RAILROADS AS ART
OR, A VISIT TO THE LAIR OF THE RAILROAD MAN
BY DON M. SCOTT, RAILROAD MAN
THE REAL BEAUTY of our hobby is the latitude it allows for creative expression. I have seen layouts where the scenery and trains seemed so real they gave me goose bumps. I have visited train operations where the builder so skillfully had woven together equipment and scenery he left me, as with a Diego Rivera mural, with a wonderful "sense" of the railroad. But I have no such layout, only of a bare loop of track behind the house. So I have confined my creative expression to the Train Room.
The Train Room is my lair. It is where I display my models and related memorabilia such as photos, drawings, actual full-size train hardware, and other related bits.
Quite frankly, my Train Room (originally the den) is where I channeled my creative efforts into an entirely new aspect of the hobby-Original Railroad Man Hi-Tech Folk Art. My beloved spouse, in addition to her many other talents, has been a professional artist for years. Through her I have learned many different creative artsy tricks. The most important? Simplest methods are the most effective.
INSPIRATION STRIKES
We have all taken snapshots at train meets. In thumbing through my own photos I realized a few had good overall composition. They might have been quite appealing had they been less cheesy, grainy, poorly lighted, and fuzzy.
One day, when I was fooling around with the copy machine in my office and a couple of snapshots, I realized the black-and-white copies exaggerated the contrast in the photos. "Aha!" I exclaimed. "I shall transform my cheesy, grainy, poorly lighted, and fuzzy snapshots into highly individual and striking works of art using nothing more than my office copier and FAX, the $2.00 set of pastels chalks I once used in a painful and abortive weathering attempt, and my ever-handy spray can of either Krylon Matte or Testor's Dullcote!"
Most copiers, even the coin-operated ones at drugstores, markets, and libraries, will let you adjust the contrast and blow up the image. If the one you use gives faithful reproductions, mess with the contrast control to get the dark/light effect. The more contrast the better.
Next try this: Take any photo you think is good and enlarge it. Then make an enlarged copy of the previous copy until you end up with an image that pretty much fills an 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper. When it is the right size, make a very light copy of the final blow-up. Try to drop out all but the essence of the photo, such as the outline of the train or a building, leaving just a bit of detail. All you want is the impression of the subject matter, not all the details. Finally, make a "dark" copy of that copy. Experiment. If it works, the result will be a bold, high contrast, black-and-white, "artsy" image. If you have access to a FAX machine, running the final blow-up through the FAX's "copy" function works perfectly.
When the picture looks the way you want it, make several copies and keep the "master". Color the copies with the pastels. I don't do it "coloring book" style. Instead, I use bold, overlapping, sideways strokes of chalk. I rub them with my fingertip until they blend together. I tend to like bold swatches of color, suggestions of sky, foliage, or rolling stock colors. Remember, the pictures are very rough. If you goof one, toss it. You will have all the copies you need to do one right and, if you run out, you can make more because you saved your copy "master".
When you arrive at something you like, spray it with the matte spray. The spray acts as a fixative to lock down the chalk; it also will impart more depth to the work. My Train Room has half a dozen simple 8x10 wood and glass frames from the dime store where I display the pictures. They add a nice feel to the room. If I get tired of a picture, I can always make new one very little cost.
THE WISDOM OF THE RAILROAD MAN
I never really know where our hobby will take me next. So I have only one "Prime Directive": HAVE FUN, ENJOY YOURSELF, AND NEVER TAKE THIS STUFF SERIOUSLY.
