Here's what I've been up too.. and update on the St Vrain River Bridge project......

Fabulous as always.

Now wait a minute...

That photo of the tall building with the fire escape; that's the "real thing", right? Not a model?....

Mark in Oregon

Scary good modeling, Erik.

Wow!!     You do some beautiful work.

Very nice!  The bar has been raised...

Superb - as usual. 

That's right! 

jpv in France

That's incredible work Erik!

OK....now I'm going to tear my layout down and start over!! 

Thanks for the great pictures..

Alan

Absolutely beautiful Erik!!

excellent!

Wonderful modeling, Erik, and your photography skills are superb.

But, how did you do the track work?  What products and tools did you use?

Who needs to model this stuff. We will just look at Erik's photos.

Dick

it's rather fun when you get obsessive about the details. nice work.

Of course your photos are awesome!  We would expect no less from you.  Gotta do something about that new section of shiny rail though bud!!  Get back to us when you've corrected it (add laughing or smiley face here).

Jay

Eric,
   Allow me to make an observation and a bit of constructive criticism (pun intended) about your beautifully detailed trackwork. You are several hundred spikes too short! What is holding your guard rail in place? One spike every now and then? Now, before the peanut gallery chimes in, let me say this. In your effort to super detail your trackwork, you have inadvertently drawn attention to what isn't there. In this case the unsecured guard rail. The detail of the running rails is top notch, but, the first thing that I noticed, being a former railroader, when viewing your photos there was that lack of spikes on the guard rail. In the real world (and that is what you are trying to portray, eh?) if a car had derailed coming onto the bridge, your guard rail would not have prevented a truck from following the guard rail and staying in line lessening the damage to the bridge. It instead would cause the guard rail to bend out of shape like a piece of spaghetti and cause even more damage.
   I would like to address the concept of "Invisability" or "Togetherness". A concept that I am not alone in believing. There are many levels of detail starting from the basic toy train up through the super detailed realistic layouts. For example, have you ever noticed that even on some lessor detailed layouts how everything seems to fit or go together. Nothing really sticks out and it is pleasing to the eye? Then, the modeler decides that he wants to be more realistic and adds a little detail. By doing that, the model is thrown out of balance and he needs to add a detail over here and a detail over there in order to get the scene to balance out again. 
   Let me try to explain this concept by using two examples of fine railroad art by the artists Howard Fogg and Ted Rose.
First one painting by Howard Fogg. Note the crisp detail throughout the entire painting. Everything is sharp and well focused, nothing out of place. This is one of Howard's distinct traits. And, it all comes together into a very pleasing portrait!

Now, look at this painting by Ted Rose. The image is soft, there is not the fine detail. Yet, the image is all the same and comes together brilliantly in a way that exudes emotion. You can feel the image. It all fits! 

   Now, tell me what would happen if you were to take Fogg's image of the N&W Y6b and put it instead at the water tank in the Rose painting? Things wouldn't look like they belonged would they.
   In our modeling efforts to be as realistic as possible, one needs to decide what level of detail does one want to try and attain? And, keep in mind what one wants to achieve in the appearance of their finished "painting".

"Every tie plate, every scale spike.."
I think that you have a ways to go yet!
Keep up the good work!

That Ted Rose painting is magnificent! The subject matter is Pennsy at it's very best in my opinion...thanks Jim.

Bob

Nice detail on that Atlas O bridge!

Although 3 rail, I tried to do the same! 

To Big Jim's point regarding the visuals of a model scene being harmonious and eye pleasing, think scenes that are over-loaded with too much stuff are disturbing. Mies van der Rohe's "less is more" concept applies to model railroading, too.

Erik:  would love to hear those truss rods on the bridge rattle and shake when 1,035,900 pounds of Rio Grande L105 Challenger comes through!

Thank you gentleman. 

This is one of my favorite paintings I did in oil 

Stunning, Erik.

I thought that it was a photo.

I am in awh( hope I spelled it right),  Finally coming up for air train wise, and what a nice eye feast.  Between the modeling, Photos, and now painting.  What other talents have you been hiding from us?

Erik, I love your painting, its photo realism at its best.  It is the totality of the work that counts.  You accomplished "less is more" in the background of the darkened shop and, in your "High Plains Action" posting, by using the pan effect and I'll bet that piece of railroad has spikes in every tie.

In my experience, guard rails are spiked to every other tie or timber.  The theory is that the guard rail is not intended to take the daily punishment suffered by the running rails which eventually loosens the spikes.  We hope that the guard rail is never used but if it is the spikes will be pulled, the holes plugged and it'll be re-spiked.  Four additional spikes in a tie or timber weakens the wood proportionately and offers four more ports of entry for the unseen destroyers - water and bugs.

Sometimes it is the minute detail that give the general impression of reality.  I've had to stare at SIRT's work for several minutes in order to finally determine that it's a model and not the real thing.  Having worked for that railroad, I know that the color and size of ballast plus the accumulated rust and dirt are as real as you can get and his weathering is incredible BUT it's the litter, a sheet of newspaper under the platform that's seen a couple of rainstorms, that convinces you that its real.

Snap shot quick -Update- on deck work. As stated and continued work to finish (these things take time) Every spike and Every tie plate and now Every bolt.. more to come 

John Johnson image. 

I swear there used to be bolt, nut, and washer castings on those Grandt Line sprues. 

Very kind reply Rapid Transit Homes thank you and Douglas is always nice to hear from you. I will drop in on occasion here at OGR. Yes I am been MIA.. but on other things. 

Best to you!

Eric;  Just amazing! you are one very talented fellow. If I had but a half of one of your talents, I would be thrilled.  Please keep posting it is a pleasure to see your work.

Franky-Ogee

Franky-Ogee posted:

Eric;  Just amazing! you are one very talented fellow. If I had but a half of one of your talents, I would be thrilled.  Please keep posting it is a pleasure to see your work.

Franky-Ogee

I really appreciate that Franky-Ogee. That's very kind. 

Thank you for sharing Erik. Truly an inspiration!

Andy

Keep at it Andy! As Johnson wrote to me tonight:

"Guard timbers are now secured to ties. Next are hook bolts. One should not mistake stubborness for talent, although perserverence cannot be ignored."

Erik,

You are right about sharing the hobby here. I met several forumites while in Chicago last week and have made friends with train nuts like me on the site.

Dick

A super quick set of Snapshots in the workshop by John Johnson of the decking on the Pratt Truss, now complete. Now for weathering.. the through plate deck is nearly complete and and and and. Labor of love? Or insanity ? We have been working on this together and his engineering background and OCD really paid off here.

I am the imaging guy in the group so John used his LG smartphone to take these at his home down in Longmont. I thought it would be nice to share his excitement of completing the deck work with guard timbers, DRGW engineering standard bridge ties, timber lag screws, hook bolts, Every NBW fastener, every "yes EVERY" Scale spike, Scale bolted rail joiners, guard timber bolts, even a few loose worked up spikes... oh boy.

Special thanks to ROW and Jay Criswell for his valuable contributions to this project. And soon I will be using components from Scale City Designs. Mt Albert Scale Lumber provided the custom wood. Grandt Line parts for the bolt and washer hook bolt castings. 

Facinating!  and 

jpv in France

That is some fine craftsmanship right there.

Thank you Chris and JPV.. 

OGR Ad Man posted:

OK....now I'm going to tear my layout down and start over!! 

Thanks for the great pictures..

Alan

Thank you Alan! 

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That looks fantastic.