The custom build project currently in my shop is the cover story in the November issue of RMC. It’s based on CNW’s famed “Alco Line” in southern Minnesota. A tip of the hat to the staff of RMC for such great graphics.
CNW Alco Line in RMC
Model Railroad Blog
New Miami Book Now Available!
Over the years, I’ve received many requests from my readers to put out a book on my Miami layouts. It took a while, but that day has arrived. The book is now live and available on Amazon. While heavily slanted towards being a photo album, I also cover the thoughts behind the layouts and their history. I discuss the problems that arose and the mistakes I made. I’ve gone back and re-mastered/re-edited many of my older photos.
Milepost 37
Having wrapped up its work for the day, Y320 passes milepost 37 and Antillean Marine on the way back to Hialeah Yard. The Spur is three and a half miles long, and all of the mileposts are still in place.
River Drive 2006
With practice and more experience with cameras, editors, and lighting I feel I can do a better job photographically than I did ten or fifteen years ago. I’ve gone back to re-shoot some of my older images. The one above is looking westward up N River Drive on The Downtown Spur layout.
One thing I’ll often take into account is which camera comes closest to representing what the human eye actually sees. Opinions on general photography sites don’t seem to match up to what applies to model photography. In my experience, the iPhone 6 comes closer than my Canon SLR or newer phone.
Filito Cafeteria
Filito Cafeteria ca. 2007 sits alongside the Spur where it crosses 12th Avenue. It shows up in a lot of images and was the ideal spot to re-hydrate with a cold juice on a scorching hot, humid Miami day.
The nature of rail fanning is such that a disproportionate number of shots are taken from just a few locations simply because they are more accessible. As a result, even the most mundane structures become stars in their own right simply because they seem to pop up in a ton of photos and videos.
Such is the case of Filito Cafeteria sitting alongside the Downtown Spur where it crosses 12th Avenue. Catty-corner across the intersection sat Trujillo and Sons, the Spur’s busiest customer back in the day. I’ve been putting off modeling it due to its complexity, especially the awnings. The day has come though….time to get to it.
I’ve started with the cinder block core. The awnings will then project off of that. There was quite a bit of photoshop work and measuring just to get to this point. (Note to self and other modelers. If you think there is even the slightest chance will model a structure, get ninety degree angle, full-on photos to work from. I didn’t, and it made my job much harder).
An aerial image from the early 2000’s
Facing north. The spur is behind the structure. Trujillo and Son’s is under the transit bridge on the right.
It’s been an adjustment going from being in mission mode/get layouts complete to slowing down and just puttering with small projects. At least for now, I’ll put plans for any future layouts on the back burner and fiddle with smaller projects on The Spur and LAJ layout.