Heating up and pouring more water!

Out for my daily cycle ride this morning to avoid the heat of the day I passed the service station that I have kept an eye on with their fuel price. They went past £2 a litre a two weeks ago as I blogged here on the 8th June. Although the latest price has not risen as fast as previously it is still heating up with another 3 pence a litre.

Back at WMD HQ I mulled over the heat issue of fuel price and the weather and suddenly realised I needed to take advantage of the heat. The river on my 009 narrow gauge layout is created using a resin. I foolishly put the first layer down on the last day in a particularly unseasonable warm spell at the start of the year. I think I blogged the equally foolish words 'What could go wrong?'. Click here to see that post. Well what went wrong was it took about 2 months rather then the advertised 72 hours on the bottle for the resin to set as the cold weather returned the next day and continued, as you would expect it would in the Winter, unless of course you are Woody! Doh! Anyway I did vow that the next layer would be poured once warmer weather arrived. Despite the warmth of the past few months, in my usual way, I have put pouring the next layer to the back of my mind but sense and taking advantage of the heat has prevailed and so I have now poured another layer of the Jarvis Simulated Countryside Water into the river bed. I did firstly take the precaution of putting a spirit level on the baseboard just to make sure it was still level - no use in having a sloping river unless it is a rapids!

The spirit level almost makes it look like I know what I am doing!

A steady hand is required when pouring to avoid bubbles - pity my camera hand was as steady!

With the resin poured, a hot environment and the weather heating up what could go wrong? Why did I say that????

Back with the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank I have done some more track work but more on that another day as progress is slow with all those individual track links to assemble.

Its happened!

I have over the last few months taken note of the price of fuel at a local service station whilst out on my bike rides. Back on the 7th March I posted my first blog (available here ) featuring the price totem and the picture showing it was this one.  

Wind forward three months almost to the day and the same totem shows the price today including the 5p per liter duty tax cut as....

The £2 per litre has now happened! For those of a certain age petrol is now about £9 a gallon! Good job my bike runs on human pedal power! I couldn't afford to fuel my daily ride out at these prices!

Things going up!

As you may have noted from some of my recent posts the cost of fuel and its progression upwards at a local service station has caused me much interest. Whilst the Chancellor has announced a 5p reduction in the rate of fuel duty which taking VAT in account means a 6p per litre overall reduction in price the price at the local supplier this morning was this.

 I will be interested to see what it is next week!

Taking my mind off fuel prices a day at the Rocks by Rail Museum is a great way to do this. More track levelling today again something going up - this time by the small platform outside the engine shed. This has sunk considerably so that rolling stock was leaning towards the platform. Using Betty the Sentinel locomotive to move the tool store vans and the Lowmac loaded with ballast into the adjacent track meant that the work was a bit easier but still involved shoveling and packing ballast.

The guys busy levelling and packing the track and the Lowmac wagon below with  a few tons of ballast on board.

Betty with todays work train.

The last tool van of the train dates back to 1910 with a wooden underframe having lasted well over 100 years. The state of the wood and the way it has weathered is a great example for modellers trying to get that weather beaten look.

Back at WMD HQ a small amount of progress on the T80 tank means that it is almost ready for the paint shop so once again something going up - this time going up in the list of jobs to do!

Hung out to dry!

Well if you are having to buy fuel for a vehicle you probably do feel as though you are hung out to dry! This mornings bike ride took me past the services where 12 days ago I took this picture of the price totem.

This morning it was now up to £1.869 a litre! I had to take the photo twice as my camera does not deal with the lighting in the figures very well - or maybe its just my camera skills?

Continuing on the theme of hung out to dry I gained a few more bonus points from Mrs. Woody by putting the new rotary drier up. This had only awaited installation for four weeks so I am getting well into the list of things to do - or maybe I am just going for the quick and easy jobs! No matter it soon started earning its living with some washing to dry which in the strong wind of today happened quickly.

Mrs. W even benefitted from lunch out today with a New York Deli sandwich from the nearly out of date cut price counter at the local CoOp! I know I am a cheapskate but at least we had a good view eating it.

 

Despite my new found energy to complete jobs  did have a chance to peruse an arrival for the WMD Railway Division. It is this rather nice 2-6-6-2 Bachman) 0n30 loco to join my existing small collection of such rolling stock. 0n30 is 0 gauge (7mm to the foot) stock running on 00 gauge track so it is a larger version of 009 which all gets very confusing! However the loco is a real cracker with DCC sound. I just need to build that layout for it and its friends to run on! I think that however could blow all my recently earned bonus points with Mrs. W though and get me hung out to dry on the new rotary drier!

Second Look!

Out on my bike ride this morning I happened to go round a roundabout and spotted the price totem at a local petrol station near a major trunk road. I thought I was mistaken in what I saw so went round the roundabout a second time no doubt to the amusement or otherwise of other road users. However despite the prospect of getting dizzy as I went round and round I was actually right in what I saw the first time! 

Somewhat unbelievable and frightening! Luckily neither me or my bike required the services provided by this service station! 

Having returned home without getting any more dizzy and having done some mundane jobs I did have a chance for a bit of time with the Scania 143H truck model. Mud guards are now on the chassis together with the rear lights and battery box cover. Now beginning to get to the stage where you would have a second look at it!