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!

A few washes of dilute black paint and they take on a well worn weathered appearance just like me!

Well, if you stayed tuned from the last post you can make up your mind as to whether the buffer stops look more realistic  now they are painted fully.

However, there is some weathering to add!

A few washes of dilute black paint and they take on a well worn weathered appearance just like me!

There are still afew more things that can be done so stay tuned!

More buffer stops!

 With the base coat of paint on the buffer stops dry I sprayed a light coat of rust paint over the metal parts.

That paint did not really do much to represent rust but it will be added to!

I also found a different type of buffer stop in the WMD Stores which will come in handy so that has joined the painting squad! The wooden parts of the buffer stops have been given a coat of brown paint which will be weathered along with the rest of the parts.

I have also started to over paint the original rust colour with some different rust paint which should look better once it is weathered.

Will these buffer stops look more realistic by the time I finish painting and weathering them? Stay tuned!

Adding some earth, mud and weeds!

 Whilst the paint on the buffer stops is drying I got on with a bit more scenic work at the end of the goods yard and refuelling point on my Last Great Project layout.

The ballast has been treated to some greenery to represent weed growth whilst the areas not ballasted have had a dusting of kiln dried sand to represent earth and mud. 

It matches the adjacent station board in textures and colours so hopefully it will all look good! Just need to wait for the glue to dry.

What have we been saddled with at the Rocks By Rail Museum?

What have we been saddled with at the Rocks By Rail Museum?

Well, it is the saddle tank to steam loco Elizabeth that has returned from repairs at an outside specialist contractor.

Unloading involved lifting slings and the CAT.

And this is where it was heading to - the Lowmac wagon which already had the cab to the loco on it.

Because there are two valves and a number of bolts protruding from the bottom of the tank it has to be rested on some wooden supports.

I got entrusted to move the supports around to miss the protrusions and there was not a lot of margin for error - no pressure then!

Due to my shill or more likely luck, the saddle tank was lowered into place without incident! Richard took the slings off and the Lowmac with its load was taken back to a siding where the tank and cab will await further work.

Whilst at that end of the line I did notice this.

I am informed that these sleepers will be used to demark the edge off the narrow gauge exhibits from the gassed area. The sleepers will stop the gravel which is to be laid from spilling onto the grass.

Back in the Restoration Shed things are progressing with the Southern Brake Van.

John was also bust stripping paint from the grab handles that he has removed.

Whilst walking round the brake van I noticed something that I really should have noticed before.

At various points along the chassis are welded in  markings for British Steel who produced the chassis members - all the wording is upside down though!

Going outside I noticed Andy and Richard working on the mesh to the ballast washer.

They have remade the mesh with stronger stainless steel individual rods which needed tying together.

They have been using welding wire twisted in place - a labour intensive task indeed! As they had done about a third of it I helpfully suggested that rebar gun would be a lot easier! They had never heard of such a thing so I used the wonders of the internet to illustrate and all I got was 'Why could I not have suggested that before they started!' My defence of only just seeing them do the work did not go down well! I think there may be a rebar gun arriving soon!

For me? Well for the first time since June I got Morris Mower out!

He obviously enjoyed his Summer break and started first time before leading me on a vegetational butchery spree!

With the amount of rain that we are now getting it may be a while before Morris takes his Winter break!

Things are coming together and sometimes pictures say more than words!

 Things are coming together and sometimes pictures say more than words!

More to do but I like what I see!

Buffer stops!

 As the work on detailing parts for the station area continues it was time to get some buffer stops sorted for the end of the sidings. 

I had in stock four Hornby items which may not be the greatest buffer stop but with some work they can look better.

First job was to give them a base coat of light grey which actually revealed that they are more detailed than I expected. Once the paint dries I will start the detail painting.