Another Friday night ops session

The 97th SFRSD Bulletin
 
    Boy time fly's fast, here it is almost the end of another month. I hold almost all of my ops sessions on the last Friday of the month and have done so for many years and last night was no exception.
My invitation to the normal crew is really not necessary as most now know it is a given so it is really a formality and a confirmation that it is on and so I can check to see how many of the lads can attend.
   
     I am up to SFRSD bulletin number 97. Not all of them have been about ops sessions some have been about updates to the RR and special events but never the less most have been operating sessions.
   
    The bulletin below is a standard that I have used for many years and was used to rally the troops for last nights session.

    
     Almost all the crew were available bar two, one traveling interstate and the other to purchase a new car, so this gave me the opportunity to invite a guest for his first visit to an operating session.

     Jason is building quite a good sized HO RR based on the Reading Lines and is currently installing detection and signalling with the help of a few of my operators (we all share our experiences) and was looking to see how my car card and operating system worked.
   
     The night kicked off with the usual show and tell and once completed it was time to start the fast clock. I asked Greg if he would be dispatcher again as I felt I needed to run a train or two.

     Once the Aug / Fly and the Fly / Aug trains departed it was time to get ready to send out the two sweepers.
     One leaves Augusta and the other Flynn once the first two trains arrive at their destinations.

     Dennis and I teamed up to run the Aug / Hac / Aug sweeper. This train takes out empty grain cars that have just arrived at Augusta and runs as far as Hackney dropping off empties and picking up loaded grain cars from Udall, Hackney and Winfield in that order.

Here the Win / Guthrie cement train sits in the siding at Hackney to allow our sweeper to arrive.

     The Win / Guthrie cement train leaves the Winfield Cement siding at the East of Winfield at 9.30am. It has no priority so can sit for several hours if the dispatcher is not on the ball. It travels from Winfield to Hackney then onto Guthrie and returns picking up any stray 2 bay hoppers and ballast cars from Perry on its return to Winfield. This job can take hours but can be a lot of fun.

Here our sweeper is sitting at Winfield waiting for a green to head back to Augusta after switching Hackney and at Winfield.

Noel and Jason teamed up to run the Fly / Pon sweeper. Here you can just make out the track inspection car behind the SP SD45 passing the sweeper at Ponca City. This ran as an extra last night as the dispatcher found some gaps in the timetable.

    Ponca is a very busy spot and can be tricky to switch as many trains can run by and the industry sidings are quite short. On some occasions the yard crew may send out too many cars to spot which causes headaches for the crews.

GP30 3255 heads the cement train back across the dry creek between Hackney and Winfield

A couple of GE's sitting on the departure track at Flynn with the Fly / Aug manifest freight waiting for its time to depart.

 

The Au / Hac sweeper arriving back at Augusta

A couple of GM units on the point of an Extra to Ponca as it heads to Hackney after just leaving Winfield. It is scheduled to return to Augusta.

    This extra was needed as there was a build up of cars in the Augusta yard that the yard master had requested be moved. Dennis and I ran this train that took hours on the fast clock to switch as there were too many cars for each of the sidings at Ponca. We ran past our time and went dead in the siding at Hackney as we headed back to Augusta.
  
     So after starting the fast clock at about 7.45pm real time we stopped the session at 11.00pm after getting almost through the whole timetable.
  
     It was good to have the guys over, share some trains with Dennis and let Jason see how an operating session works on the SFRSD.
  
     A great night thanks guys.
Catch you next time.
Rod.

On our way to Brendan's D&H

Saturday morning
    9.45am and we were underway heading to Sunbury about an hour and a quarters drive from my home to visit the D&H RR which was having its last run before being torn down ready for a house move for Brendan and his family.
   I had arranged with John the owner of the AT&SF Boise City sub to drop in on our way and so arrived at about 10.00am. (there where rumors that this RR is going as well so there are a lot of concerned operators in our group at the moment).
  As we did not have too long to stay here are just a few pics.
 

Gordon videoing at Amarillo on the Boise city Sub

Marsh station

more happy AT&SF modelers

     Then it was time to depart and head to Sunbury about 45 klm away to meet up with the rest of the crew at Macca's as we were all heading to Brendans planning to arrive just after lunch.
    A few quick pics of the RR then down to some operating.
This is a big layout and it will be sad to see it go after such a short time in existence

.

Breaking news

    As we were taking a break in the arvo, the news broke that Chris a good mate and Brendan had hatched a plan so Chris could purchase the D&H and move it to his new train room. It will become a BN RR and the good news is that it will only be 2 kilometers away. Now we will have two in the same area how cool.
    To make the announcement Brendan and Chris had set up two pass trains without any of us picking it up and here they are.

and a couple of very happy guys.

Brendan on the left with a smiling Chris on the right.
Great news lads.

     Gordon and I left about 4.00pm headed home and then out to dinner with Gordon and my wife Helen. We got back here at about 7.00pm and then Gordon was able to download over 700 plus images of layouts and UP steam stuff off his laptop so I can share it with the guys.
     Unfortunately I was not able to be around Sunday so John C was to be Gordon's chauffeur for the day and that was planned to be another long day.

Thats it for this post.
Rod.



  

Visitor from the USA

Following the N Scale Convention.
    I was unable to attend the 14th National N Scale convention held in Brisbane the weekend following Easter which was a little disappointing as it is the first I have missed since they commenced in Sydney in 1989. I knew that a few modellers from North America where coming over to attend one being Gordon Bliss from Houston. Gordon and I have been emailing one another for a few months following pictures of our two layouts being placed in N Scale Railroading in the same month publication.
    So I suggested that Gordon should see if he could get some extra time to come visit us in Melbourne during his time in Australia and get to see some more N Scale Layouts.
    Well that didn't take too much persuading so after attending the convention meeting Mal and a few other modelers in Canberra Gordon arrived in Melbourne on Friday afternoon.
    I switched with one of our regular Friday round robin guys so they could all come to the SFRSD during our normal get togethers. Morning tea, lunch, watch videos (train stuff of course) and then run trains on the RR pretty much in that order.
   Gordon arrived at about 4.15pm and met the guys. A quick dinner of pizza and then Ron and Greg arrived to start a small ops session to get Gordon into the mood.
  Here is just a few shots of the night on the SFRSD with a few of the guys and a foreign dignitary running some trains.

Here's Gordon in charge of the Fly / Aug Grain

Greg acted as dispatcher for a while

Peters first night session (Peter is one of our Friday group)

John working Flynn

Bill enjoying the night

Ron concentrating as he cleans wheels on a loco for me.

Gordon switching at Augusta with John

A couple of happy Santa Fe Modelers.

    That was day one.
    On Saturday morning I picked Gordon up from his motel as we were headed to Brendan's D&H RR for its last run and so stopped in to see the Boise City sub of Johns on the way. More to come on the next post.
Thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

More Weathering for Graham

Grahams latest Mexican Locos
   As you have probably gathered I enjoy weathering. Most of my Loco's and rolling stock are done so I enjoy being able to help out my mates if they'll let me.
   Graham is a busy guy at the best of times and so he lets me grunge up his Locos for his RR. I've shown a few in the past so today here are the latest three to be sent to Mexico.
   In the not too distant future I hope to be able to show some of these babies on the RR.

The first is an SD60 in KCS colours

I didn't want to overdo this loco so I just added a very small amount of panel line black paint to all of the door latches, along the roof line and the grills before giving the whole loco a spray of fade. A mist of mud on the side to follow the prototype image and that was about it.

An Alco C628

I did a bit more work to this after this picture was taken. It looked too clean on the side sill compared to the prototype I was following so I just blackened it up a bit along the top edge with some black oil paint dabbed on with a tooth pick and cotton bud.

and last but not least a B23-7

This loco only received a spray to fade it down with a small amount of panel line detail added.  I did add a small amount of rust wash around the springs of the trucks.

     One thing I have found is that Tamiya Nato Black is a very good substitute for weathered black. I used it on the trucks and fuel tanks on all three locos and it looks very good. When I was fading the locos I allowed the spray to just kiss the trucks after painting with the Nato Black and it made them stand out nicely. A touch of black wash around the journals and the job was done.
    Now I have another three to paint KCS grey and give those a touch of weathering.
Until the next post thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

Last night ops session

Before the guys came.
    I haven't posted many images of the SFRSD for a while so before the crew arrived last night for my last Friday of the month operating session I decided to walk around the RR with my phone camera and take a few pics. I had to use my phone camera as my trusty Canon lens on my EOS650D has failed and I'm not too happy about it.
   Anyway here are a few that I thought you might find of interest.
   I have no room lighting only the fluros behind the valance so it can make for some dark spots here and there and as the ceiling which is a bit on the low side is painted flat black like the valance, fascia and the wall below the layout can make photographing the RR a bit tricky so here goes.

This is Augusta taken from just inside the entry door

This is Ponca City on the left with Red Rock on the right. Not a good shot.

A bit better view of Ponca

Red Rock has the longest passing siding on the RR. 

Once given clearance by the dispatcher to switch, ( at any town) the crew can throw all of the turnouts on the local panels independently of the dispatcher. He can see what is happening on his display. We are now also using two way Walkie talkie radios to communicate with the train crew. This has helped keep the dispatcher in the loop and trains moving. Once the trains start to flow you can hardly hear any noise from the guys as they concentrate on the job at hand.

A view of Perry

Left hand end of Guthrie

And the right hand end.

and loco's in the service facility at Flynn ready to go to work.

     I only had eight crew last night including myself with a few of the regulars tripping off interstate to attend an exhibition and others working however we had another fun night. I ran a couple of trains instead of being the dispatcher and had a great time.
    Greg did a great job as dispatcher although I think he gave me a few more red signals than was required just to show he was in charge.
    Ron took some videos of my directors special around the Red Rock area so they should pop up soon.
    Thanks for coming over again guys it was a fun night.
That's it until the next post and remember to have fun.
Rod.

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.