Miraculously, the wiring of the power feeds on the baseboard from my My Last Great Project 00 gauge layout is complete! Whether it all works remains to be seen but I have a level of confidence in my work although I am not sure how low on the scale that level is!
Time to start on the wiring of another baseboard on my Last Great Project Layout. Two have been completed leaving two to do so I guess I could claim to be half way through but it doesn't feel like it! at least when I laid the track I did solder on the wires to it and fed them under the baseboard ready to be sorted out at a later date - something I am too good at!
First thing to do was to clear all the trains off the baseboard.
With that done the remaining tracks that ran over the baseboard joint were cut through and it was time to lift it up and see the underside!
That is going to take a lot of sorting! I think I will be busy for the next few days/weeks!
Some years ago, whilst attending the Newark Toy and Train Fair, I found a stall selling pre-used USA outline rolling stock at really good prices. In addition to the price being attractive, the wagons were also fitted with Kadee couplers which on their own are about £5 a pair to buy. The wagons worked out at just under £5 each so I came away with several! The only thing about them was that the previous owner had obviously fitted them as an after market modification and rather than using the proper Kadee mounting box a paper envelope had been created. The problem with this is that the coupling itself pulls out with any load on it. You cannot glue it or it will not uncouple. Having bought some of the proper mountings at the Bingham Model railway Show I decided to investigate how they fitted. I decided to trial with this caboose.
Leaving the Bingham model rail exhibition, my arms were hardly stressed by the weight of purchases much to Mrs. Woody's relief! I did get some interesting things though including some more 3D prints from Eddie at 3D Printing for Charity where profits go to the Lincs. and Notts Air Ambulance so I feel that my purchases do have a benefit to others as well.
Firstly though. I did find a trader with some Kaydee couplers in stock so these two items were purchased which will deal with some issues with some of the stock on my USA switching layout.
Moving onto the 3D prints, there was this rather nice generic workshop type building that should paint up well.
I have seen this print of the old Atkinson Boarder truck on the stand before always thinking I must get that one. Eddie had two left, the display one and a kit. As he was not going to print it again I somehow ended up with both!
On a smaller size I stocked up on some more electrical cabinets - always useful and a fraction of the price of those made by the major manufacturers.
There was also this nice small signal box that I have in mind for a future project but don't tell Mrs. Woody!
The parts build into this.
As I posted yesterday there were a couple of layouts that stood out to me and Mrs. Woody at the Bingham model rail exhibition 2025.
The first is 'The Hot Track' which is a small model but depicting part of a real railway built to transport molten steel four miles from Redcar Blast Furnace to the steel plant at Lackenby ehere it became the famous Teeside steel.
Having previously visited the Bingham Model Railway Show back in March to only find I had the wrong date in my calendar, todays visit to that show was carefully checked on the website prior to setting off. Mrs. Woody accompanied me in the interests of keeping a rein on my spending but more so just to make sure my checking on the date was indeed accurate this time! It was, and there was a show and I did get into it, it was good and my spending was modest!
The Bingham show is one of those that is regarded as being at the smaller end of the size scale but I do like this type of show. So much easier to get around and you actually get to see everything.
There were some themes running through the show. Firstly, there was an unusually high number of n gauge layouts which bucks the trend of recent years. Secondly, Steel and Scotland seemed to have a high level of representation as well!
One layout that ticked both trends was this n gauge layout called Glenellen. It shows that in a modest space n can really allow scenic development as well as allowing longish trains to run.
Whilst at the Rocks By Rail Museum I had to take delivery of some further dirty ballast delivered by this rather nice looking rig.
Just goes to show that you don't need fancy paintwork and acres of polished chrome to have a good looking combination.
Before he tipped the load I got talking to the driver. I am good at talking! He was a fascinating guy who back in the 1980's used to do runs with trucks down to Italy, Spain and Morocco as well as several other European countries. If you follow this blog you will realise I am a bit of a truck modeller as well as having had professional involvement in haulage so we also had some interesting chat about some of the older trucks such as the Volvo F88 and F12s that he had driven along with Scania 111s and Fodens as well as some USA trucks! It was a great 30 minutes or so and I was really pleased to have been able to spend some time with this guy. Just goes to show that you never know what a day will bring - especially at the Rocks By Rail Museum!
I was pleasantly surprised when arriving at the Rocks By Rail Museum today to find that things on the trackwork front have moved on well from last week with the point now back in place which all points well for the track to all be relaid before the Easter reopening.
Also preparing for the Easter opening my work on grass cutting continues with vengeance. I did recut some areas done two weeks ago as there gas been a fair amount of growth despite the lack of rain but I also ventured down the Nature Trail where if I do any further mowing it will no longer be a nature trail but become a well maintained garden! Well that was my excuse for calling it a day!
What better than to have a five minute break in the sun with no one around!
The only problem with going down the Nature Trail was that I could look back up the line which reveled rather pointedly that there is some work require to level it back up after the Winter!
