Relaxing times?

Finally! It is done! The rebuild of the bathroom is finished! Phil the builder has done a fantastic job and Mrs. Woody is most pleased with it which makes my life so much easier even if the WMD coffers are much depleted! I can now have a relaxing time in the bath in the future, preferably after a bike ride or some model making activities which I can hopefully now find some time to do again.

As you might note from the pictures, Mrs. Woody has moved us and the cats into the newly finished facilities! By the way, that odd looking thing next to the toilet is not a cat loo but a cat water dish that replenishes itself from the reservoir above. It cost £3.99 and is probably the best and most useful cat related item we have bought!

Whilst I may think that I am going to have a relaxing time from now on there is of course the matter of Mrs. W's chore/job list for me that doesn't appear to have been flushed away and is very much still in existence! Oh well - you can't have everything!

The Lima Class 117 DMU - still sought after even when it is over 40 years old!

This is the Lima Class 117 DMU in BR blue. 

Lima introduced this model in 1980 and at the time it was a sought after model for its detail and quality and sold for around £20 which was a reasonable price at the time. Come the year 2000 and Bachmann introduced their Class 117 DMU model which totally out did the Lima model both in terms of detail and mechanically. Selling at the time, again reasonably, for around £70, many modellers ditched their Lima models and bought the Bachmann model. Being the age before eBay had really taken off, the result was that model shops were full of second hand Lima models that they had taken in part exchange but with very few buyers for them. I picked this two car set up for £15 and I have a three car set which cost me £20 at around the same time. I do like these models for their simplicity but still capturing the character of the original. 

Strangely, if you look at eBay, these old Lima models, now getting on for forty fives years old in some cases, are selling for anything upwards of £70 to £80. That may appear a bit strange given how they compare to the modern Bachmann rendition. That is until you search about for the current price of a three car set made by Bachmann which has, at the time of this blog post, a recommended retail price of, £459.95! You can see that on the Rails of Sheffield website by clicking here. Whilst Rails, in common with most shops, are discounting the price it is still a lot of money.

 There is no doubt that the Bachmann model is a fantastic model but in its own way so is the Lima one. It is just that you can get an old Lima model for about a sixth of the price of the new Bachmann one and in these times that will make a lot of sense to many modellers which is why theses old models still command good second hand prices. 

I am hanging onto my models but I do need to DCC chip them which will make them even better and hopefully keep them running for a few more years as well as add to their value - at least that is what I will tell Mrs. Woody!

Half the time!

I did manage to sneak an hour in the Man cave to create another length of cable trunking. Whilst the first length I built took 2 hours to make this latest length was less than an hour! That's half the time for the job!

And talking about halves and time and jobs, Mrs. Woody was pleased to note that the previously half painted bathroom door featured a few days ago...

has now been painted....

and on both sides!

Just wish that job had taken half the time of when I only painted half of it!

An unusual DMU!

Getting to know the Class 37 that I posted about yesterday brought me back into contact with another model that its prototype is officially described as a DMU (diesel multiple unit) but is a bit of an unusual one in that it was never designed to carry passengers! 

The Class 128 was introduced in 1959 and was built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company specifically for parcel work. The interior was racked out for parcels and it also had bicycle racks at either end. Powered by two 230hp diesel engines it was no slow coach with a top speed of 70mph. Only 10 were built and the last one being scrapped in 1990

My model is by Heljan and I got it around 2013/14. I think the yellow ends suit the blue and it was also, in its later life, liveried in post office red.

Incredibly for such a small numbered prototype it has been available in model form in all three of the major scales of n, 00 and 0 gauge. 

You just have to love the sound of a Class 37!

With all that has been going on at WMD HQ just recently I have not had the chance to have a closer look at the Bachmann BR blue Class 37 that arrived some time ago. Well I did get a few minutes today to get it out of the packaging and put it on the track for a closer look and quick run. It looked good in the box but looks even better on the track!

I was particularly impressed by the roof fan detail which is exquisite!

Equally the cab interiors look very detailed too.

However, turning up the power on DC rather than DCC surprised me with the loco coming to life with engine noise! A quick video clip should illustrate this.

You just have to love the sound of a Class 37! Well I do anyway!

Reunited!

As a break from bathrooms rebuilding and associated works, I had a day at the Rocks by Rail Museum today. The weather was great and I got a number of things done which is a positive!

First job of the day was to shovel another ton of fine hardcore from the platelayers trolley up onto the new viewing platform. Luckily David was there to assist. 

Next up is to get some gravel on top but in the meantime David painted the two supporting posts and I cleared some more vegetation which became fodder for another bonfire!

After lunch it was time to be reunited with the lawnmower! So off to the store and open the doors and there it is!

Not seen it since mid October 2024 but after checking the oil and filling the fuel tank the mower started second pull of the starter! Obviously the mower was anxious to get out to work after a Winter of hibernation and it was a nice afternoon too! Me, om the other hand, after my lunch, was less anxious but it was time to make the reunited moment al the more special by actually cutting some grass!

Meanwhile, back in the station area, things are moving on with the drainage pipes installed and backfilled so that the preparation work for relaying the track is underway.

Not long to the Easter opening so there is still a lot to do - but isn't there always! No doubt I will yet again be reunited with the mower next week when hopefully some track may be laid!

Half a job!

Whilst Phil the builder has been doing a great job with fitting the cupboard doors, plumbing in the sink, fitting the shower and all the skirting and architrave.....

I have managed half a job of painting the door!

Mrs. Woody will be impressed - she always says I only ever do half a job so this just proves her point!

Hopefully all this work will be finished by the end of this week aso I can back to some model making in amongst Mrs. W's chore list for me!

Flushed with success!

No model making today but I am flushed with success as the bathroom refit now boasts a fully working toilet! No more bucket to flush! In fact there was a great deal of progress today with all the cabinets fitted and with the already installed bath now having been tiled it is really coming together! 

The skip which has been on the driver for the past five weeks or so also went today.

Unfortunately it went just a bit early to get the old toilet in it so that now sits outside under a window until I can get to the recycling centre! Meanwhile I am sure Mrs. Woody will be impressed! It will certainly be a talking point!

My job was a simple one of preparing and painting the door architrave and skirting board which was a nice job to do out in the sun. Just needs a second coat of paint tomorrow.

A fraction of the price!

Still working on the cable trunking with a bit more file work to mark the vertical joints.

Then it was time to paint with some concrete coloured paint.

I sprayed this as it was easier than painting.

Looking good - in my view anyway!

So how does it compare with the Wills kit parts? Well lets have a look!

I think it compares well and at a fraction of the price - now that is nice!

DIY Cable Trunking.

On most real railways these days the vast array of colour light signals, point motors and general communications systems are controlled and linked by electrical cables. In the old days, (when I was a lad!) there used to be telegraph poles that carried telephone lines and most points and signals were controlled by mechanical linkages with a nearby signal box. In the modern World the various cables that now do these important functions are protected from damage by concrete cable trunking.

In the model World you can buy various kits to make this trunking and I have used the Wills version myself.

You get about 24 inches of trunking and some junction pieces.

When I bough two of these kits a couple of years ago they were about £4.50 each. Looking through a few sites today the cheapest I could see was £6.61! I need about 10 feet of trunking and possibly more which means that the cost is a minimum of £33 or £3.30 a foot. That is a lot and I got to thinking there must be a cheaper way - and there is!

Evergreen strip No 188 3.2mm x 4.8mm. You get six 15 inch strips (for £5.20) which equates to 7.5 feet length in total . 

Add some 0.5mm square strip at 15pence for an 18 inch length (from DMG Electech) and for a total cost of £6.70 I can make 7.5 feet of trunking which works out at about 90pence a foot! Bargain! So how do I make it?

First off, to make the lip of the covers I glued the 0.5mm strip to the side of the Evergreen strip.

With that done I constructed this jig.

The jig allows me to slide the trunking through it and every 12mm, see the mark on the bottom of the jig, use a saw to cut a grove to simulate the joints between the individual covers. 

With the saw cuts done I used some needle files to add some depth and relief. Once painted and weathered it should look a lot more defined.

It took me a couple of hours to sort out the method of making the trunking and constructing the jig but I think I could now do a 15 inch length in about 30 minutes so it is not that time consuming. There is also the possibility of some additional details but that is for another time as in the meanwhile I need to get some more of this DIY trunking made..