That's cool Charlie!  Noce

That's cool Charlie!  Noce job weathering it too, especially the metal superstructure.  I have a Titchy column too, but it's still in the pkg.

Mike

It's the finish

Nice work.  It really looks like metal rather than plastic.

By the way, how far apart should parallel tracks be so locos can be serviced on both tracks?

Nice job Charlie

It really came out well.! I like the rust on the base bolts and the drain best. The over all coloring  looks convincing.    Reminds me of the one that use to be in Dunsmuir

Steve

How far apart?

The tracks at this point are curved, but both tracks have the same radius. That means the track spacing varies - the deeper into the curve the further apart they are, minimum track centers are at the adjoining tangent tracks.

I just picked a spot on the curve where the length of the spout reached to about the centerline of each track. So the answer is: "I don't know what the track spacing would be".  I suppose it depends on the length of the spout.

Regards,

Charlie

That's an evasive answer

Ok Charlie.  Let's put it this way.  What is the distance between the center of the post and the center of the spout?  Twice that should equal the distance between tracks if both are to be served, shouldn't it?

Evasion

Ok Mark,

From the center of the column to the center of the spouts hole measures about 1 1/8" for my HO scale Tichy model of a Fairbanks-Morse water column.  The would make track center spacing about 2 1/4". If you're planning on making the spout turn to actually 'water' the tenders you'd probably need to be accurate with this dimension. If it will be a static model, you can likely increase track spacing a bit without it being too obvious.

Charlie

Gorgeous photo

How do you guys get such gorgeous photos? The water column photo is a spectacular close-up. What kind of camera do you use? Expensive? Do you use a tripod? In other words, are you a serious photographer, or do you just walk up to a scene, focus, and shoot?

Thanks,

Al

Charlie uses a Canon digital

Charlie uses a Canon digital SLR he's had for a couple years, with a wide-to-normal zoom lens that I think allows fairly close focusing. 

The "secret" is placing the camera on a sturdy support and carefully planned lighting that allows him to use a small f/stop -- around f/11 or f/16 that improves the depth of field at close distances. Like any good photographer, he's not showing the shots that didn't work.

He shares his techniques here.

Right, Charlie?

Gosh...

Al,

Thank you for your kind remarks.

Joe's analysis of my photography is about right on. I currently use a Canon 40D digital SLR with a 17-55 macro zoom.  The water column photo was at f11 (iirc).

The cab forward photo is a focus stack. That is, I took about 10 photos of the same subject with each one focused at a slightly different point (starting nearer and working my way to the furthest item in the photo). I use a SW program - Helicon Focus - to pick the part of each shot that's best on focus and build a composite image with lots of depth of field.

Yes, for static train (or water column) shots I use a tripod (or something else to steady the camera).

I do shoot hand held for things like op-session photos where the action is too fast to allow setting up a tripod.

Cheers,

Charlie

Lighting and depth of field

The two keys to good model photograpy are lighting and depth of field.

To get crisp, in focus model photographs, you need good depth of field with everything in the best possible focus from front to back. This flies in the face of what you typically want for good portrait photographs where a shallow depth of field is considered more attractive (the people are in focus, but the background is blurred).

Because of this difference, most inexpensive digital cameras don't work very well for model railroad photography. You typically need a more expensive camera that has manual settings, and you need to understand enough of the relationship between lighting and aperture that you know how to get crystal clear photos up close on small objects.

Since getting good depth of field involves stopping down the aperture to the smallest hole possible, you need lots of light to get a good image - either you bring in the bright lights or you increase the exposure time to compensate. Long exposures of maybe a second or more requires a rock-solid stationary camera or the image will be blurred.

Once you understand these principles, you can get great model photos - and in the digital age, you can review your photo immediately. If it doesn't cut it, then just make the needed adjustments and shoot it again until it's sharp and clear.

That's what kills more submissions we get, by the way. The author thinks they can do "good enough" photos that are blury or poorly lit and get by because the article idea is such a good one. The photos need to be clear and well lit or you can expect us to turn down your article.

inexpensive camera

Joe, I found an inexpensive camera that is great for model photography. It is a Fujifilm Finepix F300 EXR. It is a pocket sized, auto focus camera with 10 mega pixels. The focus can be held at one place, such as 1/3 into the frame to maximize depth of field. It has a Macro mode. It has a manual mode which allows the shutter speed and f stop to be set independently.The exposure is indicated on the rear screen so the exposure can be adjusted. It will mimic all of Fuji's film characteristics. You can choose accurate, vivid, soft, B&W or sepia! The camera will fit in a shirt pocket. This means it can be placed in the scene.

The results with this little beauty are fantastic, especially considering the under $300.00 cost. Of course, it does show all the flaws! On a tripod, with 4100K florescent plus an incandescent bulb to create shadows, exposures run to 3-5 seconds, with the "film speed" set to 100. If you would like to see what this camera can do, I'd be happy to send a few photos.

I have just subscribed to the magazine after referrals by Tony Thompson and Brian Moore from England. I look forward to seeing it appear in my in box.

Richard Todd

Looks great, nice weathering job.

 I remember seeing those along the SP in the old days. As for track spacing IIRC  they often had a flexible canvas  extension on the water spouts so they could likely reach a bit farther than the spout length. ...DaveBranum

Added details.

Charlie.

 I have a bout a half dozen built and about that many still needing to be built. I added a chain to mine from the end of the spout that hooks to the upright pipe. This is for the fireman or hostler to unhook and toss or hold until he gets on top of the tender deck and pulls the spout with the chain. I checked all my pictures and can not find one with the water columns. My great uncle was a railroader and fireman back in the days. He said most water spouts had ropes to pull the spout over. Without the rope or chain the spout would return back to the parked position. As they would turn they would cam upwards and a hanging counterweight would pull them back to the park position. Here is a PRR standard plan of a water column drip basin.  http://prr.railfan.net/standards/standards.cgi?plan=70310-A

  Here is a Shaefer standard water spout.  http://crestlineprr.com/burk57.0.jpg.html

    Good job on yours. Looks fantastic. One tip though. They were considered vital equipment and very well taken care of. One broken column would interrupt the flow of traffic and someone would be on the hook to get it back in operation.

        Pete