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Locomotives...
The TSE has two locomotives, #48 ALCO S-2 switch engine and #34 ALCO RS-1 road switch engine, both Atlas Gold Series with DCC & sound. I bought both about 10 years ago. The S-2 was originally in black & yellow US Army livery and the RS-1 came undecorated. I ran the S-2 on the several versions of the TSE. It runs well; smooth starts and stops, tracks well over multiple turnouts, and pulls/pushes 10-12 cars with no problem. The sound is OK but could use a speaker upgrade. The RS-1 has never been run or even powered up. I did the paint and decals and put it back in the box.
That's it for the motive power
Thanks for taking time to visit.
Rolling stock...
Wrapped up a couple of Walthers Mainline 40' modified AAR boxcars.
I'm not a fan of heavy "rust bucket" weathering. I'm more into the "used but not abused" look. My usual weathering method is a coat of clear gloss, highlight details with Tamiya Panel Accent wash. a shot of DullCote and finish off with AIM weathering powders. Couplers are AccuMate from Accurail. They work well, look nice, and are considerably more cost effective than Kadees.
They're actually a bit more faded and dusty looking and not quite so splotchy. The weathering powders are not sealed and don't show up well under the workbench led lights. Probably need to play around with the white balance a bit...
Two new Accurail boxcars on the workbench...
I haven't figured out why they look so "greasy" and splotchy. They're actually are a lot dustier and faded looking on the bench. I think the iPhone AI photo processor is messing with the images. hmmm...
Uploaded unmodified copy from my iphone then edited with Macbook photo editor. A little better but not quite what I'm looking for. Still a bit over saturated. The dark highlighting is nowhere near that dark on the cars and the overall finish on the cars is much lighter, even dusty looking. Waiting for Affinity Photo to go back on sale for $39. I like the iPhone for everyday stuff but LED lighting and AI processor doesn't do it for me, I may need to invest in a real camera...
I have noticed lots of stuff looking different in the photo as opposed in person. It has something do with the quality or type of lighting you have and the camera, as you mentioned. I purposely stay away from everything AI.
Uploaded unmodified copy from my iphone then edited with Macbook photo editor. A little better but not quite what I'm looking for. Still a bit over saturated. The dark highlighting is nowhere near that dark on the cars and the overall finish on the cars is much lighter, even dusty looking. Waiting for Affinity Photo to go back on sale for $39. I like the iPhone for everyday stuff but LED lighting and AI processor doesn't do it for me, I may need to invest in a real camera...
Not happy with the boxcars I've weathered the last couple of weeks, so scrubbed 'em down and consigned 'em to the w-i-p shelf. Time to shift focus to the actual layout itself.
Wrapped up the weathering re-do on the 6 boxcars and w-i-p'd the Cotton Belt box yesterday. Waiting for metal wheelsets for those that came with plastic ones - read Accurail. For some reason, I have this thing about plastic wheels on rolling stock...
Sorry about posting the crappy photos. Still fiddling around with iPhone camera. No real aperture control so no depth of field. Aaaagh...
