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!

Much easier and working smarter as I get older!

Having altered the main parts of the Dapol signal gantry to fit the intended site it was time to start building the kit!

Having already built one I knew that I would want to add girder detail to the uprights as I did with the first kit. However, having learnt from the first one, I added the plastic strip before attaching anything to the uprights - much easier and working smarter as I get older!

Whilst waiting for the glue to set I remembered I needed to also shorten the maintenance platform and move the mount for the ladder! So some measurements were taken and the appropriate amount removed and the mount sliced off.

Those parts were glued together along with the main structure of the gantry. Looking good! Just need to add a few more parts and the construction will be finished - unless of course I have forgotten something!

That went well too! Must be mu luck day!

Having been inspired by the train running session I have actually been getting on with some mode making activities.

This Dapol signal gantry is the same as the one I have already built for the station area so I should know what I am doing with this kit!

There is one difference though! I need to make the gantry shorter in length to fit the location. Some careful measurements showed me that I could luckily do this by cutting one section of the girder structure out. I managed that with a razor saw and no disasters!

I also needed to locate the maintenance platform and ladder onto the other side of the structure so one of the mounts for a support had to be cut off the upright 

That went well too! Must be mu luck day!

With those two things done I can start to put this together!

Having got some trains running should inspire me to do some more model making!

Sometimes, I forget that the purpose of building the My Last Great Project layout is to actually have somewhere to run trains! So having spent many a day working on the station area I decided I would sit back with a can of Pepsi Max (other beverages are available from your preferred beverage retail supplier) and just watch some trains run!

The problem when working on a layout is that they become convenient places to put things down on and then forget about them. Note to self - clear the rubbish from the base of the viaduct!

As my layout has an operating well in the middle it means that you do not see the whole layout in one view. You need to follow a train around meaning that it appears to actually go somewhere rather than in a glorified circle that it actually does! So, if I am looking at the viaducts I do not see what is happening in the station.

Talking of the station, I do like this picture which captures the essence of what I have been doing over the past few weeks. The grime, the weeds, the leaning electrical cabinet and the brightness of the loco!

Anyway, having got some trains running should inspire me to do some more model making just as soon as I finish this can of drink!

A random stack!

One of those, unusually for me anyway, quickish jobs involving some bits from the scrap box of plastic parts!

A few sleepers were cut from a strip.

Looking clsoely at them they are quite detailed mouldings but my inspection was short lived as I glued them into a, what would hopefully look like, a random stack.

Once painted and weathered and placed on the layout they look rather like what you might find ion a real railway!

Vegetational excellence at its best so I had nothing to do with them!

 I walk into the Rocks By rail Museum to see this!

You may not recognise what the yellow bulge is but this close up may help!

That is a hard hat! Now what it is doing buried in the ground like that open to all sorts of theories! Did someone step into some quick sand and that is all that is left of them? Is it some form of portal to another dimension? Much as these theories have their attractions I suspect that under that hat is something to do with the wiring for the colour light signals. I could be wrong but not having been teleported to another World so far I think my last theory may be right!

Anyway, elsewhere in the Museum more painting of steam loco Uppingham sees the buffer beams in top coat and much of the chassis now painted.

In the Restoration Shed, things continue to get done to the Southern brake van which now has most of the rotten wood replaced and parts of the vacuum braking system are even being painted.

Outside, Rob is slowly getting the Euclid dump truck into solid metal and grey primer ready yo be painted hopefully before Winter arrives!

Also preparing for Winter is Gary and his new purchase - the LIMA crane. He hopes to make it watertight so that nest year he can get the engine running.

Not yet ready for Winter are the flower boxes and this example brings some real colour to the site - vegetational excellence at its best so I had nothing to do with them!

My only vegetational skill is in butchery but the grass was fighting back!

Was it only a few weeks ago that lot was brown and dead looking?

Out with the Olfa cutter!

I start with a piece of plastic card a a length of track on the bench!

There is an idea in my head! That is very unusual as Mrs. Woody would confirm!

Having used the track to take some measurements, a suitable strip was cut and marked out at 2mm wide strips.

Then those marked strips were scored with an Olfa cutter. The blade cuts a gouge out of the plastic sheet and you can see the plastic it has gouged out on the cutting mat.

Those strips represent the gaps between planks of wood. Using some more measurements from the track the large strip was cut into smaller parts and some plastic strip glued under the scored surface.

So, What are these Woody?

 With a bit of painting t=and glued in place these plastic strips become a track crossing, They look a bit stark in that brown so...

...a bit of weathering was applied and they look as though they have been in place for years just like me!

Finally installed!

As I explained in a previous post, the sleeper built buffer stop is a more substantial structure than the rail built stops. On the board with the two viaducts on my layout, there is a substantial drop at the end of a siding. I had a rail built buffer stop installed but decided that technically in real life it would not be deemed strong enough to stop an errant loco breaking through it.

Therefore I swapped that out with sleeper built stop that I had just finished painting and weathering.

With that swap, I now had five near matching rail built stops for the goods yard and fuel servicing sidings so they were installed and well...

...I'm impressed with that!

Super glued in place they add that little bit of extra!

 Of the five buffer stops that I am dealing with at the moment, one is a model of the sleeper type. Basically a more substantial structure built from old sleepers and filled with stone that should with stand a bigger impact than the usual bent rail type stop.

The model has a moulded stone insert to it which I could paint to try and make it look better but my solution was to actually overlay it with scale stone!

I just covered the moulded stone with PVA glue and then scattered some of the ballast that I had used in the goods yard on. Looks so much better!

With that done it was then onto cutting minute pieces of plastic strip and rod and gluing them together.

And the purpose of that Woody is what you may ask.

Well, the purpose is to be the lamp on the buffer stop that illuminates to drivers that there is a buffer stop there. Super glued in place they add that little bit of extra!