Here’s two seperate projects I put together, the Wherehouse, and the train. I’m still tinkering with the lignts and some of the textures. There is no ray tracing in the scene, render would take 40min + per frame if I turned it on. As is, it only took 1.5min per frame.
I’ve used Maya, 3d Studo Max, Lightwave and a few other small programs over 20 years of doing 3d, and I really like Blender. 
Very detailed! I like the train, but I miss some more shadows. Especially underneath, it looks like it’s levitating. 
I would have liked the shadows brighter and the highlights darker. Especially the large overexposed area of the floor, it kind of takes the attention from the train.
Oh, and where the rails end, there’s usually some kind of barrier, to stop the train from going through a wall. I actually crashed a train into such a barrier once, so I should know. 
nice models, and good textures, but your lighting is really letting you down. i’d love to see this thing rendered with the quality it deserves!
The light on the floor/ground should be darker than window IMHO. Maybe You should put there some fluorescent light pointing at your train?
I’ve been a cameraman and photographer for years as well, and whenever I attempt to show a picture with High contrast (High dynamic range), blown out areas with darks nearby I get similar dissapointed viewers. Granted this is a no-raytraced scene that is missing some essential shadows, but it’s intresting to see the same reaction. I’ll throw one together one with more even lighting and correct shadows and put it up.