When the CNR comes to town, it brings with it the train nuts...

doctorwayne

Active Member
and some resized pictures. I've just gotten my cd back with another 200 or so fresh pictures, many of them unfit for human consumption. However, here are a few with which I was quite pleased. I hope you enjoy them.

All of today's action takes place at Lowbanks, where it looks as if the CNR has staged a takeover. First up is the 3736, a USRA Mikado, taking a spin on the turntable. She started life as an Athearn, with an Elesco feedwater heater added in addition to her new front end treatment, along with a modified cab roof and tender.
100_5638.JPG


In the background, to the right in the previous photo, we can just see the combine on the rear of a short mixed train powered by Mikado 3529, a 1923 graduate of Montreal Locomotive Works. She's shown here slowing to a stop just west of V.A. Wagner Lumber.
100_5708.JPG


As the Belpaire boilered Mike simmers on the south main, with the Erie Northshore's car shops in the right foreground, a whistle announces the approach of another train. The 3529 is a brass offering from Van Hobbies, modified with an Elesco system.
100_5710.JPG


This view, shot from the roof of the carshop, shows the source of the whistle and the reason for the mixed's delay. It's yet another Canadian National interloper, N-5-c Consolidation 2747, accompanied by Grand Valley 28, also a 2-8-0, hustling up the north main. The pair are in charge of time-sensitive freight off the TH&B interchange at Port Maitland, and they have superiority over the lowly, all-stops mixed. The 2747 is another brass import.
100_5713.JPG


Here's another view, caught by an Erie Northshore employee, as the hotshot hustles up the north main, between the Lowbanks station and the coaling tower, at right.
100_5712.JPG


The duo here are almost to the last crossing before the Maitland river bridge. Stockcar 1355, being lifted from the Lowbanks' stockyards by GVC Mogul 37, whose tender can be seen to the left in one of the preceding photos, has already ensured that highway traffic is well clear of the crossing.
100_5714.JPG


Here's the train at the crossing, as seen from the opposite side of the tracks, courtesy of an employee of Hoffentoth Bros. Coal & Ice. Crazy train nuts!
100_5717.JPG


Here's a last look at the 2747 as she prepares to cross the Maitland River. By not taking water at the tank, to the right, this train will likely have to stop at the Elfrida tank before tackling the long grade to the GVC interchange at Cayuga Junction. That's the Lowbanks stockyards in the background.
100_5715.JPG


Finally, the mixed gets underway. The black sedan, even though there's ample time, won't cross the tracks ahead of the train, since the driver is sprawled on the roof of the water tower taking this photo. Damn fool railfans.
100_5711.JPG


As the big mike finally moves her short train out of town, yet another train nut shows up. This time it's the driver of the Model A: he's abandonned his vehicle to get this "artsy" shot of the loco framed by the railroad sheds to the left and the derelict loco on the right. Sharp-eyed observers will note car 1355 making a reappearance in the background, returning after a quick repair to a broken knuckle.
100_5642.JPG


Our final shot is of Grand Valley combine Willowglade, the accomodation for passengers and tail-end crew alike. She started life as a Rivarossi diner, and after surviving a wreck, was shortened and rebuilt as you see her.
100_5709.JPG


That concludes the train and our story. I hope that you've found it interesting.

Wayne
 

MCL_RDG

Member
Wow!

That is a great story.

I thought the first couple of shots were vacation pics. Really nice work.

Thanks for sharing. :thumb:

Mark
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
Thank you Wayne for posting these. Your modeling skills produce works of art. Very prototypical and realistic.:thumb: Great job, keep them coming...:wave:
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
I feel the same as Andrew, each time you post photos I think "he's done it again" Awesome work and photography! Keep em coming.

Gary
 

KATY

New Member
May I ask what kind of lighting you use and what f-stop? These are just superb photos!

Jack
 

Zman

Member
Wayne, that's such incredibly fantastic modeling, that I hesitate to make any criticism whatsoever. However, your layout urgently needs a scenic backdrop painted onto the walls. The layout is so beautiful and detailed that it deserves everything.

Your photos are always a great inspiration for my modest little efforts.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I must admit that when I first viewed these pictures on the cd, I really liked them. I then spent considerable time trying to resize the images (no comments please, help is on the way) and as you can see by the time that I posted them, I was really wound-up: It was a toss-up between posting the pics or a "goodbye cruel world" note. When I got up this morning, I found myself second guessing about having posted the pictures. It's really nice to see them so well accepted.
Now to answer your questions. The camera I'm using is a pretty cheap one, but it's quite simple to use. It seems to be pretty much automatic, something that I purposely stayed away from when I bought my 35 mm film camera some years ago. I am able to override the built-in flash, and you can manually select "exposure", although it's not clear if this is through a speed or an f-stop adjustment. You can go from the normal setting, either "plus" or "minus" up to 2 in .5 increments. All of the pictures are shot at either plus 1.5 or 2.0, the higher number yielding a brighter picture. There is no provision to focus the lense: it's obviously some degree of wide-angle, which does help the depth of field, although this feature also helps me to include some peripheral background features that are not meant to be part of the scene. The lighting is all by the room lights: these are four foot double tube fluorescent fixtures, with cool white tubes. I tried a number of different light temperatures, and while some offered nicer colour, it was at the expense of reduced lumens. If I had the money, there'd be even more fixtures. In the photos, there is one fixture that ends over about where the station is (and extends from there away from the viewer) and another that begins over the stockyards (and extends away from the backs of the train-nut photographers. There's four feet between the fixtures. This is part of the layout that's supposed to be double-decked: when it finally happens, there'll be a duplicate arrangement of light fixtures mounted on the underside of the upper deck, so the lighting should look a little brighter when the fixtures are closer to the scene. Other than light quality, and the camera seems to compensate for it fairly well, my main complaint is that it's such a "flat" light that a lot of details disappear, and so a lot of my detailing work goes unnoticed.
As far as a backdrop goes, there will be one, although not in this area. Just past the stockyards, the track crosses a fairly long bridge (about 4' or so) that spans the Maitland River at a point just before it empties into Lake Erie, so behind the scenes in the pictures, and on the other side of the slight rise at the rear of the scenery, is meant to be the lake. (I imagine it to be about a mile behind the scene that you see.) When I finish stringing fences in the fields at the other end of the bridge, I'm going to attempt to model the water in the river as it meets the lake. If it succeeds, and there's also going to be a water scene just the other side of the station, around the corner in Port Maitland, this should reinforce the illusion. By the way, as I've noted elsewhere, while my towns are named for real towns, the similarity ends there. Ditto for the names of the waterways, so I am aware that I've moved the mouth of the Maitland River from Lake Huron to Lake Erie.
Once again, thanks to all for the gratifying response.
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Wayne,

The range of adjustments (-2 to +2) sounds like a "bracketing" feature - as can be done on a manual SLR. At +1.5 or +2.0 you are basically overexposing the picture to gain brightness. This also has the effect of diluting the colours, and possibly losing some detail.

What do the shots taken without bracketing look like? Is the overall effect just "dark", or do you gain some colour and detail?

One interesting trick I read recently (have not tried it) is to shut off all the room lights, open the camera with the "B" setting, and illuminate the scene by setting of an independent flash multiple times to "light up" the scene. The flash will have the correct colour temp, or so the theory goes. 'Course to do that you need an independent flash, and I only got one the other day.


Andrew
 

cn nutbar

Member
screen saver

hi doctor---i'm using the picture of 3736 as my screensaver at work---the only problem is i'm not getting much work done as i'm constantly staring at this awesome picture---looking forward to the next installment---cn nutbar :thumb:
 
Top