A Study of Black & White Model Railroading

[Anonymous]

Not long ago I saw a piece in one of the MRRing Mags about a guy that built a Black & White MRR Module. Well that got me to thinking, and I said to my self, SELF, what would it be like to have a whole layout, say 10 x 20, done in Black & White instead of color, even down to the room itself, with all the various subtle shades of Black and Gray that one would normally see in Black & White photos. Many of us grew up in the Black & White Era when color was just beginning to make some in-roads in the photo market, others, the younger guys, grew up in the Color Photo Era and are just now re-discovering the Era of Black & White, so I thought this might be interesting to explore. Any thoughts????[:)]

[pbjwilson]

I've often thought of trying to model some of the photos of Winston Link. He really had an eye for composition. Also the photos mostly done at night are very high contrast. Modeling his photos would be intersting.
Also, think of winter modeling. Winter in the midwest and plains states can be pretty bleak. With snow on the ground and leafless trees there's not much color to be modeled, maybe black, white, and brown.

[Anonymous]

I think you'd be very unhappy with something that size. The hardest part of doing anything in black and white (at least from an artistic point of view) is depth perception. The larger it is, the more akward it seems to the eye. An entire 10x20 layout would be too much.

Something more manageable would be to pick a scene and capture it, like a photograph. A busy interchange in a railyard for instance. For added drama, size and a little something else you've probably never tried...use a mirror. This would work especially well for one of those small shelf sized layouts.

Just my 2 cents worth, but I believe if you do anything larger than 3x5, you're going to be disappointed with the results.

[lupo]

Great idea,
there are so many shades of grey available, blue-ish greys, brownish greys

And It would be like my 7 year old son imagined how the world in the past must have looked like, black & white:
It took me quite some efford to explain him that the past was not in black and white,
because of all black and white railroad pictures he sees , and his beloved Laurell and Hardy movies were made that way .

[Anonymous]

A book I just reviewed about winter in Yellowstone described traveling through the landscape on an overcast day. The dark sky, white snow and dark rocks and trees gave the author the impression she was "driving into an Ansel Adams photograph."

I experience much the same feeling here in the Adirondacks on dark, winter days. (Today for example.) By itself, as a moment in time, it is not a depressing or disturbing experience and carries its own beauty, mystery and interest. But I think part of the appeal is the promise of color returning to the world in the near future and the occasional flicker of color by passing birds or a colorful winter plant.

Even the "shades of gray" module in the article had little red heralds on the delivery trucks in the foreground.

Wayne

[Anonymous]

was the module in N scale and was the railroad NYC?

[Anonymous]

It was N scale and indeed was the NYC. A photo and short article is on the very last page of the Jan. 2005 MR magazine.

Wayne

[Anonymous]

Last year after the big fire in San Diego County that burned an area bigger than the state of Rhode Island, a few weeks after the fire I went up to drive through Cleveland park that had totally burned. The whole place was black and white. The day we went was overcast with a grey sky the trees were black and the ground was covered with the white ash of thousands of burned leaves. The only color was the yellow line on the road. It was beautiful and terrible at the same time. It was rerally like we were in a black and whiteor sepia toned photograph.

On a lighter note I've seen some great winter scene modeling that looks close to black and white.

[Eriediamond]

I have a black and white scene on my layout. It's Bubba (>^..^<) waiting to pouce on the train when it comes out of the tunnel !!! [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D] Sorry, I just couldn't resist!!!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Muddy Creek

A book I just reviewed about winter in Yellowstone described traveling through the landscape on an overcast day. The dark sky, white snow and dark rocks and trees gave the author the impression she was "driving into an Ansel Adams photograph."

I experience much the same feeling here in the Adirondacks on dark, winter days. (Today for example.) By itself, as a moment in time, it is not a depressing or disturbing experience and carries its own beauty, mystery and interest. But I think part of the appeal is the promise of color returning to the world in the near future and the occasional flicker of color by passing birds or a colorful winter plant.

Even the "shades of gray" module in the article had little red heralds on the delivery trucks in the foreground.

Wayne

Orig post by MuddyCreek.--- It was N scale and indeed was the NYC. A photo and short article is on the very last page of the Jan. 2005 MR magazine.

Wayne


Didn't know you were from the Adirondacks (Gods Country), I knew there was someone on here that was but couldn't remember who. I grew up just Northeast of you, in Plattsburgh, and I agree with you about Winter in the North Country, cold and bleak but having a beauty all its own. I quess one could start with a 4x8 or 4x10 just get a slant on the idea, then go from there if they like it.


Orig post by Cyb0rg------I think you'd be very unhappy with something that size. The hardest part of doing anything in black and white (at least from an artistic point of view) is depth perception. The larger it is, the more akward it seems to the eye. An entire 10x20 layout would be too much.

Something more manageable would be to pick a scene and capture it, like a photograph. A busy interchange in a railyard for instance. For added drama, size and a little something else you've probably never tried...use a mirror. This would work especially well for one of those small shelf sized layouts.

Just my 2 cents worth, but I believe if you do anything larger than 3x5, you're going to be disappointed with the results.

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To Cyb0rg;

Ya you could be right however I quess one could start with a 4x8 or a 4x10, or as you said a 3x5 module just get a slant on the idea, then go from there if they like it.

[grayfox1119]

Wayne, that was exactly what I was thinking, only from a New England view in the mountains of New Hampshire. The landscape is pretty much black and white, especially on dark days with heavy snow cover.

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