The Pilbra Cab

Noels West Coast Mining Locos

     I thought that I would add a few images of the Pilbra Cabbed locos showing the brass etching done by Vic and added to the locos by Noel for his West Coast Mining RR. after showing some of the completed units during the operating on the SFRSD on Saturday night in my post yesterday.

 

     Noel and Vic have done a fantastic job with these unique looking locomotives that now look the part hauling iron ore from the mine to his rotary ( yep I said rotary ) dumper on his WCM RR.
     If ok by Noel I'll ask him if I can post some shots of the completed locomotives to show just how nice they look but first I need to take the shots.

Thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

20 years and going strong

Who would have thought
    
     It's hard to realize that this layout the SFRSD my 7th since 1969 is 20 years old this month. To help celebrate the occasion I invited many of my friends over for a timetable run in the afternoon followed by Pizza and a casual run in the evening. However as they say the best laid plans of mice and men can go astray as a few of the guys had family commitments and could not make it.     
     So I decided to change the day by starting latter have pizza for dinner then a run on the railroad.
     As I have done in the past two years I asked the guys to bring over some of their trains to run on the RR and a few did just that.
    Dennis brought along two of his Conrail locos and a string of TOFC's and a freight train to run.
    Noel came along with his Iron ore train and cool looking locos that you will see below and John brought along a train as well.
    I apologize for the quality of the images, they are stills from my video camera.

Two Conrail locos brought along by Dennis running through Hackney.

  

A meet at the exit from Augusta

     Noel brought along three of his unique Pilbra cabbed locos. There are 15 in total with each group of 5 painted in a slight variation to represent a different batch ordered by the iron ore company, West Coast Mining. The cabs are all etched brass created by our good friend Vic including the dynamic brake blister, the radiator and the fuel tanks all made from etched brass all fitted to Kato U33C units.
    Noel and I did the painting of all 15 during the course of one day. Using Badger Model flex paint sure helped as we were able to see each coat dry giving us plenty of time to mask, paint and repeat all day. The decals are custom made to Noels design.

The white panel over the cab is to keep the engineers cool. It acts like a tent fly by having an air gap between it and the cab roof.

If you look closely you will see the variations in each loco as each one of these represents a batch of 5.

    

     John got nostalgic and brought along his very first N Scale loco and train. A pair of Kato GP30 locos and a string of Roundhouse Santa Fe Box cars. Way to go John.

Don't they make a nice couple.

     The night would usually see some additional trains like L&N, UP, D&H, Mexican, some Victorian locomotives and additional ATSF locomotives and rolling stock on the RR brought along by the guys who could not attend.
     It was a good night so thanks for coming along guys.
     After all of the years that have passed there are still several buildings to be started and placed on the RR. Ponca City is short about 4 and there is still one to add to the town of Winfield. Now that spring is here and with summer fast approaching it might just be what I need to get these started.
Thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

Construction Company done

That should be it.

     Yesterday and part of today I set about to complete my construction company site. Yesterday was spent making a paling fence to sit on the rear boundary track-side and then installing all of the fences and office building. The chain fence is from Gold medal Products that I sprayed flat primer grey dusted with a bit of rust then another light spray with the grey again. The paling fence was made using small pieces of Northeastern scribed siding and 4 inch HO gauge posts. They look a tad too big but I think they pass the 3 foot rule. I then gave it a wash using the brown and black Panel line paints and set it aside to dry under a weight to stop it from warping.
    I added the small details and grass tufts after first dusting on some weathering powders to make the ground look like it had had oil spills.

     And with a few added tufts and a couple of pallets with left over pieces from the GHQ kits

The shinny stuff is tacky glue. I took the shot before it had dried

 Then I set about adding all the completed kits except they all do not fit. So some just have to sit outside the fence.

     So that is another project that has been in the melting pot for a while completed.
So until next time, thanks for coming by.
Rod.