PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR Building a city scene Modeling a 1955 street scene/Richard Bradley W
hen meeting many new model railroaders, the conversation often leads to a central ques-
tion: “What era do you model for your layout?” My reply is always the same. I model 12:15 p.m., Monday, October 17th, 1955. After a pause to allow the unexpected detail to sink in, I continue the conversation with an explanation. A wonderful array of diesels ran in the year 1955. On the railroads then were Alco, Baldwin, EMD, GE and Fair- banks-Morse locomotives and more. Also, a few remaining steam locomo- tives still ran on some lines. I remem- ber photographing a Pennsylvania Railroad L1 Mikado under steam in 1956. This great variety of motive pow- er provided lots of options for me to se- lect engines for my freelanced layout.
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The bright blue skies of October 17th highlight the autumn foliage colors. For the sapphire skies, I painted the backdrop a rich, pure blue. For the weather, I checked with the Pennsylva- nia State Climatologist’s office at
http://climate.met.psu/edu/www_prod/. The site provides historical informa- tion for the major reporting stations. I looked at Gettysburg and York to con- firm the weather on that date. In a clinic at an NMRA Mid-Eastern Region Convention in the late 1960’s, an invited representative of Sylvania Lighting introduced the ideas of Color Rendition Index (CRI) and Color Tem- perature (degrees Kelvin) to me. To mimic the brightness of an autumn day at noon, I used fluorescent lamps with a 90+ CRI and a 5,000-degree K
temperature, allowing the use of day- light-balanced film for photography. Fluorescent lamps in the valence above the viewer’s head place the “sun” behind and slightly south. The viewer is always looking north, and trains run east to the right and west to the left, just like the rules we’ve been trained to follow in map reading.
In 1955 October 17th fell on a Mon-
day, a work day, and in those good eco- nomic times of the Eisenhower years, everybody worked. At 12:15 p.m. it’s the middle of the lunch hour. People are on the street for errands, shopping, meeting friends and enjoying the fine fall day. I look for scale figures in poses that depict such relaxed activity. The reason for this is simple. Figures on our layouts are said to
MAY 2013
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