Model Railroading > Detouring Amtrak Coast Starlight across the Tehachapi Mtns.

A new year, and a new invite down to the La Mesa Model Railroad Club in San Diego, CA this past Saturday. Wishing to give my recently completed Amtrak train an opportunity to really stretch it's legs, I brought the set down for a trip around the famous loop. Not a 12 car peak, but your more typical 9 double-decker set, with an a-typical pairing of Dash-8s, I just like the brutish look of them pulling passenger service. Most of the pics are northbound, a pair at the end show the same consist southbound, the layout has loops on each end.

As in the past, thank you to the good folks at La Mesa for the opportunity, and thank you to 'OIC' Dave Hussey for the invite!

Pics also being uploaded here...
http://www.pbase.com/mrmrl/la_mesa_club

La Mesa Club links... 
http://www.lamesaclub.com 
https://www.facebook.com/LMMRRC 
http://www.sdmrm.org/#/the-tehachapi-pass/4533421367 
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=la+mesa+model+railroad+club

1. Caliente
2. Allard
3. Woodford

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4-6. around the Loop...

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7. Walong
8. Cliff
9. Bealville

Thanks for the views. All images captured via iPhone, processed through iPhoto and/or Adobe Photoshop.

~ Mr. MRL

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Nice pics, just would have prefered Pepsi Cans pulling phase 4 cars or F40PHI's and Phase 3 cars.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

nice photos and great depth of field. Thank you for posting some of your work

Excellent.
JB

LOL, Amtrak looks out of place at Woodford
 

Thanks for posting.  I always wanted to see Amtrak operating over Tehachapi.  Great layout.

Gerry

Where did you find that spiffy looking Pacific Parlour car?

Robby those are great!  Have they changed the lighting there?  My photos of larger scenes from several years ago show areas of light and dark from the way it was lit.

BTW I just would have preferred it was the North Coast Limited pulled by an A5.  Instead of Tehachapi it should have been West End.  And not HO but O would have been better.  I also prefer westbounds to northbounds.

Outstanding work! =)

Yes, beautiful photos with fantastic depth of field.  Were these photos time exposures with the train stopped?  Did you use any auxillary lighting?  What camera was used for the photos?

DevalDragon Wrote:
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> Where did you find that spiffy looking Pacific
> Parlour car?

Details on the PPC can be found here...
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,4022232

Mr. MRL

I have to find a reason to get out there and see that railroad!  Spectacular scenery, understated and just awesome.
I could always bring my 1522 to pull a fantrip.
Great photography.  I detest all diesels but respect the way your train looks.  Good work all around.

pmack Wrote:
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> Robby those are great!  Have they changed the
> lighting there?  My photos of larger scenes from
> several years ago show areas of light and dark
> from the way it was lit.

Lighting for much of the layout has been noticeably improved and evened out over the past few years. Dozens of sunny white spot and flood lights have been incorporated within the older fluorescent lighting tubes. There are still a few hotspots and shadowed areas (Cliff for example). I still digitally 'dodge' and 'burn' questionable regions within several images in Photoshop to even out and improve the looks to a more natural feel.

As I've mentioned in the past, when viewing the layout in person your eyes attempt to compensate for the changing light conditions, masking much of the lighting issues. When taking digital photos however, the camera sensor doesn't compensate as well as human optics, so bright and dark areas can become very apparent. I took all of these pics above with my trusty iPhone 6 Plus. It attempts to take HDR images to also correct the over and under exposed areas, but I feel it still isn't a complete fix. Fine tuning through digital software (while not a requirement) will still improve the looks greatly and return the appearance closer to that of which my eyes saw in person.

Mr. MRL

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> Yes, beautiful photos with fantastic depth of
> field.  Were these photos time exposures with the
> train stopped?  Did you use any auxillary
> lighting?  What camera was used for the photos?

No extended time exposures for these images, but several images (2, 7, & 8) are multiple exposures combigned together to bring the foreground and background into equal focus. The train was stopped for each picture. Also, no additional lighting sources, and no flash were used. All of the pics were captured through my iPhone 6 Plus's 1/3" 8 megapixel sensor.

Thank you for the feedback folks!

Mr. MRL

Robbie, always a pleasure to have you run with us. You always bring something interesting. Sorry things were so congested getting out of Bakersfield. I think we had 14-15 trains on the layout.

Dave Hussey

They are stunning photos - very well done. chris uk.

MrMRL - Terrific series of photos. Thanks for posting.

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO

This totally rocks!!  Well done, MrMRL!!

Cheers,
Harry