"A picture is worth a thousand words."

I have given myself a challenge to write a thousand words  or more on the picture I displayed above. Nothing like a challenge to get one motivated. However, I am a bit apprehensive about coming up with a thousand words to describe a picture. 

The picture was taken early in the morning, Wednesday morning to be precise, November 6, 2013, about 6am. But it is hard to tell what time of day it is by the lighting, since it is artificial lighting. The lighting is from halogen bulbs. There are two such bulbs shining on this particular scene. At this time of year, when it is cooler, the heat generated by those bulbs is not felt as much as it is during the hot, humid summer months. I have also incorporated  some LED bulbs into the mix of lighting I have on the set.  But at times I find the light they give off too harsh and daylighty. LED bulbs, though, are quite cool to the touch in comparison to ordinary bulbs. They use far less electricity, up to 80% less. Some of the LED bulbs I have tried give off a very cool blue sort of light that can give a picture taken under them a very eerie, spooky look. 

Some of you must be wondering where this picture is and where it was taken. It is a picture of my train set, N scale, started by yours truly more than 35 years ago in the basement of the house where I live. It is located in the old coal room. The photograph was taken by a little black digital camera made by Canon. The photo was enhanced a bit on my computer. These small digital cameras have made such picture taking possible. They get right up close and personal, in your face, so to speak. The technology is amazing since one can be more inventive and less discriminating with what one takes with them because they cost so little to use. Years ago I used to think it would be great to have a tiny camera to follow the train around, as though I was walking around the set myself. Well, that day has come, where you can get right down and personal with your subject, without a lot of equipment or the expense of developing a lot of prints that you might not want. Because of what I have saved on picture taking I have more money to spend on other things, like more equipment for my train.

One of the things that is most noticeable in the picture is the railroad viaduct to the right hand side. It is one of the first things I built. For some reason I like viaducts. They are large and impressive. It probably has something to do with my interest in architecture. The side of the viaduct was built of tiny bricks cut from lengths of balsa wood, cut into tiny rectangles to resemble bricks. The bricks were glued onto a thin masonite surface with small gaps between them so that a mortar could be pored between them. The mortar I used was Polyfilla from a tube, a compound I just pushed between the cracks. The weathered and gray look you see on the side of the viaduct I accomplished with a blowtorch, just passing the flame lightly and quickly over the surface so as not to burn the balsa wood to much. The compound filler I used had an alcohol base that gave a nice burn to the surface, just like a brandy set alight on a Christmas pudding would do. The rocks you see behind the viaduct are pieces of a smashed-up concrete block. The little stones you also see in the background, in the middle and to the far right of the photo, is kitty litter, which my cat thought was for his used and thus proceeded to use it.

There appears to be an added layer on top of the viaduct. That is true. It happened like that because I raised the hight of the track. The added hight gave me more flexibility, to add an additional layer of track. There are three depths of tracks on my set. What you see in the photograph is about two and a half  layers. 

You may notice the color of the locomotive and the rolling stock behind it. They are orange with gray tops. That is the colors of the Union Pacific railroad, one of the largest American railroads. All my locomotives are of the Union Pacific order. I have wondered why. Why did I pick Union Pacific? I am thinking I liked the color orange.  By the way, I notice that orange has been a big color in haute couture and fashion this year, from orange handbags to sunglass frames to shoes, and dresses.

The picture doesn’t fully show it but my model train layout is ringed by mountains. I obviously like mountains. I was inspire by the landscape of Switzerland, which I visited the year before I started building my layout. I was really taken by the contrast between the railways and mountains in Switzerland, the contrast being much like that between civilization and nature.  My mountains are made from plaster applied on screening, the material that is used to make window screens. To form them I stapled the screen to contoured wood forms that I fastened to the super structure. I often bulked up the mountains by stuffing the inside of the screening with newspaper. Before the plaster was completely dry I would shape it a bit by denting it. And after it was try I would carve it with a chisel as though it was excavated by machinery. To color the mountains and give them a weathered look I used a combination of paints from water based ones to oil based ones. They say that oil and water don’t mix. Nevertheless, they produce and interesting visual effect when they are forced to mix. On my first train layout I construct the mountains out of paper mache. 

What else can I say about the picture? Well, it sure looks inviting.  I just want to jump into it and wonder around in it, because it looks so real.  

The vegetation on the layout is lichen. It gives quite a realistic effect of plant growth, don’t you think? (At this point I have reached just over a thousand words. It wasn’t as hard as I thought.)