Its the volunteers who make the Museum!

A shattering day for the volunteers at the Rocks By Rail Museum today but a good one! I am particularly shattered after a day of shunting so should sleep sound tonight! 

Hard work it may be but there is always the odd moment of humour or relaxation for the volunteers as these pictures show. John certainly dresses appropriately - look at that T shirt and those socks with the British Rail logo! Nice one John!

We are lucky in that we have some young blood in our volunteers with George doing his best to try to keep clean but being Fireman that is not going to be possible!.

Taking a break from operating the dragline Rob enjoys an ice cream - it was getting hot!

Derek was more traditional with a nice cup of tea!

Geoff giving the green flag to another incoming train.

Mick thoughtful as to what the next project he will under take will be like.

Eric looking happy and why not as he is driving the train!

If I didn't volunteer I would never meet all these other people and share a common interest that centres on the Museum but it is the volunteers who make it what it is!

Finding Time!

Things are progressing with my platform, but not as quickly as I thought they might! Finding time to do everything is an issue! The photo below shows my method of joining the two parts, well actually three, of the platform surface. Because of the girder like construction of the base there is no room for a thick piece of card under the platform surface otherwise there would be a hump in the surface! Not having the time to carve chunks out of the base to make room I needed something else. My solution - paper! Just a small piece glued to overlap the two parts and with some glue also applied to the card joint. It wont be strong but as long as it holds until I finish the slabs and then the surface and base are glued together that is all I need.

Part of why progress is not as quick as I would like is that these lighter evenings and good weather (well better weather!) see me cycling a bit more (1400 miles this year so far) and catching up with a mess of a garden. However there are always things that delight like this young blackbird that I took a photo of having had a fill of apple!

Tomorrow wont see much time for model making either. A day of shunting at the Rocks By Rail Museum at the Quarry Day Event and then I need to go and change the banners for the next event a week today which I only just found the time to alter from last years date! That will be a long day then! When will I find the time to do Mrs. Woody's job list!

If at first.....

Time to put some slabs along the edge of the platform surface that I am building at the moment for my 00 gauge Last Great Project Layout. I had in the back of my mind using some very thin plastic card that I could cut into a long strip and score the individual slabs onto it as well as a bend at the front to go over the edge of the card surface. The theory was, by my standards anyway, sound but it just did not work out. The long strip bent as it was cut and the edge would not fold over in a clean line despite having scored it. 

If at first you don't succeed try again so plan B came into operation. This had me cut out the individual slabs from the strip. Each one also needed the edge folding to go over the edge of the card as the photos below show.

It really did not work! It was a pain and time consuming folding the edge of each individual slab and they did not really stick to the card very well.

If at first you don't succeed try again so plan C came into operation which substituted paper for the plastic card!  

I still cut out individual slabs but no need to pre-bend the edge as they could be glued using PVA to the top surface and once dry the edge of the card could be painted in PVA and the edge of the paper slab bent over - I even surprise myself on occasions with the genius of the plan!

It is time consuming but not as much as dealing with the plastic alternatives and in a way it is therapeutic!

I have done about a third so far but it is looking OK at the third attempt of adding slabs!

Brick Magic!

Time to bring some life to the platform that I am building by using the magic of Metcalfe Red Brick Sheets! 

Having measured up, I cut enough strips to the right width to cover the platform base.

With those cut, PVA was then applied to the rear of the strips and they were attached to the platform base.

I had cut the brick strips so that I could match the mortar lines at the joins and that seems to have worked well. The red arrow shows where a join is.

With all the strips glued on the base looks much more, well, err, base like!

I just need to start working on that platform surface starting with some edge stones but that is for another day!

Lets break in this job!

Its time to fit new brake shoes to Graham the Sentinel Locomotive. Now fitting such things to a car is one thing but the level of work needed to fit to a locomotive is another. Its not so much that there are technical issues its just the sheer mass and awkwardness of fitting heavy metal components in a confined area so its best to break in this job slowly!

David and Derek discuss the breaking in process...

Whilst John just got on with it!

The good news is that the brake shoes are now all fitted meaning that Graham will be running this May Bank Holiday.

Meanwhile at the other end of the Museum site, Pam is continuing the epic paint of Sundews cab. This si not for the faint hearted but she has made som egrea progress.

With both Pam and Pete having strimmed the area and me having butchered the grass with the mower the whole area looks good in this unusual sunshine that we had today!

Meanwhile Rob the Welding Wizard was welding yet more metal into the plant shed roof! That thing will outlast us all!

The Weighbridge Office s looking good with David having cleaned and painted much of the weigh head.

For me the only braking in I did was with my back which suffered as it was a massive grass cutting day but it is one of those jobs where you can see quick and impressionable results like this!

I will be seeing how good Grahams brakes are on Monday when we have a quarry day and I am doing some shunting! That will be great for braking my back in again!

Woody goes Hi-Tech!

For many years I have had a flat screen TV with built in DVD player on my workbench. I inherited it so don't know much about its past. I have never used it let alone even tested it to see if it switches on preferring the less distracting radio or CDs or even showing my age, my collection of cassettes! However, having a collection of railway and model making DVDs which I never get the chance to watch as Mrs. Woody is watching the latest murder mystery TV show on the main WMD TV or I am in the Man Cave listening to the radio/music I thought I would just see if this flat screen TV works - and it dose so I have gone Hi-tech! So I have been watching some Steaming Around Britain DVDs which is great as I have never seen them before and surprisingly not that distracting as I tend to just glance up to see what sounds the interesting parts - just like communicating with Mrs. W - I really hope she doesn't read that bit!

The proof in not being distracted is that I finished the other end of the platform base. As you can see this coincided with a splendid bit of film of a steam train heading for Mallaig in Scotland!

Putting the platform top on temporarily, saw a cab view from a class 156 DMU heading for Fort William!

Finally clamping the platform base to the workbench to avoid it bending in unplanned and unwanted directions happily coincided with the end of the DVD - all very Hi-Tech!

I can now start thinking about adding some brick facing to the bae and some edging stones to the platform surface. Wonder what Hi-Tech method I will come up with for that?

Looking like a girder!

Now Mrs. Woody sometimes comments on my rough appearance looking like some old rusty bit of metal but in this case the delights of cardboard engineering butchery have resulted in me constructing something that does indeed look like a girder!

I have completed one end of the platform base which includes the ramp at the end of the platform. Now someone with skill and technical knowledge could well have calculated the various lengths and angles needed but not being skilled or of technical knowledge - remember the brute force and ignorance post of not so long ago - I just put things together and made rough guesses which surprisingly have worked out OK! Just don't ask me to construct anything which is safety critical!

As the photo below shows further cardboard butchery has also seen the girder type construction finished at this end of the platform.

The thing with cardboard is that whilst it is relatively easy to work with and can bend as you want it, it can also bend as you dont want it whilst you wait for the glue to dry. Now much as the Man Cave is an inviting place for me I had no desire to sit in there for 8 hours waiting for the glue to dry so I could make sure that the structure did not bend the way I did not want it to. I therefore used some clamps and clamped the straigh edge to the work top. Hopefully that will work and I can get on with the other end!

Crossmembers!

Having got my platform surface to the right shape as highlighted yesterday, it was time to add to some sides and crossmembers but not happy members! There are some specifications which real railways follow as to platform heights and roughly interpreted these amount to a 17mm highwall in model form. I have cut some mounting card walls to this height and also some crossmembers.

Just to get a feel for things I placed the platform surface on top which shows it is looking OK!!!

Having checked that my measurements and shaping were correct it was possible to start some more constructive work on the crossmembers. Hopefully the mix of right angle and diagonal crossmembers will keep things both flat and strong.

My glue of choice at the moment is this special card glue made by DeLux Materials and very good it is too.

I have progressed but this will take a few days to build but I am in no rush as whilst doing it I am also running trains on the layout - I just don't tell Mrs. Woody that bit!

However I did tell Mrs. W about these tulips when we called in at Easton Walled Gardens. 

As Mr. Beecham, he of cycling prowess and model making skills, pointed out to me when I sent him some pictures, the red of the tulips is the colour of the paratrooper's berets. It is of course the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden which took place in September 1944.

Doing something different!

Whilst not fully finished by any means, I am at a point with the track laying and wiring on my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout where I can leave that work alone for a while as I let my brain unfuddle itself from the various issues and mundanity that this work is! I can run trains which is the important thing and I am in no major rush to finish this layout. It is supposed to be a relaxing hobby after all!

I am therefore moving over to the different aspect of platform building which is indeed doing something different! I cannot use commercially available products as the layout of the track is unique so no ready made platforms fit. I could use one of the plastic or card kits but again they would need a lot of work to make them fit. That leaves scratch building one and my material of choice is mounting card of which there is some in stock in the WMD Stores - they seem to have everything!

Work strarts by getting the platform surface to shape which may seem a bit strange in that it is being built from the top downwards. However, getting the shape right is crucial.

First piece trial fitted.

The ends now cut to shape and eventually the ends will form ramps. What I forgot at this stage is that I need to trim back further at the curves to allow for the overhang of the coaches.

An overall view showing that the platform will just take a 4 car DMU which is just what I wanted.

Looking from this direction I will also need to trim a little off the width of the platform surface but that will be done when I cut back on the curved parts.

Doing something different like this has actually been good for the mind! Too much track laying and wiring can make life somewhat repetative!

Talking of something different, here in the UK there has been some unseasonal agricultural activity. I have never seen ploughing and harrowing going on at the end of April before but I guess this is the consequence of the very wet Winter we had - in fact yu can still see some water in the photo below. Not sure how this affects food production but I suspect the price of certain things will be going up in price again.