Lee, just looked at the pic. Congratulations. You got the eye of an eagle when it comes to doing scenes. Great job...................Paul
Very Happy for you Lee, I know you have been putting a lot of hard work and you earned it! Congratulations!
A photo of mine just appeared in rival Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine (I didn't even submit it, they asked to use it).
With this and my article on the layout in the upcoming On30 Annual, I’m very happy with the reception my photos have gotten.
Wow. Lee that's great!!! nice pic and storyline.
Thank you all very much. I earlier noted that MRH is a competitor to this magazine, but barely so. Their focus rarely ever covers O scale in any format, and never anything 3-rail.
I don’t consider it ‘getting published’ as such, as it’s a website. That said, it’s a commercial website and I’m going to get paid for the photo. Not bad for just emailing the photo and writing up a simply caption, huh?
The big thing for me is when the On30 Annual comes out. THAT, I’m really looking forward to.
I submitted another photo to Model Railroader (they were the only publication that shot down my layout article idea, citing they had enough O scale narrow gauge articles in the pipe already. That means they have maybe one of two for the next decade) but never heard back from them. I’m told that’s normal and years can go by before you hear about a submission.
Now, some might wonder why I didn’t pick O Scale Railroading for that upcoming article? I did seriously consider submitting to this magazine (and a feeler I put out at RMC got an immediate and enthusiastic response), but in the end I thought the On30 Annual was a far better fit, is read religiously among those On30 crowd, and those issues are kept instead of tossed out (look on eBay, you routinely see back issues selling for decent amounts).
In a year or two, I’ve been thinking of an article on operations, showing photos of the layout that look like they were taken in 1943, as if it was a historical document on a railroad long gone. It’d be written as if I’d found the notes and photos in an old footlocker from a WW2 solider who’d been in the area during the war. I’ve never seen anything like that before in a model train magazine. Maybe it won’t be OSR’s cup of tea, but I will pitch it to this magazine when the day comes.
As for my connection to history, my layout is a simple extension of my interest in the 1940s. I’ve been a WW2 living historian since the 1980s. In the photo below, I was displaying my 1944 Willys Jeep and weapons collection at a local airshow. Every little detail is accounted for, down to the seals on the ammo crates and safety switches on the weapons (almost everything in this photo is original). Only the civilian 1942 license plate on the Jeep is incorrect, but I have to have a plate to drive the thing on public roads (so it’s better than a modern collector’s class plate).
My layout is an extension of my love for history, attention to detail and the love of my parents, as the layout takes place right where both of them grew up (Dad was 7 years old in the summer of ’43, Mom as 6). I’m lucky enough to have them still around at this time, so I’ve asked them countless questions about the things you’d never find in books. The breeds of cows people had there? Did anyone own tractors then? Were fences mostly wood, barbed wire of something else? What did mail boxes look like there/then? What kinds of wildlife were common? What colors were most houses painted in? Without them, I wouldn’t nearly have the level of correct details I have today as I was set to do several things that I found through them wouldn’t be correct.
). Managed to squeeze a little bit of Train work in.... I was mixing up a batch of plaster (yea, I have plaster walls in my house), for the ceiling and had a thought- why not pull out the Woodland Scenic rock molds and make a few rocks. Can never have enough and don't need to make a second mess with the plaster. Sometimes I impress myself 
