So long ago

Been a while since I last posted.
    Over the past many many years I have held my operating sessions on the last Friday of the month. I usually host about 10 sessions a year leaving out December and January which is when we mostly get really hot weather and we have annual holidays. Well the holidays have not been an issue for me as I have been retired for almost 15 years however I have found that I have been getting a little weary by the end of the week. I am also a member of a group of fellow modellers who meet every Friday in a round robin affair. Five of us have decent N Scale layouts, one has an outstanding HOn3 still under construction and last but not least is Bills Sn3 exceptionally large beautifully scenicked layout with lots more still to do.
    So I decided to now hold my ops sessions on the third Tuesday night of the month and as it turns out last night was the first for this year. It is hard to believe that it is almost 4 months since we ran and I updated this blog.
    Not all of the guys could make it last night however those that did had a good night.

    Here are just a few images from the session.

    Barry getting ready to run the Flynn / Aug grain from the Flynn yard. John F was in charge of the yard for the night.

    Same train sitting at the signals waiting for clearance from the dispatcher. Brendan was the dispatcher for the evening. Did I see a game of Mine Sweeper on the dispatchers screen. Surely not during an ops session. Hmmm. Custom painted SD40-2 in the lead with weathered FP45 trailing. Brendan also started to set up some train following using JMRI on the panels. Very clever.

   

    A few of the guys putting batteries into their throttles ready to get underway. Vic in the foreground and I shared the build of our Thompson River Canyon N Scale display layout some years ago and we are both founding members of Melb N Trak Model RR club. Dennis on the left was also a founding member way back in 1988.

    My beautiful E8 A&B units sitting in the storage tracks at Augusta East. These locos have the best sound of all my Locos.

     A snap of the grain complex at the Left of Guthrie. All of the rigging was scratch built. Dolese Sand and Gravel is in the foreground along with a heavily weathered SOO box car. The idea for Guthrie Feed came from an article in MR many years ago. It is all scratch built.

     These two geeps have just returned to Winfield after running the cement train to Guthrie and return. You have seen the Kodachrome in earlier posts. One day I hope to get some sound in her.

     The Flynn / Aug grain is just about to pass behind the ADM grain elevator at Udall. Next stop Augusta. The grain trailer is from GHQ.

    Just a few of the locos idling away in the loco yard in Augusta. These tracks can hold up to 18 locos.

     Well that's it for this post. Thanks to my usual operating crew Greg, John F, John C, Brendan, Dennis, Barry and Vic for helping the night to run so well.

Thanks for dropping by.
Rod.