Model Railroading on the Cheap

Farmers have used special corn for seed for many decades. Hybrid seeds have been developed for improved yields, or blight or fungus resistance, or earlier or later maturity as well as other specialties.  My father had a dealership with the Dekalb Co. in the late 1950s. Their trademark had always been a nice looking winged ear of yellow corn shown on an angle with the word Dekalb emblazoned in bold red letters. Really an impressive monogram.  I wanted to plant some of this signage on my layout. 

   Often times in late summer various seed companies will advertise their examples along the highway next to a nice looking crop. Recently, out in the country just a few miles from town I found a nice field of corn with my favorite signs along the highway advertising the type and brand of corn. Of course the graphic was used both right and left-handed.  Now I could put one on each side of a box truck. This was detail fodder just waiting to be developed.

   So I parked my car just off the road and walked back to photograph both sides of the same sign on a bright sunny day. I took direct head on shots at close range nearly filling the photo frame of the camera. After I put the pictures in the computer I discovered that lighting is not always the same even on good days. One shot was not as bright as the other and reducing the size for HO scale added another layer of complexity. After several tries I finally got a good right and left handed shot printed onto glossy photo paper and pasted onto the sides of a highway truck as might have been used in times past. Although they have faded noticeably after three years on the layout; is that a condition that comes with home printers?

I hope these photos below will illustrate scenes from the 1950s.