I need some street lights for my current project so a search through the WMD Stores produced some plastic rod, tube and card - just what I needed!
I built a 'proving' first one which looked OK.
So, on that basis I built another two!
With a brass wire insert, they should hopefully stand straight once in position. It will certainly be an illuminating time putting them in place!
Time to call in the Dirt Squad and make that grey tarmac look worn and weathered. Having added white lines I then used a mixture of weathering powders and very dilute brown and grey paints to add dirt to the tarmac surfaces.
Unless a road and pavement are newly laid then the tarmac will weather as it oxidises from that fresh black colour to a muted grey. Add to that the passage of vehicles and the weather and you get an added bonus of dirt on the tarmac. Given the passage of vehicles and the effect of rain much of this dirt accumulates around the kerb edge.
I'd say the Dirt Squad have done a great job!
If you have used Google recently to find out about anything you may have noticed that its first result is an AI generated answer. Having looked at these a few times, the results appear to be reasonably accurate so just out of devilment I asked Google, " What is Woody's Modelling Diary?" and this is what came back.
The one great thing about building models, and model railways especially, is that you can build your own ideal utopian bit of the World where you make things happen as you want. So with this in mind I have been developing bridge over the station to form part of an integrated transport system.
If you have dipped into this blog before you may know I have a bit of a fascination with signs They are a good indicator about things. My despair that we see signs at the side of the road saying 'Don't litter' when it should be something that the population do not need to be told as we should not be littering anywhere. Anyway, I thought I had seen it all in terms of signs, but my bike ride took me past this arrowed in red.
I'm not sure whether to be delighted that the existence of a pothole is warned of through the placement of a sign or whether the time taken to deliver and place the sign might not have been better used in fixing said pothole! A sign of the times?
A bit further up the road my frustrations were forgotten as I took in the delight of seeing this pair of swans with their cygnets. I have never seen swans resting like this on their legs so I learnt something! I did look for the 'Warning - Standing Swans' sign but there wasn't one! Maybe another sign of the times!
It is taking shape - the station area on my Last Great Project Layout.
Lots more to do but I am pleased with how this is shaping up.
It was the day that the boiler inspector inspected the boiler of 1931. From what I am told, things have gone OK! Hopefully that means that the rebuild can start which means that, again hopefully, the Museum will have steam traction next year!
Despite the dry weather the weeds keep growing!
With the station building and steps done it is time to move back to the bridge section that the building will sit on and the steps lead from to the station platform. I had already built the girder underside of the bridge some time ago and whilst priming the station building and steps I aslo primed this structure.
Sunday was a Quarry day at the Rocks by Rail Museum which meant I was shunting assisted by Dan and with John driving Mr. D. Unfortunately Mr. D decided that it was time to breakdown with a lack of air to release the brakes being the problem. There was an additional problem in that the other quarry train was now trapped behind Mr. D!
With the Dapol Booking Hall kit now finished it is time to move on with associated station area projects such as the steps that I built to take passengers from the bridge above the platform down onto the platform itself. I did airbrush them blue at the same time as the windows and doors for the Dapol kit. Much as the steps looked OK in the pristine blue....
