At least the diesel engines won't need to hoot - the owls will do it for them!

As I predicted in my last post about the Rocks by Rail Museum and one of our late members, there are still owls all over the place!

At least the diesel engines won't need to hoot - the owls will do it for them! In time they will all find good homes1

Meanwhile work continues on the cosmetic restoration of steam loco Barrington with Alex painting one of the cylinder covers.

Looking good and that is just the undercoat.

Meanwhile David has been de-rusting the cab to steam loco Uppingham.

John and Dave have been getting on with the new wooden floor to the Southern brake van.

Andy and Martyn have been replacing the mesh on the oversized washing machine ready for another session of ballast washing!

And dealing with plant, Rob has been busy wire brushing, welding and painting the Euclid dump truck.

In the cafe Barbara had set out the autobiography book tanle in an effort to sell these on and she did manage to sell six of them!

I did find a rarity in a pile of other books.

It may just look like another book on the Flying Scotsman but inside....

...a 45 rpm record of the sounds of Scotsman in motion! I was able to place that quickly with an enthusiastic Scotsman fan who also is part of its support team.

I was busy as usual with grass butchery including the surprising growth inside the various cones around the quarry area.

They act as a sort of greenhouse!

I was also joined by my friendly Robin who was obviously looking out for feeding opportunities!

One thing is for certain, the Robin doesn't give a hoot about me!

As the supermarket advert says - every little helps!

Not exactly a lot to blog about as it has been a day of gardening! But, I did manage to paint the stanchions of the Panzer Ferry!

As the supermarket advert says - every little helps! I just could do with a lot more help!

An example of how model railways and football can be in harmony!

 In view of England's World Cup match tonight we have here an example of how model railways and football can be in harmony!

This is the 2026 Marklin 44460 TIP-KICK SOCCER / FOOTBALL CAR 2004! I had never heard of Tip Kick but it appears to be popular and you are supposed to be able to kick the ball using the player into the wagon through one of the cut-outs in the side!

Well. this is one item of rollingstock that I wont be getting but I am sure it has its collectors around the World!

Not a lot I can say other than I pleased that is done!

Not a lot I can say other than I pleased that is done!

All the ropes, stanchions and chains are made! They need painting and mounting and I need to give some thought to a base for the models!

Strangely enough, as I write this I am listening to The Chain by Fleetwood Mac!

Dealing with these small parts on the Panzer Ferry kits seems to be taking as much time as building the main kit did!

At the moment it is the construction of the chains which attach the ferry barge itself to the two tracked boats. It may look simple but there are small parts and they are a real pain to clean up and actually assemble! Strangely enough, as I write this I am listening to The Chain by Fleetwood Mac! How bizarre!

Note to myself - don't mess with Dave!

Note to myself - don't mess with Dave!

Nobody at the Museum has ever seen a shunters pole snapped! However, Dave or should we call him Dangerous Dave, did just that!

Why was I at the Museum on a Sunday? Well it was a full on brake van rides and quarry day event and despite the heat which was lower than it had been we had a good flow of guests through the site.

We also had a ceremony for a founding member, Jacky Garlic who along with her husband Jeff where key figures in the establishment and growth of the Museum. In my last post on the Museum I showed the fence panels that the two had in their garden being refurbished ready for mounting outside opposite the platform and they are now in place.

Jacky was also an avid collector of owl figurines so the family created a unique way to pass these on.

I no doubt will come across more as I cut the grass but they are literally everywhere!

A bit of a shock to me was Andy the General Manager was acting as guard on the freight train which meant we had to be on best behaviour! Maybe anyway!

Whilst shunting can be busy especially when doing a change over of wagons between two locos....

...once you wave goodbye to the outgoing train you do get a moment to rest as Martyn, John, Dave and myself did!

Always a good day at the Museum!

Heat makes slow progress but progress does at least mean moving forward!

Heat makes slow progress but progress does at least mean moving forward! So much for the philosophy in this heatwave and lets get  back to the current project of finishing off the Panzer Ferry kit.  I knew the brass etched parts would be an issue and so it came to pass as I lost one of the parts that goes onto of the stanchion and into which the guard ropes are attached. I did try to find the part, one moment is was there the next gone never to be found! So it was a case of making a part. I did try a few things but settled on making an oval of wire that whilst it looks rough close in will look OK once fitted as these parts are tiny.

I also got the various ropes that fasten between the stanchions cut to size and the etched brass clips fitted.

Hopefully as it cools off weather wise some of this may move on a bit quicker or maybe I am just getting slower the older I get!

Finish it Friday - but which Friday?

Back when I started this Blog I had a few Finish It Friday posts where I finished a almost completed model. It was quite successful for me and saw a number of other wise shelf queens finished off. However, for reasons that I cannot recall, the whole Finish It Friday went by the wayside. However, whilst doing the control panel for my model railway layout I keep bumping into two boxes which are from this build of the Dragon  Kit 6625 and 6669 Panzer Ferry,

Now in my usual way 95% of the kit has had been built and painted back in 2022 but there were some stanchions and chain to add which I never goy round to.

Luckily the box contains the parts!

At this point I realised why I probably put the finishing touches to one side - etched brass parts!

However, since 2022 I have become more adept at dealing with such parts so I have made some progress just that the progress is slow in this heat and hence which Friday will it be finished!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

Out on a bike ride the sheep were, unlike me, again doing the sensible thing of keeping in the shade and cool whilst I pushed myself up hill in the baking sum! So I have to admit the sheep are being sensible!

At the Rocks By Rail Museum, Andy and John were doing the sensible thing of being in the pit under the shade of Graham the Sentinel doing some brake work.

Pam and Pete had been keeping cool in the shade of the Exhibition Centre where they are restoring the fence panel and gate donated by the family of a deceased husband and wife who were founding members of the Museum back in the early 80s.

Even steam loco Uppingham looked cool in the stripped down condition it is in!

In fact the whole of the Exhibition Centre just looked cool and this is not a sight that is seen everyday as there are several locos on that middle road!

So given the sensibility of staying in the cool, what did I do? I took Sammy Strimmer out of the cool of his storage unit and took him and me down to the sidings where we carried out mass vegetational butchery turning things like this...

...into this!

I certainly did not stay cool and it was certainly not sensible as Mrs. Woody would point out but she did give me a sensible dinner of a delicious cooling salad!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

Wordless WEDNESDAY!

Wordless Wednesday as it's too hot to do anything other than enjoy ice cream!