Best Kept Secret!

After yesterdays major tree and hedge pruning operation I found myself at the Rocks By Rail Museum today where I was greeted by this proclaiming - Best Kept Secret!. 

Well even with my limited imaginative skills I could tell this Best Kept Secret was a steam locomotive! My investigations into this so called secret revealed that this little 0-4-0 steam shunter is off to Kent where its present owner lives. It will be restored and operational next year - well that is the plan but the owner has a team ready to go so it may well happen. If you see 'Vigilant' as it is known on the rails in steam next year it will no doubt look a lot different to how it looks now!

Having discovered what I needed I ended up doing - well more tree and hedge pruning! No escaping it whether at home or at the Museum. I certainly had a bigger job then at home. It started out looking like this.

Some big stuff came out including a 20foot self seeded Ash tree that was in conflict with the established tree.

After about 5 hours it looked a bit tidier and had widened the access path and given space for what remains to fill out next year.

One of the main differences to being at home with this type of job is I didn't need to be quiet as neat - no Mrs. Woody to answer to if there is a bit of a mess! Nice!

It may not look like much came out but here is the pile of stuff I had to stack round the corner. It is about 7 feet tall! Glad I don't have to bag that lot up and take it to the recycling center!

Back at WMD HQ I even managed, after a another tiring day of physical work, to get one of the viaduct kits glued together. It is no secret that it is progressing! How quickly more progress will be will depend on how much more gardening I need or Mrs. W thinks I need to do at home!