Augusts Operating session

First time for two months
   
    Last night was the first operating session since June. It's winter down under and this past few months has been the coldest Melbourne has been for over 20 years. So with the weather being a bit inclement in July I canceled that planned ops session.
    Last night I only had a few of the crew over 6 in fact as Dennis and his wife are overseas enjoying the sights of the UK and environs, Brendan and his family are on a three month driving holiday right around Australia (wish I was there with them to do it again) and three of the others were tied up with family duties.
    So the 7 of us had a quiet time running trains and telling a few jokes as is the norm.  Little John ran Augusta (it's hard to get him away from operating that yard) Ron took charge of Flynn and I was the dispatcher but with no head sets tonight as this was going to be a very relaxed night.
    This left John to run the first grain train the Aug / Fly from Augusta to Flynn and Noel to take charge of the Fly / Aug empty grain from Flynn to Augusta. I have the starting times for these two separated as it is not as far to Red Rock from Flynn as it is from Augusta as that is where they meet.
    Barry arrived and he took the Cement train as is the norm. This train has no priority at all and can tack a while to move from Winfield to Guthrie and return.
    As we had few operators I decided to move the fast clock from 4:1 to 6:1 well that was a mistake for the guys in the yards could not get everything done in time to meet the next trains departure times so that will not be happening again.
   A stop for beans and a look at the 1/16th scale tank that I painted for Ron and we were back out running again until about 10.30pm.

   Just a few shots from the session.

Little John (on the stool ) with Barry looking at the loco storage area at Augusta

Big John switching the Aug / Hac / Aug sweeper at Winfield on its return to Augusta from Hackney.

The cement train on its return to Winfield from Guthrie sits on the main waiting for the sweeper to finish switching before it can head to Winfield cement to drop its cars. I custom painted this GP40 and added the smoke deflectors trialed by the AT&SF

Ron's setting up the Fly / Pon / Fly sweeper grain at Flynn.

Noel working the sweeper at Ponca. This can be a tough job as Ponca has a lot of industries and cars can be stored on the tracks everywhere and often the owner of the RR will put cars on the passing siding just to make it a bit tougher. Sorry Noel.

A couple of GE's head Johns train at Winfield

I know its not a train. This was grey and now in a true Panzer PzKpfw 1V Ausf.f2 scheme that I painted for Ron. It is Radio Controlled with sound etc. It sure looks the part.

Well that's it for another post, until next time have fun.
Rod.