Acrylic on canvas panel. 12 x 9 inches.
SW1200 #4300 moves a string of cars in the yard at Tyler, Texas. However, this is Tyler Texas as represented by Master Model Railroader #573 Mike Mackey on his HO scale Texas & St. Louis model train layout.
The painting presents this part of his layout as if it were the real world, and you were standing there at trackside. The white Kansas City Southern switcher locomotive is one of Mike’s favorite models. As model railroaders, we try to create realistic scenes and in our own minds we see them as if the mountains were full-size, the sunlight was beating down, and all the background distractions were absent. But even the best photographers often can’t eliminate the HVAC equipment, water heaters, windows, light fixtures, and other paraphernalia that surrounds the typical model railroad layout and wrecks the illusion of reality. Modelers also use “selective compression” to force a large scene to fit a small space. So in this painting I eliminated all those distractions, provided an uninterrupted sky, added industrial buildings stretching off into the distance, and brewed up an afternoon rain storm to boot. Part of my goal was to un-do that selective compression, and make the scene look BIG.
If you want to bring your layout to life in a painting, contact me and we’ll see what can be done.