Gallery of My Favorite Modeling Photos

I may not have achieved all of my modeling goals—or even many of them—but I have managed to capture some of my better work on film (digital or otherwise). Here are some of my favorite images from roughly six decades of modeling.

I don't have a clue what it is about this image from the White River & Northern I that does it for me; I mean, you can't even really tell what's going on in it (it's actually a crane righting a derailed steam locomotive). Maybe it's just the Jack Work style trees that give it the atmosphere of an era long gone; I don't know. I made a pinhole lens by poking a piece of aluminum foil with a pin and taping it over the lens of a Polaroid camera; lighting was a single 60-watt desk lamp.

Shot using the same pinhole but taped to a 35mm camera, this one benefits from the addition of natural sunlight. My front yard at the time served as the backdrop. The modeling is anything but stellar, although everything is scratchbuilt, for what it's worth; it's the flood of memories this photo evokes that makes it special.


Using a proper laser-cut pinhole mounted inside a 50mm SLR lens, I captured this view of the White River & Northern IV. I was sweating profusely under the glare of 1,500 watts of daylight bulbs while taking 20-30 second exposures.

Without question, the WR&N represented the peak of my modeling career.


I took more photos of the Z Scale James River Branch than any other layout I've built, so it was hard coming up with just a couple of favorites. The one above was taken in natural sunlight and, curiously, what does it for me is the rust effect on the old coal trestle.

This image got a lot of attention on message boards, especially when I pointed out that it was Z Scale.


From the Z Scale Gorre & Daphetid comes this view of Taylor Lake, and a water effect that I've never been able to recapture.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best; in a strange way, this snapshot of Geordie (Gorre) actually embodies the reason I built this layout.


Here's an "award-winning" photo from my Somewhere in New Jersey diorama.

I packed a lot of detail into that diorama. It featured a never-released kit of a brick enginehouse based on a real one in Wall Township, NJ. I received a number of comments on that oil spill. The ash pit, incidentally, was originally built for the White River & Northern IV.


Despite its compact size (16 by 26 inches) and Code 80 Unitrack, the N Scale Trenton Transportation Company still offered some surprisingly realistic views, such as this shot of street running in natural sunlight.

Taken across the back of the layout, this photo was popular on the message boards.

Also see: My Dream Layout

—DKS, 30 December 2022


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