ralphmurre
@ralphmurre.bsky.social
Ancient dabbler, still hoping to rise to the rank of dilettante. Citizen of the world, seriously Anti-Trump.
created January 16, 2025
225 followers 132 following 365 posts
view profile on Bluesky Posts
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Just a Pretty Picture ~ Possible, in part, because a bunch of crazy people -- not all of them liberal -- chose to fund things like the Environmental Protection Agency with their tax dollars. Guess who doesn't think it's important. #EPA #environment #SaveOurPlanet #GreatLakes #Wisconsin #LowLands
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes, O.K. -- I guess I really couldn't pawn off plain wooden cubes as shipping crates, so I reached into the narrow opening with a tweezer and glued a wrap on one. Also colored the marker lights.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Port Arend, 1959 Of course, there can always be more detail, but I feel like the area atop the dolomite bluff is done for now, although I'd like to find a few S-scale people to fit the forced perspective scene behind the O-scale foreground. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #Sscale #Diorama #CardstockModels
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
So, you're still working, but they let you off for Labor Day. You char something on the Weber, pick tomatoes and corn from the garden. There's a union man talking in the park. Nobody listening. You fall asleep in a plastic chair, clouds gathering. (my writing&art) #LaborDay #InkDrawing #Art #Unions
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
In Our Little Town ~ Paused for a few minutes on one of my regular walks to do a little sketching exercise. A little brain cell exercise. A little appreciation. #OurLittleTown #SturgeonBay #InkDrawing #InkSketch #SketchBook #SteelBridge #DrawBridge
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks for re-posting!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks for re-posting!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks for re-posting!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Sundown, Port Arend, 1959 ~ Many heading out for the Labor Day holiday -- others headed in to work, as usual, so the world can keep turning. #BlueSkyArtShow #Shiny #ModelRailroad #Oscale #Ogauge #photography #PhonePhoto
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Forced perspective only works, of course, if trains don't run very near the "shrunken" objects or, worse, behind them.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Oh hell yes. You know how James Bond could blast his opponents out of the roof of his Astin Martin DB-4? We saved a lot of dough by just dropping ours out the bottom.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Union Hotel ~ Another heavily kit-bashed piece (from Clever Models) printed at 75% size for perspective, takes its place on the Port Arend bluff. Since it sits in the background, I short-cut on details, but it was still moderately difficult. Worth it? #ModelRailroad #Oscale #PaperModels #KitBash
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
I think by roughly cutting notches or spaces in the "hedges", they might begin to look like rows of trees, more in keeping with your scale. Maybe.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Conversation ~ Cormorants chatting, perhaps, about the best places for a good fish dinner and then about the sorry state of humans. Don't they remember the last time the Nazis were in power? What's the point of their written words, anyway? #Cormorants #photography #SturgeonBay #BigOrangeBastard
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Wow! What a shot!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Just saying "the next Democratic president" assumes quite a bit.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Love that town and this photo.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Red Tug No. 2 #DigitalPhotography #photography #SturgeonBay #OurLittleTown #TugBoat #GreatLakes #PrimaryColors
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Yeah. Mine is just a diorama.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Ben, I only did my six years in National Guard (Viet Nam era) and never fought, but I sympathize. Question is, do we go in the night and whack our neighbors who voted for this shit and would do it again? What are you proposing?
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Wow! A BlueSky train guy that actually has trains that run? Cool.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Waiting Room. #photography #Abstract #ShadowPlay #blues #Interior
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Possibly a good idea for that part of the world where the water never gets wavy. (???)
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
ZEELAND ~ Het thuisland van mijn grootvader en zijn grootvader terug tot ca. 1590. (and before that, Scotland?) This is the backside of my ink drawing that bled through -- it's better than the front. #Zeeland #Netherlands #InkDrawing #InMyGrandfather'sHouse #SketchBook
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
City Planning w/Docks & Greenspace #AbstractArt #PixelPushing #FingerPainting #DigitalArt #PixelPhoneArt
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Remember When ~ The hippest coffee shop in town had a couple of big ol' monitors connected to the www/something/http and you could use them and you were very cool and there was some old guy in the corner sketching the whole scene? #inksketch #inkdrawing #WaybackWednesday #KickCoffee #SturgeonBay
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Excellent poem.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Given all the other good work you've done, I'm betting you could build a fence. Possibly intersperse sections of home-built and sections from the kit. Round here, you rarely see a perfect fence going very far anyway.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Port Arend, 1959 ~ Down at the Grain Town end of things -- back row: Hub Poortvliet's little factory and 2 structures of the Great Lakes Elevator Co., front row: Chet Haines' Salvage & Excavating, the Brandeis Elevator, and Benj. Wierman's Old Bolton Mill. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #DigitalPhotoPlay
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Apparently, early radios were built from Parmesan shakers, with maybe a little crushed red pepper.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
On August 18th, 1931, you might have heard the news on your brand new General Motors 252 Cosmopolitan radio that in Detroit, Lou Gehrig had just played his 1000th consecutive game. If you had attached the antenna wire correctly. #AntiqueRadio #LouGehrig #Photography #Baseball #AugustEighteenth
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Red Tug No. 1 #digitalphoto #photography #SturgeonBay #GreatLakes #TugBoat #OurLittleTown
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Walls. Keeping the outside out and the inside in. We build new walls in front of old walls. Can they keep your virtue from my sin, the fat from the thin, your heaven from my hell, the losers forever from the win? #Walls #photography #equality #equity #diversity #inclusivity #Algoma #palebluesky
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Crossing Over ~ (write your own metaphor) #Styx #SturgeonBay #OurLittleTown #Sundown #metaphor #photography #IsItHeavenYet #IsItGreatAgain
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
I've heard them called a squadron.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Gratitude #SturgeonBay #Sundown #Sunset #GreatLakes #OurLittleTown #photography #PhonePhoto
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
It was a quiet night here in Port Arend in the late sultry summer. Upstairs from the Red Cup, though, Rosalyn is just waking from a nightmare of Nazis taking over America. "Crazy dream!", she scolds herself. "Crazy!" #ModelRailroad #Oscale #ScratchBuilt #NazisInAmerica #BigOrangeBastard
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Learned His Lessons Well ~ Junior is taking over most of the tire work down at Rudy's Texaco. Don't worry, he WILL be wrapping a safety chain around the snap-ring on that rim before going any farther. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #Ogauge #ScratchBuilt
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Starting to look like a fishing vessel of some sort.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
I recently saw a video about running trains remotely on "dead track". No wiring, no track cleaning, Etc. Etc. Run it from an iPad, batteries on board, apparently easy in Oscale. Look in Al Pugliese videos.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks for the repost!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Good for her!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Excellent!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
So much to be done yet in my little make-believe world -- and so much I can do. So much to be done in the great big real world -- but so little I know how to do. I guess I'll just try not to be a fuckin' Nazi, for a start. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #GreatLakes #harbor #BigOrangeBastard
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Happy Ending ~ A guy working in the apt. knocked down my cheap Lionel caboose 6017, cracking off one roof overhang. Good. I hated that car. Gave me the chance to build Arend Allied Industries a maintenance car for their short line. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #Ogauge #caboose #HappyEnding #diorama
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
PRIVATE I'm old enough to remember when privacy was a somewhat valued thing. Sometime, when I wasn't paying attention, the coin flipped and now it seems we all seek publicity. Yes, myself included, because here I am. #privacy #publicity #ModelRailroad #Sscale #Oscale #OldMan
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
819 #photography #simplicity #UnderWraps #Sheboygan
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Wow! My guess was close, but my expectations weren't high enough. Looks like it's on a barge or scow rather than on a dock? Brilliant.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
If that big 671 diesel is going in here, and those crane parts will be attached, I'm guessing this could be a stationery crane, possibly to be mounted down on the docks, for lifting cargo, or whatever. Nice work, even if I'm a mile off.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Yeah, good question. Clever Models has many (card stock) building kits you can print out at any scale on a home printer, so you could theoretically figure out what percentage you're going for. Actually building them that small may be difficult.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
"Almost" Done ~ My Harbor Lights building is very near the point where I say, "Good enough for now." Although I model in O scale, this is built in S scale for forced perspective. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #grownmendoingdamnedlittle #diorama #miniature #PaperModels
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
And the famous K9 in the foreground. (well, somebody had to say it)
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
One Day in America ~ Taking time to reflect. #reflection #photography #Algoma #BlueSky (through wildfire smoke) #smokestacks #abandoned
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
I think the smoke is also screwing up some potentially good lungs.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Found Composition ~ #Composition #Color #Texture #photography #aging #purpose #FoundArt #Rust
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
If By Sea ~ #BlackAndWhite #FingerPainting #PixelPushing #SturgeonBay #TallShips #AbstractArt #LibertyClipper
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Around Here, Around Now ~ It's all smoke & mirrors after all, I guess. #WildfireSmoke #GreatLakes #SturgeonBay #photography #reflection #CalmWaters
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Gradually?
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Night heron? Maybe green heron.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
A Visitor ~ Here's the scene from late this afternoon, as Pride of Baltimore II heads out through our celebrated steel bridge for a little sunset tour. Four dandy tall vessels in town right now. #PrideOfBaltimoreII #TallShips #SturgeonBay #OurLittleTown #GreatLakes
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Composition/Decomposition ~ And a question I hate to even consider: are things that appear blue on the surface just a little bit red underneath? Not near enough outrage yet from many of our Democratic office-holders. #photography #color #composition #texture #BlueOrRed
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
The Long Haul ~ This kinda rare GMC "Cannonball" sat idling in a shop for a few years, its price too dear for me. Finally, the number came down. So did my resistance. Tonight, it takes up most of N. Van Buren Ave. In Port Arend. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #GMCtruck #ModelTrain #Patience
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Please do NOT do your reposts on this account. At least not more than one a day. They're interesting, but too much.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
O.K., you can see the rainbow, but no pot of gold for you if you're born on the wrong side of the fence. Unless . . . (basically, unless you're white) #HuddledMasses #WelcomeToAmerica #rainbow #photography #BigOrangeBastard #shipyard #SturgeonBay
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Just Now ~ Helluva storm, followed by this incredible beauty as I drove home from a friend's. And yes, there was a great rainbow behind my back, but I decided this was the better shot. #Storm #AfterTheStorm #Photography #OurLittleTown #SturgeonBay
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
"Harbor Lights" The soon-to-be Harbor Lights tavern, kit-bashed and printed at 75% from some Clever Models components, tries out its perch on the bluff at Port Arend, while it awaits signs and details and landscaping and neighbors. #Oscale #ModelRailroad #PaperBuilding #ForcedPersective
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Just playing in Markup mode on Google pixel phone 6. Original piece is rusted, painted cast iron.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Let Us Hope Against Hope ~ That the Green Man is only temporarily stymied by the antics of the Big Orange Bastard. #GreenMan #BigOrangeBastard #environment #SevenGenerations
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Monotone Monday ~ Once again celebrating what happens at the very limits of focus on a cheap phone camera. Zoom. Manipulate. Zoom. Manipulate. Ring-bill gulls on the rocks in heavy fog. #Abstract #photography #Gulls #pixelation #MonotoneMonday
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
I don't KNOW that they don't run. They may just need electricity or something.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Yep. I don't even own trains that run. Since they're just posing anyway, I can put 3-rail O gauge equipment on realistic 2-rail track. Did I mention that I'm cheap?
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Absolutely true. Discovered this years ago on the Algoma Central out of Sault Ste. Marie.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Singer/Songwriter/Instrumentalist ~ The brilliant Andrea Wittgens at Tambourine Lounge. #AndreaWittgens #TambourineLounge #SturgeonBay #photography
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Singer/Songwriter/Instrumentalist ~ The amazing Eric McFadden at Tambourine Lounge. #EricMcFadden #TambourineLounge #SturgeonBay #photography
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Singer/Songwriter/Instrumentalist ~ The fabulous Kate Vargas at Tambourine Lounge. #KateVargas #TambourineLounge #SturgeonBay #photography
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Excellent.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Someplace in Some City, Somewhere ( from memory ) #abstract #FingerPainting #PixelPushing #DigitalArt
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks for the repost!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Asterisk* *The water lily reminds me to read the footnote of this place, this planet -- something about fragility, something about inter-dependency, something about man being welcome here if he plays by the rules, but he's almost fouled out. #WaterLily #asterisk #ecology #photography #Wisconsin
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
". . . holy the hallucinations . . . holy the abyss . . ."
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Sometimes . . . . . . for just a moment, I try to imagine myself like that gull perched on the peakiest peak, above it all. But no, a poet must abide in the bubbling broth of humanity, above nothing. In this dark bouillon is where the poems are simmering. #poetry #photography #SturgeonBay #granary
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Best in a while.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Yeah, I know, I know . . . but sometimes . . . even the smoke is beautiful. And then I remember that the long friendship with our Canadian brothers and sisters has quite literally gone up in smoke. Thanks, Asshole in Chief. 🇨🇦 #OhCanada #photography #SturgeonBay #Wisconsin #BumASmoke #PacoLiptik
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
WAKE UP! I remain a fan of the late Green Bay & Western, their old 1563 still working proudly at the National Railroad Museum. Lately tho, I feel like I and my country have been run over by a big red train, with a Big Orange Bastard for a conductor. #Railroads #photography #RunDownFeeling #BlueSky
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
OH, NO!!! My profound apologies to one and all, especially to this little guy, living his life of innocence. While I accused it of being the reviled Emerald Ash Borer, it is in fact a Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle. Mea culpa. Like accusing anyone orange of being The Big Orange Bastard. Mea culpa!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Unique=one of a kind. Things cannot be more or less unique. But they could be almost unique.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Nice little country place in a quiet neighborhood where you don't even have to lock your front door. If you have one! #RealEstate #CountryCottage #StarterHome #Studio #Paradise #Purgatory
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Why, when I was a boy, the teachers taught us to shit outside at recess time. (It's true; I attended a one-room rural school with two outhouses, a boy's and a girls', since young guys at that age are pretty poor marksmen and the seat in there got pretty messy and joyless, especially in winter.)
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Meanwhile ~ As I was on my walk yesterday, this snappy-dressing little guy was on his. While I've accomplished little in the last twenty years, he's killed many millions of ash trees. Impressive. Yes, and just something else you can do nothing about. #EmeraldAshBorer #photography #PrettyLittleThings
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
No Room For Trains -- Clearly I'm not a model railroader or an urban planner. This one spur track serves a junkyard, a small factory, several grain elevators, a feed mill, a freight house, 2 plants of a sash & door company, and a plastics outfit. And I don't care. #ModelRailroad #Oscale #diorama
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Just another lovely bit of Americana wherein a great deal of unhappiness is conjoined. For better or worse, this usually has nothing to do with strippers.
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Hey ~ thanks for the repost!
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
Better? Like the backside of most strip malls, this one needs all the help it can get. Here it was, a few minutes ago, trying a snippet of rainbow on for size. #photography #rainbow #StripMall #SturgeonBay #OurLittleTown
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Maybe too late, but why not simply spray-paint with the colors you want to see?
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Nice shot. Must be a relatively new structure?
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Merci !
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social)
At 81, and against all odds, I find myself still on the tracks. Thought I might be pulled into the light, but this engine is pushing me into the dark. #TheDarkAges #MakeAssholesGreatAgain #ModelRailroad #Oscale #diorama #BigOrangeBastard
ralphmurre (@ralphmurre.bsky.social) reply parent
Just noticed there's a thing called "Monochrome Monday". I guess this qualifies.