Weekend Photos - January 2024

[webenda]

This image was a test to see if all the different sizes Lionel produced for O-Gauge might be arranged to make a short train look long.

[healey36]

Hmmm...forced perspective within the same model train. Almost works, to my eye.

[webenda]

Almost works, to my eye.

Sorta works to my eye. The size change from first car to second car is too large.

[healey36]

Is that middle one a 6464-series car? I’ve always thought those looked a bit undersized. They look good behind the postwar 681 turbine I have, but that is quite undersized as well.

[webenda]

Is that middle one a 6464-series car? I’ve always thought those looked a bit undersized. They look good behind the postwar 681 turbine I have, but that is quite undersized as well.

It is a Lionel 6-9711 O Gauge Southern Boxcar blt 2-73 on the side but Trainz says they were sold 1974-75. This boxcar features a plastic construction with sliding doors, plastic trucks, operating plastic knuckle couplers, plastic wheels, metal axles, and attractive molded details. It is considerably lighter than the same size 6464 series.

[healey36]

It's a nice boxcar, a series I'm unfamiliar with. I have a few 6464-series cars, but all recent production...no authentic postwar era. They are well-made, nice graphics, but undersize scale-wise (this criticism coming from a prewar tinplater, lol).

[webenda]

PERSPECTIVE
I had the opportunity to visit Roundhouse Electric Trains on Thursday.
Found a KTM boxcar at Roundhouse that was bigger than the Lionel O-27 boxcars but smaller than the Lionel O scale boxcars.
I had an old Bev-Bel boxcar kit that had an in-between size boxcar so I snapped it together (no glue required,)

[webenda]

PERSPECTIVE

[healey36]

Basement-layout excavation continues; this MTH B&M Doodlebug has sat on an unpowered passing track for more than five years, so I had low expectations it might come to life:



Fired right up, but I had to let it sit there idling for five minutes before it would move when I cycled through F-N-R-N. I thought that the last time I ran it, the sound was a bit garbled, but it sounded good today. I'll likely run it for a bit, get the battery fully-charged, then wipe it down (it's terribly dirty) and pack it away for awhile.

[webenda]

Nice sharp photo there, Healey. I remember when people used to apologize for cell phone photos. No more. Your Apple iPhone 12 mini takes such sharp photos I can tell that that stretch of track is using 40-inch lengths of Lionel O Tubular track. I am guessing the photo was taken hand-held. If correct all the more remarkable considering the exposure time was a rather long 1/40 second.

[healey36]

Thanks, Wayne. Definitely hand-held; I have a small tripod that will hold the iPhone, but no idea where that might be.

I desperately need more light down there. A few years back my daughter gave me a rechargeable LED trouble-light which I used here, but I'm not happy with the coolness (or brightness) of the light. What I really need is a nice photographer's light on a tripod that I can move around. I looked on Amazon and there are quite a few of them, the pricing varying widely. It's tough to tell what's what. I don't want something terrifically complicated, just a simple light with a warm, variable-brightness, possibly some filters.

As Sarge and I have discussed, the camera on the iPhone is its best feature. I'm not a big user other than the occasional text or to make an out-on-the-road phone call. The camera, however, gets frequent use (to the point that the Nikon P5100 hybrid has been relegated to a back-up). The 12 Mini was a deal from AT&T when they killed my old LG flip-phone. That thing had a decent camera as well:



I have a light with a clamp on it that I'm going to dig out and use for photos until I find a photographer's lamp I like. The challenge will be finding a bulb to use that will give me nice soft warm illumination. I've got a 50W Halogen bulb I might try before I look for an LED. I use those in the track-lighting over the main part of the layout and they seem to work well.

[webenda]

A few years back my daughter gave me a rechargeable LED trouble-light which I used here, but I'm not happy with the coolness (or brightness) of the light.

I don't want something terrifically complicated, just a simple light with a warm, variable-brightness, possibly some filters.

The challenge will be finding a bulb to use that will give me nice soft warm illumination.

You have more choices with LED bulbs.
https://www.1000bulbs.com/land/color-te ... y4QAvD_BwE

Some LEDs are dimmable. An LED maintains its color temperature when dimmed better than an incandescent bulb.

My cell phone and Panasonic camera both have a problem auto-adjusting for color temperature if my lighting has more than one source of light. For example, if the window is supplying daylight (6000 K) and my clamp on light (3500 K), then the colors in the resulting photo are usually whacky. Just something to think about when selecting a photo lighting system.

On the other hand, the cool subject lighting with a warm bokeh background worked well in the subject photo, at least to my eyes.