Woody attends another birthday party!

Yet another Birthday Party at the Rocks By Rail Museum and amazingly I was again invited with Mrs. W accompanying me just to make sure I behaved! 

This time it was Mick (on the left) who turned 80 today and had decided that just like Ray a few weeks ago, the Museum was the perfect place to celebrate!

He had a fantastic cake in the shape of the Janus locomotive that he painted some years ago as a first project with the Museum.

It was a shame to cut it up but it was and delicious it was! There were plenty of people about celebrating Mick's milestone birthday to consume the cake! as well.

And no birthday party should happen without train rides and this was no exception!

What a great day! Thanks Mick and wishing you many more to come!

With seven to do that occupied me for a couple of hours!

With the new connector blocks for my control panel now in my procession i just needed to fettle them as they were a bit tight to separate. Some careful work with a pair of pliers and some needle files loosened them off nicely. With seven to do that occupied me for a couple of hours!

 

Repeating myself!

It was another year of Mrs. Woody's sentence completed today! That is another year married to me! She did get some reward for that time though in the form of this rocking lounger where she will be able to lounge in whilst directing me doing chores!

We just went out for a random drive and instead of repeating ourselves and just driving by Wymondham Windmill we actually stopped for a look round. 

Although there are no sails the windmill looks impressive on the outside...

and on the inside where the original workings have been retained.

There are a number of shops and businesses on site as well as a café.

These two came home with Mrs. W  from one of the shops as a anniversary gift.

Despite being a random drive we repeated ourselves and ended up at lunchtime exactly where we were one year ago - at Café Ventoux and you can read about that in this blog here.

Just as last time, the food was delicious. Mrs. W had the fish finger roll 

Whilst I had the Full Ventoux Brunch. There is bacon and sausage behind the toast  and tomato!

Having repeated where we went to a year ago I also repeated to the same lady what I said last year which was that it was that good that if it wasn't considered bad manners I would have licked the plate clean! Mrs. Woody, repeated last years reaction by  just rolling her eyes at that! 

Will Mrs, W repeat another year with me after that?

Connecting blocks

With other jobs to do there has been no time for model making related matters today. However, I did get a delivery of some connector blocks for the control panel to my Last Great Project layout. Ordered yesterday morning from Electech Components who I have always had good service from, they arrived this morning which is great service.

I do like these connector blocks as they offer a solid solution to joining cables at a good price.

I just need to find the time to fit them now! Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at things, the weather has been good and encouraging growth of a vegetational type which means time is spent dealing with that. It is not only at the Rocks By Rail Museum that I carry out vegetational butchery -  the hedges at WMD HQ also get the same treatment!

Thanks to Sammy Strimmer it is at least visible now!

As I arrived at the Rocks By rail Museum, there were loco movements going on with Mr. D hauling the brake van and Sentinel loco Graham out of the shed. An usual movement as Graham is in running order or so I thought! 

However. as I discovered when making enquiries Graham had no brake shoes fitted as the old ones had been removed to allow new ones to be fitted. Now with any job at the Museum it was not a like for like replacement so new fittings have had to be machined but the new shoes are supposed to have a better braking material meaning that Graham will stop quicker!

Getting those three pieces of rolling stock out of the Exhibition Centre really opens it up for a view not normally seen!

Meanwhile I took my usual job on of vegetational butchery with Sammy Strimmer continuing from where I left off last week so this ....

Turned into this.

Whilst I was at t I also removed this fallen tree from the viewing area.

Which has restored the view!

This obscured sign warning of the overhead power lines was really too obscured!

Thanks to Sammy Strimmer it is at least visible now!

I did find some treasure  junk along the way including this operating lever which no one knows what it was for!

Talking of treasure junk, I did look in on the bone yard that I had vegetationally destructed over the Winter.

The problem is that no matter how much vegetation you cut back it grows back so I need to get back in there with Sammty before too long!

These days I like to see my past life safely in the form of photographs or looking at this blog!

Out on a bike ride I came across this.

There are moments in life where your life passes in front of your eyes and this must have been one of them for who ever went through the canal bridge parapet.

As you can see its a sheer drop of about 15 feet which must have seemed a lot more for the occupants who, from what I understand, survived without serious injury. These days I like to see my past life safely in the form of photographs or looking at this blog!

Back at WMD HQ it was time to determine how to mount the control panel carcase that I have been putting together over the last few days to the layout. I could have just screwed it in place but I need it to be removable, especially during the wiring process so I have put two screws into the layout baseboard and drilled suitable holes in the carcase so that it can be slid on and off.

 I just need to tidy the holes up and paint the raw edges of wood.

It does actually fit as intended which is an achievement for me!

Looking from a distance it fits in well with the structure of the layout. I just need to think about the top and wiring now!

Out with the grey paint!

 After yesterday's caravan cleaning capers I am fairly worn out so just a small model related job of painting the carcase of the control panel for my Last Great Project layout.  So it was out with the grey paint which matches the profile boards already on the layout so I may rename the Slate Grey to WMD Grey! 

I

Even Mrs Woody got involved so you can tell how important this job was!

The little mentioned WMD caravan was subject to much frustration today. Not used for three years for various reasons such as elderly cats, it has quietly become a bit of a breading ground for dirt and various forms of vegetation.. Mrs. W has muted that now we only have four young cats we could start using the caravan again so in order to do that today saw the cleaning equipment come out and the van was tackled. However the van did not want to play as the door lock jammed preventing us getting in. It was either a £200 locksmith call out or I could have a go myself. I now pride myself in having saved £200 and got in without damaging anything!

With access gained cleaning the outside could commence and boy was it a big job - even Mrs Woody got involved so you can tell how important this job was! 4 hours of work saw this rather shabby looking object....

become this thing of, if you are into caravans, beauty!

It just needs a service and it should be ready to go just like me!

Much courtesy at the Rocks By rail Museum!

Another day at the Rocks By rail Museum see the previously empty new flower containers filled with soil and ready for planting out courtesy of Sue.

The ladies toilets are getting a freshening up courtesy of Pam and Pete.

Barrington steam loco had a green buffer beam when I arrived.

However, by the end of the day courtesy of Alex, it was in red undercoat awaiting its final top coat next week.

For my morning magic and vegetational butchery I turned this...

...into this courtesy of Sammy Strimmer!

I even found that we have a buffer stop at the end of the siding having removed the undergrowth!

The afternoon saw Morris Mower out on duty cutting the front lawns! Not so sure about lawn but it does look a lot better when cut and gives the Museum that 'someone cares' look!

All of this information courtesy of WMD!

Now I could go out and buy some proper wood filler !

One of the long outstanding jobs on the My Last Great Project Layout has been to construct an operating panel. The wiring and point motors are all installed but I need to build the panel in order too control it all. At the moment there is a bit of a spaghetti of temporary wiring to allow trains to run which is not good. However, whilst cleaning up the WMD garage I found some suitable plywood to construct the carcase of the panel. In fact it was some plywood from the baseboard of the first and aborted Last Great Project Layout! Cut to suitable sizes the parts were screwed together to form a rectangular carcase.

As it was pre-used wood there are various nail and screw holes in it that need filling. Now I could go out and buy some proper wood filler or I could just stay in and use the plastic filler that happened to be conveniently located on the workbench.

So the plastic filler won!. I just need to let it dry and find time to sand it all down and paint it next.