Rick,

I think you have hit an important aspect of our hobby - in order to reproduce the real world in miniature, we have to observe it more closely.  We do this to get it right detail wise, but also to figure out what we an live without - i.e. Allen McClellend's oft-quoted good enough concept.

Interestingly, I have observed the same thing in my motorcycle riding - in order to ride two wheels safely, I have to be more observant.  That in turn has made me a better driver of things four wheeled.

Philip

Very interesting post Rick. I'm doing the same thing for sure, but hadn't really thought about it in that direct context before. You're absolutely right.........I take much longer looks at almost everything these days. Noticing the detail, colors and textures. On a recent outting with my wife, I had the camera down on the local waterfront on a beautiful spring day. She thought I was nuts when she suddenly realized I was taking pictures of power poles at the wire arrangements and details. When I explained they would come in handy when I get to the stage of modeling that on the railroad she understood. By the smirk on her face I could tell she still thought I was nuts. I suppose in a way, she's right. :)

By the smirk on her face I could tell she still thought I was nuts. I suppose in a way, she's right. :)

Yes, but it's a healthy nuts!

Like Kevin mentioned above, it has never occurred to me before but now that you put it in black and white I realize that I do the same sort of thing.

LOL, pictures of rocks, debris and trees used to befuddle my wife but she is starting to think like a model railroader.  Now she can look at things from a "could this have a use on a layout" point of view and asks me if she is in doubt.

Rick-

I couldn't agree with you more on this point Rick.  Since I've been (seriously) back in the hobby for hte last two years or so I pick up on two things when I look around at the world more than anything else:  color and texture.

In the past my yard would look a monotone green or I would say my street is "black asphalt" but after experimenting just a little bit with replicating these things in miniature I've come to recognize that even something as simple as my yard has a mixtures of greens and browns that give it the color that my brain perceives.  The road is actually a  rough, gouged mixture of dark and light grays with a sand color in it to boot.  These are things I would never have picked up before the hobby.

A really nice, to the point observation.

~rb

I have to agree, Rick. I've always been an observer of nature, but I am finding myself looking harder and longer at the world around me. Just never thought about it.

I was awakened to the fact that colors in the real world aren't what they seem. I learned it by looking at the tires of my automobile. Try it yourself. Just go outside and look at them. They''ll look black to you. But they aren't really black as you'll find out simply by taking something that is actually black and holding it near a tire. So, if they aren't black, what color are they? They're actually a dark charcoal grey.

Now try this against a blacktop road surface, and you'll find that isn't really black either.

Irv



Now try this against a blacktop road surface, and you'll find that isn't really black either.

That's why black automobiles are much more visible than gray cars.

I've actually caught myself saying something looked HO. Then there are weird things that I see that look fake and I think I could model that better.
Yeah it's strange to be a model railroader.

Interestingly enough I spent the years 1951-1956 in the town of Macon, Georgia. It wasn't a big city then but it was big enough for me to have adopted a Georgia accent which you can still hear if you listen carefully despite more than half a century of living in NYC. My earliest memories are of the time spent there. I won't say I lived in a great neighborhood back then because segregation began just behind the backyard of the house we lived in. Still, our landlady was happy to have what was then a young family living with her since her husband had died and her son was away at college.

It was an experience because I got to see what life was like with actual grass (the kind that grows from the ground and isn't smokeable) was and experience tornados and actually being stopped at a grade crossing for a stalled trainload of hoppers. Those were the fun days with family and good friends. I saw my first Lionel trains back then as well at the local Sears and at a cousin's house as well. I wasn't allowed anywhere near them because I was under 5 and probably wouldn't have known what to do with them other to run them around the tracks at top speed. But then most of us would probably have done the same thing back then.

I loved the picture you posted of the barn. I can't put it on my layout as it is essentially urban but it is still a very peaceful picture and represents an earlier time when people actually took the time to look around them.

Irv

Thank you all for sharing your experiences - I guess I'm not crazy....just a model railroader!

Rick