a picture a day....

For today: " Down by the tracks.... a man and his best friend. "

@trumpettrain posted:

Mark - what a great looking scene!!  Two engines on the point and one pushing on the rear ... WOW!!!  I really like you backdrop too   It really brings a deep flavor of rugged mountain railroading.  Is this a Western Maryland coal train?  

Pat, thank you very much!  Yes, all three engines are Premier Western Maryland H9s.  Mountain railroading is what I am hoping to accomplish in a small room.

Lee just paint the mold mark a different color and it can be the company logo on the back of his shirt.

A little junk along the side of the road as you enter the junk yard.

Patrick, as long as he has that hotdog his little buddy will always be his best friend! Great scene!

Trussman, maybe a junk yard, but I know a guy that would pay good money to get that car to restore it with his son!

Great photos everyone, I hope you all have a great week. Be safe and have fun!

Trumptrain, the picture with the little dog is so cool, also the B&O gondola is a cool looking scrap car, very nice scene, a man with his best friend, near a train yard. Wow.Happy Railroading Everyone

Patrick I echo Larry’s complement. I like that B&O gondola

Caught this in St. Louis today don’t see many of these anymore

Various shots around the layout this evening:

Lee, great photos from around your layout! Thanks for sharing the amazing detail from your layout!

Lee P51 - great photos taken of your layout!!  

For today: " WM BL2 switching a small yard .... Verne, on the ground, prepares to couple the engine to a boxcar as conductor Evan surveys his switch list."

@p51 posted:

Various shots around the layout this evening:

The last one is fabulous Lee. Thanks for sharing

Thanks, guys.

Here's more from last night:

More excellent photographs, Lee!!  Not only is your modeling excellent, your photography skills really show off the modeling well!

@p51 posted:

Thanks, guys.

Here's more from last night:

WOW!!! Lee all of these shots are spectacular!!  

I agree with Mark, your layout looks great and your photo skills are that of a professional photographer.  Your advanced photo skills and talented eye for capturing unique scenes definitely allow for us to see the immense depth of beauty inherent in your layout.  BRAVO!!!!

@trumpettrain posted:

WOW!!! Lee all of these shots are spectacular!!  

I agree with Mark, your layout looks great and your photo skills are that of a professional photographer.  Your advanced photo skills and talented eye for capturing unique scenes definitely allow for us to see the immense depth of beauty inherent in your layout.  BRAVO!!!!

Thanks very much, Patrick, Mark and the others who have recently commented.

It's funny to me that I know lots of guys who get published almost monthly in Trains and Railfan magazines who comment on my own work getting published in model train magazines, as if they didn't already the skills to take the same type of shots if they really wanted to.

The key is getting the lens as low as you can, and taking long exposures. It resolves a lot of depth of field issues. You can also do smoke/steam effects in real time in the shot without Photoshop later. Most of my shots I only crop and change the color/lighting balance somewhat and sometimes run them through a filter if they just don't look all that good in their original format (that's how you can tell if I didn't like the original shot all that much). Case in point below:

Those most recent shots in my last post before this were part of a series I took last night for the final of four shots I am going to submit to the NMRA calendar. I've not had any luck getting my work run by them (they shot down my offer to do cartoons a while back and I'm still fuming over what they wound up running instead for a short time), so we'll see...

@leapinlarry posted:

Trumptrain, the picture with the little dog is so cool, also the B&O gondola is a cool looking scrap car, very nice scene, a man with his best friend, near a train yard. Wow.Happy Railroading Everyone

Larry - thank you so much!  

@mike g. posted:

Patrick, as long as he has that hotdog his little buddy will always be his best friend! Great scene!

Trussman, maybe a junk yard, but I know a guy that would pay good money to get that car to restore it with his son!

Great photos everyone, I hope you all have a great week. Be safe and have fun!

Mike G. - thank you!

For today:  A twofer tale:

Early this week, MOW crew clears brush from a siding not used in decades.  The two foreman Zeke and Larry sitting on a tie,  chat it up as Harry, Artie, and Junior work with their tools.   

On the siding today.

Trumptrain.

I really like those scenes. The round roof box car truly fits the scene. I really admire you're work. It gives me a lot of ideas for my own layout. The scenery on you're  layout is spot on. Farmer John

P51.

Those pics are fantastic. I really like the corn field in the scene . It's so realistic. The little things like that make a layout to me. Wow is all I say .

Just thought I would throw this out to go with Patricks mow crew scene. A friend has it sitting in his shop. It was his dads when they use to run the logs down from the mountain to the Hood Cannel to float them to the mill.

@p51 posted:

Thanks, guys.

Here's more from last night:

This is why Model Railway Publishers like  to vist Lee’s Layout. Amazing pics Lee.

@p51 posted:

Thanks very much, Patrick, Mark and the others who have recently commented.

It's funny to me that I know lots of guys who get published almost monthly in Trains and Railfan magazines who comment on my own work getting published in model train magazines, as if they didn't already the skills to take the same type of shots if they really wanted to.

The key is getting the lens as low as you can, and taking long exposures. It resolves a lot of depth of field issues. You can also do smoke/steam effects in real time in the shot without Photoshop later. Most of my shots I only crop and change the color/lighting balance somewhat and sometimes run them through a filter if they just don't look all that good in their original format (that's how you can tell if I didn't like the original shot all that much). Case in point below:

Those most recent shots in my last post before this were part of a series I took last night for the final of four shots I am going to submit to the NMRA calendar. I've not had any luck getting my work run by them (they shot down my offer to do cartoons a while back and I'm still fuming over what they wound up running instead for a short time), so we'll see...

Thanks for sharing Lee. I found that low angle by accident a couple years ago  and your right it brings the depth out.

Another Fallen Flag  I caught the other day. Note that bent pole

For today:  News Flash from WPBR TV in Patsburg .... " A  coal train derailed this morning in Patsburg.  No one was injured.   Several cars left the tracks and Free State Junction Railway crews are now on the scene replacing damaged rails and re-railing cars.  Stay tuned more to come tonight on the 6:00 news! "

@lee drennen posted:

This is why Model Railway Publishers like  to vist Lee’s Layout.

Thanks a lot, Lee!

I had a visitor to the layout before the pandemic hit and he looked at the wall of framed magazine article pages (of course including my OGR articles) and I shrugged and said though I'm very happy magazine editors seem to like my work, I wasn't sure exactly as to why.

I think he summed it up very fairly. He said, "I think it's two things. First, I think readers like it because your model work is good. But editors probably like it because it's different."

That seemed fair to me. There are lots of better modelers out there, but once you've seen a few dozen of the same layout types, no matter how well done, you start to yawn. I know I sure do that. But I also think it's a third thing for me; I'm not shy about showing my work as when I was a kid, I dreamed of getting a layout into a magazine. It's something I never thought would happen at that time.

There are a lot of excellent layouts which never get into magazines just because the builders just aren't interested or don't think their writing/photography is up to the task.

@farmerjohn posted:

Trumptrain.

I really like those scenes. The round roof box car truly fits the scene. I really admire you're work. It gives me a lot of ideas for my own layout. The scenery on you're  layout is spot on. Farmer John

@farmerjohn - thank you so very much!  Knowing that my scene inspires ideas for you brings me great satisfaction.   Many here on the OGR forum have and continue to inspire me as well!  

@trumpettrain posted:

Many here on the OGR forum have and continue to inspire me as well!  

And you inspire others, including myself, with your excellent photography and vignettes!

Caught Q452 on my way home from work. The Spirit of our Armed Forces 1776 was mid power. Beautiful train on a beautiful day!

Jesse Ferguson, Wow, I would love to see that “911” CSX diesel in person, I love the paint scheme and I do have the Lionel legacy version and I think the colors are very close to the real engine. Thank you for posting. Happy Railroading Everyone

Lee P51 - thank you for your extremely kind words.  

For today: " As the sun sets, a locomotive's solo headlight will become the sole source of illumination"

Here’s today’s. This is a old Revell tank trailer I shorten and reworked on a Lionel UP  PS-4 Piggyback that  I weathered the deck.

My brother took this picture several years ago...I'm guessing in the Worcester, MA area.  He was an avid train photographer...

Took these last night

P51 - Lee those are powerful images, you can almost feel the motion and the power.  Lee Drennen - I was admiring your work when I noticed the lettering on the tank..."US Army-Air Forces"  I suspect you know but that makes this tank older than 1947 since that is when the AAF (Army Air Force) became the USAF (US Air Force).  Trumptrain...wonderful scenes again, the way you "populate" them with folks makes the entire scene come alive. I really like the way you sometimes make the train, just a "part" of the picture as it would be in real life.  The docksider in the background with all the trees and the man in the foreground working and ignoring the train, makes the scene so realistic.  Great work.

Thanks for the pictures everyone

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

P51 - Lee those are powerful images, you can almost feel the motion and the power.  Lee Drennen - I was admiring your work when I noticed the lettering on the tank..."US Army-Air Forces"  I suspect you know but that makes this tank older than 1947 since that is when the AAF (Army Air Force) became the USAF (US Air Force).  Trumptrain...wonderful scenes again, the way you "populate" them with folks makes the entire scene come alive. I really like the way you sometimes make the train, just a "part" of the picture as it would be in real life.  The docksider in the background with all the trees and the man in the foreground working and ignoring the train, makes the scene so realistic.  Great work.

Thanks for the pictures everyone

Don

Yes Don but thanks for the information I built this for late WWII era. not intended for the layout.  It originally started as thread build on a Military Modeling forum I’ve been on for years. Not only I have a layout and build Trains I’ve been building Millitary Models for years. I’ll post one of my builds on the 1/43 -1/50 Auto thread. for you

For today:  " Public works supervisor Mr. Cy Rinaldo, shown wearing hard hat and with chin in hand, ponders as to what he's going to do with the crew of the town garbage truck.  It's not even 8 a.m. and they are hitting the bottle.  To top it off the haven't  even made their first stop.  A motley crew for sure!"

@p51 posted:

Thanks a lot, Lee!

I had a visitor to the layout before the pandemic hit and he looked at the wall of framed magazine article pages (of course including my OGR articles) and I shrugged and said though I'm very happy magazine editors seem to like my work, I wasn't sure exactly as to why.

I think he summed it up very fairly. He said, "I think it's two things. First, I think readers like it because your model work is good. But editors probably like it because it's different."

That seemed fair to me. There are lots of better modelers out there, but once you've seen a few dozen of the same layout types, no matter how well done, you start to yawn. I know I sure do that. But I also think it's a third thing for me; I'm not shy about showing my work as when I was a kid, I dreamed of getting a layout into a magazine. It's something I never thought would happen at that time.

There are a lot of excellent layouts which never get into magazines just because the builders just aren't interested or don't think their writing/photography is up to the task.

Hey Lee, how a bout a better photo of the wall display'....?  I'd lke to see a better image of the articles'....😁👍

@Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Hey Lee, how a bout a better photo of the wall display'....?  I'd lke to see a better image of the articles'....😁👍

This is about as good as I could get just now: