Not exactly the James Bond lifestyle but remarkably satisfying for me!

The last few days have been a little like each other with gardening and control panel building being the main focus of activity. Not exactly the James Bond lifestyle but remarkably satisfying for me! Being creative in one form or another is something that most of us get a buzz out of and it is gratifying to see in one case a small seed planted weeks ago and nurtured becoming a plant that can be put in the garden and in another case a load of wire, connectors and switches that becomes a working (almost) control panel for my model railway.

So today saw more home grown plants put out into the garden which has pleased Mrs. W as her drawing up of a jobs list for me is her creativity outlet!

The control panel is now in  place all connected up and going through shake down trials which is another way of saying there are a few things that I need to sort out. Nothing major but the sort of small niggles that can take a bit of time to find where I may have connected the wrong wire!

There are still things to do such as a good tidy up and to get those wiring looms secured to the layout but that will come with time!

I must admit, that using the panel is taking some getting used to as I preciously just poked a point into the right direction for the train. Now I have to look at the diagram on the track plan and think about which switch controls which point. It will become easier with time and unlike poking the points with my finger I don't need to walk up and down the layout to get to the points. Working smarter as I get older!

Not so smart at the moment though is my workbench that is rapidly disappearing under tools, wire, soldering equipment and other things! I really need to be creative and get that tidied up soon!

Nearly finished!

It is mid June and the Summer is here which is obviously why Mrs. Woody turned on the heating today! I must admit I was happy that she did as I was feeling a bit cold too given the current weather! After yesterdays storms and turning on the heat today it feels more like Winter and also the persistent rain today meant that any vegetational butchery (AKA grass cutting) at the Rocks By Rail Museum was a bit pointless so I did not go in.

I have however finished wiring the control panel for my 00 gauge Last Great Project Layout!

I just need to tidy the wires up with some cable ties and then give it all a proper testing! That will be interesting and may lead to generous contributions to the WMD Swear Jar! 

Looking up top it is quite satisfying to see all those holes that used to be there now filled with wired up switches.

Looking at this project, which is tiny in comparison to commercial builds such as ships, does make me wonder how on earth do you sit down and design let alone install the electrical system for a large cruise ship? Much respect to those that can do that work!

Now, back to a nice warm WMD HQ!

At least it is a bit more colourful just like my language was when it hailed!

I'm not talking about building control panels today as to be blunt nothing further got built! However, that does not mean I was not busy as I did a few Mrs. Woody chores that are on her list for me. Despite the weather forecast I got the grass cut in the garden and I started clearing a large flower bed ready to plant out. Now, it is mid June which should mean hot and dry weather. However, that is not the message that the weather appears to have as this happened.

It looks more like mid January than June! It was certainly one large  and noisy thunderstorm with a lot of hail. Luckily I was able to step inside and observe. After about half an hour it all passed over and the sun came out which was a suitable signal to Mrs. W to get me back out to do some planting!

There is a lot more to plant but at least it is a bit more colourful just like my language was when it hailed!

The end is looming!

Well, the end is looming on work with the control panel to My Last Great Project layout! Just 5 wires to finish the last of the seven wiring looms and six switches to fit so a day or so may see that done or in Woody time it might be finished this coming weekend!

The whole project is certainly a complex one and I will be glad when it is finished and working! My previously reasonably clean and tidy work bench has become a somewhat unorganised mess in true Woody style!

I see a need to tidy it looming up once the control panel is finished!

Spot the difference!

It is a bit of a case of spot the difference with todays picture of the control panel compared to yesterday. However, observant viewers may note that three more switches have appeared up top and the complexity of wiring underneath has increased compared to a few days ago!

This is probably one of the most tedious projects that I have undertaken but the end results will or should be worth it if it all works!

I could say that nothing has gone wrong but this is WMD where I tell it like it is warts and all!

Ploughing along with the control panel to my Last Great Project layout and this is the fourth wiring loom of the seven I need to make to be completed.

As each one gets finished a few more point operating switches appear on the panel.

As they do appear they are also tested. Now I could say that nothing has gone wrong but this is WMD where I tell it like it is warts and all! So, there have been two switches that went into the wrong holes but that was fairly easily rectified. Apart from that, the rest of the creation of this panel has been uneventful but slow! Lets hope that continues although a bit more speed would be useful!

Silent Saturady!

Well, silent as far as model making goes although there has been horticultural activity including potting up these Marigolds. They may be late in the growing season but I am catching up!

Of course you cannot have a silent Woody for long!

I just keep in my mind that I am dealing with one wire at a time!

The control panel slowly fills up with wires! It may look complex now but by the end it will look even more complex! I just keep in my mind that I am dealing with one wire at a time! 

I am also trying to keep things looking as though they are organised and tidy unlike my mind where the plan for all of this exists! 

At the present rate of progress I think another two weeks will see it finished and hopefully wotking and working as I envisaged! 

Sammy Strimmer back from the Strimmer Hospital!

On my way to the Rocks By rail Museum today I got a phone call from the Strimmer Hospital to inform me that Sammy Strimmer was now fully recovered and ready to be picked up and so I diverted my journey to do just that.

Back at the Museum, Sammy was pleased to be reunited with his chum Morris Mower and both were soon put to good use! I ventured into the Boneyard where days upon days over the Winter had been spent clearing the vegetation. Unfortunately much has grown back!

However, it is young growth and what took me about four days to clear was cleared with Sammy in about forty minutes!

There is still a lot more to do but with a good head of steam a couple of hours later this month should see what I cleared over the Winter cleared again.

I did note that Sue has emptied the clam buckets of the rather uninspiring vegetation that grew in them and is no doubt on the way to creating something more inspiring.

Did I mention steam? Well, steam loco Uppingham was hauled out of the Exhibition Centre looking somewhat bare as the cab has been removed and now sits at the back of the Restoration shed.

This gives easier access to the firebox and for work on the saddle tank, 

And so David, Alex and Thomas moved in with grinders and wire brushes to remove rust and debris.

Back in the Restoration Shed John is continuing work on the Southern brake van aided by Dave. 

The metal floor is close to being ready to plank in wood and just needs painting.

Further up the Restoration Shed, steam loco Barrington is slowly coming together with pipework and sandboxes receiving a black top coat of paint.

So, another good day at the Museum and one where I go home with a sense of satisfaction!

It will be magical!

 Work continues on the control panel with the jig saw of wiring growing but not to the extent of needing a picture to illustrate - yet! Hopefully as the wires are connected and soldered something magical will appear! Not sure what it will be but I am sure it will be magical!

In the meantime, back in mid May in a post (click here) I noted that on a bike ride I saw the local canal at a much lower water level than normal and commented that I would keep an eye on it. Well, two weeks on and 250 more miles on the bike since then this is what the canal looks like.

Magically the water has again disappeared! There is certainly now more mud than water!

Even this duck looks to be concerned about the lack of water! I will endeavour to keep  a continued eye on the situation and hopefully get some more cycling miles under my legs! That would be magic!

Well at least I have an excuse not to cut the hedge which is on Mrs. Woody's list of jobs for me!

Work on the control panel continues. Having got the main track power feeds wired in and proven to work the next stage is to get the four sectionalised hidden loops wired in. I could just have powered the loops conventionally but being hidden from my view and with DCC locos having an element of inertia which means even when you turn the throttle off they will still coast for a distance just like the real trains do, being able to turn the power off to the track is useful. First thing to do was add to the already existing looms of wiring.

The yellow wire denotes a feed to a sectionalised section of track. 

Within the control panel the wiring for the sectionalised track is added to the main track power feed and then to the central pin on the switch. The other pin will be wired to the relevant output.

Here are the four section switches from up top!

I had to put the control panel in place to test the track power feeds which gave me a first look at how it looks with the track diagram attached and it looks good to me anyway!

Whilst my work so far may look like a birds nest of wires, I have witnessed the pigeons that I blogged about earlier being busy in the hedge that runs behind the Man Cave. Having a bit of a nosey I was taken aback to see a proper nest with nesting pigeon!

Well at least I have an excuse not to cut the hedge which is on Mrs. Woody's list of jobs for me!

And so the jigsaw starts!

I have made many a jigsaw over the years and usually enjoyed them. However, the current jigsaw is not quite as enjoyable as it is the control panel to My Last Great Project 00 gauge layout.

Like a jigsaw it is a case of getting the right part or in this case wire, to the fit the right place. With most jigsaws you get a picture to work to but in this case the picture is in my head which probably is not the best of places for it to be! However, I have wired up the main track power feeds and tested them and amazingly it all works first time! I hope that is a good omen for the rest of the wiring!

I should really be worried with the amount of these murder programmes she watches!

One of the few jobs that I completely leave to Mrs. Woody is ironing. Anything else I will do but ironing just is not my thing. Mrs. W on the other hand finds it somewhat therapeutic and usually irons whilst watching another murder mystery TV series - I should really be worried with the amount of these murder programmes she watches! Anyway, yesterday saw the demise of the iron that decided after about 10 years of use it was no longer going to heat up. Whilst with most such items I would have opened it up to have a look and repair if possible I am somewhat dubious about repairing an iron that is held in the hand and has electricity and water! At this point I should point out that I do not watch murder mysteries! So, Mrs. W ordered a new one of her choice from Argos for pick up today.

She did get a bargain as the iron should have been £82 (cough, cough!) but it was on sale at half price and then she got a discount code that brought the final price down to a much more reasonable £31!

Whilst she was collecting said iron, I perused the display shelf which had those items that Argos believe that no one can live without and this was there!

Now as a kid I was aware of various play sets such as a carpenters, or kitchen but never a dentists! Those things in the picture look very realistic too! I think I will just stick to playing trains with my oversized trainset!

Talking of which. unfortunately not a lot of time to do anything to it as not only have I been shopping with Mrs. W but also putting banners out for the Rocks By rail Museum's next events.

Next is a Driver 4 a Fiver that should have been on Fathers Day which this year is on the 21st June. Due to a slight misunderstanding it got advertised on the Museum leaflet as the 14th June. rather than confuse everyone more by moving the already advertised date the event remains on the 14th but I have amended the banner with a "PRE" to the Fathers Day. Not sure what people will make of that but it may make them, look more closely at what the event is! 

Those banners are now four years old and I amend them each year with a bit of work and a few cheap materials which saves about £2,000 for each year they get reused.  Not sure how much longer they can go on but they have paid for themselves!

This is the first and simplest. Always best to start simple!

In the exciting World Of Woody, I have not only been wiring and soldering switches but also making wiring looms!

This is the first and simplest. Always best to start simple! The loom will take the wiring from the baseboard terminal connector to the control panel terminal connector. In essence it means that I can disconnect individual baseboards from the control panel or indeed the the control panel from the baseboards all without too much fuss! In the interests of my sanity I have been labelling up the point motor wiring so that as I connect into the control panel switches there should not be a need for too much head scratching! I could just do with some time to get on with this but there is a severe lack of that at the moment for me. Just too much excitement too!

Most days in Woody's life are not that exciting anyway!

Nothing too exciting today, well most days in Woody's life are not that exciting anyway, but I have started to wire up some of the switches for the control panel to My Last Great Project Layout.

I have about 30 to do so that will keep me busy in my exciting World!

The end of the line which you can now at least get to!

It was a case of, what is missing from this loco, as I arrived at the Rocks By Rail Museum. 

Usually I walk past such situations without noticing anything but I did notice that the cab of Uppingham has been removed as part of its on-going cosmetic restoration.

As with all such work, the true extent of the required work is only fully revealed once parts are removed. The amount of rot in the footplate is frightening. That is quarter inch steel that has rotted through!

Meanwhile 1931 is slowly being put back together with John inside the frames preparing to paint.

Outside, Andy and Martyn were on the mechanised vegetational butchery machine AKA the weedkilling train and there has been a sudden growth of the pesky vegetation so there work is much needed.

Not the greatest of jobs to do on a hot day as Andy has to put on protective clothing making him look a little like a beekeeper!

My vegetational butchery was much less demanding of protection for me with Morris Mower and myself disappearing down the nature trail where nature was rampantly taking off but that was soon taken care of!

The end of the line which you can now at least get to!

What has amazed me is given the lack of rain during May and the both very cold and very hot temperature is just how much vegetational growth there has been!

It actually looks like a control panel but at the moment that is it!

Progress on the control panel! The track plan was coated on the rear with some spray mount and mounted to the top of the control panel and the DCC input panel was also bolted into place.

It actually looks like a control panel but at the moment that is it! It needs to work which will involve lots of wiring and soldering so lots more to do!

Next job is to get the motor in place and see if it runs!

Some progress on Mr. B's (husband to loyal blog reader Mrs. B) re-mototing of his beloved Triang Hornby Britannia. The new motor is not quite a slide in simple replacement as there is a need to rewire things.

First off a wire needed to be soldered to the underside of the motor and then to a tag which replaces the all live chassis pickup of the old motor.

Next up the old motor and syncro-smoke unit were removed from the chassis.

I had never seen the inside of one of these smoke units that were a fad in the 1970s. There is a small heating element that is supposed to heat up the oil soaked fibre and the cog drivers a puffer to emit smoke from the locos chimney.  Looking at that fibre and seeing that the unit got surprisingly hot on the outside during my previous testing I thought that to avoid a possible fire it would be better to disconnect the unit. I would leave the unit and wiring in place though just in case Mr. b really wanted this feature working.

Turning the loco over I removed the base plate so that I could solder the wire on for the other part of the motor.

Next job is to get the motor in place and see if it runs!