Weekend Photo Fun 7-31/8-3

[jwhitten]

jeffrey-wimberly

Silver Pilot

AltoonaRailroader

Packers#1, how about either using a flash. Orrrrrr maybe looking at the picture before you post it. You may know what those two black photos are but I have know idea.

DITTO!!  Isn't this the second time that he's posted pics that have completely blacked out subjects that you can't make out?  Don't mean to sound so negative. but he received a suggestion for improvement last time.

Ditto on Silver Pilot's ditto. You need a light source there to put light on the subject, even if it's just a desk lamp or an electric lantern.

 

Oh, I just thought it was supposed to be a picture of a window screen at dawn...

BUT seriously, if you want an easy improvement for the effect I think you're going for-- take a big white t-shirt (towel, piece of paper, whatever) and hold it up beside the trains to reflect just a little bit of light on them.You won't need much, and it will be natural light and will light them up just the right amount.

Then also focus on the trains and not the screen. Most digital cameras allow you to half-push the shutter button to focus and get a light reading, and then while still holding it halfway down, reposition the camera slightly to compose the picture, at which time you would go ahead and finish pressing the shutter button to take the picture.

[jwhitten]

wm3798

 

Just hanging around the engine terminal today...

 Lee

 

 

Very nice.  I especially liked this one with the locos inside the shop. It really comes across well.

[Packers#1]

jwhitten

jeffrey-wimberly

Silver Pilot

AltoonaRailroader

Packers#1, how about either using a flash. Orrrrrr maybe looking at the picture before you post it. You may know what those two black photos are but I have know idea.

DITTO!!  Isn't this the second time that he's posted pics that have completely blacked out subjects that you can't make out?  Don't mean to sound so negative. but he received a suggestion for improvement last time.

Ditto on Silver Pilot's ditto. You need a light source there to put light on the subject, even if it's just a desk lamp or an electric lantern.

 

Oh, I just thought it was supposed to be a picture of a window screen at dawn...

BUT seriously, if you want an easy improvement for the effect I think you're going for-- take a big white t-shirt (towel, piece of paper, whatever) and hold it up beside the trains to reflect just a little bit of light on them.You won't need much, and it will be natural light and will light them up just the right amount.

Then also focus on the trains and not the screen. Most digital cameras allow you to half-push the shutter button to focus and get a light reading, and then while still holding it halfway down, reposition the camera slightly to compose the picture, at which time you would go ahead and finish pressing the shutter button to take the picture.

 

Thanks for the white T-shirt tip, I'll try that.

Huh, thought I did have the camera focused on the trains, oh well.

Guys, the whole point of those photos was mood, mood, and oh yeah, MOOD. All there was supposed to be was dark lumps outlined by the thin light of early dawn. Not a meet, as Tyler's photo suggests with the light of what would be an oncoming train. There would not be a streetlight at this rural grade crossing for extra light. No flash, as that would just look terrible and wreck the mood.

 I was going for the feel of an early morning train moving like a silent ghost over the tracks, hard to distinguish from the background of trees as it moves along to work the local industries. I never wanted another light source, or I would have added one. I didn't want ANY detail on any of the models showing, as that would have broken the mood.

ok, rant over, I'll step off of my soapbox 

Hey Mike, congrats on the photo in MR's trackside photos, I loved it!

[zgardner18]

I spent the day with my oldest son Jared at the San Bernardino Depot where a few Free-Mo groups got together for a little running of the trains.  A lot went on and a lot of big wigs were there, plus a new look at some future HO models hitting the scene.  One that I am very excited about is coming from Exact Rail.  Lets just say some very nice modern rail cars w/ load that will work nicely on my layout (seen behind the engines in the first photo).  It was a great time with HO, N, and 1:1 railroading going on as well as a ride in choo choo.  Here are some photos:

Sorry to anyone that has dial-up.  A good reason to up-grade.

That's Jared standing by the ride in choo choo and the 4 Metrolink trains (If only #800 was there, a F40PH, I'd have one of each)

 

[DingySP]

Work contiues on the HOn3 Drop Bottom Gondola.

 

 

[steamage]

Day the SP 9191 arrived on the property.  

[Silver Pilot]

Packers#1

Thanks for the white T-shirt tip, I'll try that.

Huh, thought I did have the camera focused on the trains, oh well.

Guys, the whole point of those photos was mood, mood, and oh yeah, MOOD. All there was supposed to be was dark lumps outlined by the thin light of early dawn. Not a meet, as Tyler's photo suggests with the light of what would be an oncoming train. There would not be a streetlight at this rural grade crossing for extra light. No flash, as that would just look terrible and wreck the mood.

 I was going for the feel of an early morning train moving like a silent ghost over the tracks, hard to distinguish from the background of trees as it moves along to work the local industries. I never wanted another light source, or I would have added one. I didn't want ANY detail on any of the models showing, as that would have broken the mood.

ok, rant over, I'll step off of my soapbox 

Hey Mike, congrats on the photo in MR's trackside photos, I loved it!

Packers#1 

If the point was MOOD, then, ah, lets see, at least four of us missed your oh so clever attempt at creating a mood.  And if mood was the point, then get rid of the screens on the window - they completely ruined the "mood."  Has for having the camera focused on the 'subject' its had to tell what the subject was and where the camera was focused.  Dude, just fess up and say that you messed up and posted something without really considering what you were posting and whether it was anything other than a big black blob.

 On a lighter note - I recently got my lastest issue for MR in the mail.  Pelle's article on photography has some excellent pointers in it.  The biggest being scrutinizing your pictures to find flaws and errors in your modeling.  Your naked eye may not see it initially, but you'll find it when you study the picture.

 

[spidge]

Thanks for the great shots there Zak. I plan to go today with a friend from nearby. I must point out that your photo quality is always top notch.

Steamage, I like the scene. Less is more kind a guy. That SP locos is awefully clean?

I would share my weathering experiment here but I do not see any attachment tab. I do not intend to post my experiments in a photo hosting site. Then again maybe I should, good or bad.

[Anonymous]

 Dingy - Nice job on the gon.

 Here is an HOn3 car that I just finished.  It is a Labelle wood kit that I built using ALine wire stirrups, bits of .005 styrene, Grandt Line brake parts and Blackstone trucks.

This is my first time to post on WPF, and it won't be my last!

[MisterBeasley]

selector

Some house-keeping:  we have had several excellent photos appear in quotes on this page so that their authors can be rightfully congratulated.   However, the thread takes that much longer for our viewers with slower servers or service providers to load, and it puts a greater load on Kalmbach's servers.

Not to be overly contrary, but this should not be the case at all.  Kalmbach's servers should not be significantly affected, because they don't "host" the pictures.  All that is passing between the server and our home computers is that one line of "BB code" which contains the link to the photo, not the photo itself.  That photo gets "fetched" from the host server, which only has one copy sitting on it, regardless of how many times it's referenced.

If I'm not mistaken, Windows and other popular operating systems "cache" pictures when they read them in.  That is, they keep a copy, either in memory or on the local disk.  So, if the browser "fetches" a picture in on post, it's still there in the local computer for later posts - it does not need to fetch again.  Yes, there's a hit for the first time a picture is loaded, but after that it should be much quicker.

[BRVRR]

Some great work here this week. Too much to comment on individually. Great job, one and all!

 

I've been updating my website the last couple of days. I posted the One Minute Freight video that I posted here a couple of weeks ago and a new one of a Norfolk-Souther freight negotiating Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA. Both videos can be accessed on the Railroading page of my website.

Here is my contribution to WPF for the week:

NYC Hudson #5335 at the head of a short passenger train, overtakes NYC Mikado #9519 as they round the curve near the Farmer's Union grain elevator on the Black River Valley Railroad layout.

 

Keep up the good work guys. You are always inspiring.

 

[selector]

So I have been advised privately, Mr. B., and I don't dispute it.  However, Bergie, when he was the internet services manager, and the head honcho here, used to make the case to us that this was a problem.  Also, one of those quoted in a photo at the top of this page was one who objected previously to the phenomenon, blaming it on excessive load times.  So, my request was in keeping with what I was led to understand by Bergie (now replaced by Dana Kawala), and by several members who expressed frustration over excessive quoting of the same photo.

No matter the technical rightness or wrongness of the assertion with respect to caching, the thread takes on a different look when the same image is quoted by multiple persons, often in succession.  It should cease....please.  Just mention the image's owner and compliment that person using words.

-Crandell

[Margaritaman]

centercab

 ...and it won't be my last!

I sure hope not.  Fabulous effort on that gondola.  I never would have picked that color but you've made it work well. 

Four more please in a weathered red (I have trucks here so no worries there).  Just pm me when you're done and we'll make arrangements... 

I'm sure I can speak on behalf of everyone here, we look forward to seeing more pics from you.

[jwhitten]

selector

So I have been advised privately, Mr. B., and I don't dispute it.  However, Bergie, when he was the internet services manager, and the head honcho here, used to make the case to us that this was a problem.  Also, one of those quoted in a photo at the top of this page was one who objected previously to the phenomenon, blaming it on excessive load times.  So, my request was in keeping with what I was led to understand by Bergie (now replaced by Dana Kawala), and by several members who expressed frustration over excessive quoting of the same photo.

No matter the technical rightness or wrongness of the assertion with respect to caching, the thread takes on a different look when the same image is quoted by multiple persons, often in succession.  It should cease....please.  Just mention the image's owner and compliment that person using words.

-Crandell

 

 

Maybe there's an opportunity for a compromise?

How about talking to the web apps folks and seeing if they would make a quick modification such that when an image is quoted in a reply, only a smaller thumbnail (reduced) portion of the image is displayed?

That would solve both objectives.

 

John

[MisterBeasley]

OK, enough of this geeky computer stuff.  Chuck, that is might fine work on that HOn3 car.  Please give us more!

I'm still going through my backlog of Jordan kits.  I finished up this bus earlier today.

I did this beer truck some time ago, but I added the crew to the scene recently.

 

[wedudler]

DingySP

Work contiues on the HOn3 Drop Bottom Gondola.

 

 

Great work with this kit. I like it.

 I've no new work with my Silver Creek, only new picture.     

 

Wolfgang

[PB&J RR]

Wow,... I dunno if I can compete in this crowd... I have made progress this week, trains are running on both mains... I am still at odds with the inner portion of the layout... I'm new at this designing, my last two layouts were made from plan books... While I want two run a double track main because I like to watch them run, I want to design in a yard and some operating opportunities inside... Man am I giving them fits in the layout section...

So here we see UP 1400 pullling a small packhorse freight consist on the low road, and the 6-5000 drawing the lazy Sunday toward the coast on the high road.

[cudaken]

 This weekend is the first 3 day weekend I have had in 4 years! So what better way to spend a Sunday than at K-10 Model Trains Sunday Open House? First Sunday of ever month for $5.00 you can run a train on Ken's (owner not me) 60 X 81 foot layout. You sure can get a workout chasing your train on a 60 X 81 foot layout, I am beat!

 There where around 80 people there and bench was full. Even with 6 main lines there where back ups. I took my PCM Y-6b and Blue Line SDR 15. Never got a shoot of the Y6-b but here are a few of the SDR 15. By the way, the SDR 15 is a great engine, sounds great and pulls well for a $150.00 engine with a DCC decoder.

 

 

 SDR 15 on a SP bridge, don't remember the name of the river.

 

 SDR 15 going by the steel mill, it is on the lower track.

 Few of the bridges heading back to the passenger yard. This section is 81 foot long and you can high ball it with no worries.

 This is heading to the mountain, as you can see some one walk in front of me as I took the picture. SDR 15 is coming out of the tunnel.

 

This is my favorite part of the bench, the mountain!

 

 SDR 15 is in the shoot heading up.

 

  I am luck to live with in 2 miles of this great track, but this is the first time I ran it on open house day. There are few rules, but the few they have I broke. I was given a card that said 1 when I came in, but was not told I had to give the card to the yard master?  For 4 hours they where trying to figure out who number 1 was.

 You must one a Caboose, guess how did not have one at first? I understand why, so they know it is a back of the train and not a bunch of cars just sitting on a spur.

 The BIGGIE that would helped me to enjoy running the SDR 15 more? Don't use address 3 on your engine! More than a few times I lost sound, speed control or direction! I just figured the SDR 15 was having a bad decoder day!

 Over all a good train day.

                     Cuda Ken 

 

[JRP]

 Jeffrey,

I am trying to attach train photos to a new post here.  I have uploaded photos to "photobucket" and re-sized them.  But now how do I get them transfered to this post?  Does HTML have anything to do with this?.  Your assistance is appreciated.  Thanks

JRP 

[C&O Fan]

 No

Since you have uploaded to photo bucket it now just becomes 

a point and click operation

Go to photo bucket and chose the photo you want to post 

put your mouse pointer on the photo and a drop down menue 

will appear

right click on the last line which will have img tags on both ends

then click on copy

then paste it to a new post here

It will look like " IMG da dee da dee da IMG"

but when you hit post the picture will appear

and that should do it

You can read this for more help

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/146146/1621747.aspx#1621747

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Silver Pilot]

CudaKen - One correction to your post.  That would be an RSD-15.  Your dyselxia must be kicking in.

[cudaken]

Silver Pilot

Your dyslexia must be kicking in

 You are sort of right, more forces of habit. Evert day I do a Sale Daily Report, or SDR. So it sticks in the few brain sales cells I have left!

                  Ken

[Dave Vollmer]

Progress continues at Enola Yard. Sorry again for the bad iPhone photos. We're still not sure what we're going to do to replace the good camera I used to use before it broke...

Note the cable trench along the yard ladder. I'm using ground throws with contacts to power the frogs, and with all that wiring, it's easier to bury the wires and drop a few feeders instead of dropping all of them through 2" of foam and the hollow core door. A service road will cover the trench.

The transition between code 80 on the old layout and code 55 on the new is obvious:

[wm3798]

 Vollmer, it looks suspiciously like you've moved into David Popp's basement...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Nice work there Dave.

[Dave Vollmer]

wm3798

 Vollmer, it looks suspiciously like you've moved into David Popp's basement...

LOL! It's that same goofy textured "brick" pattern David Popp has. It's real common out here west of the Mississippi. The half of my basement in which the layout resides had been used as a girls' bedroom by the prior occupants, and it was painted broad stripes of purple, pink, and red. It took 3 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint to put that to bed!

[Margaritaman]

[Packers#1]

Silver Pilot

Packers#1

Thanks for the white T-shirt tip, I'll try that.

Huh, thought I did have the camera focused on the trains, oh well.

Guys, the whole point of those photos was mood, mood, and oh yeah, MOOD. All there was supposed to be was dark lumps outlined by the thin light of early dawn. Not a meet, as Tyler's photo suggests with the light of what would be an oncoming train. There would not be a streetlight at this rural grade crossing for extra light. No flash, as that would just look terrible and wreck the mood.

 I was going for the feel of an early morning train moving like a silent ghost over the tracks, hard to distinguish from the background of trees as it moves along to work the local industries. I never wanted another light source, or I would have added one. I didn't want ANY detail on any of the models showing, as that would have broken the mood.

ok, rant over, I'll step off of my soapbox 

Hey Mike, congrats on the photo in MR's trackside photos, I loved it!

Packers#1 

If the point was MOOD, then, ah, lets see, at least four of us missed your oh so clever attempt at creating a mood.  And if mood was the point, then get rid of the screens on the window - they completely ruined the "mood."  Has for having the camera focused on the 'subject' its had to tell what the subject was and where the camera was focused.  Dude, just fess up and say that you messed up and posted something without really considering what you were posting and whether it was anything other than a big black blob.

 On a lighter note - I recently got my lastest issue for MR in the mail.  Pelle's article on photography has some excellent pointers in it.  The biggest being scrutinizing your pictures to find flaws and errors in your modeling.  Your naked eye may not see it initially, but you'll find it when you study the picture.

 

 

I did mess up, I tried to get some good pics with the BEST outdoor lighting, and I should have gone out to the driveway and taken them right.

I THOUGHT they were good pics, guess they weren't. Sorry guys!

And yeah, got my new MR just in time to bring to the beach, and while lord knows I can't use a HECK of a lot in that because I have a layout to build, I can use a bit of the advice to improve the photos. Finally understand the f-stop function, lol.

[C&O Fan]

Dave Vollmer

Progress continues at Enola Yard. Sorry again for the bad iPhone photos. We're still not sure what we're going to do to replace the good camera I used to use before it broke...

 

Snip

Coming along nicely Dave

It will be intresting to see how you handel the sky board

 

Have you thought about moving the over pass all the way to the end of the module and then placing

a mirror between the bottom of the bridge and the top of the ground at the end of the rails {ala John Allen }

to make it look like they continue instead of falling off the end of the earth

Make sue if you do to use a front reflective mirror or else you will have a gap showing at the ends of the rails

 

 

[Dave Vollmer]

Terry, that's an option. Not so much the mirror (seems kinda cliche to me) but the placement of the overpass. But if you've ever railfanned from the real Belle Vista Dr bridge or I81 bridge at Enola, the thrill is enjoying train action from both directions. Of course, I have the bridge on the wrong side of the diesel house for Enola, but it's "proto-lanced."