Somerville & St. Francis River Railway

[supagav]

Hi,

With all this amazing weather that we have been having up here in the north, I decided to set aside some time to really work on the railway and make a lot of changes and improvements as well as having some well-deserved time to run trains! We have our first operations day coming up on the 11th August so I'm in the process of getting things all ready in preparation. After a few days of hard work I decided to try out some some light switching (shunting) operations to start planning out the running on the day. The following photos show some local switching moves in the town of Blytheville and the sawmill plant at East Blytheville.

 

[supagav]

These photos show the Chicago Mill & Lumber company switcher, an well-used 44 tonner, pushing cars around the plant. The loco has the original markings blanked out and is just awaiting some lettering for its new owner:

 

[supagav]

 

[supagav]

The Blytheville Local arrives in East Blytheville with a few cars to set out at the samwill:

The first move is to cut out the center flow hopper and spot it at the feedmill across the river:

Leaving a woodchip car for company switcher, the GP9 runs round it's caboose to prepare for the trip back home:

The traffic is held up as the train crosses the streets in Blytheville:

 

[lgbmad]

Nice pictures Gavin, and very atmospheric with the weathering on the loco's and rolling stock.Maybe nice weather at your end......tis chucking it down here in Wales, now the brown grass should turn green.
Kev :wave:

 

[supagav]

Thanks Kev After almost a week of unbelievably good weather the thunder rolled in yesterday, but after about 11am this morning it was like you would never even know it had come!

The final job of the day for the sawmill switch crew is to spot the empty woodchip hopper underneath the loader:

And that wraps up another quiet day in Blytheville!

 

[Martino]

Superb weathering and detailing. It looks great.

As wonderful atmosphere. You must be proud, and so you should be.

 

[GJFREESTONE]

Spot on with the weathering where did the truck's come from are they 1/24
Graham Shrewsbury

 

[supagav]

Thanks for the kind words folks!

It's actually an elevated crossing shanty which would have originally been for a crossing gate keeper in the days when there would've been manually operated gates. Now with the automatic lights its redundant, but similar to what happens on the real thing, it stands empty as a reminder of the past. We had thought to maybe board up the windows but I actually like it too much so I'm not sure...!

Graham: I'm sorry I can't be more helpfull but I actually don't know where they came from to be honest! My Dad is more the specialist in this department but I do know that a couple came over from the states. I will ask him and find out.

 

[Gizzy]

Nice one Gav....

 

[steven large]

one of the best pictures i ever seen as it look
realism aslo u are doing a great patient on it..
well done mate. loves them all.

so i like tht tank on the top of the wood so
can u take a clear shot of it if u can.
thks u.

 

[Richie]

Fantastic shots Gavin your weathered stock looks so realistic

 

[beavercreek]

Great shots as usual Gav.

Very very nice weathering.

 

[JRinTawa]

Very nice Gav. Weathering is superb.

 

[supagav]

Thanks again guys! Steven, I'll try and take a better shot when I can. The tank is from an old Bachman kit that we never finished in the end. It still needs some more details and pipe-work to finish it off.

 

[supagav]

I managed to get a full day out in the garden doing a little bit of railway maintenance so I decided to grab my camera and head down to the tracks, to do a bit of train spotting, or railfanning as they say across the pond. A lone SP NW2 was out with a local turn in tow, slowly meandering as the dusk drew in.

 

[supagav]

 

[supagav]

 

[supagav]

The brake man hops off to flip the switch:

 

[lgbmad]

Super pictures.....a good days train spotting I reckon
Kev