I don’t seem to get around to posting here as much as I’d like, but here are a few new images from our railroad. The PCS is a fictional coal mining spur on the D&RGW that runs west of the Joint Line breaking at Sedalia, Colo.
A full moon is brilliant in the Rockies. Colorado Fuel and Iron’s Split Rock Mine #4 produces product around the clock that rides over D&RGW rail to customers such as the Cherokee Station generating plant near Denver and CF&I’s own steel mill in Pueblo.
F3 #5521 leads a coal drag headed to Denver on the Joint Line.
Colorado sunset at Sedalia marks the end of the day for a weary D&RGW locomotive maintenance crew.
It won’t be long before the golden morning light signals a new day. The smell of hot coffee fills the air in the office as the day shift foreman gets his people busy prepping GP7s for the busy day ahead.
Great shots! makes me feel like I’m right there! Did you set your F stop low, along with your ISO? The ISO always works when your taking night photos so tehy don’t turn out so “grainy”. The F stop also makes the light streams.
YAY!! YOU’RE BACK!! Beautiful photos of a beautiful layout. And oboy, do I envy you that F-3 in the ORIGINAL Rio Grande colors. Yummy! Lovely work as always. [:P]
Tom [bow]
PS: That mine looks just a tad familiar, he-hee.[:-^]
I usually don’t offer suggestions, because I don’t have time to write a book. However, your work so clearly pushes the edge of the possible that commentary can be reduced to the manageable.
The pink shot doesn’t work for me, because the frontal and fill light (highlights and general fill on the locos and shed) doesn’t match the hues it would get from the pink sky.
The full night shots are absolutely first rate. I’m using blue Chritmas lights here, and see results that parallel the one problem I see with these, the violet hue is too deep. Going to try a few white bulbs in the string to see if I can get that ethereal pale blue glow real moonlight imparts. Both are still cover-worthy, IMO. Still looking for techniques to get the camera viewpoint lower, to match what a standing man would see.These include shooting from off the edge of the layout, then cropping to eliminate the table edge, and sheet metal "tripods’ that place the camera body directly on the table, as low as possible.
The final shot is as good as I’ve ever seen. Brilliant use of lighting, you can almost feel the crisp dwan air, the the low angle really highlights your excellent track and ground work.
I hadn’t considered Trackside Photos as an outlet for any of these images, but submitting them isn’t a bad idea. My son would be thrilled if a shot from our RR actually made it into Model Railroader.
You know of course that the F3ABBA set #5521-24 should be pulling the California Zephyr! wink wink Actually during the first couple years of service, the F3’s were used in mainline freight service although purchased mainly for passenger use (steam generators in the B units). Once the PA’s started having reliablity problems, the F3’s didn’t see very much, if any, service in freight again.
Incidentally, I have never seen a photo of the F3’s pulling coal drags. The photo’s in my Rio Grande Diesels Vol 1 show the F3’s uppling a block of reefers and general freight.
do you have photobucket, or some other online album? I want to see tons more of your stuff. I model the D&RGW doing coal hauling just like you; I want more inspiration.
