No. 388: Down By The Station

No. 388: "Down By The Station" by Tom Wills, watercolor (mostly!), October 2017

For this one, the title came easy. My grandson Anthony's favorite song, at 5 years of age, is an oldie called "Down By The Station" by the Four Preps.  We have the old purple label Capitol Records 45 rpm and he plays it on his vintage General Electric child's record player.  Here's Anthony spinning the actual wax:

Kicking out the jams on the General Electric portable.

And here is a fun video of the song:  https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-004&hsimp=yhs-004&hspart=mozilla&p=down+by+the+station+four+preps#id=1&vid=18990cc2f9989af2b5abe99c17c3c522&action=click

Also, as it turns out, his favorite train car is the caboose, but only if it's red.  This is our Lionel red caboose from 1958!

"We Run This"

So we dig trains, and this is in fact the fifth train-related  picture that I have done.
You may see and read about the others here:

The Last Sexy Bullet
http://tomwillsproductions.blogspot.com/2011/03/last-sexy-bullet.html
Locomotive Breath
http://tomwillsproductions.blogspot.com/2013/07/no-210-locomotive-breath-erie.html
Two Behemoths
http://tomwillsproductions.blogspot.com/2016/08/no-339-two-behemoths.html
Hudson 
http://tomwillsproductions.blogspot.com/2016/11/no-348-hudson-train-for-christmas.html

This, however, is the first time I've tackled the END of the train!

Caboose 316

This particular caboose, Baltimore & Ohio C316, is permanently parked inside of the Burton, Ohio, Historic Village.  It is the only life-sized piece of rail equipment among a rusty display of miniature railcars and buildings.

The caboose is all wood and iron, quite old, but in remarkably good shape. Platforms have been built on the ends so that people can climb aboard and look around.  I removed the platforms for this painting. One piece of wood is pulling away due to the elements — I ignored that, too.

I have wanted to paint this caboose for years and finally made the time this fall.

The painting began as they all do, with a light sketch coated in a thin wash of watercolors in reds (caboose), greens (trees, grass), browns (road and rail bed) and very faint blue (sky). From there the details began to emerge: Windows and doors, a roof line and rails, wheels, woodwork, railings, scenery.

 

As I worked with the paints I found myself augmenting the colors with colored pencils to sharpen the image and match the colors to the original photo.

This is a technique that I’ve been working on for some time; it was last used in a portrait that I painted and colorized from a black and white photo.  You can read about that piece here: http://tomwillsproductions.blogspot.com/2017/11/no-384-colorized.html

The handrails and chains were added to the finished caboose form last, a mix of yellow and white paints:

The caboose really took form after I added the wheels (called trucks) and the rails:

The tree line was roughed in with a swampy color, but layers of yellow, orange, greens, brown and black were added later.  Although the original photo was taken in September, I chose to give the painting November leaves.  I finished off the trees with some black and gray lines for branches.

                               

Sadly nowadays, freight trains don't run with cabooses. The string of railcars just ends with a flag attached unceremoniously to a coupler. There's no real finish, there's nobody waving in the window. The caboose has become just another piece rendered unnecessary in the age of computer-controlled railroading.                                                                                     

Like the 45 rpm record and large-scale electric toy trains, the caboose has become something of a curiosity. I think it's sad. We all grow up and older, I know. That doesn't mean we have to grow out of the things we love.

This painting is SOLD.