Just a bit of weathering

More Mexican Locos get dusted up.
    Last week I handed four more painted, decaled and weathered locos back to Graham for his KCS Mexican RR.
    He has lots of locos on his RR many still way too clean to fit into his area that he is modeling so I asked if he would be happy for me to attack a few more locos.
   When he arrived here on Friday for on of our regular Friday round robin get together he brought along four more locos to be weathered.
    Two SD40-2's one in FNM and the other a loco that had been purchased from BC Rail by the FNM and was still in the original scheme except for the change in logo. The third was an Alco C420 in FNM scheme with the fourth a TFM Geep.
    As the weather was perfect for spraying over the weekend I set about dirtying them up a bit.

First off the SD40-2 FNM loco

  I first sprayed the shell with a mix of Golden Titan Buff and Vallejo Thinners to dull it down to a faded look that is so typical in Mexico. Then a light wash of oil paints and a dab with a cotton bud on the cab and top of the unit to simulate light rust.

The ex BC Rail SD40-2 snoot received the same treatment

I also used my newly discovered Tamiya Panel Line accent colour in the grills and fans. On a few I used the same around the doors along the side and on top of the body to accentuate the panel lines.

   I am yet to complete the Alco so might save that for another post.
These are fun projects for me and add a few more completed locos onto Grahams RR.

That's all for this post. Thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

Friday night operating session

Last nights operating session.
     I have been holding operating sessions on my Santa Fe Railway Southern Division for many years. These have been held on the last Friday of the month with just a couple on a Saturday afternoon.
     Looking back at some of my records the current system I am using (car cards & waybills) has been going since 2009 where has that time gone.
     Last night was the second for the year and so the usual crew (bar three who had other commitments) arrived along with two guests Rob and Paul. Rob has been here on several occasions however his son Paul has not operated on the RR nor even seen it for over ten years so it was good to have them here last night.
    The fast clock was set crews given assignments and the first train left Augusta on time. Last month I started the session in the middle of the timetable and that did not work as trains were not in position for the Augusta and Flynn yard masters to perform their tasks. (I'll not do that again).
    Anyway here are a few shots of just a few of the lads working the RR.

This view is looking to the right as you walk into the RR. J.Fahey is in the background working Guthrie with Brendan working Flynn on the right. There is no room light in the RR only cool white Fluro's over the tracks behind the fascia.

Looking towards Augusta over the dispatchers panel. Dennis on the left then Rob, little John and Paul. Little John works Augusta most sessions and is really getting the hang of it.

Still at Augusta. Hmm which switch do I throw next? With Ron peering over Rob's shoulder.

Noel working the Winfield / Guthrie / Winfield Cement train arriving back at Winfield. This train can take the whole session as it has no priority at all and sometimes can sit for what my seem hours if the dispatcher is busy. That's Udall behind Noel.

     So another good operating session has been run with lots of trains and good humour to fill the night.
Thanks to all the crew and thanks for stopping by the SFRSD blog.
Rod.

Back at it again Part 2

A bit further down the track
    Got a bit more work done on Grahams loco this past week. Main job was decaling then weathering this B23-7 shell and walkway.
    I'm disappointed that I can see the outline of the MS decals even though the shell has had a spray of Dull Cote.
    I used my new found Tamiya panel paint to weather the body walkways and grills using a blend of black and brown in the grills.
    The cab roof has had a dash of brown to add some rust in this area.

     A bit more work and this one is ready to be added to the KC&S RR

Thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

Back at it again

More loco painting
    I have commenced painting three more locomotives for Graham to add to his Mexican RR. These will be painted in the FNM scheme again however the first, a B23-7 is to have the NdeM logo instead of the normal FNM.
   We are trying a new paint, to me anyway, since Graham could not find a suitable colour in the old range and we wanted to get away from mixing our own. The brand is AQUEOUS Hobby Colour a water based paint with a gloss finish. The water based paint appeals to me for safety reasons and the gloss finish saves a step or two in allowing decals to go straight on once dry. Another point is that with the recent hot spell of weather we had a couple of weeks ago, the paint dries really fast so it allows me to apply the masking and do the second colour quite quickly. The two colours Graham chose very closely match the prototype.  Light Blue for the stripe and bright blue for the top colour.
    I mixed the paint with some alcohol and applied some very light coats just building it up a bit at a time over a base of Tamiya Gray Surface primer.
    I did the walkways and hand rails with Humbrol Matt orange #82 on all three at the one time like I do with the loco body shells.
   I have started to apply the decals on the B23-7. So far I have almost completed one side of the body and completed both sides of the cab.

  This is the engineers side of the B23-7 as it sits today.

I took these images with my good ladies small camera using my new light box that arrived early last week.

     It's been a few days since I worked on these so back into it today for a while.

Thanks for dropping by.
Rod.

Our Regular Friday get together

Today on the SFRSD

     For the past four or so years there has been a group of us get together every Friday in a round robin meet. Four of us are into N Scale, one into HOn3 and one into Sn3. We did have another mate who is into Victorian HO however he still has to work for a living.
     We start at about 10 / 10.30 am have coffee and or tea talk some BS then go and run trains.
     It would have normally been Big Johns day today however he called in sick with a bug so he and I swapped Fridays. After discussing the three stripped locos that Graham brought around ready for me to paint, decal and weather for his Mexican RR and discussed the state of the nation we then went out and ran some trains.
     Little John brought around three items for show and tell as well. Two being Intermountain F7 B units that he had installed Locksound decoders and speakers into. These sounded fantastic (sorry no image) and ran superbly along with a new Kato UP FEF.
    This loco looked fantastic even though it is a UP Steam Loco on AT&SF trackage. Once track clearance was given to allow this UP Loco to run over the SFRSD by the brass, the dispatcher set up the route from Augusta to Flynn for this special to run. John backed the FEF onto the Directors Special set of varnish which was sitting in the yards at Augusta East with the recently acquired E8 sitting on the nose.

Arriving at Augusta on the station track.

Crossing the underpass at the West End of Augusta

Crossing the creek between Winfield and Hackney

I must admit it does look very impressive.

  The loco ran like a Swiss watch. John has the sound decoder and speaker on order so once fitted this loco will sound as good as it looks. Then I'm tasked with weathering it.
  Whats that you say am I getting one? OMDB.
Regards and thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

It's only taken 16 years

Ballast on the Bridge
     Well after being told by several members of my regular RR workers and crew that I have been very slack I decided that it was indeed time to ballast the bridge at at the West end of Augusta after 16 years of neglect.
     This bridge spans a road underpass that was installed during construction many years ago made and installed by Vic. The railroad bridge is scratch built. It just fits like a U shape from under the sub roadbed. It was glued in place with silicone. This caused an issue as there were several gaps between the sub roadbed and bridge so any ballast applied would fall to the road below.
     "I have a suggestion said John, why not obtain some Blue Tack and fit it into the gaps and ballast over it". How simple.
     So whilst starting to clean my track ready for the new operating season I thought why don't I attack that bridge and get it done once and for all.
     Armed with a pack of Blue Tack , my very old pack of Woodland Scenics cinders and Highball light grey ballast I got underway and within about half an hour the whole job was done. Hmmm why did it take soooo long.
     Here are a couple of pics.

I should add that Vic did the etched grill, mirrors and bumper on the KW.

The track on the bridge allows trains to enter Augusta and the interchange tracks without having to go through the yard.

     So another small job completed that should have been done years ago. Thanks for the suggestion John the Blue Tack worked a treat.
Catch you soon.
Rod.
    

Next BDL install part 2

We have come a long way
     Today marks the end of the third upgrade to the SFRSD CTC system. The fourth BDL 168 was installed back in November last year and the wiring of it to the CTC panel was dependant on the availability of two of my wiring team. With holidays, Christmas and the start of a new year we all new it would not begin until the early part of January. So the lads were available for one day a week beginning two weeks ago and Brendan who was also on holidays was able to catch up with the software required to implement this next stage.
     So armed with the latest work sheets wiring commenced. The first town to have its turnouts detected independently of the main line was Guthrie. The two turnouts on the East end were done first followed by the remaining turnout at the West end. This was quickly followed by wiring the turnouts at Red Rock. These two towns were chosen first as there were spare pins in one Zone on the 3rd BDL that was installed some time ago. These were tested and they worked very well with the panel showing the turnouts as detected with a loco sitting on them.
    We then set to to change the new BDL board number and had a devil of a time as all we could see was the green LED flashing off rather than on and leaving a dim light while off. Well to cut a long story short it pays to double check your plugs on your Loco Net cables. When I had put the plugs on all of the new BDL Loco Net cables back in 2012 one was around the wrong way. The system worked because this was the last plug on the then last cable. Not so with a new BDL. A full day was spent trying to trace this issue.
   Anyway the next session and Ponca City and Hackney were wired up and today we got stuck in and wired Winfield, Udall and the entry to Augusta eight blocks in all and finished just after lunch.
   A test run using a GP35 in SP colours and all was well.
   Here is a shot of John attaching the block wires to the West end turnout at Udall.

BDL168 number 4 under Hackney. Two wires right!

Here is SP loco 6525 sitting on the East end turnout at Hackney.

Sorry for the blurred shot, no tripod used. Here you see the turnout showing detected so now the dispatcher will have a far better feel of exactly where the train or cars are so turnouts are not thrown inadvertently.

You can just make out the turnout on the panel.

So another milestone has been completed on the Santa Fe Railway Southern Division due to the great help from three great mates for without their help this whole system would not and could not have been installed. So whats next for the CTC system. I guess you will just have to wait and see. OMDB.
Thanks for stopping by.
Rod.