Sunday, November 23, 2014

Some Different Angles

Yesterday, I was sitting at my laptop working on the signaling program and I glanced over at the layout. I was just about at eye level with the track and it struck me that it might make a neat photo. And Randy Seiler recently took a bunch of really great close-up shots on John Miller's Kanawha & Lake Erie which got me thinking about some different angles to shoot on the CWE. So here are a couple of shots from some slightly different angles.














































































The next shot shows the eastbound signal at the west end of Big Chimney. I'm working on getting ABS up and running on this section of the layout. Of the fifteen signals in this area, 12 are now wired and operational and all of the block detection boards are in place. The Signals By Spreadsheet program is up and running thanks to the assistance of Gerry Albers.




























And here's what the area looks like right now as I make like a mole and crawl around under the layout hooking up wires.




























While I had hoped to have the signals operational in this area for upcoming session in January, it occurred to me the other day that I will need resistors on wheel sets in order to make that happen. Sigh... The resistors and the paint have been ordered, but there's just no way enough cars will done to make all of this work by then. Buying wheel sets with resistor on them is an option, but as my friends will tell you- I'm way too cheap to do that. Guess we'll just have to wait until the shop forces can get enough resistors installed.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, 

3 comments:

  1. Tom,

    What I really like about these photos is they look like real railfan photos. Sometimes a person just arrives at a particular locations spot and the train is right there. And you shoot accordingly. I also like the fact these places look like they might really be along a right of way.

    Best,

    Gerard

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  2. Looks great Tom. Did you use an SLR and any time delay on this? Most of my recent photos have been quick iPhone shots documenting work accomplished. These are pretty good but not as good as others I have done with the DSLR. I need to get that out again and take some updated shots. I have had good results with 1 to 2 minute exposures. Anyway, your results look really good and cool to get that railfan's perspective!

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  3. Gerard and Mike- thanks for the kind comments,

    Mike- I shot these with a Nikon D3100 DSLR using manual settings. I stopped the lens down as far as it would go given the available light and then used the built-in meter for the exposure timing, The f-stop was generally in the 25- 32 range which provides the great depth of field. The exposure timing was in the 3-8 second range. I absolutely love this camera! I've also had some surprisingly good results with the iPhone camera. All of the shots posted on this blog from various operating sessions were taken with it.

    Tom

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