular!!  

I agree with Mark, your layout looks great and your photo skills are that of a professional photographer.  Your advanced photo skills and talented eye for capturing unique scenes definitely allow for us to see the immense depth of beauty inherent in your layout.  BRAVO!!!!

@trumpettrain posted:

WOW!!! Lee all of these shots are spectacular!!  

I agree with Mark, your layout looks great and your photo skills are that of a professional photographer.  Your advanced photo skills and talented eye for capturing unique scenes definitely allow for us to see the immense depth of beauty inherent in your layout.  BRAVO!!!!

Thanks very much, Patrick, Mark and the others who have recently commented.

It's funny to me that I know lots of guys who get published almost monthly in Trains and Railfan magazines who comment on my own work getting published in model train magazines, as if they didn't already the skills to take the same type of shots if they really wanted to.

The key is getting the lens as low as you can, and taking long exposures. It resolves a lot of depth of field issues. You can also do smoke/steam effects in real time in the shot without Photoshop later. Most of my shots I only crop and change the color/lighting balance somewhat and sometimes run them through a filter if they just don't look all that good in their original format (that's how you can tell if I didn't like the original shot all that much). Case in point below:

Those most recent shots in my last post before this were part of a series I took last night for the final of four shots I am going to submit to the NMRA calendar. I've not had any luck getting my work run by them (they shot down my offer to do cartoons a while back and I'm still fuming over what they wound up running instead for a short time), so we'll see...

@leapinlarry posted:

Trumptrain, the picture with the little dog is so cool, also the B&O gondola is a cool looking scrap car, very nice scene, a man with his best friend, near a train yard. Wow.Happy Railroading Everyone

Larry - thank you so much!  

@mike g. posted:

Patrick, as long as he has that hotdog his little buddy will always be his best friend! Great scene!

Trussman, maybe a junk yard, but I know a guy that would pay good money to get that car to restore it with his son!

Great photos everyone, I hope you all have a great week. Be safe and have fun!

Mike G. - thank you!

For today:  A twofer tale:

Early this week, MOW crew clears brush from a siding not used in decades.  The two foreman Zeke and Larry sitting on a tie,  chat it up as Harry, Artie, and Junior work with their tools.   

On the siding today.

Trumptrain.

I really like those scenes. The round roof box car truly fits the scene. I really admire you're work. It gives me a lot of ideas for my own layout. The scenery on you're  layout is spot on. Farmer John