Six months after the collapse of shelving, the JJJ&E is alive and well

Pete:

I added a few new details since you last visited Jupiter last February. Am glad to hear that your repairs are almost finished.

I still have a few missing parts on some lasercut buildings that I'm remaking. Needless to say it was quite an experience considering all the time that went into the layout initially. As a matter of fact, I found a small piece of some handrails that were on the second deck of a small hotel structure this morning. I'd really like to find two Mikado tender wheelsets that disappeared after the initial cleanup.

It didn't look too good with over 500 pounds of boxes on top of the upper level after the shelving collapsed.

As Gregg (ThirdRail) so eloquently stated, there is more fun building it the second time around.

Thankfully, I had plenty of photo's of that part of the layout from many angles to help me with the restoration.

Now, I can devote all my attention to the fourth small addition to the JJJ&E. It's a connection from the switching yard around the layout and back up to the mainline and switching area on the right side along with a 15 foot seven track staging area which now makes the JJJ&E, an inverted "U" shape.

Pete. You saw the initial track work when you visited the layout. I now have an ideal spot for that ice platform that you liked when you came over that morning.


Thank you all for your kind comments. I appreciate it.

Stay cool and run steam.....

 

I've noticed that Bob's images sometime appear too red, or a little pinkish on one of my monitors, but not the other. Bob probably knows more about color calibration than I do, and I haven't made a big deal about matching my two monitors since they are so different that I accept "close" as good enough. When I had matched monitors, there was no problem--well, that's not exactly true, but they were much closer to each other than my unmatched pair.

Color calibration is a huge issue between computers, and between computers an printers. It's one of the reasons I've always loved the MAC Colorsync calibration--I could be pretty sure that what I saw on a monitor was what I'd see on a print, or on another Colorsync monitor. The PC world is making strides, but PC users don't usually pay $1,300 or so for a monitor, because their business is not color matching--which is why MACs are so favored among graphics professionals.

My point is that Bob's colors may be perfect for his monitor, but very imperfect on yours and mine. If we are calibrated differently, we will see different results. This is a pretty esoteric field of work that most casual users don't understand. My good monitor is calibrated to two standards. One is for R-G-B (red-green-blue) which is the way our monitors display colors, and the way things are transmitted over the Internet. The other standard is for C-M-Y-K, which is the way printers put ink on paper. That's Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black. R-G-B has a far greater dynamic range than C-M-Y-K. I've received complaints that some of my images are pretty dull--that's because I generally use C-M-Y-K for editing. That standard has a gamma (difference between white and black) of one (1.0) since white is 0 (no ink) and black is 1 (full-bore ink in the four channels of CMYK). R-G-B usually has a gamma of about 1.8, or more, since white is 1.8 (full intensity on three channels) and black is 0 (0 intensity on three channels).

Bob is modeling red-rock country, in R-G-B, I believe. So what his computer says is correct may not be correct on your computer. I can take his images and normalize them for my computer because I am a graphics professional.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation. Not many users. in my experience, calibrate their monitors, nor have to. When you do, however, you'll find editors are much happier with a submission. Some editors, however, do not understand this, so reject pictures as "lifeless." That's because they are looking at a CMYK image, which is what will print, on an RGB monitor.

 

Good explanatin Pete .. thanks

 

Good deal PSG & Pete - glad to hear (and see) you are back up and running!

 

I wish I had your resilence, Bob. Yes, that ice dock was a spendid structure. And, as I tried to point out above, your rocks are not as red as they appear on some monitors (I guess I should call them displays these days!)

Somehow I haven't found the patience to rebuild all the details on some of the boats. I've been plagued with vertical alignment problems on some of my lightweight benchwork, which was knocked askew. I correct one place only to find I've disturbed another place. The geometry of this nolix layout was pretty complicated, and I can't access the original drawings on the new MAC.

Family emergency--bye!

 

Thanks Russ:

I am very appreciative to you for casting those tender trucks for me. They worked out very nicely. I body mounted the couplers on the tender frame so that wasn't a problem.

AS a matter of fact, I body mounted the couplers on the rest of my Kato Mikado's as well.

Stay cool and run steam.....

 

Pete:

Thanks for your professional explanation. I have my display calibrated to show as the rocks as you would see them in red rock country.

Many displays won't show the same coloring do to the fact that they may not be properly calibrated.

You saw the JJJ&E in person and know what effect I am trying to create with the rock formations.

Russ:

The are many minor changes in the photo's I posted. The major change was in the new Williams Oil Company roof and many of the billboards which were completely smashed.

The structures were rebuilt with the same pieces and many of the trees and foliage had to be replaced. I tried to replace them with identical structures.

The backdrop had to be completely replaced, but wallpaper on a backing wasn't too difficult.

Fortunately and surprisingly the rock work survived unscathed by the falling objects.

BTW, the trains were up and running a week after the cleanup. The cosmetic alterations took time.

Stay cool and run steam....

 

Where is red rock country? Southwest US? I have seen a redish rock structure in western Md , but it was a lot darker ..

 

John,

Usually red rock country is considered the northwest corner of New Mexico, extending into the Four Corners states. But there are places all around the country that feature some pretty red rocks. I flown over the country so many times, on so many different routes, that I'm always surprised at what I see from 35,000 feet. Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri--it's all different, but a lot the same. I was surprised that even Alaska has a pretty good variety of red rocks.

 

Take a look at some photo's of southern Utah in the four corners area.

If you want to see Red Rock country, look at Monument Valley, where Director John Ford filmed many of his classic westerns with John Wayne.

Stay cool and run steam....

 

Must have been heartbreaking to see years of work ger smashed like that. I am glad you were able to fix things. who knows it may even be better now.

Sheesh! to think that you are already rebuilding and I'm not even begun building.

 

A Bad Day At Red Rock....... With all the work you have put into your layout, that really must have been a black day. I'm pleased to see that you are back in action. Looks good!

 

Bob, so glad to see it all turned out ok (and even better judging by your enthusiasm!

- jamie

 

In areas of Eastern Montana over into Western North Dakota, and down into South Dakota, and in numerous other locales out west, where there were surface veins of lignite coal there are numerous red veins and deposits of what used to be referred to out there by the locals as Scoria, or in local slang Scorio. These are burnt out coal veins from thousands of years ago which left the red shale like deposits. For years this was a favorite for using as a surface on a lot of the rural dirt roads leaving a red road stretching into the distance. In the badlands areas these strip show the best ranging from a foot thick to the whole side of the bluff. Probably the largest single concentration is in the Mont, Wyoming, and Western Dakotas, but it can even be found in Washington State. Thus I somtimes use a red surface on some of my roads and parking areas that are not asphalt paved. The red color is also found in areas of sedimentary sandstone and old lava flows as well as any area having a fairly large iron ore deposit as was previously stated in an earlier posting.

 

The Monument Valley area and the scenery in the four corners area has always been a favorite of mine since I was young boy. That's a long time ago. About 60 + years.

That 's why I used the red rock format in certain parts of the JJJ&E, which is depicted to be somewhere in the western United States.

Stay cool and run steam.....

 

Geeky:

Not only have I rebuilt that part of the JJJ&E, I'm also working on the fourth addition to the JJJ&E.

You can see this photographic description on Powersteamguy1790's blog on Trainboard.

The title of the entry to the blog is "Anatomy of Addition # 4.

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/blogs/viewblog.php?entry=110&userid=3206

You can also see the photo's and the description of some of the work I've done so far on addition # 4 in my Rail Images Gallery, Album 13.

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/useralbums.php

Stay cool and run steam....