GHQ Crawler Shovel

One more piece to the RR

     As mentioned in my last post I had completed the GHQ shovel. Whilst not a hard kit to put together the real tricky bits are the pistons that control the arm as these can be a real headache to get correct. having said that this kit has turned out ok.
    A spray of Tamiya Bright Orange, a coat of dull coat and a wash with Van dyke Brown oil paint and a couple of light applications of Tamiya Panel Line Accent Paint and its ready to sit in the construction area. Wait I have no construction area.
    Now that all of these GHQ kits are almost complete I have decided that a small asphalt paved area needs to be made adjoining the Augusta East yard tracks. This is a nothing area and as it was completed many years ago it is indeed in need of an upgrade.

This is the completed GHQ shovel.

After the unit was sprayed Bright Orange I painted the tracks rust with a light dry brush of silver followed by a wash of black.

     And this is the area beside the Augusta East yard tracks where the units will be housed once the area goes through its makeover.

     I also had most of the crew over on Friday night for one of my regular last Friday of the Month operating sessions. As it was two months since the last (we were on vacation when the May session was planned) I thought I should clean the track and loco wheels. I'm very pleased I did as I was surprised that the track was a bit grimy but it was the locos wheels that really surprised.    
    
     For too many years to recall I have been using Zippo Lighter fluid to clean my track and wheels as too have many of my friends. We find it works really well. I have recently purchased some new cotton cloth from the local Spotlight store only this time found some much thinner than that I was using previously. Obviously the last lot of cloth was just too thick as when using the new lot my wheels have never looked better. I am surmising that the old cloth was not getting right into the radius of the wheels and thus leaving a large amount of gunk in place. The new cloth looked really dirty with really black track marks where the dirt had come off the wheels after cleaning the locos. Strong evidence that I should have been checking better and something to put in the memory bank.
     Here is a few shots of the ops session, apologies for those not represented

Big John at the dispatchers desk. John is the proud owner of the SF Boise City Sub.

Little John at Augusta (he's not really that tall)  Owns the UP Oregon Sub.

Darren operating the Win /Gut / Win Cement train switching at Winfield. Darren is a VR Signalling man and has a very nice Victorian N Scale layout.

Barry at Hackney pondering his next move with the Aug /Hac /Aug Grain. Barry purchased Thompson River Canyon from Vic and Myself several years ago.

Greg ( he owns the L&N Knoxville division ) is at Ponca City pondering his next move with the Fln / Pon / Fln Sweeper. There is not a lot of room to move at Ponca so one has to think very carefully about how to achieve the move and not hold up the main.

Dennis and Noel worked Flynn Yard. Noel is not in the picture. You can just make out Vic's cap, he was just departing with the Fln / Aug  Through freight. Dennis is in the process of building a very fine N Scale layout whilst Noel is the owner of the West Coast Mining RR in N scale.

Ron (the owner of the GC&SF RR ) is watching over the dispatchers shoulder.

     Me, well I was the dispatcher for a while and Mr Fixit for the rest of the night. Somebody has to do it.
     More next time on the SFRSD.
Rod.