Re: TRAINS Mag doing 50th Anniversary Commemoration of Last N. G. Freights

Johnson Barr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>The well-maintained track is
> going to be a give-away that it's no longer 1968
> anyway.
>
> - Willie

Right. I hope that no one seriously thinks that any of us are trying to pass our photographs off as having come from "back in the day." Even with a perfect train and grass growing up between the ties, there are still give-aways in present-day images that won't fool a die-hard NG historian. But we aren't looking to fool those folks.

Here's the thing: All we really need are photos that look reasonably correct to an average viewer, foamer or not. The average person who buys a calendar, reads a railfan mag, or looks at Flickr probably doesn't know what D&RGW track looked like back in the 60s. They also likely don't know much about spark arrestors or lack thereof.. The things we're trying to avoid are the things that scream: "This photo was taken last week at a foamer event", such as the presence of a bunch of foamers riding in an open gondola, or a box car with a door on the front of it, or a train with 5 cabooses, or big, black magnetic signs on the tenders that don't match the rest of the paint job. You get the idea. We're just looking to do the things that can be reasonably done to make the train look as much like it would have back then, without getting too crazy.

/Kevin Madore