Ed Merrin has been photographing his own and others’ model railroads since age fourteen, with a decades long break for family and career. Since the early 1990s he has been studying and modeling the Northwestern Pacific, a former Southern Pacific subsidiary that ran from the San Francisco Bay to Eureka on the Ember rich far North Coast of California. He has explored the techniques and limitations of model railroad photography with film cameras, DSLRs, digital mirrorless cameras, and phone cameras, now using specialized camera techniques and software to combat the depth of field problems inherent to miniature and macro photography. Active in the NMRA since 1991, he has served in a number of roles at both the Divisional and Regional levels and is a Past President of the Pacific Coast Division and an awardee of the annual John Allen Award. All this while also serving as Storekeeper for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Historical Society.