Model Railroading > I See the Light! And it makes a difference...

A while back, I'd read an article in Model Railroader by well-known author Paul Dolkos about methods to hide areas where the tracks pass through a backdrop. It was a great idea and very effective in tricking the eye.  

Meanwhile, something about my scene at CP282, now that the scene was nearing completion, was haunting me after several regular operators referred to the "tunnel" at CP282.  Since there are no tunnels on the NYC main line west of Albany, something had to change.

I thought of Paul's article, and proceeded to install tree canopy along the curve behind the backdrop west of CP282.  Then I added a dimmable LED strip with the same intensity as my room lighting, allowing for dimming and on-off to match the room lighting during sessions where day turns to night, and vice-versa.   The results were more than I'd hoped for, and it is hard to imagine that I put up with this as long as I did.  

1.  The view looking railroad west, towards Syracuse, with my former 'tunnel' beyond the interlocking and signal bridge.

2.  The same view, after the installation of the additional foliage and the lighting behind the backdrop.  

Sometimes even idle discussion provides some good constructive criticism, which helps me to 'see the light' - pun intended!

~RGDave
http://onondagacutoff.blogspot.com/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/17 06:03 by RGDave.

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Very effective!

Tom Y

I see what your talking about. Big improvement!

I like the difference in color of your track, what did you used for paint
C

Well done.

I see what you did there! The difference is night and day; great job though, you always put out something good.

Posted from Android

There is that pesky Carrier Dome in the background; since Carrier shut down, does it have a new name now?

My daughter is graduating from college this spring so soon I won't have any reason to go to the "great white north" of Sycause (or Sorryexcuse as some called it!).

The tunnel scene with the lighted foliage effectively shows the track going out of site along a tree lined stretch of track instead of a tunnel that shouldn't exist, as you pointed out.  It works very well!

Cheers, Jim Fitch



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/17 04:47 by SPDRGWfan.

What a difference !!! Well done Dave. From just a tunnel to a curve through one of the many tree tunnels of eastern railroading. I have to get back up there again sometime. --- Ken 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/17 11:05 by Kemacprr.

Yes, very effective!

Thanks, all!  It is nice to have a few scenes 'complete' as it provides inspiration to keep pushing on the rest of the layout.

For track paint, I used the old Floquil 'rail brown' in a spray can on the main tracks, and a 'rust-oleum' brown spray for the branch line to the left.  Tracks with lighter use have rails that are a rustier, more red color than the heavy-duty main line.  Once that was sprayed and the ballast was in, I went back with Testors 'rust' in a paint pen and highlighted some of the rails, plates, and spikes.

~RGDave

Wow, that looks great. Will have to keep that in mind when I get back to layout construction.

Posted from iPhone

Jim,

Yep, still the Carrier Dome for now, at least.  Now and again I hear rumors of changing that but to my knowledge it remains.  It is such a defining feature, and I'm glad to have included it - it's not a modern Syracuse skyline without it!

Congrats on your daughter's graduation too.  Still gotta find a way back, sometimes :-)

~RGDave

RGDave Wrote:
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> Jim,
>
> Yep, still the Carrier Dome for now, at least.
>  Now and again I hear rumors of changing that but
> to my knowledge it remains.  It is such a
> defining feature, and I'm glad to have included it
> - it's not a modern Syracuse skyline without it!
>
> Congrats on your daughter's graduation too.
>  Still gotta find a way back, sometimes :-)
>
> ~RGDave

Thanks Dave.  I have bitter sweet memories of Syracuse - summer roller blading and not much traffic and a pretty area over all.  Down side is the long winters with lots of snow and since I grew up in California that wasn't fun for me and I'm a somewhat season affective disorder - I used to go walkin in the Carousel Mall to fight the cabin fever.  Train watching was good by the mall too of course - I saw some of those Twin Stack well cars that are getting up there in years now (having been built in the early 1980's - yikes!  Job market for me as an environmental geologist and/or IT was aweful there too so I had to move.  I still get up once or twice a year to visit my daughter and get that ol Syracuse feeling for a couple days before heading south on I-81 and past some of the scenes you are modeling there.  I guess seeing Conrail blue modeled there brings back some of the nostalgia of the early years in Rochester/Syracuse area's - when I fatefully moved there for what turned out to be quite a few years!

Cheers!  Jim Fitch (RGJim - hah hah, Rio Grande Jim)

As always, beautiful work Dave. If mine comes out half as good I'd be pleased. 

You seem to have a gift for translating things seen in the real world into model scenes...

The opened-up curve is a huge improvement, and very nicely done.

Bob