A nice article on the history of the Galloping Geese - with a bunch of photos.
http://www.cortezjournal.com/article/20130822/LIVING01/130829959/-1/Living01/Galloping-through-history-
Aug 27, 2013
Aug 21, 2013
Big Boy is a movin'
UP re-purchased a Big Boy from a museum, and has plans to restore it to operation. Big Boys are the largest steam locomotives ever built, and there's a only a few left. None are operating.
The locomotive recently began it's trip to UP's shops... have a look!
The locomotive recently began it's trip to UP's shops... have a look!
Aug 12, 2013
Photo backdrops !!!
So - three new photo backdrops are installed now, and I am really pumped about them. All are from LARC Products, who's quality and service is superb.
Here's the first area. It's a tiny little open in the bathroom, giving a view and access to a 3-track staging yard, the main, and the yard lead. It was small, and seemed to be begging for a little something. I decided to start here w/ the photo backdrops, and see how it went. Just for yourself, but I'm pretty pleased:
Before:
After:
Then it was time to move onto the Ophir area. I was happily building rock walls in the area (lots, and lots, and lots of rocks!) and realized that right behind the loop, there was literally no room at all, and that photo backdrops would be needed.
To size the backdrops, I created a large 'ruler' and photographed everything, then sent it all off to LARC Products, who were able to photoshop and customize an image to fit, then printed it off. I opted to not include the sky, so I did need to remove the area above the photo - a few evenings of very delicate scissor work. Not hard; kinda relaxing actually.
So here's the before and afters of this area (complete with one of my helpers!):
And finally, the largest and most complex of the backdrops - behind the Ridgway yard. This area is below the basement stairs at one end, and has a cutout entrance into a bathcloset & staging at the other. Here's the before shots:
For the cutout into staging, there's actually the yard lead and a cross-over in there - visible (with the LED lighting I added) through the opening. That's important for operation. But how to handle it scenically? My idea was to overlap and extend the photo backdrop right into it. Here's some details of that little area. As you can see, I extended some masonite over the switch machines (just screwed in place, thus removable if needed) - to provide a surface for the backdrop:
From there, it was tape the backdrop in place, then slowly remove the backing and roll it into place.
Results:
And finally - a hearty thank you to my helpers! These backdrops really require three people to install, and these two were amazing:
Here's the first area. It's a tiny little open in the bathroom, giving a view and access to a 3-track staging yard, the main, and the yard lead. It was small, and seemed to be begging for a little something. I decided to start here w/ the photo backdrops, and see how it went. Just for yourself, but I'm pretty pleased:
Before:
After:
Then it was time to move onto the Ophir area. I was happily building rock walls in the area (lots, and lots, and lots of rocks!) and realized that right behind the loop, there was literally no room at all, and that photo backdrops would be needed.
To size the backdrops, I created a large 'ruler' and photographed everything, then sent it all off to LARC Products, who were able to photoshop and customize an image to fit, then printed it off. I opted to not include the sky, so I did need to remove the area above the photo - a few evenings of very delicate scissor work. Not hard; kinda relaxing actually.
So here's the before and afters of this area (complete with one of my helpers!):
And finally, the largest and most complex of the backdrops - behind the Ridgway yard. This area is below the basement stairs at one end, and has a cutout entrance into a bathcloset & staging at the other. Here's the before shots:
For the cutout into staging, there's actually the yard lead and a cross-over in there - visible (with the LED lighting I added) through the opening. That's important for operation. But how to handle it scenically? My idea was to overlap and extend the photo backdrop right into it. Here's some details of that little area. As you can see, I extended some masonite over the switch machines (just screwed in place, thus removable if needed) - to provide a surface for the backdrop:
From there, it was tape the backdrop in place, then slowly remove the backing and roll it into place.
Results:
And finally - a hearty thank you to my helpers! These backdrops really require three people to install, and these two were amazing:
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