Layout work 2004-2005
Trains 2005-2006 Trains 2006-2007
Current work. To see last year's pictures, click here.
Here it is, another train season and I have resumed work on the Layout after a summer off. The first scene I tackled was one of two beach scenes (Haack's Beach, a beach similar to the more famous Black's Beach north of San Diego, will be finished soon). So, here we have a hot August afternoon in 1957 on a beach north of Santa Barbara. There is almost no surf today so it is mostly a crowd of sunbathers on the beach. The railroad has been busy today and only one beach goer has even turned to watch this trio of F7's lead a freight train north.
Photographing a Layout is an interesting task. This scene was lit with two 250 watt photo floods, which looked very bright to the naked eye, but as you can see the light was not evenly distributed across the scene. Shooting at f22 for 1/4 of a second gives me good depth of field so all the elements are in focus, however, the minimum focal length of my lens is 2.75 feet so the camera ends up being over four feet from the trains. Even with a 70mm lens, we are too far from the trains to see many details.
This second shot was done with our handy little digital camera. It used it's auto flash to smooth out the light issue but it can't, or won't, provide the depth of field I need for this scene.
Santa Margarita is starting to take shape. Here are three picture taken on the occasion of buying a new Pullman passenger car for a "Starlight" passenger train. What the Starlight is doing in Santa Margarita in the daylight is a bit of mystery. It should go roaring through in the dark hours.
This shot is taken from "our house". In the
real world there was another block between our house and the tracks. Also,
we had a Ford station wagon, not a Chevy. The trailer isn't too far off
though.
An aerial view of the same scene.
This one includes "downtown" as well as the tops of
three F units waiting their turn to be used as helpers over Cuesta.
Stay tuned for more pictures