Computer-generated backdrops - 14
Bill Geiger grew up in Fridley, MN
within eyeshot of the Northern
Pacific and Great Northern Railway
mainlines north of Minneapolis.
He was introduced to model
railroading by his grandfather and
dad when he was six years old, and
continued to build layouts during
his teens. Bill and his girlfriend Kim
– now wife of thirty years – spent
weekends driving around Minnesota
photographing equipment and structures in the post-BN
merger era.
Moving to San Diego, CA, Bill took a long hiatus from model
railroading, until he ran across an old Linn Westcott article
about suspending a model railroad from the garage ceiling on
cables, hoisting it to make room for autos. In 2002 Bill started
building his suspended, double-sided, triple deck layout in
the garage. The shelf design features four 15’-long scenes of
the Great Northern between Havre and Great Falls Montana.
Bill and Kim have raised two boys, and continue to live in San
Diego. He occasionally blogs about his railroading project at
Resources Mentioned in Article
Terragen Terrain simulation
PTGuiPhoto stitching
USGS Digital Elevation Map data
Other Resources
Vue by eOn Software Terrain simulation
Bryce DAZ 3D Terrain simulation
Geomorph Open source Linux
Terrain simulation
GeoControl2 Terrain simulation
3DVIA Studio Terrain simulation
World Machine Terrain simulation
PnP TerrainCreator Terrain simulation
Earth Sculptor Terrain simulation
Visual Nature Studio Terrain simulation
WorldBuilder Terrain simulation
Leveller DEM editing
Hugin Photo stitching
Panoweaver Photo stitching
MRH-Jul 2014
