Chip day and the Leyland National bus turns green - with envy?

For many people Friday is chip day with a visit to the local chippy. However the chip I am referring to is more about electronics and model railways but more on that later.

The Peco Leyland National bus probably is not envious of the electronic chip but has now been painted green following some more work on getting the joints smoothed.

The paint is Tamiya Park Green and was airbrushed following thinning. It probably needs another coat but I will let this one dry overnight.

There is probably going to be a white or cream strip along it unless I see sense and realise the issues of masking to airbrush the strip. Once the paint job is done then I can fit the glazing and floor pan. I do think I need a driver and passengers so I will need to see what is in the WMD stores which will probably mean more work and painting.

Moving onto the chip part of this post I have had for some time (and if Mrs. Woody is reading this that some time is a very long time) an 00 gauge Dapol Class 73 in EW&S livery. It goes with my other similar liveried locos. I had not run it yet so as in a frenzy of tidying up that revealed its presence I decided to put a DCC chip in it and get it running. The job entails taking the body off which is held onto the chassis with 4 small screws. Having done that the circuit board for the DCC chip and the various lighting sockets is revealed. 

There is what is termed as a blanking plug on top of the circuit board which enbales the loco to operate on DC. The blanking pug is taken off allowing access to fit the 21 pin DCC chip.

I did not photo the DCC chip in place as I forgot due to spending a frustrating hour trying to get it to work. I even went to the extreme of dismantling the circuit board to see if there was a detached or broken wire. What actually was wrong was that I fitted the chip upside down - Doh! However with the chip the right way round it worked fine! It is a beauty of a model and runs superbly. I had it run in hauling a rake of Mk3 coaches as I did some more tidying up. Maybe the bus is green with envy at this loco?

Variety is the spice of life!

Another day at the Rocks by Rail Museum and more variety spice up my life. The lady who was rostered to run the café today was unfortunately unable to come in so I found myself volunteered to run the café and welcome guests. Luckily for those with delicate digestive systems it was agreed that I would not have to prepare any meals and only offer drinks and prepacked food. So no spices there then! It was not a busy day so I spent most of the morning having a deep clean of the kitchen area. Just don't tell Mrs. Woody or she will expect me to do the same at home!

Looking sparkling!

Whilst I was doing this job that brought me to my knees the rest of the volunteers were trying to sort out some sleeper issues at one of the points. It must have been complex as at lunchtime the 1956 book of track laying (costing 28 shillings at the time - that is £1.40 for those unfamiliar with old money) came out for reference! I think I must have aided the process by serving strong tea! Despite my top rate service the only tip that I got was to make the tea quicker next time!

The afternoon saw me reacquainted with the lawn mower and a session cutting the grass around the car park whilst Geoff strimmed the edges.

All in all another great day a lot of variety to spice up my volunteering life!

National Bus moves on the Woody Way!

The instructions for this kit instruct that you build the body around the floor pan. Now I have in the past said I should follow instructions and certainly if Mrs. Woody gives one I do - well usually! In this case however there are issues if you do. For one thing you would need to paint the interior of the body panels and fit the windows. Do this and the job of masking all those windows to paint the exterior of the body becomes a nightmare. In addition I knew that the body panel parts did not fit together that well which would mean that I would have to either live with a model with horrible parts fit or struggle to make good the joints with the glazing fitted. So I adjusted the 'instructions' so that I would paint the interior, build the body, make good the joints, paint the exterior then fit the glazing and then fit the floor pan. Technically this should not be possible but I noted that I could flex the floor pan enough to get it into the body shell.

So with the revised 'instructions' in my mind the work began with painting the interior of the separate body panels. The instructions helpfully have the prototype colour scheme which was chocolate brown for the floor, green for the seats, earth brown for the lower body, cream for the window surrounds and roof and black for the doors and front panel. Say no more!

Once dry the body was built up and sure enough there were some issues with the fit of the front and rear panels. These were filled with plastic putty and after a while sanded back.

The bus then had its windows masked in readiness for the paint booth.

A grey coat of primer was then airbrushed over it which highlighted that my filling skills were not as good as they should have been! However the primer did highlight that the body shell is very detailed and deserved some time spent getting the parts fit as good as possible.

At the moment the joints have another application of plastic putty which needs to harden over night before being sanded and a further coat of primer added to see if I have cured the problem! Then we will see just how good the Woody Way is!

Jobs you would rather leave to others!

Mrs. Woody has a list of jobs that she would rather leave to other people - namely me! Whilst I am happy enough to do these jobs there are some tasks out in the wide World that you would rather other people have. Out on a long bike ride today (now at 1917 miles this year so far) I saw two such tasks. 

First off National Grid are uprating some of the transmission network as part of a project to increase capacity as we become more electrified as a Country. The guys doing the work are in a cradle hanging off the wires attached to the pylon. The whole thing sways as they move about and with a bit of wind it can take on a life of its own. I don't know if any of the wires are still carrying current but regardless I am more than happy that these guys are doing the work and not me!

Second job was on the East Coast Main Line where they are working on the overhead wires. Although much closer to ground the electricity will still kill you if it goes wrong.

I know the lines are live as the trains are still running. Again, another job I am glad others are doing! 

I did however end up spending a pleasant 20 minutes train spotting! No idea what these new trains are but they look good!

I think I will stick to the relatively safe pastime of model making and doing Mrs. Woody's rather less challenging jobs!

National Bus.

In my characteristic manner of starting new projects before finishing others I have started the Peco National Bus kit. This is for my 009 narrow gauge layout so it is at least connected with my current project. It no doubt is a bit modern for the period I am modelling but it is my layout so Rule One applies - I do what I want! Well only when Mrs. Woody isn't about or can find out about what I have done!

I could have gone on eBay and bought a diecast bus for a song as there appear to be thousands of the things out there looking for homes but I had the kit around in my stock of kits to build and it is much more fun to build a kit them simply plonk a ready made thing on the layout. Well at least that is my philosophy until it all goes wrong at which point I will think it would have been a lot easier to buy a ready made bus and save myself the trouble of building a kit!

The kit is from Peco although produced by another company previously. 

It is a reasonable kit but has a fair amount of flash on the parts as well as ejector pin marks and some large sink holes especially in the seats. I spent a quiet hour or so removing parts from the sprues, cleaning them up and filling in the various sink holes. Painting is going to be interesting as the interior is very visible through those large windows so I think I will need to put some thought in to just how far I go with this!

Live steam at Rocks by Rail.

Another Bank Holiday weekend so a busy time at the Rocks by Rail Museum. Today it was an operational day with a steam engine offering brake van rides down the line and back as well! Tomorrow is a full blown quarry day where two steam engines and at least one if not two diesels will be in operation. Having worked the last Bank Holiday Monday I know it will be busy day for the team working tomorrow but today was also a busy day for the volunteers despite the cloudy weather. 

It is always good to have a chat with our guests and it seems I am good at talking! From my chats I find a mixture of local people who have never visited before as well as people who are holidaying in the area and have picked up a brochure and come along because their interest has been kindled by what they have read. Not everyone is a hardened rail enthusiast and that is one of the many plus points for Rocks by Rail - it is a museum about the iron ore industry in the area and has a working railway as part of that. 

Everyone seems very happy with their visits and it seems for many children this is the first time they have seen a train let alone a steam train at close quarters and they all seem to love it. It makes it all worth while for everyone running the Museum. 

As always when you work the day you never have a chance to see everything but here are a few photos of the day. One day I will have to go and visit as a guest and experience the Museum as our visitors do!

Postal Queens Jubilee

Back at Easter I came across an unusual adornment on a letter box whilst out with Mrs. Woody which I wrote about on this blog - click here to read that post. At that time the letter box looked like this in celebration of Easter....

Today Mrs. W and me were back in the same village where the letter box now looked like this in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee...

Absolutely fantastic! Someone has talent. and a sense of humour!

WMD lunching out!

Much as Mrs. Woody knows I sometimes treat her to a £3.50 Meal Deal from the CoOp (other lunch type purveyors are available, etc.) as she was off work I treated her to a meal out in Stamford. Stamford is a great place with a very historic center which has featured as the backdrop for many TV programmes and series. It also has some fantastic places to eat such as The London Inn where we had a burger each. The onion rings are the best I have tasted so there was a side order of those! I don't normally approve of 'This is my lunch' photos but in this case I make an exception and have an image for posterity! We didn't eat for the rest of the day after that!

Whilst Mrs. W and I were having a good day someone in the nearby car park probably wasn't going to have a good day when they got back to their car.

Yes that is four parking tickets! I could not resist looking at in the windscreen and noting that although a car park ticket was displayed it was from another County and ran out 4 days ago!

Whilst talking cars we stopped at a garden center on the way home and they had two cars for sale. Amazing what difference a bit of time and a change in peoples attitudes to what is desirable. Not so long ago a Mk1 Land Rover would be worth a couple of thousand pounds depending on condition and a 1980's Mercedes a few hundred pounds. Now look! £21,500 for the Landie...

...and £24,995 for the Merc!

Think I will stick to buying model kits!

Some nice quality models - but not mine!

Mr Beecham and myself passed each other the other day with little time to chat but he gave me a box and said have a look when you have a chance. Those who have read other blog posts will know Mr Beecham is a very talented modeller who puts me to shame but also inspires me. In the box were two models to further inspire me.

The first is a 1/72 scale Jet Provost which was a jet trainer used by the RAF. A simply stunning model and some of the detail in the cockpit is only visible to me due to the resolution of the camera which is better than my eyes! I have no idea of the kit manufacturer but suspect it is Airfix.

The other model was a 1/35th scale Tamiya Gamma Goat which was an American 6 wheel vehicle designed for speed and agility and widely used in Vietnam to resupply troops and rescue downed aircrew. A three cylinder diesel engine gave it a unique engine sound. I have fond memories of the Gamma Goat as I had a ride in one at the Muckleborough Collection in Norfolk years ago before health and safety requirements stopped it all! It was a tremendous experience and I would love to do it again if they are able to do the rides again. The driver on the day really had a heavy foot on the accelerator and I admired his driving all the more for that. Back to Mr Beecham's model ( and incidentally he has also riden in the Gamma Goat at Muckleborough) and that day is recaptured for me in his superb model.