Note to myself - don't mess with Dave!

Note to myself - don't mess with Dave!

Nobody at the Museum has ever seen a shunters pole snapped! However, Dave or should we call him Dangerous Dave, did just that!

Why was I at the Museum on a Sunday? Well it was a full on brake van rides and quarry day event and despite the heat which was lower than it had been we had a good flow of guests through the site.

We also had a ceremony for a founding member, Jacky Garlic who along with her husband Jeff where key figures in the establishment and growth of the Museum. In my last post on the Museum I showed the fence panels that the two had in their garden being refurbished ready for mounting outside opposite the platform and they are now in place.

Jacky was also an avid collector of owl figurines so the family created a unique way to pass these on.

I no doubt will come across more as I cut the grass but they are literally everywhere!

A bit of a shock to me was Andy the General Manager was acting as guard on the freight train which meant we had to be on best behaviour! Maybe anyway!

Whilst shunting can be busy especially when doing a change over of wagons between two locos....

...once you wave goodbye to the outgoing train you do get a moment to rest as Martyn, John, Dave and myself did!

Always a good day at the Museum!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

Out on a bike ride the sheep were, unlike me, again doing the sensible thing of keeping in the shade and cool whilst I pushed myself up hill in the baking sum! So I have to admit the sheep are being sensible!

At the Rocks By Rail Museum, Andy and John were doing the sensible thing of being in the pit under the shade of Graham the Sentinel doing some brake work.

Pam and Pete had been keeping cool in the shade of the Exhibition Centre where they are restoring the fence panel and gate donated by the family of a deceased husband and wife who were founding members of the Museum back in the early 80s.

Even steam loco Uppingham looked cool in the stripped down condition it is in!

In fact the whole of the Exhibition Centre just looked cool and this is not a sight that is seen everyday as there are several locos on that middle road!

So given the sensibility of staying in the cool, what did I do? I took Sammy Strimmer out of the cool of his storage unit and took him and me down to the sidings where we carried out mass vegetational butchery turning things like this...

...into this!

I certainly did not stay cool and it was certainly not sensible as Mrs. Woody would point out but she did give me a sensible dinner of a delicious cooling salad!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

I did take a moment to have a drink and found the site's Robin looking for food among the grass cuttings.

Whilst the Rocks By Rail Museum has some major projects going on at the moment with the cosmetic restoration of steam loco Uppingham, the rebuild of steam loco 1931 and the rebuild if the Southern brake van Rob has decided another project needs to be added to the list so he is doing up the Euclid dumper truck.

Much grinding and cutting out of rusty metal has been going on but still much to do Rob!

For me it was back to grass cutting. I missed last week because of the rain but never expected the level of growth that has happened over two weeks. However, a combination of Morris Mower and Sammy strimmer managed to change this...

...to this...

And I continued up the site and outside too! 

I did take a moment to have a drink and found the site's Robin looking for food among the grass cuttings. He took a break from that too!

 Cant see the Robin?

Elsewhere on the site it has been a story of  colourful flowers in the planters on the platform and around the cafe thanks to Sue's hard work...

...whereas Andy's hard work on weed killing has been a story of brown weeds!

And finally, the clam buckets have been emptied of vegetation and rocks added to illustrate what they were used for and that has made a big difference.

All in all things are moving on!

Betty breaks!

It was Driver 4 a Fiver at the Rocks By rail Museum today and I did Front Of House in the afternoon welcoming guests. It was a nice relaxed day although one of the things to happen was a bit unexpected. Betty the Sentinel loco being used for the Driver 4 a Fiver broke down whilst in mid trip! not good but as normal, the situation was soon resolved with Mr. D being sent on a rescue mission and towed Betty back to the platform.

At first it was thought that she may have run out of fuel so Pete, Pam and John dropped 10 gallons of diesel into the fuel tank.

That did not solve the problem which may actually be a fuel filter or solenoid issue which I am sure the experts will cure next week!

Shunting Betty into the siding for naughty engines meant that Mr. D could be used on the last of our guests wanting to do Driver 4 a Fiver.

We always manage to find a solution!

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!

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!

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!

That's not cool!

A bit of an unusual Bank Holiday Weekend at the Rocks By Rail Museum with the Sunday being a quite day whereas the Monday was full on mayhem! What was common to both days though was the weather. Wall to wall sunshine and heat! However, that was good with the Museum, and our guests did come and they did enjoy and we all had a great time which is what it is all about!

For some. like Pam on Gate Keeper duties, it was hotter.

But the new hut was a good place to take shelter and keep cool and those refreshments to hand!

For others such as John and Dave hats were the call of the day to keep cool as they fettled the brakes on Mr. D.

Only thing is that those of a certain age may see a resemblance to those two looking like Bill and Ben The Flower Pot Men! That's not cool!