Postal Easter Bunny.

Out for a drive with Mrs. Woody today we stopped at off at the CoOp - other similar shops are available, etc., etc. - as last weeks 'we only need a few things' shopping at the CoOp resulted in a bill sufficiently large for the CoOp to give us a voucher for £6 off our next purchase of £40 or more to be spent by today. The phycology of the offer is superb as we were duly attracted to make that £6 'saving'. Despite 'only needing a few things'  again, we were presented at the checkout with a £58 bill after the £6 deduction! To rub salt into the wound we received a further voucher. This time for a mouth watering 50pence off sandwich fillers! Oh well, at least we won't go hungry this coming week!

On the drive back we past a post box. Nothing unusual in that but it caught Mrs. Woodys' eye so we went back to look closer.

Someone had obviously a lot of skill and spent a lot of time on making this delightful crochet Easter Bunny to adorn the post box. It brought a smile to both Mrs. Woody and me and I even forgot about the £58 bill until we got home and unpacked the shopping! 

Ground Force - The Woody Way!

Those of a certain age will remember the TV programme Ground Force where Alan, Tommy and Charlie would secretly transform someone's garden over a two day period. That programme was probably single handedly responsible for the growth in the popularity of garden decking and water features in this Country. However, in my World, I cannot call upon the services of Ground Force in creating the gardens on my 009 gauge model railway layout. Given that it is set in the !950's/60's the likelihood of decking or water features in British gardens was remote and most gardens consisted of lawn, vegetable patch, flower beds along the sides and possibly a garden shed or green house. Makes my life easy - well easier - in me creating that and doesn't tax my limited creative abilities - all in all The Woody Way. Mrs. Woody would agree with the limited creative abilities bit! 

A start has been made and the gardens are taking shape with static grass lawns, synthetic fiber hedges covered in scatter and earth coloured patches yet to be textured for the flower beds. All very unremarkable but it does add a bit of life. I may be a bit bold and add a washing line - or maybe that might be too creative!

 

Scrapheap Challenge Part 4 and other matters!

The office building has now been primed in black awaiting its final paint scheme which in itself is awaiting me to make my mind up what that final scheme might be! No wonder Mrs. Woody makes the decisions on colour schemes in the house!

As you can see the office now stands on a paved hard standing and the area around it has been static grassed which has made it look a bit more interesting. A little more interest has been added behind the houses on the other side of the station. The pavement and kerbs have been painted and a coat of brown paint was put on where the back gardens are. In addition the gardens have paths and the thatched cottage garden has had some grass added. I now have more scenic baseboard than unscenic which is progress indeed!

Opening Day!

 

Yes! Today was the first day of the 2022 season for the Rocks by Rail Museum. The gate that I hate having to open and close each time I visit out of season was open so I could drive straight in.

By 10.30 we had our first visitors of the season and whilst not over run with people there was a steady stream of guests which was good.

Even though we are open jobs still need to be done and today it was replacing a rotten wooden sleeper on one of the points on the main line. The track was slightly jacked up and the ballast around the sleeper dug out to enable it to be slid out from under the rails. However it was so rotten that we more or less had it in bits in situ.

There was a replacement in stock. Museums usually have a stock of useful things - much like my collection of 'it will come in handy someday' - out of sight but essential to keep things going. It was soon slid into place from the side.

The sleeper was drilled where the chairs holding the rail where situated.

The bolts were then greased and the holes in the chair fitted with insulating sleeves.

Manual labour then sees the bolts screwed into the sleeper.

Finally the ballast is put and packed back and it is almost ready for the running of passenger carrying trains this Easter weekend when hopefully we will host many visitors.

Scrapheap Challange part 3 - Mr. Blender Time?

I ended my last post with the possible option of introducing the scrap box hut to Mr Blender in the kitchen if it all went wrong! I am pleased to report and unusually for me today things went reasonably well! An hour of cutting plastic card saw a roof and barge boards put on and the window surrounds emphasised with some plastic strip. I have left the windows loose at the moment as it makes it easier to paint them separately and then install. Not sure if I will put gutters on as these may be too much for the model - I will think about it in the same way I think about Mrs. Woodys' list of jobs!

I put the hut on the layout to see how it will look and it fits in well to my mind anyway!

I could probably built a new kit in a fraction of the time I am spending on this but it is nice to take something that would have eventually been thrown out and rescue it - especially when it dates back to my childhood although Mrs. Woody still thinks I am an oversized child now!

Scrapheap Challange part 2 - Introducing Mr Freezer!

This morning I opened the tub with the shed in it that had been coated in Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner to be greeted by this.

Mr Muscle had certainly been flexing his muscles overnight whilst I was in the land of nod! Cleaned up under the tap this was what I was left with. A record of my complete ineptitude years ago putting models together. Tube glue daubed over parts twisted off the sprue - this is a real glue bomb model! 

The next thing I wanted to do was separate it into its kit components. Tube glue is not the most controllable glue to apply, especially in young inexperienced hands, but it does tend to stick parts together well. However, being as old as I am , you do come across some tricks and in this case it was to put the model in the freezer! Here it is in the company of some ice cream - in best Homer Simpson voice - Hmmmmm! Ice cream - and some burgers - Hmmmmm! Burgers!

I have no idea of the science but the joints are weakened and it is possible with care to separate them - usually! It did work in this case but I forgot I had left the model in Mr Freezer so Mrs. Woody had a bit of a shock when she came to get the roast potatoes out for lunch! Try explaining the science you have no idea about requires you to put models in the freezer!

Anyway it was a great lunch provided by Mrs. W. Following its introduction to Mr Freezer and with a pit of persuasion the model was in component parts . Some of the pre-existing damage was to the door frame. As the kit door was missing and I would have to make one I just widened the door opening by cutting the necessary plastic away as the photo below shows part way through the job.

Having glued the sides together and reversing the window frames so they now fit in from the back rather than how Airfix intended (you can see the difference this makes from the photos above compared to the one below) from the front and having made a new door I am now at this stage.

I now just need to add a new roof and some gutters, fill those holes in the front and back and then paint. If it does not work out then I can always go back to the kitchen and introduce it to Mr Blender!

Scrapheap Challenge!

These are a couple of boxes of junk items that may come in useful someday although Mrs. Woody strongly argues that point!

Most modellers have at least one such box where broken or surplus bits that really should have been thrown out years ago rest in peace awaiting a possible useful fate.

I need a small hut or two for my 009 gauge layout. I do have a kit from Wills and it looks good for the job.

However I did have a search through the boxes of  bits and found this.

It is an old Airfix coal office kit and it was made by me when my age had but a single digit! Enough said of that! It does reflect my crude abilities at the time and is painted, or should I say plastered, in gloss brown enamel paint. It is missing part of the roof, the door and drain pipes but such things are not going to stop me seeing if I can resurrect this building although it will be a bit like Scrapheap Challenge. 

First and most essential stage is to try to get the paint off it so it was put in an old ice cream container and soaked in Mr. Muscle oven cleaner and the lid put on. I will see what it looks like tomorrow.

Move that box!

Not an instruction from Mrs. Woody to tidy up my junk may come in handy someday items but a passing visit through the village of Lowdham in Nottinghamshire. Lowdham does have a railway station which is served by the Nottingham to Lincoln line. 

Although a small station it does have some history including an incident in 1953 when a train blocked the level crossing for 1 hour and 45 minutes as the driver and fireman had 'words'! The Lowdaham bypass for road traffic was something which came much later so the incident did cause a lot of problems for passengers and highway users. Luckily no such incident took place on my visit as this class 170 Diesel Multiple Unit stopped on its journey to Lincoln.

Lowdham Station does have another distinction. Following a major resignalling programme the signal box at Lowdham, which was located on the other side of the road to the station, became redundant in 2016. A fate like this usually results in demolition but in this case a local group of enthusiasts managed to do what ever necessary to be able with volunteers to dismantle the box and move it across to its new site on the platform of the station and the work was completed in 2020. 

It is now a museum where you can experience what it was like to operate a signal box as all the levers are in place along with other railway related relics. Information on opening times are located here. Why not have a look a that moved box this year!

Two Shed Fred!

 The 009 narrow gauge layout has taken a few steps further forward with much of the canal wharf coming together. All the inset paving is finished and following a coat of Halfords grey primer it was given a wash of my favorite dilute black wash to bring some relief to them. 

Once complete they and the walls to the wharf were all glued in place.. The two sheds were put back and my sign making skills tested with a sign for what I am terming as Two Shed Fred Trading! Although it all requires detailing the basics are there and I even put some crates and barrels in place temporarily together with a wagon on the wharf just to see how things look. What is in the crates and what exactly Two Shed Fred trades in is a mystery although rumours abound that the company is a staging post for Mrs. Woody's numerous internet orders! I will probably pay for that postulation - literally - so lets just look at the photos!

Electrical spaghetti!

I had a bit of a quiet day today - but don't tell Mrs. Woody! A bike ride this morning followed by sowing some seeds for bedding plants taking less time then I thought (as I had run out of potting compost!) meant there was a little bit of extra time for some modelling. There are certain jobs that you put off because you need to tackle them in one go and take more time then you usually have available. One of those jobs was to separate the two baseboards of my 009 narrow gauge layout (they are designed to be split) to undertake some jobs on the wiring. One of those was to find out why one of the sidings was not getting an electrical supply. That actually worked out well as it was only a disconnected wire. The next job was to sort out the electrical spaghetti of wiring under the board. I am no electrician so wires go everywhere although after years of dealing with trying to trace wiring faults on my electrical installations I do at least try to use consistent coloured wires for circuits. What I was facing was this.

I saw these electrical connectors which seemed a good idea some time ago so had one in stock. It allows you to connect multiple wires serving the same circuit into individual connections which are in turn connected together by the connector block.  

It makes life a lot easier rather than having to twist several wires together and stuffing them into a single connector board. Hopefully it should also be a lot more reliable and it no longer looks like spaghetti!

A bit of work on the canal wharf has also taken place with the water, wharf walls and coping stones glued together and the various cobbled parts fettled to fit around the tracks. These are cut from a sheet of embossed plastic sheet. I just need to finish the last piece to run between the long siding and then it can all be glued in place.

Now what to make for dinner - Spaghetti meatballs perhaps!