Absolute perfection in vegetational butchery!

It may refer to the gradient of the line but to me this sign probably indicated that I was on a hot and sweaty trip up the line with Morris Mower and more on that later!

You may recall from last weeks post regarding the Rocks By Rail Museum that Alex had started painting a cylinder cover from steam loco Barrington and this week that is now in place and very smart it looks.

However, even more painting has been going on and this loco is really coming together.

Black and yellow stripes at the front...

...and at the rear green and yellow! Now3 there have been questions raised regarding the green stripes but research does show that this was the colour used.

Elsewhere, more painting was going on with Uppingham get its wheels undercoated.

You would think that once something is painted that is it. Unfortunately paint does deteriorate with time and Graham the Sentinel is showing signs that its approximately ten year old paint has reached its end!

Despite the coolness of the Exhibition Centre on one of the hottest UK days in July, I did eventually venture out with the mower to cut the things that were still growing!

Apart from the fact that I was probably watering what remained of the grass with the perspiration running off me eventually I got it done.

Absolute perfection in vegetational butchery! Hopefully that wont need cutting for a bit now!

At least the diesel engines won't need to hoot - the owls will do it for them!

As I predicted in my last post about the Rocks by Rail Museum and one of our late members, there are still owls all over the place!

At least the diesel engines won't need to hoot - the owls will do it for them! In time they will all find good homes1

Meanwhile work continues on the cosmetic restoration of steam loco Barrington with Alex painting one of the cylinder covers.

Looking good and that is just the undercoat.

Meanwhile David has been de-rusting the cab to steam loco Uppingham.

John and Dave have been getting on with the new wooden floor to the Southern brake van.

Andy and Martyn have been replacing the mesh on the oversized washing machine ready for another session of ballast washing!

And dealing with plant, Rob has been busy wire brushing, welding and painting the Euclid dump truck.

In the cafe Barbara had set out the autobiography book tanle in an effort to sell these on and she did manage to sell six of them!

I did find a rarity in a pile of other books.

It may just look like another book on the Flying Scotsman but inside....

...a 45 rpm record of the sounds of Scotsman in motion! I was able to place that quickly with an enthusiastic Scotsman fan who also is part of its support team.

I was busy as usual with grass butchery including the surprising growth inside the various cones around the quarry area.

They act as a sort of greenhouse!

I was also joined by my friendly Robin who was obviously looking out for feeding opportunities!

One thing is for certain, the Robin doesn't give a hoot about me!

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!