Tag Archives: #HO Scale

photography, Tips and Technique

Farewell Wee Reading Co.

Over the next couple of months Kris and I will be moving.

Part of the challenge of this relocation exercise will be the disassembly of my scale interpretation of the Reading Company in Pennsylvania coal country.

I began this two and a half years ago and the railroad gradually expanded. While I’d begun to install scenery, only about half the railroad enjoyed scale realism. Once we had decided to move, I stopped adding scenery and instead focused on operating the railroad.

Soon I will begin boxing up the locomotives, rolling stock and buildings. I will lift the track for future use and salvage elements of the electrical system including hundreds of feet of wire, dozens of lights and LEDs, plus numerous toggle switches that I used to control train movements.

Unfortunately, when I began planning the railroad, I failed to anticipate the need to take it apart. So, structure of the railroad consisting of wooden benchwork, as well as the scenery cannot be easily recycled.

I made these photos last night using my Nikon Z7-II to help preserve how the railroad looks.

Someday, the Wee Reading Company will rise again and it will be better than ever!

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Merry Christmas from Tracking the Light!

It’s been several months since I last featured photos showing the progress to the HO Scale Reading Company Kris and I have been building in her basement.

I’ve been working on scenery, using lots of plaster and foam board. To demonstrate my progress I made these views using my Lumix LX7.

I still have a lot of work to do on the scenery, and it is by no means complete, but it sure beats the open timber frame appearance that the model railway exhibited in my earlier photos.

Lumix LX7 photo.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Tracking the Light!

photography, Tips and Technique

Wee Reading with the Lumix

Over the weekend, I continued to wire and tidy up our HO-scale interpretation of the Reading Company.

Scenery and structures are still in the future.

Working with my Lumix LX7, I made this series of photos.

A couple were hand-held, but others were made with aid of a tripod to allow for greater depth of field, or exposed with the camera positioned on the track for stability.

Handheld Lumix LX7 photo.
Handheld with the Lumix LX7.
Lumix set a f8 and mounted on a tripod for greater depth of field.
Pottsville Junction—Lumix on the track set at f8.

Checking out the 2102!
Chicks dig the Reading Company!

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Antracite Country in HO—Progress

On snowy Saturdays and dark evenings, we’ve continued to recreate a vision of Eastern Pennsylvania anthracite country in HO Scale.

Yesterday, I focused on track laying and preliminary wiring.

My girlfriend Kris Sabbatino made these photos of the wee railroad using her new FujiFilm XT4.

See my previous posting for earlier photos of the wee railroad:

http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-admin/post.php?post=30559&action=edit

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Anthracite Country Construction in HO.

Working from period photos, including color slides that my father exposed in the 1950s-1960s, and my own images from recent years, I’ve planned an HO model railroad that is set in Pennsylvania’s anthracite country.

I’ve been scouring old topographical maps, perusing more old photos, reviewing books, and using Google Earth to adapt a prototype from the former Reading Company main line and Mine Hill Branches. I’m incorporating \elements of Pennsylvania Railroad’s Schuylkill Branch, the disused Schuylkill Canal, local highways and towns added in for color and historical context. I’m planning a coal mine (or two), a yard, engine house, and several bridges among other scale infrastructure, and if space and time permits maybe hints of the old Lehigh Valley and trolley lines that also once populated the area.

Barrys Gold Blend is fuel for my railroad building.
Using a level, ruler, square, clamps, wood, glue and screws, I’ve been shaping the foundations for a world yet unseen.

From these visions, my girlfriend Kris Sabbatino and I are building this model in her basement in New Hampshire. With a view to a four-dimensional model, I’m intent on a degree of realism and tuned to learn as much about the real railroad as I can in the process of modeling it. And yet, I am hoping the final execution will retain the mystique  that attracted us to this railroad in the first place. I’d like it to have a dream-like quality; real yet surreal, an alternate vision of yesteryear. After all the model is but a wee fantasy world.

I’m still erecting the bench-work that is the foundation for the railroad. It will be a while before I can lay track and wire it up, and then we can begin dressing the layout with scenery and tiny structures.

More to follow in the coming months, including more photos of the prototype!

Thanks to Kris who made some of the photos using her new FujiFilm XT4. Special thanks to Doug Scott who generously donated HO scale buildings and rolling stock that go the project rolling forward!

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