More rocks at the Rocks By Rail Museum!

Arriving at the Museum I popped my head into the cafe where I found several volunteers trying to put together the recently purchased flat pack flat pack display case for the various fossils recently donated to the Museum. They were having problems as not only were the instructions in Italian, they were for a completely different display case! Add to that that there were too many fastenings and the whole episode was becoming fraught!

However, at last the case was together and the fossils are now on full display ready for next year opening.

What should also be ready for next year is the additional drainage system being installed to link up to that installed earlier this year. Hopefully that will go a lot more quickly and should make the site around the toilet block somewhat less like a paddy field after a few days of rain.

Having actually got to the signing in room I found John being studious for a change. Apparently we have a manual for loco Mr. D which is very helpful as John needs to order some parts for the braking system. Not sure where he will get them from as the loco is over 50 years old!

For me, it was a day of being reunited with Sammy Strimmer as I continued my task of clearing the boneyard of overgrowth so that we can actually see what has been stored away for years and may actually be of use and save buying in new things! This was the start of the day.

Todays main find was not more rocks or fossils but bricks! Hundreds of them! Now nicely stacked, apart from the broken ones which can be used as hardcore, and that was a back breaking job, at least we know how many and where they are although I suspect there are still more to find  in the rest of the yard! It does look a lot more accessible now!

Richard gave me a hand in clearing out the strimmed vegetation and built this rather fine looking bonfire pile!

 There will no doubt be several more piles to go yet as there is a lot more bone yard to clear!

Those small details!

With the certainty that the Lima DMU is working it is time to bring this project to an end. There are still some jobs to do including some passengers and drivers at each end. I already had the passengers in stock as outlined in an earlier post so these were brought out and several seated figures chosen to spend the rest of their plastic lives riding on the railway! 

A dab of superglue on their backsides saw them secured in place.

The one thing I could not find in my pack of seated people was a pair of suitable drivers. A search through my collection of bits from years ago uncovered these two figures which are the old Airfix mouldings. Whilst not posed in a seated position I will cut their legs off so they fit into the cabs - Ouch!

Another detail that I noted on the real DMU was a metal mesh over the windows in the luggage compartment which Lima had not replicated.

I had some plastic woven mesh that would do the job so a bead of Glue and Glaze was run around the inside of the plastic window.

 Whilst from the inside, the mesh looks a bit strange.....

.....from the outside it looks good.

I also got the chrome pen out and highlighted the grab and door handles which just adds that little bit of extra detail that stands out.

 Just a few more small jobs like these to finish and then this project will be complete!

Its alive!

Just like the scene from the various Frankenstein films, Its alive! And whilst parts of the Lima Class 117 DMU may look a bit Frankensteinish at the moment it is most certainly alive! 

Coupled and connected together the two cars moved off. I had to adjust the picks ups on the trailing car as the motor car was slipping on the track but after that it ran a treat! 

Even using 128 step control on the DCC controller it moves at setting one which is something not all modern models do.

Right! I am one the road to finishing this!

To cut a long story short!

To cut a long story short was, amongst other things, a hit for that new romantics group from the 80s Sopandau Ballet and you can view the video here. However in my case, rather that ramble on about how I put all the things wrong identified in yesterdays post about the ongoing rebuild of the Lima Class 117 DMU I will cut a long story short by posting this photo which shows it all corrected and everything wired up and a new DCC chip fitted.

I can even fit the already painted interior panels.

Now all I have to do is get it on the track to test it! Hopefully that will be a short story with a happy ending!

With all that done the powered car should be an easy win to finish!

Those famous last words from yesterdays post - With all that done the powered car should be an easy win to finish!

After the satisfaction of getting much of the unpowered car together I turned my attention to the Easy Win. It took a few seconds of looking at the parts and holding them together to realise I had done everything back to front! The coupling I added is on the bogie that goes to the front of the car where no coupling should be! The motor bogie should have had a substantial amount of the old coupling left in place to attach the new one t. Instead I cut the lot off! And finally, the buffer beam detail is at the wrong end! Brilliant, Woody! The WMD swear jar is now a bit better off but my level of satisfaction is not!

I these instances it is sometimes best to walk away and cool off before trying to rectify things which is just what I have done. It can all be fixed but will take a bit of time so no easy win finish - just yet!

Putting the Lima Class 117 DMU back together which is a satisfying process!

I am at the stage of putting the Lima Class 117 DMU back together which is a satisfying process given the carnage I have inflicted on it over the past week or so! 

First off, the pickup wires from the bogies on the unpowered car were soldered onto the phosphor bronze wipers. A piece of heat shrink tube was glued to the bogie and the wires fed through it before applying heat so that the wires were held securely in place.

To avoid the visual glare of red wires being seen I painted the exposed red wire black.

With the bogies refitted to the chassis and the wires from them and the plug carrying power to the power car, the wires were secured in place with a dab of superglue and then soldered together. The exposed joints were covered with heat shrink tube to stop any short circuits. I was amazed at myself for remembering to thread the tube in place before soldering the wires together! All in all it looks a neatish job which again amazed me!

With that done I could reinstate the interior moulding which looks good now it has been painted. Most satisfying!

With all that done the powered car should be an easy win to finish!

The rabbit hole of the Lima Class 117 DMU deepens! Originally I was just going to remove the somewhat oversized and toy like couplers from each front end of the unit and keep the central couplings. However I thought that I could close the gap between the two cars by replacing the Lima couplings. I had purchased some suitable couplings at the Spalding Model Railway Show so I had what I needed.

Some hacksawing and gluing saw the old couplings removed (old one bottom left of picture) and new couplings fitted (example bottom right of picture).

I think it looks a lot better - but I would!

Some jobs at the Rocks By Rail Museum are constructive and produce superb results!

Some jobs at the Rocks By Rail Museum are constructive and produce superb results such as the repainting of Elizabeth which Mick has been doing over the last few weeks.

Mick still has one side to paint but Elizabeth looks fantastic!

Other jobs, which usually involve me, are less constructive, even destructive in nature! Take for example my latest escapades in clearing the undergrowth in the. as I have termed it. 'Boneyard'.I did make a failed attempt at clearing out his jungle last Winter but hopefully this year will see more progress but it is all very destructive. Sammy Strimmer is my weapon of choice along with cutters.

In that lot there are some interesting artefacts to be discovered!

It is all very destructive at the moment but hopefully as the vegetation gets cleared I can begin to sort out just what lurks under it all and put it into some order. Well that is the plan!

Made by Woody!

 Fitted to he front of the Lima DMU, the additional details look a bit strange. Xxx

However, painted black it comes together.

Well, that's the ends sorted but I also had a missing buffer. I could buy one but a couple of scraps of plastic card and rod cut to size and shaped made a good replacement.

In place

In place it looks OK.

Painted black, you cannot really tell it's made by Woody !

This project is becoming a bit like a rabbit hole!

This project is becoming a bit like a rabbit hole! I was just going to do a quickish (remember this is Woody) update on the Lima Class 117 DMU and I find myself drawn into adding more details. Still, so far the cost has been minimal so Mrs. woody cannot complain! 

The latest thing to do is to add so front end detail to the buffer beam. Having cut the couplings off the front end will look a bit bare and in real life there are some additional details that Lima did not add. These are the vacuum pipes for the braking system when these units worked in multiple setups as well as the electrical couplings. Fiddly to replicate but worth the couple of hours it took.

As always, WMD Stores had some suitable materials in stock, so a piece of square strip was a starting point into which some suitably bent brass rod was attached through some holes drilled in the strip. These represent the vacuum brake pipes. The electrical connections were represented by some 5amp fuse wire. The connectors were just slivers of plastic card and rod.

This was almost like dealing with miniature engineering!  

The lens is a bit cruel as to my workmanship but once mounted on the chassis and painted it should all look OK!