Grande Man! Can you take us down memory lane?
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grande man
Bonafied Grande Nut
Whoa! I completely missed this thread. Sorry about that. 
Thanks for the kind comments about the old D&RGW Platte Canyon Sub and my photos. Trip down memory lane, you say? Well, let's get this thing fired up and roll.
The deciding factors of taking the railroad down were several, but mostly my son grew up and there has been much water under the bridge career wise since those days. I drifted away working a job that was heavily involved in local iron, steel, mining and railroad historic preservation. Doors opened that I would have never dreamed of in regard to access to historic materials. It was fun but came to an end and I moved on to a teaching job. In short, I've been blessed and living the dream but my mind wasn't on the model railroad anymore. Other pursuits such as hiking, biking, hunting, and camping were also taking my time. It was with much soul searching that I finally removed the layout...
For anyone that may be interested in my photos or real trains and industrial ruins, check here. Eric's Pics
Now, and its not far under the surface, I've loved trains since I was a kid and still do! I also love history regarding iron, steel, mining, railroads and Americana in general. A few weeks back I checked in here on a whim. Since then, thoughts of a new railroad are being mulled over. There are many things to consider but another D&RG(W) themed railroad are a very high probability. I'm considering things like the Silverton Northern, Colorado Midland to potentially interchange with the D&RG(W). Thoughts or dual scale, forced perspective scenes, facia cutaway underground mine scenes, etc are dancing around in my mind.
BTW, I was really wrapped around the axle with photography back in the day. In later years there were many times I considered selling my photography kit but resisted the temptation. That may be a good decision in the end as I'd like to do another Colorado trip soon and really get heavy on the photography there. Obviously, a future model railroad will also need photographs! Heck, maybe I'll update my older cameras, LOL.
A few pics from the D&RGW Platte Canyon Subdivision:
Sedalia Sunrise
Heading west to the mines
This was always one of my favorites. It was taken on a 20"x30" diorama I built, just for the heck of it. The photography was pretty advanced as the camera shutter was open for maybe 30 seconds (don't remember exactly) in a pitch black environment. This "burned in" the F3's headlight that a fast shutter wouldn't have picked up. The scene was then lit by an on camera Speedlite (flash) that was bounced off a ceiling reflector and two additional off-camera Speedlites to light the scene and hand painted backdrop's "sunset". Colored "gels" were used on the Speedlites. Fun stuff!
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement. It means a lot to me. Maybe one day there will be photos of a new, improved Rio Grande model railroad! We'll see.
Thanks for the kind comments about the old D&RGW Platte Canyon Sub and my photos. Trip down memory lane, you say? Well, let's get this thing fired up and roll.
The deciding factors of taking the railroad down were several, but mostly my son grew up and there has been much water under the bridge career wise since those days. I drifted away working a job that was heavily involved in local iron, steel, mining and railroad historic preservation. Doors opened that I would have never dreamed of in regard to access to historic materials. It was fun but came to an end and I moved on to a teaching job. In short, I've been blessed and living the dream but my mind wasn't on the model railroad anymore. Other pursuits such as hiking, biking, hunting, and camping were also taking my time. It was with much soul searching that I finally removed the layout...
For anyone that may be interested in my photos or real trains and industrial ruins, check here. Eric's Pics
Now, and its not far under the surface, I've loved trains since I was a kid and still do! I also love history regarding iron, steel, mining, railroads and Americana in general. A few weeks back I checked in here on a whim. Since then, thoughts of a new railroad are being mulled over. There are many things to consider but another D&RG(W) themed railroad are a very high probability. I'm considering things like the Silverton Northern, Colorado Midland to potentially interchange with the D&RG(W). Thoughts or dual scale, forced perspective scenes, facia cutaway underground mine scenes, etc are dancing around in my mind.
BTW, I was really wrapped around the axle with photography back in the day. In later years there were many times I considered selling my photography kit but resisted the temptation. That may be a good decision in the end as I'd like to do another Colorado trip soon and really get heavy on the photography there. Obviously, a future model railroad will also need photographs! Heck, maybe I'll update my older cameras, LOL.
A few pics from the D&RGW Platte Canyon Subdivision:
Sedalia Sunrise
Heading west to the mines
This was always one of my favorites. It was taken on a 20"x30" diorama I built, just for the heck of it. The photography was pretty advanced as the camera shutter was open for maybe 30 seconds (don't remember exactly) in a pitch black environment. This "burned in" the F3's headlight that a fast shutter wouldn't have picked up. The scene was then lit by an on camera Speedlite (flash) that was bounced off a ceiling reflector and two additional off-camera Speedlites to light the scene and hand painted backdrop's "sunset". Colored "gels" were used on the Speedlites. Fun stuff!
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement. It means a lot to me. Maybe one day there will be photos of a new, improved Rio Grande model railroad! We'll see.
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grande man
Bonafied Grande Nut
RhB Michael
RhB Lokführer
And photography!
grande man
Bonafied Grande Nut
Thanks for the comments, guys. I do appreciate them.
Most folks that were here back in the days I was posting and doing the photography on the railroad probably never knew its full history. My son had just turned 5 years old when I put him a 4x8 together for Christmas. It wasn't long before it grew to 4x14'. At some point that I honestly don't recall, the original oval and siding was replaced with an Atlas track plan that was expanded to fit. I grew up with trains running on Atlas track, so it was a natural to look to them for a track plan. The specific plan was the Great Eastern Trunk, complete with it's tight radius turns. When we moved in 2004 I wanted to tear it down and start over but the little fellow (about 9 or 10 years old at that time) just couldn't get on board with his railroad being replaced. The next best thing was to add on! A view block hill with track was added in the center to break up the "round and round" feeling the original track plan had. Extra bench work was added to create the Platte Canyon mining district. We ended up with three levels of hidden staging yards that represented points North, South and West of Sedalia, Colorado. In the end the overall layout was somewhere around 12x14', excluding the west staging yard that ran down an opposite wall. Each staging yard had four tracks with occupancy indicated on a panel by LEDs controlled by magnetic reed switches. Switch routes were programed into the Digitrax DCS100 that corresponded to the track numbers on the yard indication panel. Red LEDs indicated trains that had arrived and green LEDs trains ready to depart. Basically, when a track number was entered (as a switch route) on a throttle, all hidden turnouts required to get the train out of staging were simultaneously thrown. The system worked great! It allowed us to railfan any section and see numerous trains pass thru any scene. Of course, trains could also just be run in circles for fun too.
Night scene in the mining district. Photography again used gelled (blue this time) Speedlites and ceiling reflector along with a long exposure to "burn in" the locomotive, building lights, etc. The dwarf signal was a bit "hot" on the exposure, but what the heck. The guy with the flashlight was done with .020" fiber optic materials that ran to an LED under the benchwork. The head of the flashlight was simply formed my melting it slightly with a Bic lighter.
CB&Q power was frequently seen on the Grande during the mid 60s. An F3 leads a coal drag west from Sedalia, Colorado.
Most folks that were here back in the days I was posting and doing the photography on the railroad probably never knew its full history. My son had just turned 5 years old when I put him a 4x8 together for Christmas. It wasn't long before it grew to 4x14'. At some point that I honestly don't recall, the original oval and siding was replaced with an Atlas track plan that was expanded to fit. I grew up with trains running on Atlas track, so it was a natural to look to them for a track plan. The specific plan was the Great Eastern Trunk, complete with it's tight radius turns.
When we moved in 2004 I wanted to tear it down and start over but the little fellow (about 9 or 10 years old at that time) just couldn't get on board with his railroad being replaced. The next best thing was to add on! A view block hill with track was added in the center to break up the "round and round" feeling the original track plan had. Extra bench work was added to create the Platte Canyon mining district. We ended up with three levels of hidden staging yards that represented points North, South and West of Sedalia, Colorado. In the end the overall layout was somewhere around 12x14', excluding the west staging yard that ran down an opposite wall. Each staging yard had four tracks with occupancy indicated on a panel by LEDs controlled by magnetic reed switches. Switch routes were programed into the Digitrax DCS100 that corresponded to the track numbers on the yard indication panel. Red LEDs indicated trains that had arrived and green LEDs trains ready to depart. Basically, when a track number was entered (as a switch route) on a throttle, all hidden turnouts required to get the train out of staging were simultaneously thrown. The system worked great! It allowed us to railfan any section and see numerous trains pass thru any scene. Of course, trains could also just be run in circles for fun too.Night scene in the mining district. Photography again used gelled (blue this time) Speedlites and ceiling reflector along with a long exposure to "burn in" the locomotive, building lights, etc. The dwarf signal was a bit "hot" on the exposure, but what the heck. The guy with the flashlight was done with .020" fiber optic materials that ran to an LED under the benchwork. The head of the flashlight was simply formed my melting it slightly with a Bic lighter.
CB&Q power was frequently seen on the Grande during the mid 60s. An F3 leads a coal drag west from Sedalia, Colorado.
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RhB Michael
RhB Lokführer
I built the Atlas Great Eastern Trunk in 1983. It was my last Atlas railroad, and the last railroad I built until 2018. There wasn't a lot of room for a large layout in military assigned housing back then, so I settled on a 4x8 roundy-round. At the time, it was pretty satisfying and it ran well without derailments or electrical problems. I remember running a lot of Athearn blue-box equipment and had my favorite Illinois Central green diamond GP-35s consisted together as well as several other locomotives and trains. Not a lot of parking space on that railroad, but I added a couple of long yard tracks on the front outside the loops.
grande man
Bonafied Grande Nut
Cool to know you built the GET track plan too. Many of the basic Atlas track plans can be upscaled and modified to produce great model railroads. That's essentially what we did, but by not starting at square one we were left with some tight radius curves on the inside mainline. Still, it turned out well and offered a lot of running possibilities. The Platte Canyon Sub taught me what I like in a model railroad (and a few things I don't). The ability to "railfan" scenes and run point-to point was great, but many times I really just wanted to run trains around the loop. It also offered good switching possibilities but endless switching operations aren't really my main interest. The main thing was the mileage my son got out of the project. It really broadened his horizons growing up. BTW, he's an aerospace engineer today.
The railroad is actually what originally got me into photography because getting any depth of field with my old point and shoot camera wasn't possible. I was reading posts here by Bob Boudreau (railphotog) about photographing modeled scenes and was inspired by his amazing modeling and photography work. His lighting was amazing! A borrowed Sony camera only wet my appetite and soon a new Canon digital rebel arrived in the mail... I was a fish out of the water with that thing! Books were read and hours spent working to learn how to run the Canon Rebel. One afternoon I went to shoot some images at a historic site in Birmingham. A friend who had actually made a significant portion of his living with a camera went with me. He taught me more in an hour than I'd learned in several months up to that point! After the basic mysteries of running a dSLR in manual mode were finally mastered, flash photography came into my sights next. The images posted here are some of the results of my interest in flash photography.
I'm not sure which I had the most fun with, the actual model railroad or the photography of it! It quickly became clear that photography dovetailed with many other interests I had (have) such as historical preservation. In fact, the job I had in historic preservation (mentioned in the lead post) required photography and Photoshop use many times, so in the end it helped pay my bills too.
The Platte Canyon Sub was a journey that is very sweet in my memory. Thanks to y'all for allowing me a chance to relive some of those memories!
