The Coffee Shop is now open. Come on in and say hello.

[IronBeltKen]

*Egad* Wide-angle photography - what a PAIN...!

Good morning java gang,

Well after hours of setup last night and early this morning, I finally was able to snap off a few dozen panoramic exposures of the 3 favorite structures on my layout. If you read my reply to NZKen above, that's what I was doing most of the time - rearranging those MDF sheets so as to have a sky-blue background behind the blast furnace and the ore bridge (it's nearly impossible to add that in digitally, even with Photoshop). And then I had to try different lighting angles, mostly to avoid glare (my camera seems to have some type of feature that tunes-out glare, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that ). Out of this whole plethora of photos, six of them made the 'final cut'; these are the ones I'm going to print as 8x10's on glossy paper and snail-mail to Dean Freytag, so he can be the very first to see them (his book was what started me on this whole modeling path). Immediately after that I'll post them online.

NZKen, looks like your staging room construction is off to a good start - good luck and keep us posted!

Eric - I see you've found a wonderful new digital toy to play with!

Rex - if you're still contemplating a Garden railroad, I know a guy in FL who's building a G-scale blast furnace!

. . .
Well I'd better start doing what they pay me to do...adios!

 

[dthurman]

Morning gang

Thought I would pop in and say hey! Have a fun week of wiring the laundry room for the GF, and figure out why we have a short in the living room, I never should have said I know electrical wiring...But it gave me a great excuse to buy a new multimeter for electric and the MR stuff but she knows better, since it sits in the layout room 99.99999% of the time.

Cantn't wait to see what you have happening Ken.

Rex, on the Garden RR, Marty Cozad, who has posted at MR forums, has got to have one of the most impressive outdoor RR's I have seen. Look up some of his pictures over at MR, those are what have bitten me, plus we have 4 1:29 diesels at the store staring at me all day long when I go to work on Mon's and Fri's. Talk about torture...

Eric, you gonna do a clinic on Helicon? I downloaded a copy, I don't have a PC but a Mac, though I have VirtualPC to run windows on it. I am impressed with the DOF that it gives.

 

[grande man]

Thought I would pop in and say hey! Have a fun week of wiring the laundry room for the GF, and figure out why we have a short in the living room, I never should have said I know electrical wiring...But it gave me a great excuse to buy a new multimeter for electric and the MR stuff but she knows better, since it sits in the layout room 99.99999% of the time.

Cantn't wait to see what you have happening Ken.

Rex, on the Garden RR, Marty Cozad, who has posted at MR forums, has got to have one of the most impressive outdoor RR's I have seen. Look up some of his pictures over at MR, those are what have bitten me, plus we have 4 1:29 diesels at the store staring at me all day long when I go to work on Mon's and Fri's. Talk about torture...

Eric, you gonna do a clinic on Helicon? I downloaded a copy, I don't have a PC but a Mac, though I have VirtualPC to run windows on it. I am impressed with the DOF that it gives.

There are ways of getting new toys. What kind of meter did you get? I still use an old Micronta analog at home (Fluke Digital at work).

I'll second the thumbs up on Marty's RR. His pics are great.

After one afternoon with Helicon, I'm just establishing some technique, don't think it's clinic worthy. I've been using the camera's center focus to get a first shot focus. Then, the camera is moved (while holding the initial focus) to get the angle I want and the first exposure is made. A second center focus shot is taken (remember, the angle changed, so now the focus will be different). From that point I take shots at .5M, 1M, 3M fixed focus. The important thing is the camera CANNOT MOVE during this sequence. So far the pics are just a combo of those 5 focus points. I need to get some aux lighting for photos. Many of the pics are to dark.

 

[Lady_Railfan]

G'morning, fellas! I'm SO jealous when I read of the ongoing progress with all your layouts. I spent a couple of hours yesterday, and the only thing I got out of it was a really sore back because I got careless and didn't bother to wear my big ol' honkin' back support.

Oh well. At least the weeds are gone for a week or so, and I repaired some ballast that had settled. Also had the sad task of removing a mess of feathers from one corner of the layout.

What I need now is a nice rainy day, and I'll get back to shingling the roof on the hotel.

 

[grande man]

G'morning, fellas! I'm SO jealous when I read of the ongoing progress with all your layouts. I spent a couple of hours yesterday, and the only thing I got out of it was a really sore back because I got careless and didn't bother to wear my big ol' honkin' back support.

Oh well. At least the weeds are gone for a week or so, and I repaired some ballast that had settled. Also had the sad task of removing a mess of feathers from one corner of the layout.

What I need now is a nice rainy day, and I'll get back to shingling the roof on the hotel.

Claudia, I think that garden RR/ large scale is such a COOL way to model. I look forward to more of your pics. The hotel sounds like a great ongoing project. Have fun with it.

 

[NZRMac]

But Claudia your outside!! Man I'd love to do that. We went to a show at the weekend 71/4 ride on scale, one guy had a 2-6-6-2 loco for sale it's a monster and only $30-50K couldn't really get any photo's too many people!!

Ken.

 

[BMRR]

Hi everyone ! Just thought I would drop in and say Hello.
Flo, I sure could use some cold water please. I haven't done anything on the layout this week. Been working in the yard every day after work. ( Its been like summer time here in Alabama. ) I hope to get some MRR done this weekend, its suppose to be cold Saturday, so that will give me an excuse to stay inside and play with the trains.

Everyone have a great evening.

Stan.

 

[rtraincollector]

Been a while sorry hope all is well with all sent you an email fergie hope that hobby shop can save you on the Tsunami you need I've gotten some good deals thru him in o gauge items . You will have to call or email him his number is on the page of our location. contact us is a direct link to email

Well thats all for now

 

[grande man]

Hi everyone ! Just thought I would drop in and say Hello.
Flo, I sure could use some cold water please. I haven't done anything on the layout this week. Been working in the yard every day after work. ( Its been like summer time here in Alabama. ) I hope to get some MRR done this weekend, its suppose to be cold Saturday, so that will give me an excuse to stay inside and play with the trains.

Everyone have a great evening.

Stan.

Hi Stan. We're doing another ARG meet this Saturday. Would you be interested?

 

[jbaakko]

Josh: I missed something. What kind of spikes are you selling?

Rex, they're used spikes, I pick up while railfanning, they're ALL over the place, most sell for about $1 a peice on eBay, coated with Automotive Clear coat.
Josh

 

[Fergmiester]

Rex, they're used spikes, I pick up while railfanning, they're ALL over the place, most sell for about $1 a peice on eBay, coated with Automotive Clear coat.
Josh

I've got a nice collection of spikes. Some from the old Newfoundland Narrow gauge railway and some from the Inter Colonial Railway. Unfortunately they have no distinguishing marks so there would be no way of validating their origin. So I'm keep'n them!

RT: Thanks for the heads up. I went through his web page and didn't see anything on decoders so I sent him an e-mail.

Well time to get luch ready for the kids and Dad.

Later All

Fergie

 

[grande man]

Good morning everyone.

Sabrina, just a cup of java to go with the three others I've already put away.

Sellin spikes on ebay huh? Now that's an interesting side business. How much is a spike typically goin for, if ya'll don't mind me askin?

 

[RexHea]

Good Evening all! Hope you had a good one today? Thought I would stop by and get a piece of apple pie and a cupa joe. Where is Flo? I haven't seen her very much since the holidays. That new Christmas mini skirt must have tagged someone.

KenL: A G scale Blast furnace!! Wow, with that size you could go into business. (bet that would be fun to build, though)

Josh: A buck a spike? They just finished laying new ties about a quarter of a mile from here and there are spikes everywhere. I could understand someone wanting an old spike with some history, but my goodness...Oh, well. Hope you make a mint. It's a good way to pay for some MR goodies

David: Yeah, I followed all Marty's picture post when he first started over there. That is one fantastic setup he has. I never knew there was such, but I don't think my state retirement would stretch far enough to get more than one engine and 10 feet of track

 

[jbaakko]

All, It began over 2 years ago when a fellow railfan from Florida showed me a date stamped spike. I've been trying to find one ever since. Newer ones aren't stamped anymore, But IF I ever do find one I'll show you all...

But after all this searching, and, places where I had been had mini piles of spikes from me looking, I deceided to bring a few home, and see if I couldn't use them as a paper weight. Little coat of Automotive gloss coat, and there she be, paper weight! Weeks later a freind suggested I attempt to see them on eBay, thus the plan began. But not a huge money taker, considering most people understand the concept of shipping something that weighs in around 1/2 - 1lb, depending on size... I broke down to charging a flat rate of $7.90 for the flat rate USPS boxes. But heck there's like a never ending supply of these buggers!

 

[IronBeltKen]

Not a fun way to start the morning...

Hi y'all,

My home computer went into a coma on me this morning, wouldn't reboot; but when I called Dell tech support it mysteriously started working again...hmmm...!

Nothing exciting happening around here today. I'm agonizing over whether I should spend $100 on that new digital photo focusing software or try to figure out how to make my own camera work the way it is supposed to. It's like you need a PhD in photography to understand the instructions in the owners manual

Hate to gulp and run, but my ToDo list is awfully long - so I'm outta here!

 

[grande man]

Nothing exciting happening around here today. I'm agonizing over whether I should spend $100 on that new digital photo focusing software or try to figure out how to make my own camera work the way it is supposed to. It's like you need a PhD in photography to understand the instructions in the owners manual

Someone told me that the Digital Rebel had a software package that came with it that could do much the same thing as Helicon Focus. Maybe that was for the XT version or I misunderstood.

Either way, you've got a great camera and your pics show it. There is a steep learning curve to their use though. I found that out when I used a friend's camera once. I know what you're saying, there's a reason they're not called point and shoot cameras.

 

[NZRMac]

I have a feeling my camera has a feature like that too, I was playing around last night, with my glass of bourbon in the foreground then the mouse then the keyboard, monitor next. One camera setting seemed better when I displyed them on the monitor, or mayby it was just the bourbon fooling my eyes!!

I waited and looked at all of Eric and David shots ( dial up ) and boy they sure look good, I might just save the link to that software and wait till we have broadband ( wireless hopefully if the Mrs will let me )

I had an email this morning my PK2 SW8 loco's are on their way, looking forward to hearing these wee guys

I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go. ( seven dwarfs music )

Ken.

 

[IronBeltKen]

My home computer went into a coma on me this morning, wouldn't reboot; but when I called Dell tech support it mysteriously started working again...hmmm...!

...but NOT FOR LONG! Two seconds after I clicked 'submit' on my quoted post, the PC froze again. I placed another support call with Dell, this time I got a more experienced techie who recommended additional tests. He had me open the 'box' and look at the motherboard and, sure enough, one of the capacitors on it was bulging at the end. So they'll be sending a technician to my home on Friday morning to put in a new motherboard (glad I bought the 'Gold' level service agreement with this machine!).

Guess I better take the laptop home with me tonite...

 

[dthurman]

KenM, I was researching the Helicon software, and I remember reading that Nikon had a software package that does something similar, so I guess depending on what type of camera, they just may have a layering application included. I was speaking to a friend on the phone about this, he used to do a lot of photography, and he said the human eye can only see in focus to like a F20 something.

KenL, we have a Dell, it's the teenagers, it is a mess, trojans, viruses galore. I warned him about using instant messaging and that filesharing stuff, but what do I know but I and the GF use Mac's so we are pretty safe for the most part. Sorry to hear about the PC imploding.

jbaakko, railroad spikes! I remember having a big pile of them as a kid, we had an old inturban line that ran through our area, Illinois Terminal and we would find tons of spikes, as well as the lens out of the signals, wish I still had those things now

I am going to be wiring like a fool this weekend, have a laundry room to re-wire as well as a security camera for our backyard, went out today to le the RR Mutt out to do his duty, and someone had unlatched our back gate, and stole all of our aluminum cans (2nd time this has happened). We have been catching site of bad elements in our backyard at like 1-2 AM, some have even tried to open the backdoor. The sad thing is, we live in a pretty nice section of town, though only about 1/2 a mile from the hill that leads down to the bad part of town.

Well everyone have a good afternoon.

 

[Steve B]

Hello everyone,

NZ Ken the P2K sound equiped loco's are GREAT fun, a wise investment
USA Ken Don't you just hate PC problems, the things drive me nuts when they break down.

Well i went to hospital today for a follow up with my consultant, i had extensive sinus surgery last January but there is trouble ahead, i had a flexible camera up the snout and all i can say about that is OUCH!!!, it's a weird feeling having bright light shining in your eyes from inside your head, following this i have to have a CT head scan soon as possible and surgery, oh well, it's time off work
Later guys