Nelson County
Nelson County -Scenic Inspiration
04/11/10 14:13
It is a particular blessing to have Nelson County so close at hand this time of year. This is the season I am depicting on my model railroad, so I schedule frequent trips to the foothills to reacquaint myself with what I am trying to portray.
What I see while walking the backroads are trees and more trees. I need to come up with a way to imply all this color and texture without spending the rest of my life fabricating individual model trees.
This scenery is much of what attracted me to Nelson County as a setting for my model railroad. But as the time approaches to begin building scenery, I wonder if I can do it justice.
Once I saw it all as great potential. Now I am seeing it more as a great challenge.
A route through the woods
28/11/07 13:01
As I determined a plausible route for the Piedmont & East Blue Ridge through Nelson County, it was fun to find "the grade" and hike along it.
Walking this trail brought clearly to mind hiking old logging railroad grades in West Virginia, only this is much closer to home.
The railroad would have crossed the creek at this point on a light deck girder bridge.
Some Nelson County history along the route.
This would be an interesting scenic detail to include somewhere on my layout.
The hunters will have the run of the woods for a few months, so this is my last visit for a while.
Walking this trail brought clearly to mind hiking old logging railroad grades in West Virginia, only this is much closer to home.
The railroad would have crossed the creek at this point on a light deck girder bridge.
Some Nelson County history along the route.
This would be an interesting scenic detail to include somewhere on my layout.
The hunters will have the run of the woods for a few months, so this is my last visit for a while.
Nelson County - imagining
22/10/07 10:50
I gave my clinic on backdrop painting at the MER convention in Lynchburg on Saturday morning, and drove back to Richmond in the afternoon by way of a scenic route that took me through Nelson County.
Like many "prototype freelancers", I have traced the grade of my fictitious railroad operation on Geologic Survey maps. So I can actually "hike the grade" of the Piedmont & East Blue Ridge, taking reference photos and gathering dirt and rocks for my model railroad layout that came from areas immediately adjacent to where the tracks once ran.
Over the years, I have lost the ability to immerse myself in the fantasy of picturing something that never was. But late on an autumn afternoon, along the Rockfish, the trail hugging the riverbank, it suddenly became very easy to see the grade, hear the distant flange squeal of a short train winding through tight curves, smell oil and coal smoke, and believe that it all really did happen.
Like many "prototype freelancers", I have traced the grade of my fictitious railroad operation on Geologic Survey maps. So I can actually "hike the grade" of the Piedmont & East Blue Ridge, taking reference photos and gathering dirt and rocks for my model railroad layout that came from areas immediately adjacent to where the tracks once ran.
Over the years, I have lost the ability to immerse myself in the fantasy of picturing something that never was. But late on an autumn afternoon, along the Rockfish, the trail hugging the riverbank, it suddenly became very easy to see the grade, hear the distant flange squeal of a short train winding through tight curves, smell oil and coal smoke, and believe that it all really did happen.
Nelson County - Backdrop Inspiration
20/10/07 15:47
Having just presented my clinic on backdrop painting at the Mid East Region convention in Lynchburg, I had "backdrops on the brain" as I drove across Nelson County on my way home. On a scenic route that took me through Bagley Springs and Salem Church. I stopped and took a few pictures of how I think Nelson County should be portrayed on the backdrop of my model railroad.
