One man went to mow!

Having a concert full of Bryan Adams songs going through my mind for the last day or so, those songs were replaced by one today - One Man Went to Mow! I spent the day at the Rocks by Rail Museum mowing grass and walked about 6 miles doing so! However it did look a lot tidier after and as this is what visitors first see driving into the site first impressions are important.

Whilst mowing that dump truck was passed by me on many occasions. It is a Euclid and is in running order but needs some TLC - a future project???? We will see! Maybe after mowing that meadow!

Rocks by Rail, Bryan Adams and 18 'til I die!

No, Bryan Adams has not become a volunteer at Rocks by Rail Museum or, as far as I know, visited it. However for me I had a day of volunteering on the Museum's open Sunday which saw a good attendance. The popular Driver 4 a Fiver event fulfilled many visitors long held desire to drive a railway locomotive and it was a delight to see so many smiles on faces.

In the evening Mrs. Woody, some good friends and me descended on a Bryan Adams concert. Been a fan of his ever sine Run to Me was released back in the mid 80's and have seen him in concert on many occasions. He is one of those stars who as far as I can make out never has a bad show and with nearly 40 years worth of material to draw on his concerts are always different. However the classic songs are always there and Summer of 69 had everyone standing. It was a late night but worth it although the £30 T shirts were not in my view so just great memories to record my attendance! Just got to get my hearing back!

He and I may go back a long time but we are both '18 'til I die!'

Retail therapy???

 In yesterdays post I described the brilliant Market Deeping Model railway Club Exhibition and how I went back in after lunch leaving Mrs. Woody and her book enjoying the sun. I had spotted a few items before lunch and this was the main one.

I have a weakness for EWS liveried locos and this was something special. A limited edition of 1000, three wagons included all weathered by TMC - The Model Centre - and fitted with a DCC sound decoder. It ticked a lot of boxes for me and so with no Mrs. Woody to act as monetary advisor money exchanged hands and it became mine. I also had an interesting conversation with the traders about all sorts of matters and that is what these shows are about - conversation. 

Getting it home the loco is superb with a really good Loksound DCC decoder and it sounds awesome. I do have some more of the wagons in my collection so hopefully the train will be a bit longer when I find them but in the meantime a few photos of this stunning model.

Market Deeping Model Railway Club Exhibition May 2022

I last went to this exhibition in 2018. In 2019 I was on holiday so I would have been unable to go. The reality was that no one was able to go as the exhibition was severely vandalised the night before opening. The media coverage was national in nature and the club received much support including from Rod Stewart who is a keen model railway enthusiast. However as was highlighted by many no amount of money could buy back the time taken to build many of the models. For some modellers the simple truth was and is that they will never have the life span to rebuild! That is a sobering thought. However, despite Covid, the club have come through and today opened their first exhibition since 2018 and wow! It was a great one.

The layouts were superb with the massive tail chaser from Hornby Magazine based on the West Coast Line attracting a lot of attention.

Some great modelling including the speed camera on the road bridge.

Something not often pictured is the fiddle yard on most model railway layouts. The Hornby layout had a massive and well stocked one complete with one of the new Accurascale Deltics with sound - Nice!!!! Possibly now on my list if Mrs. Woody isn't reading this!

Another crowd plaeser was this n gauge layout - The Spirit of Swindon. Superb presentation looking as though you were viewing a picture or a stage and with a massive control center at each end including monitor screens showing what was happening in the fiddle yards.

There were many other layouts and here are some photos. Apologies for those that are not included but they were all high quality and entertaining.

The skill of the modeller is really shown here with the way in which the flat background sheet just looks like the model carries on into it.

Mrs. Woody seemed to enjoy the show but after a couple of hours she was ready for lunch so back to the car for a sandwich. Then, whilst she sat in the sun reading another murder mystery (I should really be worried) I went back in for another look and some retail investment! More on that another time!

The club should be proud of what they have produced and its so good to see that they have come back so strong from the disaster of 2019.

Do you want to see my etchings?

Not some crude line from a 1970s comedy TV show but in this case the MiniArt Egyptian T34/85 tank has some parts made up from etched brass contained in a sheet of etchings.

I am now working on the front panel of the tank body and two of the parts are brackets that are made up of an etched frame and plastic swivel part. The size of what I am dealing with is perhaps best shown in a photograph.

This then needed folding into a U shape and the plastic part inserted. Good test of your eyesight and finger dexterity!

Two of these joined some other parts on the front panel. This is not going to be a quick build as this bit of modelling took an hour and a half!

Swan song!

Well not quiet my swan song but whilst out this morning on the bike I came across this.

Looks a bit strange but getting closer it was a young swan having a kip! It looked up at me as I took the photos and stretched before going back to sleep. An hour later as I headed home it had moved a bit further down the road but was enjoying the morning sun.

Back at WMD HQ it was time for some green house work and I spent a pleasant few hours pricking out seedlings into pots. I will be in good books with Mrs. Woody - I hope anyway! Still more to do but it is nice to see nature at work.

I even had time for a bit of model making. The two T34 Egyptian tank kits have been sitting in my Man Cave shouting out to be made and I have given into one of them! So in my usual grass hopper way of jumping from projects another now joins the list.

There are a lot of parts in the kit which is worrying.

So far I have managed about 30 or so of these parts which has got me a basic chassis so far.

|Having built the Italeri kit of the Russian version of this tank a couple of years ago this one is light years ahead of it in detail. However more detail can mean a harder and more likely to go wrong build so I will see how I go. I just hope this kit is not my Swan Song!

Time for a Western.

I don't get to operate the TV remote control here at WMD HQ. That is very much a Mrs. Woody job for some reason I have yet to work out! Therefore the likelihood of a John Wayne western film on the TV is as remote as the remote control itself! However for my purposes the Western I am interested in at the moment is the Dapol 00 gauge Class 52 Western locomotive. Built in the early 1960's as part of the railway modernisation plan, 74 of them operated mainly in the western regions. They were a diesel hydraulic design and as well as the distinctive engine sound they also looked distinctive and that is one of the things that attracted me to this model. If you want more information the Wiki page, click here will explain the technical details far better than I can.

I have had my model for some time now - purchased during the start of the pandemic - it now needs to exercise its motor! 

For my model I needed to add a DCC 21 pin chip. Having recently done the Dapol Class 73 I am happy to say it was as simple as that especially as I managed to fit the DCC chip the right way round this time!

The loco and the DCC chip in its packaging.

Four screws, one at each corner, allow the body to be lifted off.

With the body off the circuit board is revealed with the blanking plug on top.

Blanking plug removed and DCC chip plugged in - the right way round!

There is a pack of detail parts to fit including some headboard inserts and a very nice set of etched name plates for Western Dragoon. I will fit these later once the loco is run in.

Once I programmed the DCC chip it was time to run it in so onto the layout it was. Looks great and runs superbly. Certainly not a cowboy loco! Now, if I can get hold of that TV remote control there could well be another Western.....