Model Railroad Blog

Family & Son

Work continues with my program of re-shooting The Downtown Spur layout. Shown above the local passes Family & Son, a food processing company that is still active to this day. I used to fly to Miami annually for a one-day photo shoot. On one of the trips, I photographed the industry at ninety-degree angles for the sole purpose of using the images later as a photo wallpaper laminate. Re-creating the complex coloring would have been totally impossible via traditional means.

For this particular shot, my iPhone 6 gave the most realistic angle. The background sky was cropped in using a screen capture from Google Streetview taken from I95 near Melbourne.

If you look closely, you’ll see a dot of red on the right under the crossing flashers. Back in 2012 I was walking the line and noticed something red by the street. When I walked up to it, I saw it was an empty box of booze dumped by the side of the road. Not really thinking about it I took a quick photo and moved on. Years later, in a clear case of having too much time on my hands, I printed the box out to scale and put it on the layout.

Large format versions of my work can be found on my Flickr page.

Ferrous Processing and Trading

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been going back and re-photographing the Downtown Spur layout. In the above image, the local is working the largest customer on the spur, Ferrous Process and Trading. The loads have been pulled and placed to the right, and the empties are now being shoved in.

Scrap metal is brought in by individuals, demolition companies, etc., ground (a VERY loud process!) into baseball-sized chunks, and then shipped to South Carolina. From personal observation, they seem to work with cuts of five cars at a time.

In my just-released book, I talk about planning your details. The easiest path to realism is to just study a photograph and copy what’s in it. Details here include: fiber optic cable markers, trash, signs, and the crane parts placed on the roof of the structure. In the book, I also emphasize the importance of watching your parts thickness and being aware of visual landmines such as inappropriately modeled chain link fencing.

Here’s a view of the prototype facing westward. The airport is just to the left and behind the metro overpass. Last year, all of the track next to the plant was upgraded, and the ratty/no longer used siding was restored and put back into service.

Latest Book Now Available!

Student to Master Now Available. Click HERE to purchase.

It’s interesting to step back at times and view the hobby and its participants with impartial detachment. Where do people struggle in their attempt to create what they see in their mind’s eye? It was those observations that inspired the subject of this book.

There has never been a time in our hobby’s history when we’ve had so much information. In addition, that information is delivered through much more useful vehicles. However, what’s missing is a way to prioritize that information and put it into context, to see how the pieces fit together.

This book takes a strategic approach to identifying and prioritizing the core modeling subjects that produce maximum visual impact. It’s about understanding which key skills matter the most and focusing your efforts there. It’s about decision-making. It’s about developing an awareness of “landmines” that detract from an otherwise great effort.

Milepost 37

With its punch list of chores on The Downtown Spur finished, Y322 heads westward back to Hialeah Yard. Although it’s only three and a half miles long, there are mileposts on the spur. In the background is Antillean Marine. As time has permitted, I’ve been going back and re-photographing the layout over the past few weeks.

Going to Beans

In September of 2008, Tom Klimoski sent me a photo of the eastbound Downtown Spur Yard job parked just shy of the 12th Avenue grade crossing as the crew took a lunch break. It was a pretty unspectacular shot, something he grabbed on the fly for general documentation. It stuck with me, though. I loved the way it captured a typical day and the flavor of the spur. Using that shot as inspiration, I tried to recreate the scene on my layout.

11:30 am, September 29, 2008. The crew has split the train so as not to hold up traffic, turned off the locomotive lights, and “gone to beans”. Cuba Tropical Produce is on the right. That’s Tom’s truck on the left. Tom Klimoski photo.

Recreating the photo on the layout was a little tricky. It was hard to get the camera in position and challenging to light. Fortunately, all of my structures are removable, so plucking a few off the layout opened things up a little. Removing the structures presented another problem, though. It left a very obvious blank styrene wall on the left side. A few blocks up the line was an interesting mural painted on the back of a structure that I photographed on a whim back in the day. I edited the mural shot, printed it out on typing paper, and used it to cover the blank styrene.

The model photo is comprised of four shots taken with an iPhone 6 and combined with Helicon Focus. It took two photo floods to fully light the scene. The sky image is a Google Streetview screenshot taken from I-95 near Melbourne, FL.