What can £7.99 buy?

You may know the feeling that you actually pocess something but no matter where you look you just cannot find it. Well, that is my situation with a set of callipers I know I have but for years have been unable to find although I suspect they may soon turn up now I have done this! And 'this' is to buy another set! Going into Lidl to buy a pint of milk meant walking through the Middle of Lidl and I usually look at the tools on offer. This time there were these digital calipers at £7.99! The milk, calipers and a number of other things that Mrs. Woody thought essential came home.

What can £7.99 buy? Well actually a lot in this case.

You get a sturdy plastic case, instructions which I may read when I can't get it to work, and the caliper.

There is even a pre-fitted battery which to activate you just pull out the plastic protector rather than undo the screw as I did. Must read those instructions!

The display is nice and clear and as with most calipers you can measure internal and externaly which will be great for model making activities, especially back to back wheel measurements on rolling stock. I'm impressed!

More to do but going in the right direction!

A bit of a lazy weekend but I have managed to mock up on the layout the various parts constructed so far for the bridge/tunnel structure. It looks OK to me which is good as I really don't want to start from scratch again!

So, more to do but going in the right direction!

I expected an Autumnal day.

Taking some time out after five heavy days of painting the lounge and one day of extensive grass cutting operations at the Rocks By rail Museum, Mrs. Woody and me ended up at Easton Walled Gardens which I have posted about before. Always a great place to walk around or just sit and watch the robot lawn mowers at work with a backdrop of stunning gardens and scenery (why doesn't the Museum have a robot lawn mower but then again as Mrs. W says I am like a robot on occassions!). Anyway, given the time of year, I expected an Autumnal day. 

The display at the welcome sign said Autumn.....

The display in the court yard said Autumn....

However, the weather and the vegetation said otherwise!

And then this bee landed on my leg seemingly thinking it was some form of vegetation as though it is still trying to pollinate plants!

I was pleased to be able to get this picture - most of the time insects fly off before I have a chance to get my camera out!

Well this weather is said to continue for a while so I guess I may see a few more bees out and about although it is just not right for Autumn!

Boiler gone!

A most welcomed rest from painting the lounge with a day at the Rocks By Rail Museum !

One major change since last week is that the boiler from loco 1931 has gone! Not stolen but taken off to a boiler specialist who will be fitting the tubes and doing a few other jobs which will push the return to steam well along! It also gives the opportunity to tackle some rust hidden by the boiler as Martyn is doing.

A bit of an unusual view from the cab footplate to where the firebox should be. Hopefully that lump of coal in the bottom right of the photo will find a use once the boiler has returned!

Meanwhile, paintbrushes have been busy on Barrington with top coat green looking good on the saddle tank and starting on the cab sides.

The front is now finished in top coat yellow which is how this loco was finished when in operation. I believe there are green wasp stripes to be applied yet!

Moving elsewhere, the cab of the monster drag line Sundew, has had more ancillary parts fitted like the electrical distribution board that to the side of Rob and Alex.

Rob also spent some time on greasing the drag line ready for next week. Never an easy or clean job but very necessary!

Rob was also keen to show me his now 'fitted' out van after I made comments to him last week about how unorganised it was! Looks good bit that Barbie bag is still there!

And finally, for me, it was a few hours of lawn mower pushing!

Most relaxing especially after days of painting!

Faced up!

The tunnel section has now been faced up! No I haven't had an argument with it but it now has Metcalfe brick paper covering the outside. I cut various off cuts of paper to make up the shapes required safe in the knowledge that abutments and similar will cover them when they are added.

Just need to face up to finishing this rather long winded project bt I need to finish painting the lounge before that happens!

More brick paper!

Like the painting of the lounge that is my current Mrs. Woody's job list priority, the building of the bridge/tunnel section for my layout is taking its time! But there is some progress on both projects!

More brick paper has been added with the paper for the underside of the tunnel now glued in place and the side walls are also now covered in brick paper.

At the moment it all looks a bit strange but once the bridge section and tunnel section come together it should all begin to look god - I hope!

Which would you choose?

Whilst the painting of the lounge continues I have been taking a bit of time out for bike rides which recently been interesting from the point of view of seeing two extremes of transport. I spotted this Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopter up at Belvoir Castle.

Nice to be able to hop in your helicopter and go and visit friends!

I also saw this!

It is a DAF 55 coupe. These were made between 1967 and 1972. Done up as a rally car may seem a bit optimistic but DAF actually rallied these as did some independent rally drivers with some success. A 55 won the 1968 Alpine Rally, and in late 1968 Rob Slotemaker finished 17th out of 100 contestants in the grueling 16500 km London-Sydney Marathon.

Now, which of these two extremes of transport would I choose given the choice? Well it would be the DAF on the basis that: -

1. I can drive a car but cannot fly a helicopter!

2. The DAF is a lot easier to park and you can keep it on your driveway unlike a helicopter unless you live somewhere like Belvoir Castle!

3. The DAF is a lot cheaper to run!

4. I just like the quirkiness of that little car!

Meanwhile back at WMD HQ, more time taken out to make progress on the bridge/tunnel for my 00 gauge layout. Not much progress to report as I don't want Mrs. Woody getting ideas I have time on my hands! However the tunnel structure is now coming on with the 'mouth' formed. After lots of frowning as discussed in my last post on this subject, I had to take the central pier out - it was just a lot easier doing that! However, that makes life easier as well and this is what it all looks like now.

It is ready for sme brick papers to be attached which will be an interesting task given the angles involved and that will no doubt lead to more frowning!

Sir Nigel Greasley passes through Grantham!

There is not a lot of model making going on at WMD HQ at the moment as I am tackling one of Mrs. Woody's jobs on her list for me - painting the lounge! The painting itself is fine, but it is the moving of stuff and preparation of surfaces that takes the time! I certainly have gone through some filler dealing with cracks and holes that have developed since the last painting operation. As I said to Mrs. W, it is a slow job! I think she is immune to that phrase from me after many years!

Now something that is quick, in fact it is a record breaker, was sent to me by Mr. Beecham, he of cycling prowess, model making skills, loyal blog reader and now videoer! He was fortunate enough to be at Grantham Railway Station when Sir Nigel Greasley went through on its way to Alton in Hampshire via South London. This is a brother locomotive to Mallard which claimed the world speed record for steam locomotives at 126 mph (203 km/h) on the downward grade of Stoke Bank, south of Grantham between Little Bytham and Essendine stations during a trial of a new type of braking system. The speed was achieved during the downward grade of Stoke Bank, south of Grantham at milepost 90¼, between Little Bytham and Essendine stations. Whilst Mallard hauled a seven-coach train, Sir Nigel Greasley was only hauling one when it went through Grantham, unlike back in the day when it would have 14 or so coaches behind as it went through this station, which may explain its speedy passing as you can see in the short video. As Mr. B advised me, turn the volume up to hear the whistle! Nice one Mr. B for catching this on film and sending it on to me!

They take the high road.

YouTube can come up with some real gems of things from the past and this video is one of them. A British Transport Film production, tthere is an incredible amount of social history in this as to how the UK was about 75 years ago. Well worth a watch and it gets a Woody recommendation.

Tunnels and frowns - all in a day working on my Last Great Project layout!

After a day of smiles at the Rocks By rail Museum my face frowned a bit as I got back into the Man Cave to progress the bridge build for my Last Great Project Layout. Having got the bridge structure right I need to get a top on it and that will also incorporate the tunnel mouths into th storage loops. I know what I want shape wise and a top has been cut out.

I then cut out a 'trial' set of tunnel mouths.

Whilst it looks right to me the central pier is catching on passing trains so I will have to see if there is a way of keeping that pier or having to make the tunnel mouth a single four track one rather than two two track ones. Lots of frowning will be going into that decsion!