Open Day on the Somerville & St. Francis River Railway

[supagav]

Hi folks,

Following the kind compliments from Ian (Cogges Railway) regarding some photos in another thread, here are some pictures of our recent open day a few weeks ago. My thanks go to Bruce and Simon from Stirling & Clackmananshire MRC who took the photos themselves. Many thanks for looking!

 

[supagav]

These photos show our detailed and weathered Cotton Belt GP40. It has all the usual SP features: extra lights as well as lots of other details such as speedometer, hoses, bell, airhorns, snow plough... Also note that the top light is on in some photos yet off in others, this is because the nose lights are a fixed beam dual headlight (always on) whilst the top is a special type of oscillating light which the SP used called a Gyra light. For our purposes it appears to pulse on and off but on the prototype the bulb holders actually rotated in the light casing casting a beam in front of the engine in a figure of 8 pattern.

Here's a link to a video of the real thing for those interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPHP36JfRB4

 

[supagav]

The first photo shows some switching at the furniture factory:

The second and third pictures show the GP40 switching at the lumberyard loop track:

 

[garrymartin]

Super pictures Gavin, I always enjoy seeing your railway & its locos and rolling stock

 

[supagav]

Here are some shots in the town of Blytheville, Arkansas. This area represents the industrial part of a small town with the tracks cutting across two sets of roads. Note the new sets of grade/level crossing signals. Unfortunately you can't see in the photos but a passing train triggers an alternating flasher unit along with a bell sound mounted in the small section house to the left of the crossing.

 

[supagav]

Here is our Southern F3A, again detailed and weathered following prototype photos. Sadly the front coupler on the loco was hanging low on the day and was catching against the uncoupling magnets so unfortunately it had to be removed from service. Quite how I managed to fit it too low I'll never know...! (Shoot the maintenance dept!) Anyway, after a quick visit to the workbench the coupler is now fine and I'm pleased to announce that the engine is back in revenue service

 

[supagav]

And finally our SP U25B making it's maiden voyage following a lot of modifications and detail work. The thread for this loco can be seen over on the Kitbashing page. Note that the lights on the front of the loco are the same setup as the GP40 above, only this time the SP mounted the headlight above the cab windows and the Gyra light in the nose. The small dummy light above the cab is another gyra light, this time a single red light. This was used when the train went into an emergency braking situation and thus was very rarely used, so most SP modellers just use a red lens in the light casing to simulate this feature.

Thanks again for looking!

 

[Gizzy]

Great pix thereGav....

 

[Richie]

fantastic set of photo's Gavin

 

[CoggesRailway]

Fantastic stuff, really nice railway and weathering is superb. I can't make out the track plan is it a dogbone?

 

[lgbmad]

Ditto, that's really nice and atmospheric

 

[stevedenver]

gav-indeed great atmosphere, looks like a US railroad, great grime, and
im also very impressed with what you did with the PIKO building, looks US and not euro

nice subtle colouring on everything

 

[royale]

Great pictures with lots of atmosphere.

 

[a98087]

Great pictures

 

[supagav]

Thanks for the kind words

Here are some more videos I found showing the Gyra Lights that the SP used. The one in the first video is actually an example of an emergency braking Gyra Light from an SP diesel produced by the Pyle National Company, exactly the same style as you see on the nose of the GP40 and on the cab of U25B above. You can see how the bulb holder actually moves around inside the whole casing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COMiAwLvVK4

The second here is the oscillating Gyra Light headlight from another SP loco, probably a GP9 or something similar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RGB1S-KDPA

Ian: the track is a dogbone, you're exactly right. The bottom of the garden is essentially a big circle but instead of joining up the two tracks pinch off at the top and run paralell up the side of the house (the photos that look like a double tracked mini canyon.) This ends in another loop up at the top of the garden which runs around the oil tank for the house central heating which is now thankfully quite well hidden by trees and shrubs. (see the photos with the F3 running down a slight grade, this is the bottom the loop with another semaphore signal on the opposite track).

 

[PaulRhB]

Yep nice to see weathered locos in service nice garden too.

 

[stockers]

Looks great. Bet you had some fun - that's how it should be.

 

[beavercreek]

OOOOh such a lovely line and great rolling stock. Super Gav!

Would love to visit one day when we tour your part of the Kingdom.

 

[JRinTawa]

Very nice, more piccies please

 

[supagav]

Thanks again for all your kind responses!

Mike: you would be more than welcome, just let us know and we would be delighted to sort something out!!! It's always a pleasure to share our hard work with like minded folk

John: how can I refuse?! I'll have a look when I get home and see if I can dig out some more.