Photoshopping backdrops

A scenic backdrop can do a lot to enhance the presentation of your layout. But not all of us have the artistis skills to paint a realistic backdrop. Photo backdrops have become a popular alternative, but they run the risk of overpowering your layout, by being too realistic.

If you have access to PhotoShop, there are several tools you can use to tweak the level of detail in your photo. Here is my original photo. Not bad, but it may grab attention from your modeling:

 

You can click on any image to see a larger version of it

In the second image, I have used Photoshop's "Dry brush" tool to make the image more like a painted backdrop. Note that you can experiment with adjustments to set the level of detail you want in your image.

While Dry Brush takes the image in the direction I wish, I have now found a tool which takes me even closer to what I want to acheive: Topaz Labs Simplify collection, and in particular its BuzSim tool. The Simplify collection is an add-on to Photoshop which will set you back another 39.99 USD, but as a Photoshop junkie I have found it invaluable. It allows you to set the level of detail you want to display, but it preserves the edges of larger detail, instead of breaking them up into paint smudges like the Dry Brush tool. The following image has been processed with the BuzSim tool:

A ride-on miniature railway..

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This time something completely different: A model of a 7 1/4" gauge miniature railroad.

The model is 1/20.3 scale, using 9 mm gauge track. Trains running on the railroad can represent a mixture of scales as long as they fit on 7 1/4" gauge: Run "N" scale equipment as 1/8 size models of standard gauge equipment, HOn30 stock as 1/4 size  models of narrow gauge , or On9 kits as 1/2 size minimum gauge industrial tramways. The layout plan is 24" by 48", and the track illustrated in Peco OO9/HOn30 model track.

On30" sawmill scene

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Another logging variation in On30”. This time with a sawmill, large enough to warrant a railroad to feed it (or course, only the front end of the sawmill is actually modeled..). Again, the visible part of the layout is 22” x 68”. There is not room enough to let the jackslip pass over the tracks, so I had to place the sawmill at the end of the yard tracks.

In order to get more siding capacity, I decided to move the run-around off stage, so trains arrive with the engine pushing its consist. This was of course inspired by the “Simplicity Sidings” switching game, although I have not adhered to the game´s rules when it comes to siding capacities etc. .

The small company town serving the mill is off scene, and another aspect I found no room for is how finished lumber is transported from the mill to market.

A small signature feature of all my On30” plans is a little 18 ft boxcar, converted to a yard shed. The prototype for this is the only surviving piece of equipment from the mythical 30” gauge Yosemite Short Line. When I saw this back in 1984, it was being used as a tool shed in the Sierra Ry yard at Oakdale, CA. It has later been moved to Railtown 1897 in Jamestown, where hopefully it will one day be restored.

 

Boxcar /shed, Oakdale 1984

 

 

My model version, built abt 1985

Large scale logging - portable

 

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Even smaller: A portable version of my large scale log loading scene. The scenicked part is only 80 x 120 cm (abt 32 x 48 inches, the standard size of a sheet of foam insulation). No room for a turnout here, so the fiddle yard has a two-track sliding traverser with room for two or three cars, and escape tracks for the loco at the end.

Large scale logging

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When Bachmann first released their ”G” scale Porter side tank, I noticed the resemblance to my favorite loco, Porter c/n 4350. An 18-ton side tank loco, delivered 6/09 to Standard Lumber Co. for the Empire City Ry. and later used by the Sloat Lumber Co. So I had to have it..

I had a photo of this loco, at the end of its life at Sloat, and decided to detail my Porter based on that photo. I enjoyed the experience so much that I ended up building a small fleet of logging cars for it.

But I had no intention of builing a garden empire. This trackplan was designed to explore the possibility of logging in a very small space, my usual 22” x 68” shelf, with a short staging track on one end. The simplest of switching track plans, a two track “tuning fork”, with an escape track added to hold a second loco.

The scene is a logging side somewhere out in the woods, with one track devoted to log loading, and a siding holding cars loaded with supplies for the logging operation. Loading is as basic as it gets: An early Dolbeer donkey hauls logs to the landing, and loggers with peavies manhandle  the logs across the rollway onto the waiting train, with no mechanical help..

The “donkey doctor” is so attached to his machine that he has his own camp car parked at the end of the siding.

Bachmann´s early products, including the Porter, were to 1/22.5 scale. But by the time their eagerly anticipated Shay was released, they had decided the American market wanted proper 3ft gauge, which meant 1/20,3 scale. And the Shay was a much larger prototype than I could accommodate anyway, so I shelved my large scale plans and returned to On30”..  But I still have them stashed somewhere.

 

Moose Canyon - a 1/32n20" Arizona mining tram

 

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A small, extra narrow gauge mining layout in 1/32 scale very much inspired by Earl Martin´s classic On20” Thunder Vally Tram. Reading about this in a 1973 Craftsman had a lasting influence on me.
The scene depicts the mining tram terminus, Ore arrives from off-scene mines on the small 20” tram, and is dumped into gondolas on the 3ft gauge narrow gauge feeder. Supplies for the mining operation arrive on the feeder and are transferred to the tram by an elevator built into the transfer shed. The two levels are separated by a 20 ft tall rock face.

The model tram runs on HO/On30 gauge, while the connecting railroad is represented by a few freight cars on “O” scale archbar trucks. The locos scetched are repurposed from my early On30 days, with larger cabs and details. The ore cars are Grand Line large Ginpin ore cars and Bachmann wood side dump cars, “re-scaled” with larger brake Wheels.

On30 River camp - version 2

 

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A new version of my On30 logging camp. I managed to add an extra siding, without squeezing things too much (?). It made sense to use the middle track as the tail end for the run-around, as the location would be less accessible for loading or offloading cars.

 

Trading places between the engine house and the blacksmith shop put the blacksmith and carpenter at the ends of each siding, while I could eliminate the awkward switchback to the blacksmith shop.

 

Previous version: http://trackplans.blogspot.se/2017/05/sloat-lumber-co-river-camp-on30.html