What an outstanding article!

The modeling is superb; the photography is outstanding; and the details make the realism most striking.

I lived in San Jose from 1959 through 1967 and enjoyed watching the Daylight full sized - Vic Roseman's article was just like going home again.

The track diagrams, the nine-panel switching chart, and the car arrangement diagram greatly augmented the photography and text, clarifying the operations which would have been a little difficult to follow otherwise.

Great job!

One suggestion: it would be convenient if you could put another copy of your Reader Feedback box at the end of long articles such as this, so we readers don't have to page back so far to leave comments.

After reading the very well written article and enjoying all the history as well as the life like photography I watched the Video and I thought Vic was standing in front of Proto type Engines for the first minute of his description and then realized it was a really great effect and Models of the Daylight behind him.

I also thought the 4350 was going to sprint out of the engine house when he was showing off the DCC Decoder. 

Then he gave a nice little tutorial on Goggle earth and how he used it to build his station.

Excellent Article and Video and some great Ideas as well as one Highly detailed and realistic Model railroad.

DAN

I agree with Dan! Great article and presentation Victor! In my opinion the finest overall article I have seen in MRH to date. Excellent modeling, great photography, entertaining video and more information than I could digest the first time through the article.

Great job well done and very realistic. The only thing I did not see in the article. I am guessing this is a diorama? Mr. Rosman do you have a larger HO layout?

George

Victor,

I was born in SF 1945 due to WWII, my mother was staying with my Uncle, General Superendent of Motor Power SP, while my father was is Pacific on Board Ship. We went back many times and send many summers in California.  He lived is San Leandro.  As I am sure you know SP did not allow private cars on Coast Daylight.  So when I rode on his private car comming form or going to LA we left and came into Oakland on the Valley Route.  But I did talk my father into a trip on the Daylight both ways in 1954, and yes we were put into and taken out of the Coast Daylight at San Jose.  The train that day, I always wonder if my Uncle arranged this was pulled by GS 4. 

Thanks for the memories.

Joe TWO FOR TWO 

Art.

This excellent article calls for several readings to truly reap the full benefit of all the information.  The layout and its operation remind me of the English style of exhibition layout that selects a specific area and time frame  and represents it physically and dynamically as closely as possible.

Especially useful was the description of passenger train switching - something rarely published.  The author's descriptions and the diagrams made the operation clear.  His familiarity with the prototype and his writing skill along with the photograph selection all contributed to the high value of the information.

If I could add one thing it would be to animate the charts on page 77 illustrating the switching moves. This would reduce the complexity of readers combining text description with charts. 

This article sets a high standard for future articles describing prototype information and model representation.

Art Armstrong

 Dear George:

Thanks for your question. It is a little difficult to answer, however. As you see it, San Jose is a diorama, but it is operational although I didn't wire it permanently because the ground panel is all going into a friend's layout.  After all the detailing work I really hated to pack up the buildings and figures.

I have a small apartment and at this point, there are few horizontal surfaces that are not occupied with books and research papers, the computer, printer and lots of boxes with models in progress, and  so forth. Point is, there is just no room for a layout here- So I help my friends on their layouts.  Best wishes, and I hope this answers your question. -Victor

 Dear Art:

Thank you for your comments- I am glad that you and the other gentlemen enjoyed my article- It really makes all the work worthwhile to get responses like these.

 I allowed plenty of time to complete this piece, and began way before I had everything I needed. In fact, I was still hoping to be able to get some of the new plastic Daylight cars being imported now. They began to arrive in stores after I sent the article in. I used my old Athearn blue box cars. l fitted several with the only MDC triple bolster trucks I could scrape up from the stores, added window shades, interiors in most of them plus other added details. (My cars are around 10 years old, but the design goes back 45 years to my childhood- shows you what a good job Irv Athearn and Globe-Chicago did!)

I had thought of how the diagram could be animated, and even considered getting a boom to position my camcorder above the actual layout- but it would have been at the expense of the photos showing the steps, and I wanted a balance. As a photo essay, the photos were more important.  But I will sure think about animation, in the event I do something else of this type. Best wishes, -Victor

 Dear Art: I never knew that they didn't allow private cars on the Daylight. Of course, as there were so few passenger trains on the Coast Line route, it makes sense that they would couple them to the San Joaquin line trains. I now realize why I have never seen private cars on the Daylight.  

The lines in California were the last stand of the GS-4s. As you might know, a lot of the engines got painted black during WWII and some were repainted in full Daylight scarlet and orange after the hostilities ended. It appears that a whole group with full skirting and paint were in the pool of engines for the Daylight, and they were seen most days up till the start of 1955. According to what I have read, after January of '55, the engines got de-skirted and were used in commute service for another two or three years. Dr. Church's book on the Daylight engines gives details of engine numbers, dates and paint jobs for dedicated enthusiasts. 

Thanks again for your comments. -Victor

 Modeling a prototype scene is always a challenge and I always hope that someone will recognize the environment created. Seeing my article, virtually uncropped from what was sent to MRH and in such an attractive layout really made me feel good- Your comments and those of the other readers here are really the icing on the cake. Thank you- I am glad you have enjoyed my work. -Victor

I think those of us who like passenger train modeling, switching, and operation hit a "jack pot" with this article and the two part article on detailing passenger cars elswhere in this issue nd the last issue.  Thanks!

I had a hard time telling the modeling from the prototype.  Outstanding modeling combined with skillful photography were worth the time and then to have the story behind the pictures makes the whole article well worth the time to read it.

Thom

 In looking over the comments, I kept coming back to mdavidjohnson's, that a reader feedback box at the end of the article would make it easier for readers to leave their comments. This sounds like a really good idea although it may not be possible for some technical reason.

At the present location in front, there could be a reminder box  to leave feedback at the end of the article- or it could remain as a second link. Then on the last page of the article at the bottom would be the location for the feedback box- I am e mailing the editor about this to be absolutely sure he sees this.  Thanks again, mdavidjohnson. ---Victor

be at both ends of articles starting with the next issue.  What I did was click on the box when I started reading an article in the issue that I downloaded and saved.  I was reading the magazine off line, but the feedback page opened in another window.  When I finished the article and minimized it, the feedback page was showing waiting for me to comment.  If you are reading the mag online, just right click and open a new link, it will be waiting for you when you finish the article.

Victor,

This is truly an amazingly good article.  Probably one of or the best I've ever read. 

I learned so much about general passenger car switching and about SP Daylight switching in particular.  Your article had everything you could want except more pages, photos, and videos.  Photos were fantastic. I want more.

Again, thanks for this fine work.  You indeed have set the standard.  Now, all I need is an article about the Alhambra shops in Los Angeles.

George

I don't know of anything to add to the other comments other than to say "outstanding article, Victor"  Thank you very much.

The article did stir a lot of memories of when I was 5 and 6 years old, and my neighbor and I would ride our bikes three blocks to the end of the the housing tract, and watch for SP frieghts pulled by Black Widow F's, an occasional steamer pulling the local, the prize rare glimpse of a cab forward, and then in the evenings, the eastbound Daylight an hour out of L.A.

I've always thought of passenger operations on my model railroads as a background activity that occured if convenient.  But your description of the switching operations has stirred a spark; we'll see where that takes me.

Thanks again so much.

Dear Readers-

I have enjoyed reading all your comments. I may get a swelled head.

However, by the cold light of day, the new online format gave my article more "breathing room" than previous print media would have been able to do. In a conventional magazine, the whole article would probably have been edited way down to just a few pages at most. At least some of the photos would have lost a lot of their impact reduced down to near-postage stamp size.

Charlie Comstock edited this piece and did the whole layout. I think he deserves mention and my thanks for the effective presentation.

This project was no "one morning in San Jose" for me to create, and it took several months including all the model building I had to do. I am so glad you all feel the results were worth it.

Some good news for anyone who would like to see more on this subject. I do have quite a bit more about the Daylight, including some more photos. I have been in touch with the MRH editors and we are considering various publishing options.

Thank you again for the great rating and for all your comments.
-Victor

My thanks goes to you Victor, and to Charlie/MRH!

I enjoyed the article and look forward to seeing more articles authored by you.

I have an inkling how long this took to bring together, but rest assured your hard work does not go unnoticed here!

Add me to the chorus of considering this one of the best model railroading articles ever written. I've been a subscriber to Model Railroader since the early sixties; other model RR mags since the 90s and am an original subscriber to MRH.

The article's structure was great, clear and thorough. Excellent and relevant photography. Great research. Outstanding visual aides. Also this article demonstrates the strengths of the internet magazines. I havent been this impressed since I first starting seeing articles by John Allen.

Also add me to the folks who would prefer the comment link at the end of the article. While I could hold open a window with the first page of the article, it's not as convenient as having the link at the end. I hope this doesnt sound too petty, but I cant think of any technical reason not to have the link there.

Great Job Mr. Roseman and MRH

Vetadmiral (Dave Hunt)

Joe, and Charly,

I would love to see more articles like this.  This is what really gets me going.

I would also like to see more or some articles on how to build all sorts of bridges.

Roger Bodwell

Out in New Mexico

Modeling the Rio Grande with Milwaukee design elements

This was a great article, but for the video, very dissappointing. I was anticipating active model shots of the trains being run and switched but it was nothing more than an intro to DCC and google earth.

Steve

With regard to Steve's comment about the video, I think it is understandable after hearing that Victor built dioramas to illustrate the article, but doesn't have a space big enough to use the dioramas for switching to illustrate the story.  On the other hand the video appears to have been a case of putting somethin in because we can, rather than what  I was expecting when I openned up the video to view it. 

The other comment is for all of those who keep asking for the link to the feedback page to be at the end of the article.  Joe has already announced that the feedback button will be at both ends of the articles in all future issues.  Do we need to keep "beating a dead horse?"

If there's one thing you can point to that makes this article great, it's the photography. While Victor can certainly write well, imagine what this article would be without the photos!

We often get sample article fragments from budding authors - most typically it's a few paragraphs of prose. It's immediately clear that we're dealing with a new author when that happens. What makes or breaks an article are the photos, not the text.

Think about it from our perspective as editors, for a moment. Let's say we get a submission with so-so text and beautiful phtography. What are we likely to do? We will do what editors do best and overhaul the text to turn it into something quite readable that supports the total article package well. It may be a bit of work, but this is quite doable.

Now let's consider the reverse. We get an article with beautiful prose but the photos are poorly lit, the color balance is all off, and many photos are blurry. What are we to do? Can we just edit the photos to fix the poor lighting or to make a blurry photo suddenly into something sharp and crisp? Photoshop can be useful, but it's not that good!

No, what we have to do is reject the article and ask the author if it's possible for them to reshoot the photos. If the photos were of a modeling project that's now complete, reshooting isn't an option unless then modeler can do another similar project.

In Victor's case, his photography was superb and his writing needed almost no editing either. We just did the pasteup and layout work - and one of the best-looking articles we've ever done resulted. We'd love to get more articles from modelers who are willing to put some effort into their photography like Victor does. It makes our job really simple.

I enjoyed the video.  Have been reading his articles for years and it's a treat just to know what he (and other personalities) looks like and how he sounds. Doing the engine shed set-up was very creative. He showed you can have a lot of fun with trains telling stories and recreating the past, and it's refreshing to see an approach other than the mega-layout.

I have just read this article and really enjoyed the photos.

I have also been reading MR for years and seen Victors work there. But I do think this is the best I have seen from his work. Just love the photos and the MRH work.

I am not drawn to modeling passenger or steam yet the article captivated me. Why? I echo all of the previous comments about this being a well done article in all respects but for me the engagement was due in large part to the photography. More specifically, the staging of the shots. Each photo was taken from the vantage point I would have if I were a scale person that was part of the scene as opposed to being a 1:1 scale person viewing the scene. The photography made me feel as if I was really there in scale. Combine this with the fine modeling and the experience changed from being viewing someone's work to as if I had actually visited this location.

A common, proven method in photography to capture people's attention is to take the shot from a vantage point that people can't or rarely view from. This article clearly shows (at least to me) that quite the opposite is true for model railroad photography. Take the photo from my scale eyes in the scale scene.

Exceptionally well done.

I think another article showing how he modeled the area would be great.

He did a great job of modeling San Jose depot..

 Dear Stottman: But that would mean giving away all my secrets..... Seriously, I have some ideas in the works now and the MRH editors and I have some things we hope will work out soon. Thanks for your comment!

Victor Roseman

Hi all,

I write from Spain. My name is Marcelo E. S. Colio and I´m modeling a Southern Pacific´s freelance layout.
I read the article about the passengers operation wrote by Mr. Vic Roseman and I would like to send my warmest congratulations.
Although my layout is a small-medium size, I always loved the railroad operation. I have almost complete the freight operational planning, but I did not complete the passenger operation and Mr. Roseman's article gave me ideas to translate into my model.
I also want to say that the magazine and the how-to videos are very interesting. I have lots of videos! I´m waiting to download the videos of Live Ops Sessions.

Sincerely

Marcelo E. S., Colio
Illescas - Toledo - Spain

Incredible pictures! Great article. Wish my railroad looked even half that good!