Not much happening

New Construction vehicle

    As mentioned in one of my last posts (too long ago) I am intending to have a small construction company positioned at the East end of Augusta.
    The latest addition is a GHQ scraper. This kit can be a bit tricky as there are a few parts that need to be fitted all at the same time to ensure it fits and look correct.
     Anyway I finally got it completed after several weeks of not doing anything.
     The usual spray of grey surface primer followed by a spray of Tamiya Brilliant Orange followed by a wash of Tamiya panel line paint and its done. I did use some Pan Pastels grey on the flat black painted tyres after firstly giving them a coat of Polyscale MUD to make them look like they had done some work.

    This unit should fill a nice spot in the construction company's yard once the other equipment is completed.

That's all for today.
Thanks
Rod.

Construction equipment

Building Construction equipment has been ongoing

     It's been very cold here in Melbourne the past weeks so I have commandeered one half of our kitchen table to sit at whilst building these GHQ models. My wife is quite ok with it so that make a huge difference.
     The GHQ bulldozer is now complete as too the Freightliner cab over tractor unit. I also withdrew an older build of a bulldozer and gave it a hit with weathering wash. The Freightliner went through several stages however I am still a little disappointed that I did not completely remove the flash line across the side of the cab so the 3 foot rule will have to come into play with this one.
     I gave both (in fact all of these units will receive it ) a spray of Tamiya grey surface primer before they received a coat of Tamiya Bright Orange. Once dry I used the Tamiya panel line black wash to go around the doors on the cab over and around the engine of the bulldozer. A wash then followed of panel line brown that then settled the look down very nicely. Oh a coat of dull coat was applied between each process. The cab over then got the interior painted and the wipers, roof lights, grill and bumpers all scraped of paint to reveal the silver of the pewter. The horns were attached. I also added some Micro krystal clear to form the windows. A touch of panel line black for the grill and some Pan Pastel over the flat black on the tyres and the job was done.
    The bulldozer got almost as much work of weathering with a bit of extra work on the tracks.
    Vic gave me the flat bed trailer and several pieces of crane jig and as these are going to be a part of the construction company they have received pretty much the same treatment.

And this is how they look thus far.

 

More construction vehicles are planned with several forklift trucks already under construction so hopefully they will turn out ok.

Thanks for dropping by.

Rod.

Tuesday Night Club outing

It was Barrys turn this Tuesday.

     Tuesday night saw a group of old Melb N Trak club members (well not that old ) head off for a night of running some trains and taking a look at all of the updates that Barry has made to the old Thompson River Canyon Layout. Barry purchased the layout from Vic and myself some years back after Vic and I decided to call it quits on displaying the layout at exhibitions. Whilst we had a lot of great help from many of our mates it was getting harder to arrange the movement and set up.
    Barry has been a member of Melb N Trak for some time and once he heard TRC was up for sale I sort of suspect he could not hold back. Barry was still moving into his new home so it was a while before he could get it into his allocated area into a single car garage that is under the house roof line.
   It wasn't long before plans were drawn up to allow for as much of the display RR to be used. Barry has done a great job of implementing his new track plan and at the same time keeping some of the much loved portions of the former TRC.

Vic made the cross bucks and boom gates.

Vic also made the signal gantry.

I scratch built the snow/ rock slide sheds that are seen along the Thompson River.

A custom painted Dash 9 passing beneath a snow / rock shed.

 The Edson Sub as the RR is now known is looking fantastic. Barry is about to start making car cards and adding way bills similar to those we use on the rest of the groups RR's. This should make for a lot of fun as we start to operate the re-born TRC in its new home. That is something to look forward to.
Thanks for dropping by.
Rod.

Something a bit different

Operating night on the Boise City Sub
     Last night was the first operating session we have had for a while on our good friend Johns AT&SF Boise City Sub for almost 6 months.
     John had decided some time back to add dispatching to his excellent Santa Fe Boise City Sub N Scale RR. We operate on it several times a year and John like me had issues of some operators moving trains from towns to the next without checking if they had a clear run to do so. John had already fitted some of our mate Vics excellent SF style signals that worked off his turnout switch   these looked good but did not allow for the holding of trains, so having a dispatcher was the next move.
    John started his RR going straight to DCC back in the late 1990's so one big job was to determine where all of his blocks needed to be, others were to remove all of his facias, assemble and install heaps of signals and work out all of the logic to develop the JMRI track panel to suit his RR.
    Help along the way from our resident JMRI expert Brendan and some help with installation by a couple of the operators of some signal PCB boards and in what seemed like no time Johns system was up and running again. A shake down test was held in the month of May which found a few bugs but proved the system was working however the true test was to be the operating session planned for and held last night.
    One other test that was taking place was the use of small two way radios for the crew and dispatcher to use to communicate.
    Of the eleven or twelve guys that usually turn up for one of our sessions unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances only five could make it to Johns to participate in this special night.
   Well by the time I arrived Greg and John had the radios out of their packets Batteries in and testing. Greg, John, Brendan and I purchased 4 sets each so we could share them around each others RR when holding ops sessions. I quickly plugged my head set in attached it to my ear and straight away could hear the guys talking very well.
    John had set up his dispatchers desk beneath his layout nicely tucked in out of the way but easily accessible so once the rest of the nights crew arrived hooked up their head sets we were off and running.
     John has done a great job as the night went off without a hitch. The engineers now know to contact the dispatcher with their train number and location and are now given instructions via radio instead of the old shout & holler system that was starting to get out of hand especially when we have the full crew available. The signals, dispatcher and radios all worked very well and all of the guys agreed that the night was a hit so well done Big John.
    Here are a few images of the night.

Here is the owner of the Boise City Sub working the dispatchers panel at the first true ops session.

Looking right at home. Note the two camera monitors mounted above the monitor, neat uh.

Vic (with the cap) waiting for the Amarillo Yard operator Noel to make up his train.

Dennis working the Boise City local at Etter.

Greg running the Boise City yard. Greg owns the L&N RR and is currently working on a dispatching and signalling system for his RR.

    

Boise City Station

Just a few of the locos at Boise City.

This is a duplicate of the dispatchers panel so crews can see what the system looks like and keep track of the time with the fast clock.

The monitor sits at the end of the yard peninsular with all of the car card holders and timetable etc.

A typical Friday night timetable.

     Me, I ran the Amarillo local to Dumas and back, took the photos and had a great time.
A great and successful night once again on the AT&SF Boise City Sub.
Thanks John.
Rod.

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.

Time flies

Been a while since my last entry.

     I thought it was about time to get back and add another post since its been quiet a while since my last post.
     Winter has set in here in Melbourne gusts of wind yesterday up to 125 kilometers an hour 10 degrees C with a wind chill down to 4 degrees so apart from driving up to Brisbane and back four weeks ago not that much has been happening as we have been staying in doors.
     I am however working on some recently purchased GHQ kits. A shovel, Low loader, a D8Cat bulldozer, a Cab over Freightliner and another Grain Trailer. (Well you cannot have enough grain trailers in Kansas). The shovel is complete including painting, the low loader is well under way as too the bulldozer.
  

I have sprayed this with Tamiya Brilliant Orange, Dullcoated then a wash of VanDyke Brown.

More bits to add to this

      Apart from these I have been weathering some more locomotives. John a good friend and I attended the Plastic Modellers Exhibition held over the long weekend in June. It is always worth a visit to see how folk model plastic planes, ships, trucks and cars along with the military modellers who always impress. Some of the models on display were outstanding with just so much detail. I have always enjoyed looking at the military models. The way they can make these models look just so realistic is amazing. So I have often wondered why the military modelers and model railroad modelers haven't got together to share ideas I think we could learn a lot more about how to weather our locomotives and rolling stock. Then there is the vast range of paints and powders that are available that the military modelers have available to help create such masterpieces.
    A weathering clinic was about to start so John and I grabbed a front row seat and watched as this young fellow rusted up the back of a pre-painted tank using Tamiya panel line paint and weathering powders. The grills on this tank just popped. Granted it is a larger scale than I am accustomed to but I thought that some of these techniques could be applied to my locos.
     The panel paint comes in three colours, Black, Dark Brown and Brown so I purchased one bottle of each.

   So far I have used mostly the Black and Dark Brown in the grills and fans on about 6 locomotives. This makes the job of blackening the grills so fast it is done in minutes. You might recall in my last post that it took me about one hour to mask up one Alco Locomotive to spray the grills on a locomotive I was spraying for a friend. Well that job is history I will be using this technique from now on.

    Here is a shot of a highly weathered SD 45 that I had previously painted and decaled for the failed merger between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific RR's. I had previously dulled down the body of the loco with a light spray of flat white and thought this would be a good candidate for a test run.

I used the Tamiya Panel Paint on the grills, fans, truck side frames and around the roof and the roof mounted air conditioner.

 

 

     I applied the panel paint very carefully in small amounts around the doors and door latches, around the turbo shroud and around the battery box doors. It is hard to see the difference in my rather poor images however on the RR it looks fantastic, I am very pleased.     
     I also added some Pan Pastel rust powder along the roof and on some of the fans and grills. A small dab of rust under the battery box and she was ready to put back into service, shabby but now she really looks like she has well and truly earned here keep on the SFRSD.

Well that's it for another post so thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

Custom Painting part 2

The next step.
     I spent about one hour in total masking up one of the C628 Loco's last night and early this morning so I could use the good weather today to spray all of the grills. What a job, boy these units have just so many grills on either side and on the roof I am pleased I have only done one thus far.
     I realize that the front and rear most grills on each side will have some decal strips across them however they can be weathered up afterwards.
     Yesterday I mentioned I was going to use flat black with a dash of rust. I changed my mind and only sprayed them the flat black as I now want to wait until the decaling is complete before I do the other 3 locos and then I can weather them completely.

     Here is a rather poor shot of the C628 with the grills painted and after it had been given a very light coat of Testors Gloss Coat.

 

     Once the decaling is done and I can get to do some weathering on these I think they should pass.
     The four fuel tanks also got a spray of Flat Black today so now it is up to Graham to get decalling.

Cheers for now and thanks for dropping by.
Rod.