This is the first and simplest. Always best to start simple!

In the exciting World Of Woody, I have not only been wiring and soldering switches but also making wiring looms!

This is the first and simplest. Always best to start simple! The loom will take the wiring from the baseboard terminal connector to the control panel terminal connector. In essence it means that I can disconnect individual baseboards from the control panel or indeed the the control panel from the baseboards all without too much fuss! In the interests of my sanity I have been labelling up the point motor wiring so that as I connect into the control panel switches there should not be a need for too much head scratching! I could just do with some time to get on with this but there is a severe lack of that at the moment for me. Just too much excitement too!

Most days in Woody's life are not that exciting anyway!

Nothing too exciting today, well most days in Woody's life are not that exciting anyway, but I have started to wire up some of the switches for the control panel to My Last Great Project Layout.

I have about 30 to do so that will keep me busy in my exciting World!

The end of the line which you can now at least get to!

It was a case of, what is missing from this loco, as I arrived at the Rocks By Rail Museum. 

Usually I walk past such situations without noticing anything but I did notice that the cab of Uppingham has been removed as part of its on-going cosmetic restoration.

As with all such work, the true extent of the required work is only fully revealed once parts are removed. The amount of rot in the footplate is frightening. That is quarter inch steel that has rotted through!

Meanwhile 1931 is slowly being put back together with John inside the frames preparing to paint.

Outside, Andy and Martyn were on the mechanised vegetational butchery machine AKA the weedkilling train and there has been a sudden growth of the pesky vegetation so there work is much needed.

Not the greatest of jobs to do on a hot day as Andy has to put on protective clothing making him look a little like a beekeeper!

My vegetational butchery was much less demanding of protection for me with Morris Mower and myself disappearing down the nature trail where nature was rampantly taking off but that was soon taken care of!

The end of the line which you can now at least get to!

What has amazed me is given the lack of rain during May and the both very cold and very hot temperature is just how much vegetational growth there has been!

It actually looks like a control panel but at the moment that is it!

Progress on the control panel! The track plan was coated on the rear with some spray mount and mounted to the top of the control panel and the DCC input panel was also bolted into place.

It actually looks like a control panel but at the moment that is it! It needs to work which will involve lots of wiring and soldering so lots more to do!

Next job is to get the motor in place and see if it runs!

Some progress on Mr. B's (husband to loyal blog reader Mrs. B) re-mototing of his beloved Triang Hornby Britannia. The new motor is not quite a slide in simple replacement as there is a need to rewire things.

First off a wire needed to be soldered to the underside of the motor and then to a tag which replaces the all live chassis pickup of the old motor.

Next up the old motor and syncro-smoke unit were removed from the chassis.

I had never seen the inside of one of these smoke units that were a fad in the 1970s. There is a small heating element that is supposed to heat up the oil soaked fibre and the cog drivers a puffer to emit smoke from the locos chimney.  Looking at that fibre and seeing that the unit got surprisingly hot on the outside during my previous testing I thought that to avoid a possible fire it would be better to disconnect the unit. I would leave the unit and wiring in place though just in case Mr. b really wanted this feature working.

Turning the loco over I removed the base plate so that I could solder the wire on for the other part of the motor.

Next job is to get the motor in place and see if it runs!

That's not cool!

A bit of an unusual Bank Holiday Weekend at the Rocks By Rail Museum with the Sunday being a quite day whereas the Monday was full on mayhem! What was common to both days though was the weather. Wall to wall sunshine and heat! However, that was good with the Museum, and our guests did come and they did enjoy and we all had a great time which is what it is all about!

For some. like Pam on Gate Keeper duties, it was hotter.

But the new hut was a good place to take shelter and keep cool and those refreshments to hand!

For others such as John and Dave hats were the call of the day to keep cool as they fettled the brakes on Mr. D.

Only thing is that those of a certain age may see a resemblance to those two looking like Bill and Ben The Flower Pot Men! That's not cool!

All looks good!

When I last posted about the control panel for My Last Great Project layout I did say I needed to find a sharp 6mm drill bit. I actually found four without looking too hard although the first one was blunt!! The second was fine  though and I soon had the holes drilled. I also reamed then out with a tapered reamer and cut a hole for the DCC controller panel.

Temporarily mounting the track diagram and DCC panel in place brings about the look I was hoping for.

I just had to put a switch in to see how that looked.

All looks good!

More cheese Woody?

As A Wallace and Gromit fan I do occasionally utter the words, more cheese, and today was certainly a day for those words as Mrs. Woody wanted to go to the local Cheese Fest at Melton Mowbray!

There was certainly a lot of cheese!

And some unusual marketing - Keep it mouldy?

However, cheese is a serious matter with cups and awards up for grabs!

Not everything was cheese though. There were a lot of drinks stalls,..

...bread and cakes, as well as the fast food stalls although Spud Worlds, given the heat, was not doing the best of business!

On the other hand, the Ice Cream stall was doing a roaring trade...

..which Mrs. W and myself were part of! Very tasty and refreshing too!

As with all such events I do tend to look out for the more unusual such as this Piaggio Ape converted to a tea bar!

Best conversion though has to go to the British Bus Bar!

A good day out with a few cheeses to enjoy at home! More cheese Woody?

From the drivers seat I had a few surprises!

 From the drivers seat I had a few surprises. First there was the low flying aircraft on my way to the Rocks By Rail Museum.

The photo doesn't really show just how low this, what I am informed, A400M is. I saw it circling in the distance and then it came in low following the road at what must have been only a few hundred feet in altitude. The noise was incredible! I did wonder if it was in problems but there are no reports so I guess it was all part of what ever operation it was on!

That was surprise number one and number two came as I pulled into the Museum.

Had the A400M dropped a marquee into the Museum? 

Well, the answer was a first for the Museum in that there is a wedding reception! Given the event I did get Morris Mower out and cut the grass in the vicinity so at least any photos of the bride and groom along with guests will show a well, Ok reasonably, manicured grass area!

I did notice on my way out that a play area had been set up for the younger wedding guests and noticed the push along mower. I did wonder if I should have put Morris Mower in there in the hope of encouraging a younger person to cut some grass but I don't think that would have gone down too well!

With the possibility of a TV programme wanting to restore something from the Museum as part of their show, David was removing the chimney from steam loco Uppingham. There are several other possible items but I am guessing the chimney may have a certain appeal!

Meanwhile, back in the restoration shed John is continuing work on the Southern brake van with the veranda floor taking shape. Due to the age and distortion of the underlying metal work there is a need for a lot of packing pieces to get a level floor.

John has also made progress with the inside stripping paintwork ready for the repaint. Must be hot work as he has the fan out!

Also in the restoration shed, Alex has been busy painting the inside of the cab. Not the easiest of areas to work in and the cab roof is always a difficult area to do but Alex is experienced from his work on Ketton No1. so no surprises for him!

The old X04 motor and a replacement!

A few weeks ago I got two old locos back up and running from loyal blog reader Mrs. b's husband. There is a third loco, a Triang Hornby Britannia. Back in the day these were the must have locos for a model railway and even though things have moved on they are still a nice loco. The problem with Mr. B's is that the old X04 motor fitted to the loco has had it! It smokes when power is applied so needs replacing. Whilst you can't buy a new X04 motor anymore you can buy a refurbished one or there are some more modern motors that have been adapted to fit in place of the X04 and that is what I decided would be the best route to go.

The new motor is a 5 pole skew wound motor with a flywheel which is light years better than the old X04 motor. I just need to wire it up which means there will be a need to alter the existing wiring a little. One to look at and plan before doing much else!