Note to myself - don't mess with Dave!

Note to myself - don't mess with Dave!

Nobody at the Museum has ever seen a shunters pole snapped! However, Dave or should we call him Dangerous Dave, did just that!

Why was I at the Museum on a Sunday? Well it was a full on brake van rides and quarry day event and despite the heat which was lower than it had been we had a good flow of guests through the site.

We also had a ceremony for a founding member, Jacky Garlic who along with her husband Jeff where key figures in the establishment and growth of the Museum. In my last post on the Museum I showed the fence panels that the two had in their garden being refurbished ready for mounting outside opposite the platform and they are now in place.

Jacky was also an avid collector of owl figurines so the family created a unique way to pass these on.

I no doubt will come across more as I cut the grass but they are literally everywhere!

A bit of a shock to me was Andy the General Manager was acting as guard on the freight train which meant we had to be on best behaviour! Maybe anyway!

Whilst shunting can be busy especially when doing a change over of wagons between two locos....

...once you wave goodbye to the outgoing train you do get a moment to rest as Martyn, John, Dave and myself did!

Always a good day at the Museum!

Heat makes slow progress but progress does at least mean moving forward!

Heat makes slow progress but progress does at least mean moving forward! So much for the philosophy in this heatwave and lets get  back to the current project of finishing off the Panzer Ferry kit.  I knew the brass etched parts would be an issue and so it came to pass as I lost one of the parts that goes onto of the stanchion and into which the guard ropes are attached. I did try to find the part, one moment is was there the next gone never to be found! So it was a case of making a part. I did try a few things but settled on making an oval of wire that whilst it looks rough close in will look OK once fitted as these parts are tiny.

I also got the various ropes that fasten between the stanchions cut to size and the etched brass clips fitted.

Hopefully as it cools off weather wise some of this may move on a bit quicker or maybe I am just getting slower the older I get!

Finish it Friday - but which Friday?

Back when I started this Blog I had a few Finish It Friday posts where I finished a almost completed model. It was quite successful for me and saw a number of other wise shelf queens finished off. However, for reasons that I cannot recall, the whole Finish It Friday went by the wayside. However, whilst doing the control panel for my model railway layout I keep bumping into two boxes which are from this build of the Dragon  Kit 6625 and 6669 Panzer Ferry,

Now in my usual way 95% of the kit has had been built and painted back in 2022 but there were some stanchions and chain to add which I never goy round to.

Luckily the box contains the parts!

At this point I realised why I probably put the finishing touches to one side - etched brass parts!

However, since 2022 I have become more adept at dealing with such parts so I have made some progress just that the progress is slow in this heat and hence which Friday will it be finished!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

Out on a bike ride the sheep were, unlike me, again doing the sensible thing of keeping in the shade and cool whilst I pushed myself up hill in the baking sum! So I have to admit the sheep are being sensible!

At the Rocks By Rail Museum, Andy and John were doing the sensible thing of being in the pit under the shade of Graham the Sentinel doing some brake work.

Pam and Pete had been keeping cool in the shade of the Exhibition Centre where they are restoring the fence panel and gate donated by the family of a deceased husband and wife who were founding members of the Museum back in the early 80s.

Even steam loco Uppingham looked cool in the stripped down condition it is in!

In fact the whole of the Exhibition Centre just looked cool and this is not a sight that is seen everyday as there are several locos on that middle road!

So given the sensibility of staying in the cool, what did I do? I took Sammy Strimmer out of the cool of his storage unit and took him and me down to the sidings where we carried out mass vegetational butchery turning things like this...

...into this!

I certainly did not stay cool and it was certainly not sensible as Mrs. Woody would point out but she did give me a sensible dinner of a delicious cooling salad!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

Wordless WEDNESDAY!

Wordless Wednesday as it's too hot to do anything other than enjoy ice cream!

Still a bit more to do but progress in the cool!

Despite the heat I ventured into the Man Cave having opened windows and spent some time sorting out a few issues with the control panel for my 00 gauge layout. Nothing strenuous and keeping cool and I have made some progress. Still a bit more to do but progress in the cool!

The Man Shed is like an oven today.

Whee! It is hot! The canal tells me it is also dry as todays bike ride past it revealed!

After more gardening I am not getting any model making done as the Man Shed is like an oven today. However a cooling half hour sitting in the shade to recover (don't tell Mrs. Woody I was sat down!) surfing YouTube found this which really made me smile. Well worth a few minutes just to take your mind off all the things happening in the World at the moment!

 

It is still one of my favourites,

It has been a day of gardening and I am hot and tired so no model making activities today. I may run some trains later but for now I go back in time! In the early 1980s Italeri produced the first 1/24th scale European truck kit with the Volvo F10. It was a fantastic kit and I built one. I still have it even though I rebuilt it back in the early naughty's. 

It is still one of my favourites,  

I built it out of the box and then at the rebuild I added some details to the cab interior.

That is a copy of the Star newspaper with some headline about the footballer Gazza> I had forgotten that I had added that!

I also added the Suzies in the traditional colours that were used back in the day. I used to know what each one was but I am going to have to look that up when I have time.

I did the sensible thing and repaired the problem with a bit of a bodge!

I may well have extracted myself from the rabbit hole I was talking about in yesterdays post. The Hornby Hymek could have dug me deep into the World of conversion to DCC, adding extra pickups and detailing the body and chassis/ I did consider all these things and then sense prevailed! I did the sensible thing and repaired the problem with a bit of a bodge! 

This was the problem.

And this was the solution!

Good old superglue! I just used a few drops to secure the copper pickups into where they should be and it seemed to work!

The wheels were filthy so they were cleaned and you can see the rim of the one wheel cleaned in the picture above. The motor itself also got some lubricant. With that the bogie was placed on the oval of track and attached to the coaches that were on it.

I really was not expecting much but it ran and ran well! With that I mounted it back into its chassis and the body went on.

Then back onto the oval for a final test where it ran for over an hour at various speeds and to be honest it was wonderful to watch! Another loco saved from scrap!

This is another rabbit hole I am descending into and I take the blame!

I could blame others but it is my fault! What is that you may ask. Well, whilst running Mr. B's Britannia in around a loop of track on the floor I got three coaches out of a box. 

There was also an old Hornby Hymek in there. Now that is nearly 50 years old and given to me as I posted back in 2022 (click here to see that post). It did run then and so I put it on the track and coupled up the coaches, and turned the power on. It ran for about three inches and died! No amount of prodding would see any life in it so it came on the bench.

These old models are so simple that it is a pleasure to work on them - normally! The Hymek had one screw and two clips and with these undone/unclipped the body came off. The power bogie has one screw holding it to the chassis and that was soon released. I can see the problems as to why it stopped running as part of the bogie and motor mount has broken meaning the pickups don't pick up electricity from the wheels. 50 year old plastic does deteriorate with time. Not sure if I can get a spare or rebuild the broken part or develop some other solution. This is another rabbit hole I am descending into and I take the blame!