Market Deeping Model Railway Club Exhibition May 2025,

As I know if you read this blog on a regular basis that Mrs. Woody likes to attend model railway shows so today I took her to the Market Deeping Show held at Stamford. You may recall that back in 2019, the Club suffered a disastrous bout of vandalism when having set the show up the night before opening a group of four teenagers broke in and trashed many of the exhibits. It hit the national media and many celebrities' such as Rod Stewart gave donations to help out. That dark past has gone and since the Pandemic the show has grown from strength to strength. Indeed it is always a show of variety with many layouts that I have never seen or heard of before.

This year was no exception and something I have never seen before was this Chinese model railway layout. 

Built by a British modeller who just likes to do things no one has done before it was certainly a big attraction. 

China was one of the last countries in the World to run mainline steam and this layout had plenty of it with many of the locos, including the diesels, being DCC sound fitted.

It certainly caught the atmosphere of the China I have seen through the media and I am told that those who have been to China to see the railways say the layout is fully authentic.

The best way to see this layout is in the flesh but here is the next best thing - a video clip!

There were lots of other great layouts and I will talk about those over the next few days. In the meantime I am resisting looking at what Chinese stock is available!

VE Day at the Rocks by Rail Museum.

It was VE Day yesterday and there were certainly things going on at the Rocks By Rail Museum to get into the spirit of things. 

One of our volunteers, Gary, is also into WW2 recreation activities and has a fascinating and large collection of memorabilia. I think he could equip a small army!

Meanwhile in the cafe, Ray, who actually lived through the day 80 years ago was busy at work but took time out to lead a sing song with Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag! Only Ray could do this!

A great day and we still managed to get some jobs done despite the cafe becoming somewhat a resting place - but that is what volunteering is about sometimes!

Back to PVA!

Having cleared my head after the glue spraying of yesterday it was time to start adding the parapet wall. Nothing special here, just a strip of card covered in the Metcalf brick papers. However I did remember to cut out an area for where the bridge will cross over the station platform.

So far I have only managed to do half the parapet as I am using PVA glue this time so need to let one section dry before adding the next. Not only that but I only had so many clamps to hand! Strange though. No headache!

Spray mount!

Things move on with the hidden loops structure for my layout. I had started to cover it with Metcalfe brick papers which I have now completed!

My chosen adhesive has been Spray Mount of which I have had a number of spray cans for some years so I thought that I better actually use them before they went off and set in the can! I noted the instructions to sure you spray it in a well ventilated area so that was done outside so no doubt the mower will stick to the grass next time I mow it!

The 'I have had this for a while' methodology back fired on me a bit when I came to open the new pack of Metcalfe brick paper that I bought a few weeks ago. My original stock goes back some years and since then Metcalf have changed the print colours! However once weathered it should all tone into one dirty mess!

Putting the structure back on the layout things begin to look good! I need to add the parapet wall on top next to hide the white strip of card but that is a job for another day! I seem to have a headache after spraying all that glue!

Listening to the radio?

Similar to the ballasting at the Rocks By Rail Museum, my own model ballasting is coming along - slowly! However, unlike the real job of ballasting, model ballasting is a much more relaxed and less labour intensive job. Just taking time to brush the ballast into place and then soak it in diluted PVA is a nice job to do whilst listening to the radio. Listening to the radio? That shows my age! I have yet to join the generation of streamers! Anyway, back to the ballasting and another episode of the Archers or something a bit more musical but with my radio who knows what station I will receive! Just need something to listen to something whilst I watch the glue dry!

Reunited - The sequel!

Today was my first day volunteering at a Rocks By Rail Museum 2025 event. The Easter events had been cancelled due to unforeseen complications with the trackwork relay project so the Museum's 2025 season officially started on Sunday and the continued today. In fact it was a close call with the pedestrian crossing that I talked about in Thursday's post being finally finished at 7.30pm on Saturday!

For me it was a day as a shunter which meant I was reunited with this!

Yes! The good old point switch that I had become so familiar with last year was once again back in my life! However, it was good to do some shunting and a great time was had by all including a lot of positive comments about the viewing platform that we built over the Winter.

Shunting wise it took a few turns to remember from last year but all was good with wagons shunted and guests entertained.

There were plenty of other things going on such as the brake van rides which gave a view of the VE80 flag flying from the newly installed flag pole.

Being VE80 Day the loco was suitably decorated.

All in all a great start to the 2025 season and next week it is Driver 4 a Fiver so that should be another good day. However it will be a few more weeks before the point lever and me are reunited again!

Sometime since I have done this!

Mrs. Woody would probably tell you that it is sometime since I have done any jobs on her never ending 'for me to do' list. I would probably have to agree with that but I am busy with other matters (hope she doesn't read that) having started ballasting the track on my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout. Now, some of the layout has already been ballasted but that was done over a year ago and despite the real ballast work at the Rocks By Rail Museum that I have been involved in, model ballasting is something that I have not done for some time so I have to reacquaint myself with the process!

Luckily I still have the ballast in stock so that was a good start. I have only done a small section so far but it was therapeutic to spread the ballast and brush it into place before using dilute PVA to glue it into place.

I also needed to slightly relaign the track nearest to the front of the above picture so this was lifted slightly and put into its correct alignment before dilute PVA was poured around the sleepers. This should when dry hold the track in place but until it dries a few handy heavy items were placed on top.

That looks like a handheld vacuum cleaner - sometime since I used one of those Mrs. Woody!

Just playing trains!

Sometimes you just have to take a break from building and making layouts and just play trains! After all, what is the point in building and making layouts if you don't run trains on them? So, over the past couple of days I have not physically achieved much but I have had a great time watching the trains go round!

I will get back into making things though - so much to do yet!

If it wasn't considered bad manners I would have licked the plate clean!

It was Mrs. Woody and my wedding anniversary the other day. How long? Well, lets just say that if it were a judicial sustenance Mrs. Woody would have had to have been a very bad person! However, she must still love me as she got me this rather nice Hornby EWS Business Train Pack.

As usual the contents are beautifully presented and I look forward to getting it on the layout.

We did go out for an unplanned day of roaming and eventually ended up in the Leicestershire village of Tugby where there was a very nice cycle themed cafe called Cafe Ventoux. Some interesting memorabilia which caught my eye.

I started my cycle racing days on something not dissimilar to this!

Enough if the bikes and onto the food which was a delicious roast beef sandwich! 

I said to the lady afterwards that it was that good that if it wasn't considered bad manners I would have licked the plate clean! Mrs. Woody just rolled her eyes at hat! 

What a scorcher!

After last years all seasons wetness, it is nice to have some warm and dry weather. Although working at the Rocks By Rail Museum today I could have done with it being less scorching as I mowed the grass. 

The cut grass seemed to turn a dry yellow before I had even got from one end of the cut to the other. Hopefully that may mean that the remaining grass will not grow as much!

Whilst I was doing the cutting, David was busy erecting the new flag pole. We used to have one apparently but not sure what happened to it but we have a new one from which to fly flags such as the VE celebration flag or indeed the Rutland flag whilst the County still exists before local government changes.

Of course, when there is a lifetable hollow tube in his hands, David has to do a Lord Nelson impression - 'Ships? What ships! I see no ships!' In this case perhaps the word train should have replaced ship!

Despite the clownery, the flagpole is erected and flying the Rutland flag although with no wind today the flag was a bit limp - just like me!

There will be trains on Sunday and Monday and the track is now just about fully ballasted, jacked and packed so we need to reinstate the pedestrian crossing to get guests across the line. Not easy on a hot day where the crossings have been constructed from large and heavy timber.

It is nearly all back in place! Talk about progress - I call that scorching progress!