Lots going on at the Museum.

A day at the Rocks By Rail Museum always has things going on to look at such as Rob getting on with the restoration of the Euclid.

Dave replacing various valves, gauges, handles and firebox parts on the current restoration of steam loco Uppingham.

And the firebox is looking good with the doors refitted.

John continues restoring the Southern brake van even though I hindered progress by grabbing the still wet paint on the grab handle!

It seems where ever you look in the Restoration Shed there are light lenses and parts of lights which seem to far exceed what is actually required for the project going on at the moment and blogged about over the last few weeks. Maybe there are other plans?

Andy has got the screen deck sorted on the ballast washing plant which should make operation much netter.

Gary has continued to add more red oxide to the Lima crane.

And at the narrow gauge display the sleepers are now in position to form a barrier for the stone base onto which the display items can be placed.

And my part in all this activity to look at was to take Morris Mower out and butcher some grass! Great!

Moral of this is that Mrs. Woody should have kept a better eye out!

Sometimes you can miss a great opportunity and that happened whilst Mrs. Woody and myself were enjoying some chips whilst parked up in a layby whilst out for the day. It was not that I missed the opportunity to get the biggest chip but being engrossed in the enjoyment of the chips, which were a real treat and very tasty, I missed out on this!

This vintage, I think, Scammell Handyman and Showman's Trailer, had obviously come into the layby behind us and the first that I knew about it was at it rolled past us and I grabbed my camera to get this rear end picture! Would have been nice to get the front end too!

Moral of this is that Mrs. Woody should have kept a better eye out! 

My Wednesday Want!.

My Wednesday Want! This road and rail going excavator!

Spotted on a bike ride who would not want a machine like this! Well, probably Mrs. Woody and perhaps the neighbours and no doubt the local council if I parked it outside WMD HQ! 

In reality the nearest I might get to having something similar is a model.

Just one problem - it costs £199! Oh well!

Slowly it all turns from bare baseboard to living scene!

 The Dapol signal gantries are now all painted and weathered and ready for the layout.

That looks good!

And so does that!

Slowly it all turns from bare baseboard to living scene! Well hopefully!

More to do but these small details do take time!

Now, about those chopped up bits of plastic I blogged about a few days ago!

Well, they are now a cable duct! I could just have laid the uncut strip but that would have looked a bit too well kept and maintained. This way they look as though they have been in place for ages and as time has passed they have moved with ground conditions.

Add a bit more vegetation and the whole thing looks even more weathered! You may also have noted that the point motors have electrical cables feeding into them and literally those cables are just offcuts of layout wire!

Further on there is also more vegetation sprouting whi9ch adds to the realism! More to do but these small details do take time!

All this knowledge just because I model a scene where a dog has relieved itself against a lamp post!

 

Just adding a little realism (hopefully!) to the platform scene, we have a man with his daughter and his trusty canine companion Fido. Now Fido has done what many a canine does and that is leave a puddle against a lamp post as pointed to by the red arrow! Not a scene that you see very often on a model railway but a dab of gloss varnish created the puddle and Fido is from a  pack of Woodlands scenic dogs complete with fire hydrants (it is an American pack!). 

Now calling a canine Fido probably ages me but you do not hear dogs names like Fido, Rex, Duke, Rover, Shep, Spot, Skip, Butch., Bessie, Daisy, Dolly, Duchess, Flossie, Queenie or  Sadie and yes I did Google that lot! Apparently todays names (again using the delights of Goggle) are ones like Charlie, Max, Cooper, Milo, Teddy,  Luna, Bella, Daisy, Lucy and Coco. In fact when I just Googles Fido to see the origins of the name I found that Google throws up - 'FIDO stands for Fast Identity Online, an open set of technology standards created to replace traditional passwords with secure, passwordless login methods like biometrics and hardware keys.' In fact there is even a FIDO Alliance! Well, there you go - another school day! 

However I was persistent and found that the canine related Fido relates to an Italian dog and Wikipedia states ' Fido was an Italian dog that came to public attention in 1943 because of his demonstration of unwavering loyalty to his dead master. Fido was the subject of articles appearing in many Italian and international magazines and newspapers, was featured in newsreels throughout Italy, and was bestowed several honours, including a public statue erected in his honour

All this knowledge just because I model a scene where a dog has relieved itself against a lamp post!

Chopping up plastic!

Before getting some paint on the signal gantry that has featured in recent posts I needed to create something that would get painted at the same time saving on cleaning the airbrush twice!

Some plastic strip and card was sought from the WMD Stores...

..and glued together. It was then marked up into 6mm or so lengths.

Then it was chopped up"

Once attached to some masking tape the chopped bits were airbrushed along with the gantry. So, what are the chopped pieces for? Well, that will hopefully be revealed shortly!

Heritage Open Days

It was Heritage Open Day at the Rocks by Rail Museum which meant that in line with many other attractions in England we opened our Museum for no admittance fee.  As the Heritage Days website says 'Heritage Open Days is England's largest festival of history and culture, bringing together thousands of volunteers and organisations every September to celebrate their heritage, community and history. Stories are told, traditions explored, and histories brought to life. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – and it’s all FREE.'

There were certainly a lot more visitors then a normal day and despite not charging admission the cafe was busy and more than made up for that in monetary terms. It also brought in visitors who had never been before and there were comments made by some that they would be returning another day.

I don't think that any of us got much work done as we were talking to visitors but that was nice and for the Museum this was a once in a year event so there will be plenty of  other opportunities to catch up.

A quick 5 minute job. Wrong!

 As is a trait of mine, I got side tracked from the Dapol signal gantry by this!

Not sure of the manufacturer as there are no markings on the model but suspect that it is a Athearn union pacific fruit express reefer. I bought it with several other freight cars at the Newark Toy and train Fair on New Years Day. I did wonder why it was so much lower in height than usual freight cars but some research revealed that these cars were specially developed to travel with passenger coaches so that the fruit that they contained was delivered more quickly than if it had been hauled as part of a conventional freight train.

Now this particular model had an issue but at I think £3 that was something I could easily fix - or so I thought! The issue was that it rattled and that was caused by the ballast weight in the car body being loose. Now normally you remove the floor and get into the body and as when I bought it I saw two screws holding the bogies on I though no problems to get that floor out then. Since being bought the reefer has sat awaiting attention and as I had to move it to get at something I was remined of the need for attention. A quick 5 minute job. Wrong!

Having removed the bogies I found that the floor is part of the body moulding and the roof is the way in. However, the roof was glued in place! Being careful I managed to break the glue bond and get the roof off. So far that 5 minute job had taken about an hour!

I suspect by looking at it, that the loose ballast weight had previously been attended to looking at the glue marks on it but obviously not successfully! 

My solution for a permanent repair was to use double sided tape.

With that applied the weight was stuck to the reefer floor. Just put the roof back on which luckily I did not glue yet and then replace the bogies.

As I screwed in the screws that held the bogies I found out why the ballast weight was loose as I heard a thud inside the reefer body. Taking the roof off it was clear that the screws protruded above the floor level and had pushed the ballast weight off the floor.

I could have shortened the screws but that had issues so as the ballast weight was only a couple of mm too long I used a file to create a notch at each end of the weight which cleared the screws!  Now into the job by an hour and a half I reapplied some double sided tape and reattached the weight, replaced the roof, reattached the bogies this time with no internal thud and job done!

Signal gantry progress.

Some more progress with the Dapol signal gantry. 

The maintenance platform now has its stanchions added and I have also attached some rod to make a guard rail. The signal heads have been backed with plastic card as well so it is now a case of getting some paint on the parts - a job for another day!