Any scratchbuilders outhere?

Edgar Warnecke wrote: [...]

Yes, indeed!

I skimmed the historia, and found some errors. I don't know whether the article's author wants corrections, but FWIW, here are a couple of comments about this passage:

"En América, el primer servicio de tren parece haber sido el de ?BULL? estrenado en la ciudad de Albania, EEUU, el 9 de agosto de 1831. La misma procedía de Inglaterra y conducía tres coches con capacidad para seis personas cada uno. Recién en 1867 se inauguro el ferrocarril de San Francisco a New York, conocido como ?Unión Pacific Road?."

The locomotive's name was "John Bull". And it wasn't the John Bull that ran the first passenger train, it was the Dewitt Clinton, on August 9,

1831, from Albany (not "Albania" - that's a country) to Schenectady.

The Union Pacific did not and does not go to New York, it only gets as far east as Chicago, and initially it didn't reach San Francisco. It was the Central Pacific RR that joined San Francisco to the Union Pacific (in the middle of Utah, as it happened.)

The impression that the UP crosses the continent is a common error. Only the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National were and are true transcontinental railroads, crossing Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts.

Re: place names: It's customary in all languages to use the original form/spelling of foreign places, unless there is a well-established alternative, as there is for example for Wien, which in English is Vienna, or London, England, which in French is Londres. (But London, Ontario, Canada should not called "Londres" - that would cause confusion with the "real" London.)

Interesting pictures. Do you have any photos of present-day Paraguayan railroads? If so, please consider posting to alt.binaries.pictures.rail. South American railways are not well enough known outside of that continent.

I took a course in Spanish several decades ago, which was good enough to enable me to read it fairly well, but not to speak it. And anything other than Castilian (which was my professor's accent) I find very difficult to understand.

Hi,

[...] [...]

Lean your bicycle against the building (if it's a building) or have it stand by itself as close as possible (next to the object), this way you have something in your image you can always measure at a later time ;-) Plus: it provides a proportion to the eye (without measuring) and allows you to measure horizontal and vertical structures (length, height). Just be careful to not obscure any detail so you can use GIMP or whatever to remove the bicycle from the image ;-)

Doesn't actually have to be a bicycle, but I have it handy most of the time and it provides very good measure. You can use a photo bag, suitcase, backpack, motorcycle... Just something you have handy, which allows you to measure exactly in real and in the image. So a shopping bag might not be good since it may have a different size when filled differently. Or might prove to be hard to measure in a picture.

That's why I propose an object you can measure reliably in two dimensions ;-)

Please, inches and feet might be your choice, I prefer meter for some strange reason or other ;-)

Good luck!

Depending on the resolution of your camera, I've found that getting back a distance from the building will minimize perspective issues. If you are, say, 50 meters from a three-story building, the distortion won't be nearly as bad as if you were only 10-20 meters away.

I'm not sure what the standards ae in Europe or elsewhere, but you are usually pretty save with American buildings to assume that "standard" doors are just under two meters tall & one meter wide. I especially use the width when I don't have anything else to start with. Also, here in the States, bricks and concrete building blocks tend to be of a standard size. I once estimated the height of a building by counting the coarses of brick in it. Only missed by about six inches. : )

I know that some modelers carry a stick with predetermined measurements on it when they know that they will be photographing a building. There's a name for these, but I dont know it. Anyway, you would take a piece of wood and cut it to, say 2 meters in length. Then paint it white. After the paint dries, mask off a couple of sections that are smaller, fractions of a meter and paint those black. You might have one meter divided in half and the other one divided into quarters. Then, when you take your photos, you can simply stand the stick agaist the building You have an instant point of reference for heights or lengths if you lay the stick down.

Hope these tips help.

dlm

On 8/20/2008 12:13 PM Edgar Warnecke spake thus:

Believe me, I've read much, much worse.

What's the height of the building got to do with anything? It's just another dimension that can be measured like any other. There's no need to measure anything in "two dimensions", as another poster below said. Just measure *one* thing--any thing in any orientation, the bigger the better, and use it as a scale. (His suggestion of using a bicycle is a good one, as I often ride my bicycle to such places, and it's a known size.)

On 8/21/2008 7:49 AM Dan Merkel spake thus:

I think you're talking about a "story pole".

Hi,

A lot.

Sorry, this is not completely correct - in digital images (digital cameras, scanned images, etc.) you *may* (or may not) have different scales (somthing with resolution, "pixel size" and "aspect ratio"). You should always check the scale in horizontal and vertical direction. Mostly they will be the same, but be sure to check anyway. At least once.

;-) Now I feel good (-:

Ciao...

On 8/22/2008 6:57 AM Bernhard Agthe spake thus:

Of the things you mentioned, only aspect ratio could spoil the deal. But I'm pretty sure that most digital technology today results in *printed* images that have a 1:1 aspect ratio, within reasonable limits (meaning square pixels). (Someone can correct me here if I'm wrong.) So no need to worry about this. Keep in mind the precision required here (not very high).

(Notice I said "printed images"; I wouldn't measure anything on a screen and expect it to have a 1:1 aspect ratio.)

Of course, if someone stretches or squishes an image in their paint program in one dimension only, then all bets are off.

Am Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:02:16 -0400 schrieb snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net:

You are correct. But, aehem, I like my models to fit.

If I setup my accuracy to 100% it normally runs out at 85. I don´t like sloppy models. Even ruins should look like ruins and not like the contents of my wastebag. That does not mean that i work with ISO 9000.

Regards

Edgar

Am Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:03:06 -0400 schrieb Wolf Kirchmeir:

I´m not astonished.

I don´t know the author, but Xavier Juvier, an author of our newspaper "ABC-Color", would not have failed. Try to search his name at

and you will find more articles about our railway. If you want, try to contact Xavier, because I don´t know wether the employees of FEPASA understand english. It´s very uncommon in Paraguay.

If you want me to contact the FEPASA I will do for you. Next month I plan to visit the "Triangula" (the cemetery of locomotives) and the workshops of Sapuacai to take more pictures and maybe some stories.

[snip]

Interesting for me to. The fault of Albany vs. Albania I saw on the first glance. Remember, most of the paraguaians never saw another country.

That´s common to me, but...

that´s new for me.

That means, you can´t cross the continent in the USA by using only one train? Do they have the service, like in Europe, to couple the coaches from one train to the other? Or do you have to get out and change?

Big smile ;-)) Come on, visit our country and you will feel a little bit more "confused". Confused is a nice word in this context, heheee....

Ever seen a railway which consumes it´s own... aeh(?) durmientes en español, Schwelle in german..., but in english? Yes, they take it out of the layer, cut in pieces and use it as fuel in the steamlocomotives today. Best tropical wood. It´s crazy.

You talk in plural. Today there is only one track in use from Asuncion, Railwaystation "Botanico", the Zoo, to Aregua at the shoreline of lake Ypacarai. All fortnight they have a touristic train doing that trip for tourists on sundays. Foreigners pay 20 US$ for the trip, we pay 7 US$. It leaves at 10:00 a.m Botanico, does the turn with a speed up to 15km/h. It returns at 16:30. They forbid pickin up flowers while the train is running.

On the other hand we have a very little part of the former railway in Encarnacionin the south-east. The farmers bring their soja to the railroad an then argentinian locomotives take the cargowagons to Buenos Aires. From there the soja is shipped to the USA to feed cows.

I would do so, but my newsprovider doesn´t allow me. I will find another way. I will ask the provider of my website.

Some new projects are in progress. They plan a connection from Foz de Igazu to San Pablo in Brasil with a very luxurios train. There are other touristic trains in Brasil too. The "Train of the cloudes" in Argentina, which crosses the Andes is in use again after three years of termination. In Columbia they have an old railcar. In former times you could rent it for a trip over the mountains to Chile. I don´t know wether it is in use today.

You understand more than me. In Paraguay we have to mix it with Guarani, the language of the aborigenes. So they call the "Tren de Lago" (the train of the lake) also "Tata Piriri" which means "Fire, water, smoke" and railway in general.

Thanks for feedback

Edgar

Am Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:03:44 -0700 schrieb David Nebenzahl:

Sounds nice, but I my teacher had another opinion. [snip and thanks]

So will I do but using a bicycle is not a good idea in Paraguay,

- if you not think only a dead modelrailroader is a good modelrailroader.

Running around with a pole..., they will believe I am a government-officer looking for additional taxes.

But a little meter in my pocket, that´s a good idea. But how will I explain what I´m doing? Building models ist not common, except for architects and they don´t take maesurements of old buildings.

I don´t own a bicycle and see above...

Thanks to all. More to come next week.

Edgar

[...]

Before Amtrak, the railroads co-operated in providing through services. Some railroads operated a train co-operatively, eg, "prior to the formation of Amtrak, the California Zephyr (the CZ, or "Silver Lady") was a passenger train operated jointly by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) and Western Pacific Railroad (WP). The CB&Q, D&RGW and WP inaugurated "The most talked about train in America" on March 19, 1949. It was purposely scheduled so that the train passed through the most spectacular scenery in the daylight." (Wikipedia)

There is no transcontinental train in either Canada or the USA at present. If you really want to know the details, search VIA Rail's and Amtrak's wbesites.

Amtrak operates over many railroads, and takes you to most of the major cities in the USA, plus a few in Canada (a holdover from when some US railroads operated passenger traisn into Canada.)

British: sleeper. American: tie or cross-tie.

Well, if you can't get fuel any other way...

[...]

Which are made into hamburgers...

[...]

I think railroads are in for revival worldwide. Oil/coal will simply be too expensive to burn in cars and trucks, not to mention the CO2 problem. It's just a matter of time.

You;re welcome.

Edgar Warnecke wrote in news:rck1qo0duxms.qvrip7aketwa$. snipped-for-privacy@40tude.net:

*trim*

Normally, I'd point you to Google, but it sounds like you're on a timed internet plan... after being cut off for about a week because I refused to pay the cruise ship's $0.40/MINUTE rate, I can understand not wanting to waste time. :-)

Enough blabbering:

Harbor Freight Tools is a US (not sure about other countries) discount tool store where a careful buyer can get some really great deals.

Puckdropper