Model Railroad Blog

Photographic Extinction

I picked up this spectacular gem of an image on eBay for a surprisingly nominal sum. I then had it scanned, uploaded it to Flickr, and made it available to all for download. By doing so, its existence is safeguarded for the foreseeable future.

It was an all-too-common scenario, and just heartbreaking. One of the most prolific and talented photographers of all time was Don Sims, who passed away recently in his 90s. I mean, this guy had LAJ mindblowing action shots from the 60s that nobody else did. That was just a fraction of his portfolio. Out of curiosity, I wondered where his collection was now. I took it for granted that something of that significance was safely parked in a library somewhere. I googled and googled. Nothing. Odd. Next, I put a post on the SoCal FB Railfan group. Surely they’d know. Nope. Several people commented that they had wondered the same, had done similar digging, and also come up dry. The collection probably still exists, but it could be very well in an attic of a relative that really doesn’t have the background to know its relevance. A decade from now, there is a high risk it will be inadvertently discarded.

I have had a number of friends of similar skill who have passed recently. Their work is historically priceless and at high risk of being lost to time. An equal number are heading towards the end of the road. Amazing work. No preservation plan.

Transferring my collection of 1000 Kodachrome slides to plastic sleeves makes them easier to access and view quickly. The red folder contains a descriptive log of each photo.

Back in the late 1970s, as a member of the Indiana University Railfan club, I traveled the entire eastern US with skilled photographers at my side. By the time I moved away to college, I’d amassed one thousand Kodachrome slides. They were safely and neatly packed in metal slide boxes. I’d also written a log containing written descriptions of each shot. I was well aware that I had them. What I didn’t realize, until I pulled them this week, was the breathtaking quality. In almost every shot, a veteran railfan was next to me telling me where to stand, what aperature to use, how to bracket. I discarded the bad ones and ended up with a box of great stuff.

If I were to get hit by a meteor on my way to my car some night, realistically everything in those boxes would be lost. Nobody will have the experience or desire to preserve them. But any image that’s digitized AND uploaded to a public site is essentially safe forever.

Dealing with a thousand images is an overwhelming thought. For now, my strategy is to take a handful of these images and eBay purchases, and have my local scanning service digitize them. A reputable scanning service (and there are many disreputable services out there) will charge between five and eight dollars for a hi-res TIFF image coming in at a whopping 100MB or more. My service (Moto Photo in Bethesda, MD) has a special email/download portal which makes things easy.

When the sorting was done, I had three binders of roughly 330 slides each. I have no immediate plans to scan all of them, but over time, I will identify the real standouts and digitize them.

Once I have the digital images, I resize them to about 5MB and then upload them to my Flickr page. I’ve tagged them for free download. There is some controversy about making your files available to all. True, there are a few knuckleheads out there who might use them without credit, but they are very, very rare. I’d rather focus on passing information onto the 99.9 percent of good people out there than assume the “mine,mine,mine” stance as protection against the other .1 percent.

When you go to the pearly gates, it’s not like you can take them with you. I can see it now: I’m in front of St. Peter making my case for admittance. What’s he going to say? “Lance, your past behavior makes you a borderline candidate for walking through these pearly gates but….since you have that great shot of pusher units on Horsehoe Curve that tips the scales in your favor. You’re in.” Doubt it. The more people that have your shots, the more likely they’ll be preserved for the long term.

Where It All Began

I turned 66 today. Fifty years ago, on 10/24/76 I took my first “serious” railfan photo. Kodachrome. God bless that film. I was a junior in high school. What you can’t see is that by a bizarre twist of events, I found the Indiana University Railfan club. They accepted everybody. To my right and left were college graduate students, master photographers, who told me where to set up, what aperture to use, and what shutter speed. I’ll be forever thankful for the generosity of those guys. They gave me my PhD in photography. In this shot, an ICG pig train, pulled by Paducah rebuilds, has left Bloomington and is heading north across the Shuffle Creek Viaduct to Indianapolis.

An Addition to the Loco Roster

CSX GP40 #6611, an Atlas model in the YN2 paint scheme, sits in front of SALCO on the East Rail 2 layout. It’s the newest addition to my roster.

Until recently, I only had two CSX locomotives to handle duties on The Downtown Spur. I’ve had both for many years, and they’re starting to show their age. In addition, every photo I have in print will feature one of those two. That gets repetitive. It was time to add more power. I’ve always been partial to the old CSX gray and blue YN2 scheme. As I dove into Google and eBay to look at loco offerings, there wasn’t much to pick from, especially in the four axle GP38,39,40 models. Eventually, I found an Atlas GP40 and scooped that up. During my search, it did appear that some of the big-name manufacturers have some YN2 four-axle models in the pipeline, but who knows when they’ll hit the US shores.

In November of 2008, my buddy Tom Klimoski sent me this absolutely perfectly lit image of a CSX unit in the YN2 scheme taken on the east end of The Downtown Spur. I used this as my painting and weathering guide. Items of note: the faded gray, the very distinct panel lines and grills, the faded and mottled blue, and the faded yellow nose.

In my latest book, I discuss the importance of fades and panel line contrasts. That was my focus going in as I approached the weathering.

I always start with the easy and low-hanging fruit. In this case, that means the trucks, fuel tank, and couplers.

-The couplers were replaced with Kadee #158 scale medium-length ones.

-The fuel tank and trucks are not the same color. The fuel tank was painted with Tamiya Nato Black. Next, it was given an ultra-dilute wash of Tamiya Buff (thinned with X20 thinner) using vertical brush strokes.

-The trucks are slightly lighter. They were airbrushed with Tamiya IJN Gray. When that dried, I ground in Bragdon Weathered Brown (FF-69) and Soot Black weathering powders.

-Next up on the “easy scale” were the grills. These were airbrushed with Tamiya Dark Iron. When that dried, I ground in Bragdon Weathered Brown with a small, ratty brush.

Now for the hard part: the panel lines and fade. There are two basic methods. One is to fade the car with an airbrush first and then follow up with an overall dilute wash. Boomer did this in a recent (excellent) video. The other approach, which I used here, is to apply the panel line contrast first, and then fade afterward. Tamiya has a dedicated panel line accent paint which I really like. The only caveat is that it relies on capillary action. This means you need a smooth, glossy surface for it to work, i.e. apply it before the fade coat. Once the panel lines were done using the Tamiya product, I faded the entire car with a super dilute wash of Tamiya Flat White or Buff (as Boomer did in his video).

This is the Tamiya Panel Line Product I used.

For the mottled blue, I used a light blue weathering powder by Bragdon called “The Blues”. I took a tiny, ratty brush and, using a stabbing motion, dabbed it and ground it over the dark blue. This blue fade needs to be sealed. If you aren’t very careful with your Dullcote technique, it will render the light blue totally invisible. To avoid this, keep the Dullcote can a good three or four feet away and spray it on with very light puffs. If you don’t do this, all of your hard work will completely disappear. Can you tell I’m speaking from experience?

The roof is more faded than the sides of the car so I added more airbrush layers of the Tamiya white paint wash. The exhause is Bradgon “Soot Black”. I also added some light applications of Bragon “Weathered Brown”. The panel lines were done with a super sharp black artists’ pencil.

Closing thoughts. Paints, washes, and weathering powders are chemicals. Learning how they react with one another takes experience and can yield some very unpleasant and unexpected surprises. I always suggest that folks practice on samples and cheap scraps before moving to their $300 model. If you’re at a train show or browsing eBay, pick up some twenty-dollar boat anchors to practice on. Also, at some point you need to decide if you are content being a casual recreationalist or if you want to move to the next level. It’s your call. No judgement. That said, if you want to move forward, you need to get out of your comfort zone, buy that airbrush, and get comfortable with it.

Bridge E-8

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A northbound Thoroughbred approaches the iconic, and rail fan favorite, Bridge E-8 on my old Monon layout. The sky I cropped in was taken across a farm field in Maryland. Note the light blue to dark blue color transition at the horizon. I also experimented with slightly warmer hues.

Photo editing is a lifelong learning process. I know more than I did five years ago and am going back and trying different interpretations of old images and experimenting with new tools and looks.

Every image reacts differently to a given tool. I’ve been having luck lately breathing life into many of my photos by using the Auto Haze removal tool (Adobe Elements).

However, the Auto Haze Removal tool does lay the saturation on a little too thickly so as a next step I dial the saturation back. Depending on how a given image turns out “sometimes” I’ll use the color correction tool. At times it’s sorely needed. At other times, it has a tendency to make a photo a little too blue, too sterile. It’s only one button click so give it a try. If it works, use it, if not, hit the undo button.

This shot, which I cropped in as the background sky, was taken at the golden hour on the Demarva Peninsula. As you look at the sky, take note of how the color transitions from almost white at the bottom to more blue as you look upwards. If you crop a real sky into the background of a model photo, it’s important to reflect this. I was late to the game doing so, and as a result, have a ton of photos that I’ve grown not to like. Also, note the distant treeline. The distance to trees or buildings will vary from situation to situation, so as you build a library of background photos, work to create a mix of different distances. In some, but not all, cases, having a hint of the distant treeline (or buildings) protruding into your model photo looks better. Finally, with my library of background sky photos, I have a bunch of shots of dramatic sunsets and cloud formations. I use these less and less with each passing year.