weekend photo fun 8/24-8/26

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I didn't really do much that was different. I had the camera connected to the computer so I could use the video image as a sight. It almost impossible to get a shot straight on without it. Only problem is, I almost need three arms when I do that.

[conrail92]

JK is right not sure what your doing but your doing it right, Quality greatly increased from previous.


SoooOOOoo... When does this thread plan on being over???

[jktrains]

I think when you get the other camera you'll see a vast improvement in image quality.  Still, this is better than the others.  What did you do differently.  I can now at least make out some detail on the truck sideframes.  I do notice that the subject is much closer and now centered in the shot.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The new one. ($10 wonder)

[jktrains]

Jeff,

Much better.  Which camera was that taken with?

[jeffrey-wimberly]

[Ballantrae Road]

Very nice. I like the way you took the videos. No headshaking. Keep it up.

Tom 

[jktrains]

There are ways to make the beacons work without DCC, but they're more difficult.  There was an article a number of years ago in MR about building a trackpowered beacon circuit.  Not a difficult circuit, in fact I built in and put it an Athearn SW1500.  It uses a LED instead of a bulb.  The other option is to find a Hyperlight.  These were made before DCC became popular.  They're a tiny circuit that can be set to do 2 or 3 types of beacons, mars lights, gyralight or even ditchlights.  I've got two that I was going to use before going DCC.  I haven't done anything with them yet, still thinking about using them in a loco and powering them via a decoder function.

Led Flashers circuits are the thing to use.  The difficulty nowadays is finding the room inside to install the circuit without removing the cab interior etc.

Oh yea - so what if its Tuesday.  We're not posting pics anymore, but are instead discussing the models in the pics.  IMO what WPF is supposed to do instead just being a back patting exercise.

jktrains

[Bapou]

Who cares if the weekend is over if we're having fun?

[Tom Bryant_MR]

A little glue wash between the ties and down the sides of the road bed followed by a layer of fine ballast applied with a straw. The turnouts of course will be left clear.

 

A straw ?  Now that's a neat idea.  I've been using a plastic spoon.  At 1/87 scale, the spoon is like a snow shovel.  I've got to try the straw.

Regards

-Tom

[CNW 6000]

SD60M

First of the C30-7 is an Atlas, not a BLI.  I've installed an NCE DA-SR in it for DCC.  The rotary beacon is a Details West beacon with a grain of rice bulb inserted inside the amber plastic lens.  It is then connected to the decoder and programmed for a rotary beacon.

I've seen some of your videos on youtube.  Based on them, your other postings and your avatar, it looks like your SD40-2s are BLI units.  The problem with BLI and other sound equipped locos is that there are no extra lighting functions on the decoder.  As far as I can figure the only way to add such an effect on them is the add a separate decoder than can provide the lighting effects.

The beacon isn;t hard to do, just takes patience.  It makes for a really neat effect to have 3 or 4 or 5 of them on in a dimly lighted room.

jktrains

Actually my C30-7 is an atlas unit. My SD40-2 is BLI the other loco is a P2K SD45 and most of my fleet is made up of athearn rtr units. BTW is there a way to make the beacons work without DCC? If so please let me know.

-Kade

I've seen battery powered ones, not sure who makes them tho.

 

Who cares if the weekend is over if we're having fun?

[Hoople]

Hey guys, I think WPF has ended. It's 10:30 PM on monday here... I think it should be over with.

[SD60M]

SD60M

First of the C30-7 is an Atlas, not a BLI.  I've installed an NCE DA-SR in it for DCC.  The rotary beacon is a Details West beacon with a grain of rice bulb inserted inside the amber plastic lens.  It is then connected to the decoder and programmed for a rotary beacon.

I've seen some of your videos on youtube.  Based on them, your other postings and your avatar, it looks like your SD40-2s are BLI units.  The problem with BLI and other sound equipped locos is that there are no extra lighting functions on the decoder.  As far as I can figure the only way to add such an effect on them is the add a separate decoder than can provide the lighting effects.

The beacon isn;t hard to do, just takes patience.  It makes for a really neat effect to have 3 or 4 or 5 of them on in a dimly lighted room.

jktrains

Actually my C30-7 is an atlas unit. My SD40-2 is BLI the other loco is a P2K SD45 and most of my fleet is made up of athearn rtr units. BTW is there a way to make the beacons work without DCC? If so please let me know.

-Kade

[jeffrey-wimberly]

A little glue wash between the ties and down the sides of the road bed followed by a layer of fine ballast applied with a straw. The turnouts of course will be left clear.

[ac4400fan]

I've been doing a bit of layout work today. Remember all the exposed plaster where the crossovers are?

I put some glue mix down and sprinkled liberally with WS green blended turf.

After it's dried I'll clean up the excess and work on putting some ballast in.

Jeff thats a nice shot! how are you going to work the ballast in? Looks good my friend

Carl.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I've been doing a bit of layout work today. Remember all the exposed plaster where the crossovers are?

I put some glue mix down and sprinkled liberally with WS green blended turf.

After it's dried I'll clean up the excess and work on putting some ballast in.

[Bapou]

Just wanted to make sure you guys get the last pic here.

[Bapou]

Well now that I have a photobucket account here does nothing:

This is the Grim reaper bought in Germany on my diorama.

This is done with just a flashlite, and gravestones from Germany.

Here is one more:

That is just an ALCO S1-4 on the diorama.

[wedudler]

Westport Terminal RR made some advertising at the bridge over Commerce St.

Wolfgang 

[rayw46]

Loathar and Gappleg, someone, I can't remember who, produced a tape about the Hawaiian Sugar Cane Train which as you discovered, is now a tourist railroad.  Several years ago I checked the tape out of my local library.  Maybe it was on the History Channel or A&E at one time.

Ray

[SteamFreak]

I could swear I just saw a program on that old sugar train. I thought it showed that they restored part of the line and were running tourist trains on it. ( I could be wrong.)

Edit-Nope! I was right!

http://www.gomauicard.com/attractions/Sugar-Cane-Train.html

SEE! It IS paradise!

WHEW! Zak had me worried. And steam no less!

[UP2CSX]

 

I think your calculation is a bit off it comes out to .1 megapixel.  A megapixel is 1,000,000 pixels.  Jeffs camera is 101376 pixels.  The photos he is putting online have been enlarged and are 25 DPI.  What Jeff needs is a better camera. 

Dang it, I had a feeling I was screwing up that calculation. I know less about math than I do cameras. You're right, at .10 megapixels, it's amazing that Jeff's pictures don't look like a giant blur. I hope the other camera he has will do better.

 

[jktrains]

Jeff,

Sit down.  Honesty time.  The camera will never yield good shots for model purposes.  It simply is not design for it.  The specs of the camera that lead me to this conclusion becuase of the following:

F-stop fixed at f2.8 - this will result in a very, very short depth of field, espcially for objects close the the lens.  This means that your focus will need to be spot on the subject.  This is why in your pictures there is a large amount of perspective with very little of it being in focus. Also, you have no ability to adjust the f-stop setting. 

Shutter speed is limited to 1/60 - 1/1500 sec.  For interior photography you need either a lot of artificial light or a tripod to hold the camera.  On most SLRs the flash synced shutter speed is 1/60 sec.  This camera is at the bottom of the rande for slow shutter speed.  Many of my pics posted this weekend were in the 4-6 sec exposure range for dark scenes and 1.5" for average lighting from the room.  About the slowest a persona can hold a camera still for is a 1/30 shutter speed, maybe 1/15 if you're leaning against something.

While you're using flourescent lights, they don't provide enough light, for this camera, by the time it reaches the subject.  Light follows an inverse quare law, that means the when you move the light source from 1' away to 2' away from the subject the amount of light falling on the subject is reduced by 1/4 not 1/2.  Therefore you need not twince the light but four times to light for it to be equal.

Exposure setting is auto and can not be adjusted.  This means that since the f-stop is fixed the only way the camera can get the right exposure is to adjust its shutter speed automatically.  Because of this all of your pics with have the same basic exposure or at least be underexposed due to a lack of light. 

White Balance is auto which is also bad.  You flourescent lights output of light is at a certain temperature.  While you may not notice the difference, a camera will.  I took a series of pictures using a simply desk light as the light source.  In one set I used a regular incandescent bulb (60watt) and the other set I used Daylight adjust compact floursecent bulb.  The camera was set on auto white balance.  There is a marked difference in the overall color shift between the two bulbs.

Bottom line is that this camera is meant for outdoor use.  I can't see in the specs of the camera itself where it even has a flash built in.  You will never get satisfactory results when used for close-up photography.  Save it for railfanning or overall layout shots.

After checking a few internet sites you can get a decent digital camera that should provide good pics for around $75-100.  These are cameras with a macro setting, automatic and manual exposure settings, anywhere from 3-6 megapixels, good f-stop range and a focus range down to as close as 4".  While I know you have limited resources, the cost of one of these cameras is in the range of a new loco such as a Bachmann DCC equipped one.  IMO a good trade off given your desire to post pics.  One less loco for hundreds of better quality photos.

[SpaceMouse]

I rode about 40 miles or so on a Sugar Cane train on Maui back in 2000. I don't remember the details about like what kind of steam engine it was or if it was narrow guage or standard, but we rode it.

[secondhandmodeler]

Okay, I don't think any of you know but I am presently in Hawaii on the big island for work.  Today being Sunday, I was naughty and missed church and went up the coast to a train museum.  That's right the big island did have trains at one time to haul sugar and passengers.

Zak, interesting shots of the abandoned ROW, and that's a very boxy, unique caboose. But there are no running trains in Hawaii? I thought it was supposed to be paradise!

I could swear I just saw a program on that old sugar train. I thought it showed that they restored part of the line and were running tourist trains on it. ( I could be wrong.)

Edit-Nope! I was right!

http://www.gomauicard.com/attractions/Sugar-Cane-Train.html

SEE! It IS paradise!

That's the one.  I don't think I appreciated it as much then as I would now.

[loathar]

Gappleg-See my edited post.

[jep1267]

J.P.: After I left the thread yesterday I got a very surprising number of PM's and emails of encouragement to come back and post again. I finally did, sometime between 10 and 11 pm after I had cooled down. I was unaware of how many people here enjoy my posts.

 

Good deal. Glad to hear you didn't give up

[GAPPLEG]

Okay, I don't think any of you know but I am presently in Hawaii on the big island for work.  Today being Sunday, I was naughty and missed church and went up the coast to a train museum.  That's right the big island did have trains at one time to haul sugar and passengers.

Zak, interesting shots of the abandoned ROW, and that's a very boxy, unique caboose. But there are no running trains in Hawaii? I thought it was supposed to be paradise!

I could swear I just saw a program on that old sugar train. I thought it showed that they restored part of the line and were running tourist trains on it. ( I could be wrong.)

I think I saw the same show , but where did I see it ?

[loathar]

Okay, I don't think any of you know but I am presently in Hawaii on the big island for work.  Today being Sunday, I was naughty and missed church and went up the coast to a train museum.  That's right the big island did have trains at one time to haul sugar and passengers.

Zak, interesting shots of the abandoned ROW, and that's a very boxy, unique caboose. But there are no running trains in Hawaii? I thought it was supposed to be paradise!

I could swear I just saw a program on that old sugar train. I thought it showed that they restored part of the line and were running tourist trains on it. ( I could be wrong.)

Edit-Nope! I was right!

http://www.gomauicard.com/attractions/Sugar-Cane-Train.html

SEE! It IS paradise!