We finished most of what needs done before we start our layout expansion project, took some pictures, and have been auditioning different photographs to use for a backdrop.
Take a look and see if you like any of them, and if so, which one do you think looks best?
I guess if you hate them all, you should say that, so we can go back to the drawing board and try something different.
:-)
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
The last one looks good with the color and topography matchup. How does the topography line up when viewed from the other angle? It needs to line up right from all viewable angles. So far, that one looks best to me.
Awesome rock work BTW!
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
PFS wrote:You should reshoot them with the identical angle/etc. so the 'judges' can compare apples to apples.
However, on #4, in the continental United States (where a Santa Fe locomotive would be seen) tree line is generally considered to be 11,000 feet. So this track looks to be at about 9,500 feet. Those baldy mountians in the background would be 13,000 footers. Raton Pass on the Santa Fe is considered to be 7830 feet, and there is nothing even close to 11,000 feet around it. Here is a photo looking south into the actual Raton pass:http://www.sangres.com/cimages/notc/passesimages/raton/view1.jpgYour backdrop should look like this.
On the other hand swap out that SF for a D&RGW, or move north a bit for NP, GN, Milwalkee and it would be more credible. I guess even an SP in Donner pass would work better.
I appreciate all the replies, and will try to explain what's going on here.
Between the trestle and the finished backdrop, the expansion puts a two level, 13 inch wide staging yard. That gets covered up with a ridgeline coming in from the left, which dies at the edge of the river's upper section. Just behind the free span of the trestle there will be a waterfall, maybe twice as tall as the bridge deck.
So, to the left of the bridge, the terrain starts at upper level water's edge and slopes uphill to the left. To the right of the bridge, there's a ridgeline all the way back at the backdrop line, again starting at water's edge and rising to the right. Above the waterfall, the river turns left and disappears behind the left ridge, with a smaller creek coming down the wash at the right.
Essentially, the backdrop will sit behind both ridgelines, but they come down to form a V about where the present terrain does, only higher, so the effect will be similar, just further back. I have literally thousands of high res digital images from Colorado, so the purpose of this thread was to figure out what...type...of backdrop to use, not necessarily which exact picture.
Different "types" include wider, open valleys leading to shorter mountains, wider open valleys leading to taller mountains, and continuing the foreground mountains on up higher with the backdrop.
My opinion matches most of those given here, the wider valley opens up the space, and the taller mountains and pretty sky make a nice scene. That image works okay from some other angles:
...but there are also problems from some angles too, namely from head on, where we have a "disappearing river":
I think the two new ridges and bend in the river above the falls will deal with this problem, but time will tell. It's not too early to start the stitching and printing process on some test backdrops though, because the new ridges have to blend into some kind of backdrop eventually.
Gandy Dancer, you really know both your railroads and your mountains.
The layout here is primarily a rendition of the 1885-1895 Silverton road. The Red Mountains are right in the 13k ballpark, treeline on the existing layout is about a foot below the (selectively compressed) highest peaks, and that backdrop image was taken from Engineer Pass looking east, with Gravel Peak being the highest, call it thirteen five, just as you noted.
However, the kids like their diesels, and Santa Fe used their favorite colors, so we have a dual-use layout in progress here. Treeline will match in both the terrain and backdrop, but prototypically, only for the Silverton application, all well and good since the kids don't really care about prototype mountains yet anyways.
Of all the motive power, the Genesis F units have been the most problematic to date, since we have curves from fifteen to eighteen inches radius, and Athearn Fs rub brake levers on grab irons at 18 inches exactly. The trestle is not only above an 18 inch curve on a 5% grade, it is the transition at the top of the grade, and those locos have been known to pop off the rails if the transition isn't precisely right. Under the ballast at the left end of the trestle are 1 to 3 shims made of typing paper, it is that touchy.
To make all that happen in the limited space available, we built the trestle deck, pinned it at both ends, then temporarily shimmed up the middle to approximate a parabola. After each bent went in, we needed to test the trestle grade for a smooth transition, and that's why the Santa Fe F units happened to be on the table when these pics were taken, since they are the limiting case for performance. The bents were built a sixteenth inch shortm then we'd shim them snug, test with the F units, mark the shim placements, and rthen disassemble before final gluing. It worked, and the Athearns manage the grade very reliably.
Nobody's said anything about our combination of ATSF and D&RG yet, but there was quite a bit of bad blood between the two, and given the close relationship between the D&RG and Otto Mears, probably between the SRR and ATSF as well. No matter, my son likes all things military too, so if any engineers, brakemen, tracklayers or other bad seeds try to stir up any trouble, we have a whole trainload of M1s, Bradleys, and rocket launchers, if needed to maintain order.
Peace through fire superiority, guaranteed to last.
cheers, krump
"TRAIN up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" ... Proverbs 22:6
jeffers_mz wrote:The layout here is primarily a rendition of the 1885-1895 Silverton road. The Red Mountains are right in the 13k ballpark, treeline on the existing layout is about a foot below the (selectively compressed) highest peaks, and that backdrop image was taken from Engineer Pass looking east, with Gravel Peak being the highest, call it thirteen five, just as you noted.
Nobody's said anything about our combination of ATSF and D&RG yet, but there was quite a bit of bad blood between the two, and given the close relationship between the D&RG and Otto Mears, probably between the SRR and ATSF as well.
Number 4 from the 1st set. Really good job.
Regards,
Tom