Oily times!

Progress!

With the ballasting done (well almost as I will explain in a moment) it was time to make the trackwork grimy! First thing was to just dust the area with my usual dilute mix of brown paint and that was done with an airbrush for convivence.

It may not look that different in the photo but that misting of brown took away most of the shininess of the track and ballast.

Blasting compressed air, even at low pressure, onto ballast soon shows the areas where I had missed applying the glue such as illustrated by the red arrow above. Oops!

Having reapplied ballast and glued it, attention turned to the tracks running at the side of the platform. Where trains stand they tend to leak oil and fuel onto the tracks and ballast. 

I replicated that with a product by MIG which is oil and grease stain. Simply brushed on oy dries with an oil like sheen to it. I also had some old black paint that I diluted and applied with a syringe.

Still much more to do but as I started this post - progress!

A week or so of work may see it finished - or maybe not!

 As things progress with the ballasting I noticed that the platform had a slight twist in it.

A number of heavy items were placed on top of the platform and left overnight.

I removed the items the following day and whilst not perfect, the platform is certainly better than before.

Looking the other way shows that it is all coming together and hopefully a week or so of work may see it finished - or maybe not!

You could well miss this if you were not on a bike!

You could indeed well miss this if you were not on a bike. Out on my bike I passed this field entrance and gate. 

From this initial view it seems just like any gate but me being on a bike meant my slowish speed allowed the fact that this was more than an ordinary field gate and was worth a closer look. Being on a bike also meant it was a lot easier to turn around and take that closer look!

Is that not a work of art and not to be miossed!

Making some dirt areas!

As things move on with the present ballasting task on My Last Great Project Layout there is a need to break up the ballasted areas with some rough dirt areas.

Painting a coat of PVA onto the areas to be dirtied...

...provided the base for the application of dried sand which is my go to material to replicate dirt. It was then soaked with dilute PVA so should dry solidly!

Sometimes you need a bit of a neat edge to things and masking tape can assisting in giving that. The grey rectangle is the card base that secures the signal box in place.

Once the glue dries removing the masking tape reveals just what I wanted!

Nice!

AI. Useful for railway modellers?

And as they used to say on Monty Python - and now for something completely different! 

In front of a computer screen I explore whether AI is useful to railway modellers and the WMD Film Crew were there to record that with the results now on YouTube!

Interestingly, the loco behind Elizabeth is Singapore which had a birthday card left on it.

Well I did try to bring industrial levels of vegetational butchery to the Rocks By Rail Museum but without that machine from yesterdays post I was on a hiding to nothing! More on that later but first off we have a signal that things are moving on - literally with the signal head for the new control system installed.

I did turn a few switches but nothing happened so I presume that there is still work to do just as there is more to do to steam loco Uppingham.

More painting has gone on and slowly it begins to look more like a cared for loco!

Talking of cared for, diesel loco Elizabeth is slowly coming back to life with work being carried our on various electrical components. 

Once working that will bring the number of running diesels to five which is the most I have ever known! 

Interestingly, the loco behind Elizabeth is Singapore which had a birthday card left on it. That made us all wonder until this appeared on YouTube..

Meanwhile my lack of industrial might like yesterdays featured machine didn't mean that I lacked some progress in vegetational butchery as...

...became this....

 ...and I even managed to battle through to last Winters butchery operation!

I was somewhat achy after all that but went home happy!

I could bring vegetational butchery at the Museum to an industrial level!

Sometimes you just see a machine that is so outrageous that you really would not hesitate to have a go in it if the chance presented itself!

Whilst out for the day with Mrs. Woody, who was resting from the stress and strain of internet shopping, we came across this logging behemoth!

If only I had the chance to have a go I could bring vegetational butchery at the Museum to an industrial level!

Amazing - well actually just as I planned!

Having left the glued ballast around the area where the platform is to be located on my Last Great Project layout to dry it was time to see if my bodge carefully calculated plan of using masking tape had worked.

 Luckily all the masking tape peeled off leaving the ballast in place! Amazing - well actually just as I planned!

Putting the platform back in place revealed it fitted perfectly in the space left unballasted. Even more amazing - well actually also just as I planned!

Still more ballasting to do on the layout job list but getting the platform area done has at least taken a potential problem off that list!

I will then see just how successful, or not, this Woody solution has been!

More ballasting on My Last Great Project layout and this time I had to deal with the complexities of the platform. I wanted the platform to be able to be removeable in the future if needed so it cannot be glued down. Equally, when I ballast the track either side of it there is a danger that the dilute PVA would glue the platform if left in place whilst ballasting. Taking the platform away whilst ballasting had the risk that I might end up ballasting under the wall of the platform so that it would never sit on the baseboard properly again.

There is an answer though! Mark out where the platform needs to be on the baseboard and then put masking tape on the areas not to be ballasted.

This clearly defines the areas to be glued and ballasted.

The masking tape also makes to easier to use a metal rule to push the ballast to the edge of the tape.

Once it is all ballasted and the glue is dry I will then see just how successful, or not, this Woody solution has been!

We agreed that it had been a great day at the Museum!

During August the Rocks By Rail Museum opens every Sunday regardless of whether there is an event or not. This allows visitors the chance to see the Museum in a quiet setting at a weekend rather than being limited to a weekday. For some reason I found myself volunteered along with John for the first Sunday of August. John is always great to work with and we had some interesting visitors so the morning flew by as we chatted in the relaxed atmosphere of a non-event day. One visitor was from a model railway club and wanted one of our exhibits at his clubs exhibition next year so we will have to see how that goes! Another gentleman was called Bob Fleming who has authored a book called 'Room on top' which is about the prototype double-decker unit that British Rail built in 1949 (see the publisher's notes here ).

There has recently been a model released of the prototype by the now liquidated K R Models which been the subject of some heated chatter on model railway forums due to various issues with the model itself as well as problems with getting money returned from what has mainly been a crowd funded company.

Yet another gentleman brought in some good quality military jerry cans, tools and PPE as a donation to the museum. 

We had several family groups where the young child was mad keen about railways but the parents were not so could not understand where the interest came from! Never the less they are nuturing that interest by visiting the Museum! 

Before the day passed by I did actually get some vegetational butchery done with Sammy Strimmer - no visit to the museum can be complete without such activity!

The target was the overgrowth around the Coles crane.

On a less destructional note, I did end the day by watering the flower containers which have been a great success this year.

All in all as John and I locked up we agreed that it had been a great day at the Museum!