Wordless Wednesday #249

 

Pulpwood delivery - Sheldon Springs

Jack Delano photo, Sheldon Springs, Vermont, Sept. 1941

I've been doing some additional research on the Missisquoi Pulp & Paper complex at Sheldon Springs. I've featured the mill complex in previous posts HERE and HERE. 

I'd gotten as far as laying the track and wiring it on my freelanced ("inspired by") version of the mill. But I've learned enough about the prototype over the last couple of years that my version simply isn't cutting it. The result has is a complete scrapping - down to the open grid benchwork - of my initial attempt. 

I'll share more about how this is shaping up in future blog posts. 

In the meantime I wanted to share this Jack Delano photo (above) from the Library of Congress website. 

This is obviously a second pulpwood handling station (a photo of the other one appeared in a Wordless Wednesday post HERE). 

The sign next to the shed reads "Engines Must Not Pass This Point".

Obviously I plan to include some version of this wood unloading station on my revised mill. But this photo actually makes me ask more questions than it answers. 

For example, while the wood is obviously being delivered by boxcars (not surprising) I'm a little puzzled by the fact that pulp logs appear to have been debarked. The pulpwood pile is on the other side of the plant from the pulp mill itself - so how did the logs get from the pile to the mill proper? 

By the way the reporting marks on the end of the boxcar are CN 511534, making this a member of a very large group of CN single sheathed boxcars. Sylvan and Steam Shack (F&C) both offered resin kits for these cars.

There's clearly an NY&OW gon in the photo linked above. Perhaps that is an ex-NYO&W gon that's being used to shuttle the pulpwood within the plant complex? 

Luckily none of these questions need to be answered before I get the basic benchwork, track, and wiring complete in the mill complex. 

And yes, that little speck in the lead photo atop the pulpwood pile is indeed an OSHA violation waiting to happen.... <g>! 

Wordless Wednesday #248

 

Montville, Conn. Photographer unknown. Author's collection

Wordless Wednesday #247

 

House for Depot Street

Before I left on my current work trip I got a start at building some houses that will eventually end up on Depot Street in Enosburg Falls. This one is started as a City Classics Company House kit. Although the houses I need to create the look of a small New England town in the 1940s/50s don't have to be fancy or large, the company house was just a little too basic. I dressed up the City Classics kit by adding an enclosed front porch using Evergreen clapboard siding and a Tichy window and doors. I removed the casement window that was part of the Tichy door casting. I also replaced the plain kit roof with Best Trains 3-tab shingles. I also painted the house red with white trim (the enclosed porch remained white) and added a Tichy chimney casting to the roof in place of the one included in the kit, which seemed a little small. Still need to add a ridge cap and the front and side steps. I can also see a couple of spots where the trim needs to be touched up. 

Eventually I need six or seven houses to create the impression of a residential street. I've gotten a start on a couple of others that I'll finish up when I get home. 

Wordless Wednesday #246

 

After Action Report: Macro Modeling Clinic

 As a rule I prefer to give "how-to" clinics - I figure at least the audience members can look past my clunky presentation and at least pick up a tip or two! 

But when I asked to present the keynote for the Railway Modellers Meet in British Columbia I decided to step outside my comfort zone and offer not a "how to" but a "why to do" clinic. Unfortunately I missed the chance to give this presentation in person, but I did an online virtual talk last night.* 

In general the clinic went well. Nobody threw virtual tomatoes at me, and I didn't have any of the "CLINIC HELPERS" that I've written about before! 

I'd give the clinic a solid C+. If we're grading on a curve I'd bump that up to a B-. Not bad considering some people (who I've never spoken to by the way) have written over the years to say I don't seem all that bright. 

What's with this "Macro" Modeling? 

The idea behind "Macro" prototype modeling is while we as model railroaders have gotten really, really, good at locomotives, rolling stock, some structures. But even if the individual models are superbly and accurately detailed sometimes our layouts fail to look much like the real world. 

The talk somehow got split into two, not necessarily cohesive sections. The latter half focuses on three ways to make a layout look bigger - Selective Compression, Forced Perspective, and something I called "Controlling Viewing Angles." With some clarification and some more specific how-to examples I think these would form the basis for a talk titled "Expanding Your Layout Horizons" or some such. 

That leaves the first half of last night's clinic. It seemed to me that it got a little muddy - I talked about the importance of identifying signature elements - those items that are "must haves" that firmly set the scene in a place and time - and I also mentioned how knowing what story you want to tell is an important aspect of model railroad design that's sometimes overlooked. In other words, a bunch of the pieces were there - but I don't think I clearly made the point. 

Here's one slide from the clinic - I included it because I wanted to emphasize the "know what story you're trying to tell". Modern theme parks, such as Disney, MGM etc... spend buckets of money to create "immersive" experiences. Perhaps that idea should have been the basis on the first half of my clinic? A clinic that focuses on model railroads as "Immersive Story Telling" experiences?  

Are model railroads Art? 

I didn't attempt to answer this question in my clinic and I won't be so bold as to elaborate on it here. A short answer is "I Think Model Railroads Can be Art." Detailed model building is really considered more of a craft - not "fine art". 

I'm sure someone is already posting comments on how "such and such ... is a model railroad artist." Most of the time when we try to answer this question we focus on model railroads as visual art - after all really good artist/model railroaders use fine art techniques - they've mastered color, texture, and sculpting, augmenting that with mastery of the craft of model building - all that mechanical stuff like tight joints, no visible glue marks or out of scale elements.  

But what if we expand our thinking beyond visual arts to include other art forms, such as story telling? Consider this - when someone asks you to describe your layout do you engage your left brain and rattle off a bunch of specs and minutia? Or do you relay the story your layout is trying to tell? 

Close, But no Cigar

One of the keys of "Immersive Story Telling" is to immerse the viewer in the builder's vision. Upon reflection, I should have tied this back into the "Controlling Viewing Angles" portion of the clinic. I sort of did with this slide - which shows how the "alcove" area on my layout can be divided up into "interest zones" in order to make the layout seem larger. 

I could have taken this a step further and shown how this relates to the design of a theme park - with visual view blocks between each of the key "vignettes,"  an approach not only intended to make the layout seem larger, but that also contribute to immersive story telling. 

Who knows, maybe I'll pursue this further. But I'm probably not qualified to ... you know, I'm not all that bright. 

*The Railway Modellers Virtual event continues on the next three Thursday evenings - starting at 7pm (Pacific time). You can find clinic descriptions etc., HERE.