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.