Weekend Update 3/27/22

[Bendtracker1]

@bbussey and @davefoxx,
I've got a horizontal arm for my tripod with a phone swivel clip on the end.
I'll play around and see if I can get it closer to ground level, but it's a little tight in that area.
Maybe if I turn the phone vertical and upside down I can get a little closer?
Plus my phone can zoom out to .5  

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It was a fun weekend.

Saturday involved helping to move a bunch of Conrail artifacts. Was great to actually see my Conrail homies again!

Swung by the real Windsor St Yard on the way to Harrisburg to see this.



But that wasn't the only amazing Conrail car I saw that day. Oh no.



That is the currently in-progress Conrail museum in Shippensburg. The goal is to be open by the end of Summer.

And in case you're wondering "How are they gonna fit a museum in a boxcar?", let me remind you that this thing is f***ing huge.



It looks just like a model.

[JMaurer1]

It's been a tough weekend but I did spend the weekend doing model train related things. Since Covid started, the train club has dwindled since we couldn't meet and life intervened with members moving away for one (good) reason or another. However, one of the founding members, close personal friend, and NTrak/NRail senior members quickly went from attending our first train club meeting in a long time at the end of January to passing away earlier this month. I went over to his house to help his widow start sorting through his modules and trains. Phil loved to build modules...very lightweight, intricate modules including racks to hold them. Most of the modules that the club members had were built by Phil. I knew that there was one rack at his house that had 4-5 6 ft modules that were partially sceniced or needing scenery (he didn't like doing scenery) that he was waiting on me to add ground foam to...but I didn't know that he had been building more and more module 'blanks'. There must be at least 10-15 more than I expected. A very full truck load didn't even make a dent in his garage.

So Saturday was spent loading up the truck and Sunday was spent making room in my (already full of modules) garage before rain came last night. I made it, but will be going back for another truckload later this week and will be spending weeks going thru the boxes of stuff he had (for a guy who didn't like doing scenery, he sure had a lot of scenery materials).

If you live in Northern California and have wanted to build an N Trak/NRail module, I've got the modules and a club that is looking for members. We have just about everything needed except the people to do the work.

Miss you Phil...

[randgust]

Wow, I can't imagine a more hostile/uncomfortable environment for a museum collection than an 86' steel boxcar in summer heat.  Got AC and lots of it?

I'll never forget being in Mt. Shasta, CA and finding a yard of 'preserved' equipment including a PFE wood reefer.  It was really hot, and climbing inside that reefer was downright comfortable and cool.

For years NYS&W in Cooperstown had their minicomputer inside an insulated boxcar beside the Cooperstown station.   Worked well, but just sayin', INSULATION.....

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wow, I can't imagine a more hostile/uncomfortable environment for a museum collection than an 86' steel boxcar in summer heat.  Got AC and lots of it?

I'll never forget being in Mt. Shasta, CA and finding a yard of 'preserved' equipment including a PFE wood reefer.  It was really hot, and climbing inside that reefer was downright comfortable and cool.

For years NYS&W in Cooperstown had their minicomputer inside an insulated boxcar beside the Cooperstown station.   Worked well, but just sayin', INSULATION.....

Yep, that's the plan. First PLENTY of insulation, then climate control. It's going to be a far cry from simply a storage unit.
We're very fortunate in that the CVRC has gone first and solved most of the problems already for us with their museum in the PC car.

[bbussey]

@bbussey and @davefoxx,
I've got a horizontal arm for my tripod with a phone swivel clip on the end.
I'll play around and see if I can get it closer to ground level, but it's a little tight in that area.
Maybe if I turn the phone vertical and upside down I can get a little closer?
Plus my phone can zoom out to .5

The goal is to get the camera lens on the phone as close to the ground as possible.  Upside-down portrait orientation will do that.  One of the landscape orientations will as well, based on which corner of the phone where your camera lens is.  My iPhone lens in either configuration ends up being a scale 5½ feet above the ground.  I can get within 5 feet if I take the phone out of its protective battery case, but 5½ feet yields some dramatic perspectives.

[peteski]

The goal is to get the camera lens on the phone as close to the ground as possible.  Upside-down portrait orientation will do that.  One of the landscape orientations will as well, based on which corner of the phone where your camera lens is.  My iPhone lens in either configuration ends up being a scale 5½ feet above the ground.  I can get within 5 feet if I take the phone out of its protective battery case, but 5½ feet yields some dramatic perspectives.

Even if the phone's physical layout is not friendly to taking photos in some orientation which puts the lens close to the bottom, one can always flip or rotate the photo after it is taken.  That is one of the most basic capabilities of any photo editing software.

[Bendtracker1]

@bbussey @davefoxx
I got things setup again, but this time I positioned the camera to portrait then upside down so the lens was to the bottom.
I sat the camera on the scenery, just below track level which put the lens about even with the railhead, and tried it again.

I had to do a lot of cropping to make it look like a landscape shot.  Plus there were some weeds in the foreground that were still unfocused.
I also toned down the saturation a bit.

Better?



 

[davefoxx]

That looks great, Allen.  Getting down low does make these model trains seem more massive.  The trestle scene is sweet.

DFF

[bbussey]

Very nice.

Another trick I employ is placing the camera in locations or from angles that aren't viewable under normal circumstances.  This shot that I took for the McGrattan memorial video was from the perspective of under an overpass looking out into the train room.  The room walls are painted pale blue, and I had to make sure the far side of the room was clear of all clutter so that it appeared to be a cloudless sky.  The phone is resting on the track, up against the stone wall to get the camera lens between the two converging tracks.  This was bracketed manually and came out relatively well.  A 800w halogen lamp simulating the sun is out of frame to the upper right, providing illumination.  Another is aimed at the far walls.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I highly recommend grabbing a sheet of cheap foamcore and hitting it with your favorite sky color for just such situations.

I remember using that very trick, combined with a bar stool to hold it, when Max was over and we were shooting these:

https://conrail1285.com/october-2007-max-magliaro-visit/



Damn, I wish I had used two on that shot though.

[Maletrain]

Very nice.

Another trick I employ is placing the camera in locations or from angles that aren't viewable under normal circumstances.  This shot that I took for the McGrattan memorial video was from the perspective of under an overpass looking out into the train room.  The room walls are painted pale blue, and I had to make sure the far side of the room was clear of all clutter so that it appeared to be a cloudless sky.  The phone is resting on the track, up against the stone wall to get the camera lens between the two converging tracks.  This was bracketed manually and came out relatively well.  A 800w halogen lamp simulating the sun is out of frame to the upper right, providing illumination.  Another is aimed at the far walls.

Really good technique and composition (not to mention the modeling, too). 

But using that particular vantage point really makes those rails look massive.  I would like to see a shot like that with code 40 track.  I am thinking about narrowminded's 3D project to make printed scale ties with tie plates and spike heads, here.  That would make a shot like this awesome.

[Bendtracker1]

Thanks @davefoxx.
@bbussy, at first glance your shot looked kind of bland, but the more I looked at it, it started to take on a look of a very early spring scene right after a first rain storm has passed.  The sky is gray and cloudy and everything being shiney gives the look of being rain soaked with the sun just starting to peek out.  Nice!
@Ed Kapuscinski, nice shot!  It looks like you'd have enough extra space that you could crop the left side right where the white starts and the lower portion, just about where the pile stuff is below the front of the loco as well which would keep the proportions about right for a landscape shot. 

[chuck geiger]

I highly recommend grabbing a sheet of cheap foamcore and hitting it with your favorite sky color for just such situations.

I remember using that very trick, combined with a bar stool to hold it, when Max was over and we were shooting these:

https://conrail1285.com/october-2007-max-magliaro-visit/



Damn, I wish I had used two on that shot though.

That's picture Lee posted on another site in 2008 and I caught RW fever.

[johnhale]

Spent the weekend working on my first Free-moN module. Got to love static grass grout and stone.



Still need to ballast, but that's last.