100 and still going!

No, not my age, although my body does appear to think it must be that age on occasions when I ache after completing a Mrs W 'must be done' task! This is my 100th post! I did my first post back in June 2020 and then did nothing more until the start of this year and since then I have averaged 10 posts a month. When I started this blog there was always a strong possibility that I would do a few posts and it would then get forgotten about in my characteristic way. However I have persevered and the blog is in effect my record of what I have done and will hopefully continue to do. It is interesting for me to look back through the posts sometimes just to get a sense of what I have done and when. I am not going to go into a deep statistical and philosophical roundup of  the various things done apart from summerising it as 'Could do better!' but then that is always the case.

Back to reality now and it has been a busy few days. 

Thursday saw me heading into Rutland for another day of volunteering at the Rocks By Rail Museum. The task in hand was to start cutting back vegetation close to the running line. The track is only 3/4 of a mile long but when you have to walk all the way down it, as we are starting at the furthest point and working back, and then back for lunch, and then do the whole journey again after lunch you begin to feel it on your legs. However it was a good excuse for a piece of cake at lunchtime without too much of a guilt trip about calories! It was just Richard, his dog Riley who likes to dig grass up and myself but it was a nice warm day and we had a great time. As the pictures show the vegetation has not been cut back for years and given that we managed about a 40 foot length of cutting back this is going to be a long project! 

At the start of the day....

At the end of the day...... There is a long way to go!

Mr Beecham came round on Friday. As a fellow modeler he always has something to show me from his continuingly growing collection of quality models that he builds. Stupidly I forgot to take some photos but he had a very nice 1/35 scale Chinese tank transporter and a stunning 1/48 scale Lancaster bomber. Interestingly he also had a Superquick 1/76 scale row of terrace houses with him which he casually knocked up over a few evenings recently. Yes! He can knock up an entire terrace of houses whilst in the same time I can just about fit the windows for one house! I think I need to up my game on production of models! 

We also went for a 16 mile bike ride which may not be far but given the strength of the headwind for the first 8 miles and the various hills that we climbed (Mr Motorlegs Beecham left me a distant second on those) it felt further. We did stop on the way round for a sausage cob and a drink which aided us by adding weight so that gravity could assist us even more on the downhill stretch of the journey home. That's my excuse anyway! Whilst eating our cobs I was quite taken by the Halloween tractor on display.

This sign also brought a smile to my face and yes, they are right and something that we should all remember.

Model wise not a lot to report apart from having fitted most of the windows to the Dapol General Store. Maybe I need to give my kits to Mr Beecham to build if I am to make some better progress over the next 100 posts!

Getting slated or is it curtains for me?

In this case this is not about me getting criticised or slated as the saying goes but it is about the roof of the Dapol General Store. The roof was sprayed in a light slate coloured grey which looked very boring and mono tone. Look at any roof and it will have variations in colour both from the material used and the aging process. The slates on this building needed some variation so putting three dabs of light grey, dark grey and white on a paint top I spent half an hour listening to the Budget roundup - no tax relief on model kits and model railways then - randomly mixing various hues of grey and picking out individual tiles until I was happy with the look. There is no art to it - its completely random just like my brain! Once dry I toned it all down with a wash of diluted black paint which would also highlight the gaps between the tiles.

It looks a bit of a mess when you first apply the wash but leave it alone for a while and do something else - I thought about Mrs Woody's list of jobs for me to do - and once its dry it will look fine.

Whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry and having thought about the list for a few seconds I turned my attention to the window frames which is going to lead onto the curtain bit of the post title. The kit comes with a sheet of acetate to glaze the windows. Mine actually came with two - maybe Dapol are giving you the opportunity to double glaze your windows??? Anyway I settled for one sheet. I glued the frame to the acetate with UHU glue. Super glue or plastic glue will just cloud the acetate. Once glued and cut to size the next thing was making the General Store look lived in and that means curtains in the windows. If you look at some models that modellers build of houses they have fantastic patterned curtains facing the window and it looks very grand from outside. However if you lived in the house you would be looking at the back of the curtain which would usually be a backing sheet in white or some other mono colour. So I at least avoided the mistake of having my curtains facing the outside by painting the curtain backing direct to the glazing. Saves cutting bits of paper which have to be glued in position and then fall off once the building is sealed up and all the issues that causes. The pictures below show what I mean.

Looks a bit rough from the back but turn the window frame over and...

Put them in the building and it looks even better....

Slowly getting there and it will be nice when I am able to draw the curtains on this build which is a pun I will probably get slated for!

Bricking it!

No! I am not in fear (for those outside the UK there is an online description of the phrase here ) although I may be later on if I don't get Mrs Woody's list of jobs finished! Bricking it in this case is related to the Dapol General Store where I have amongst other things painted the brick work. The windows, doors and roof have also been painted.

The painting started with what was a fairly vivid red although it was my personal mix from Vallejo Earth Brown, Orange and Red but it did not finish the shade I thought it would. Lesson to be learnt here - never trust me to mix anything as Mrs W has already learnt from one or two kitchen related incidents. Enough said! Back to the red paint. Never mind there are other things that would be done to it to tone it down.

This is what it looked like looking almost Post Office Red. However a caot of Earth Brown mixed with some Light Grey was gently wafted from a distance so that it dusted rather than painted the surface which still allowed that red base coat to be seen but through a opaque shading colour - nice!

At the moment I am adding washes of very dilute grey to highlight the mortar courses. The relief in the casting of the building is not very deep which is causing some issues and was the main reason that I did not use my usual way of colouring bricks with coloured pencils. However the picture below shows the concrete window cills have been painted in and one window frame is temporarily in along with the roof  to give an idea of how the building will eventually look. Now where is that list of jobs.........

Back on the Chain Gang!

Well on Thursday it felt a bit like being part of one of those old films set in an American prison where the inmates were breaking rocks as part of their punishment. Whilst it may have been hard work digging out ballast from between sleepers at the Rocks by Rail Museum, it was far from punishment. I enjoy a bit of digging and it was a nice sunny day surrounded by railway infrastructure and rolling stock and some good guys with some great chat as well as Riley the dog, who prefers to dig up grass rather than ballast - pity!

What could be better? I even got home in time to put Mrs W's dinner on the table as she arrived home - result! 

Over the weekend I have managed to make some progress with the various buildings for the narrow gauge layout. The Dapol General store has been primed ready for its final paint scheme. There were some gaps in the joints at the corners of the walls that required filling. To cut down on the mess and subsequent cleaning and sanding I ran a strip of masking tape either side of the gaps. 

Vallejo acrylic putty was then brushed into the gaps and left to dry.

The masking tape was then removed leaving a nice clean joint that needed little more then me running a finger nail down it to remove a few rough bits. Working smarter not harder as I get older!

If you look at some model buildings on railway layouts you will notice that you can look straight through a window to the other side of the building and through the opposite window. Whilst open plan living may be a concept some like it is not something that you see in many buildings and at some point there are internal walls even if only to separate the sanitary facilities from the rest of the house. I have added several partitions into the shell of the building as well as a first floor floor - if that makes sense! Not only do these block the view through the building but they also add a bit of additional strength. I am not going to add internal detail but I think these partitions will do a good job in adding that extra realism to the model.

All the parts have now been primed in a light grey awaiting their final paint scheme.

I have also glued the walls of the Service Station together and cleaned up some of the other parts which now await their turn to be primed which hopefully may get done tomorrow if Mrs W doesn't introduce here own version of a Chain Gang to get me to finish that list of jobs!

Complex crossing maneuvers!

Not anything to do with taking your life in your hands as you try to cross a road or getting on the right side of Mrs. Woody - yes that list of jobs will get done - eventually - but more to do with model railway track layouts. I needed to put in a double crossing to allow access to my planned MPD or in plain terms Motive Power Depot where the locomotives are stored, refueled and serviced. To get the best possible variations in access and maneuvers I came up with this bit of complex trackwork.

Amazingly it works! I quite like the way the train snakes through the crossing.

The MPD will lead off from the three way point and I am still deciding on the eventual layout of that but I am almost at the point of having completed that first fix of track work laying. If only I could complete that list of jobs from Mrs. W! Its a complex life!

Is there a catch?

 A few hours spare this evening saw some more track laying on My Last Great Project. The three main circuits are connected and the goods sidings laid complete with a double slip point which is like two points back to back and a 'catch' point, so yes there is catch! What is a 'catch' point you may ask? Well they are common on real railways but not so common on model railways and I am as guilty as many modelers for not including them in my layouts. The catch point is there to prevent and catch a runaway wagon, carriage or even train from coming out of a siding without the right of way and and onto the mainline where the potential implications could be very serious and even deadly. It does this by derailing the rolling stock and diverting it away from the main line. The photo below shows the catch point as well as the double slip and a three way point leading into the goods sidings.

At the moment the track work is at a "First Fit" stage so any issues are fairly easy to resolve. The photograph below shows where I have got to and a slightly eclectic mix and eras of trains but its fun to run them and that is what this layout is about!

I just need to lay the Motive Power Depot on the other side and then it's time for some serious playing operating trains unless of course there is a catch and Mrs Woody has plans for me to "play" with the garden jobs and painting that needs doing but she will need to catch me first!

Many paths to be followed.

As I have become accustomed too, another few days of distractions and projects taking me on different paths but hopefully they all end up at the same destination which is an overall finished project!

On the 009 gauge road bridge I have given the stone work several washes of a very dilute black acrylic paint. The picture below shows one half of an abutment has received this treatment showing just how simple it is - well it would have to be for it to work for me!

Painting one face at a time and letting gravity do its work means this process can take a long time especially as the temperatures outside fall and my man cave, AKA The Room of Gloom, is not as warm as it was in the summer meaning paint tends to take longer to dry. I did think about bringing it into the house but given my ability to spill paint and stain carpets and other soft furnishings with it, I thought that for harmonious relationships to continue with Mrs W it would be best to just wait! At the end of the various waits this is what the bridge looks like.

So what did I do with the time I had whilst waiting for the paint to dry? Well give me a few minutes spare in the Room of Gloom and I am easily distracted! It has been some time since I did anything with My Last Great Project - the 00 gauge layout that I am building. The 009 narrow gauge layout is at the present resting on the baseboard to the 00 gauge layout and it all looks untidy, unloved and most of all unprofessional to anyone stepping in to the room. There are various items that need to be sorted but unfortunately I am not a tidy builder of projects! I tend to need everything that I need out even though I contribute to the swear jar when I cannot find things but that is just the way I model. When I am cooking, completely different with things washed up and put away as soon as possible. No idea why the different approaches but it confuses Mrs W!

My decision in light of the above was to try to get the basic track laying done (it was just some lengths of track thrown together some months ago to allow me to run trains) on the 00 gauge layout so that I could then at least tidy all the track laying items away. It is a long process and it will take some time but at the moment I have the two outer circuits complete and the third inner one getting there. Next stage will be a few sidings. As the layout is still open to alteration the track is secured in a few places with double sided adhesive carpet tape which is strong enough to hold the track but weak enough to allow the track to be lifted washout making significant contributions to the swear jar. 

The track boards have progressed from this...

to this......

Still somewhat messy but the track is looking more like a railway than a roller coaster!

Mrs Woody's birthday tomorrow so hope she likes her gift or I might be spending more time in a cold Room of Gloom!

Winter thoughts.

A day where today's duties were focused on cleaning up the greenhouse in preparation for Winter as per Mrs Woody's list of such like jobs that I almost forgot about as outlined in my post here. It is amazing how much accumulates and it was a chance for a bit of a clear out as well amd with some nice weather it was a pleasant way to spend the day.

The oncoming of Winter is something I have mixed feelings about. The Summer means warmth (well usually) and light evenings when you can enjoy the outside. All that goes with Winter but the upside is that time for model making increases! Well in theory unless Mrs W finds a list of inside jobs which she will no doubt already have in preparation! However I will hopefully make some additional progress on my various model making projects.

At the moment the 009 narrow gauge layout is the focus and having butchered the Wills kit into something that it wasn't designed for, it was time to start the job of painting. The stone retaining walls have been given a coat of various stone coloured Vallejo paints mixed together randomly and hopefully looking something similar to what such a wall should look like in real life.  The hand rails were given a coat of the same manufacturers cream coloured paint which always looks more realistic than the starkness of pure white. All this has to dry and then a wash of my favorite diluted black paint needs to be applied to highlight the stones and their mortar courses. The bridge deck is still in the making and will perhaps not be the usual type of deck that you may expect but more on that in another post. In the meantime I am awaiting the arrival of Mrs W's list of Winter jobs which is likely to include painting jobs but not of my models!

It wasn't designed to do that!

In my trademark way I have been distracted with another project on the 009 narrow gauge layout! The two narrowboats - I was put right on the RM Web that these vessels are narrowboats and not barges as barges have to be at least 7 foot wide - have got a little bit closer to being finished, but only a little bit!

What has now distracted me is whilst looking through the multitude of unmarked, disorganised and chaotic storage boxes of things 'That will come in handy one day' in my man cave, AKA The Room of Gloom for some plastic card for some parts on the barges - Ooops! I did it again! - I mean narrow boats, I found the Wills Double Track Occupation Bridge kit. This set my mind going - always a worrying thing especially for Mrs Woody! I had used the same manufacturer's single track bridge to take the road over the railway on the original and first board of the layout as described here. Could I use this double bridge to take the road over the river on the second board? It certainly wasn't designed for that purpose! However that is one of the great things about model making - you take something that was designed for one purpose and then repurpose it. There was only one way to tell if this kit could do the job with modifications and that was to get the parts out of the packaging and start measuring and construction. So here I go again. Distracted with this project! However it has actually progressed and looks as though it may well work - again unusual with anything I do! This is what I started with and the packaging shows how the kit designers envisaged the finish product to look. They didn't take me into account though!

The width of the bridge as governed by the steel girders and railings provided in the kit fitted well with my cut out river base in the base-board. Good start! The retaining walls however were too tall. In my use of the kit on the original baseboard the retaining walls were too low so I had to make my own higher ones. This time all I had to do was cut down the kit walls to the right height. Firstly though the main retaining walls were constructed as there are four parts to each one. Left over night to fully harden, this evening saw some carful measurements taken and then the retaining walls cut with a small Xacto saw to the measured height and you know what? They actually fitted! 

As you can see I cut down the wing walls and joined them at right angles to the main retaining wall to give a more normal construction for a river bridge. More work to be done on this and who knows when that may be done if there are any other distractions that come about!

Its A Dirty Job But Someone Has To Do It!

Over my lifetime I have been fortunate enough to have visited many heritage railways and railway museums. Most are run by volunteers who do it for the love of it. Today I became one of those volunteers. As you may have seen from previous posts I have been to the Rocks by Rail Museum on a couple of occasions this year. Its not the biggest museum or the longest railway but it does have a unique fascination for me. I took advantage of a Family membership so that Mrs Woody has also become a member and I decided it was time for me to put something back into railway heritage so I put my name forward as a volunteer. I have no ambitions to drive locomotives but I would like to learn a bit more about the realities of running a railway and be able to say at some stage in the future that I had a part in that project.

I arrived today and was greeted by a great group of long-term volunteers. Once briefed on safety matters I was told we were going to do some work on ballast cleaning which is part of a long time project. In very basic terms the ballast which has become contaminated with fine material no longer drains water as it should. When there are wooden sleepers surrounded by that water retaining ballast they tend to rot and replacing sleepers, so I am told, is not an easy job. However it wasn't that easy cleaning the ballast either. There is some mechanisation with a JCB digging between the tracks but most of the ballast has to be pick axed and hand shovelled out so the JCB  bucket can get to it. I can vouch it is hard work! The ballast is then loaded onto a flat bed wagon which is then moved up the track to near the wash plant. More hand shovelling of material into a teleporter bucket which then takes the dirty ballast to the wash plant which is pure genius. It is an old cement mixer with a 6 cubic meter drum. The ballast gets tipped in, water added, put it on a medium wash cycle and ten minutes later reverse the drum so the ballast is ejected out over a screen and the nice clean ballast is then ready to go back to the track via a hopper wagon. As always the photographs below better explain than my words can! 

No model making tonight - I am shattered but so pleased I have become a volunteer and will be back in a couple of weeks when no doubt there will be further jobs to do and whilst I don't know what they will be it could be more ballast cleaning - Its a dirty job but someone has to do it!. One thing I do know though is Mrs Woody draws the line at manual labour so I doubt that she will be shovelling ballast with me! 

Down by the Waterfront!

Just a quick update on some progress on the 009 narrow gauge layout and the canal wharf and barges. I will let the pictures tell and describe the methods in more detail in another post once things are nearer completion.