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.