The inspector calls!

Rocks By Rail Museum today which did see me grass cutting but not a lot as I had to take care of some guests and then this afternoon take a tour of the local area putting some banners up roadside to advertise the Museum's next event this coming May Bank Holiday.

Before I did leave I had to go and see what was happening with this loco. It was having a boiler inspector - hence the inspector calls.

 To do the inspection a lot of the loco has to be stripped out.

Being over the pit I could not resist having a look! One of the bonuses of being a volunteer!

And a peek in the cab!

Those strips of metal on the ground to the left of the loco are the fire grate which all had to come out.

I have no doubt it will pass but I had to leave before the inspection was complete. However I did have a few minutes to pop my hjead in the restoration workshop where that pile of timber from last week that will make up the body of a new wagon is still being painted by the ever patient john!

First it was a wood treatment, now a grey primer and then a grey top coat. I am betting John wishes another painter would call!

Instant flower pot!

Not a post about gardening although I did do a fair amount of hedge cutting and weeding today. These flower pots are from the scenic bits I bought at the market Deeping model Railway Show the other day.

I saw these and thought they might look good on the platform at Chalkdon my 009 narrow gauge layout.

I think they add that little bit extra!

No doubt Mrs. Woody will now be thinking that I can do much the same on a one to one scale basis!

Mrs. Woody shares her cold!

Not the best of days today. Mrs. Woody had a bad cold last week which she has now shared with me! Of course being a man it is far worse for me! Luckily I did not feel too bad yesterday as I went round the Market Deeping Model Railway Club Exhibition. The narrow gauge layouts that I featured yesterday were complimented by some small and large 00 and 0 standard gauge layouts. A few pictures here just to give a taste.

A couple of compact layouts that are nice and easy to transport for the exhibitors.

Full of atmosphere was this layout complete with a rarely modeled burnt out brake van. Brilliant!

I did purchase a few items including some DCC chips, a new cutting mat, a few scenic bits and these two coaches.

I have two HST power cars and two coaches so I am trying to get a few coaches to make it a 7 or 8 car unit. These are in the right livery but are Mk 4 coaches whereas the HST used Mk 3 coaches. Am I worried? No! Its my layout and when the train runs you would not even notice! Just wish Mrs. Woody would not notice the bag they were in as I brought it in!

Taking Mrs. Woody for a day out - to a model railway exhibition!

Probably not her first choice of destination but Mrs. Woody does like to accompany me on trips to model railway exhibitions. She does enjoy looking at the layouts - the more unusual the better. She does also keep an eye on my purchasing which actually is a good thing!

Todays trip was to the Market Deeping Model Railway Club exhibition at Stamford. A medium sized event which is large enough to have a variety of layouts and traders but small enough not to be over crowded. The Club has certainly recovered from the 2019 vandalism that they suffered at the start of that years exhibition and it is good to see.

One thing I have noted over the past couple of years since the pandemic is that there are a lot more 009 narrow gauge layouts being exhibited. I guess that with the increase in ready to run products modellers are keener to build in the scale. There was certainly a variety of layouts in this scale at this years exhibition. They ranged from these two small ones...

This one which was actually 7mm scale running on 9mm track representing a farm/miniature railway.

For me though, the layout I would like to build myself was the Hornby magazine 009 layout. It is large at I guess about 8 foot by 3 foot but so well done.

I will just drool!

There were other layouts and despite the keen eye of Mrs. W some purchases too but more of that tomorrow although I can reveal I did buy Mrs. W some chocolate!

Bollard Crowns!

A day out for WMD saw me heading to a talk at a local railway society. Really good talk with a lot of photos from the 1950s, 60s and 70s of the East Coast Main Line from York to the north of Scotland at Wick and Thurso. The photos of steam engines made me want to get my 00 gauge steamers out but that will have to wait a while yet. 

If you have read this blog before about a year or so ago I posted about post boxes having knitted Easter bunnies (here) and knitted crowns for the Queen's jubilee (here). Whilst walking to the venue for the talk I came across these.

There were about 25 to 30 of these what I will term as Bollard Crowns that I could see so there was certainly an investment in time by who ever made them but they looked brilliant!

Back at WMD HQ the steering box of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck received some attention. This is the item and it needs some surgery to 'reverse' it.

Mr. Saw came out to cut the parts that needed reversing.

With the reversing completed the brackets from the chassis that are used to mount the steering box were sawn off and mounted onto a replication of the existing reinforcing plate on the chassis. The glue needs to harden and then it should be ready to mount on the chassis. It will make sense once finished!

Meanwhile the overlength propshaft has been rebuilt. I cut off one part and substituted it with some plastic tube. That way the smaller middle part could slide in and give the right length of shaft - working smarter not harder as I get older! If only Mrs. Woody believed that!

Maybe not as simple a job as I first thought?

My idea to convert the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck may not be as simple as I first thought! Now it is not unusual for Woody to underestimate things as Mrs. Woody will confirm. The front steering axle has had the various linkages for the steering redone without too many issues but the idea that I had that the steering box fastened to the chassis would just involve gluing it to the other chassis rail was shattered when I actually looked at how it attaches. There is a moulded on reinforcement plate and two mounting tubes that I either need to cut out and transfer or scratch build a replacement. One to ponder over tonight!

Putting the rear axles in place I found that unusually the joining propshaft between the two is actually slightly too long which goes contra to my experience with other Italeri kits where the shaft is too short. Not too difficult to sort but will be time consuming.

The engine and gearbox are coming along and almost ready for paint. A few moulding sinkholes that needed filling but mostly the parts have gone together well.

The chassis as a whole is beginning to look interesting and more truck like with various parts being added but it is not the simple job that I first thought! I never learn!

 

RHD? That's wheelie great!

RHD? That's wheelie great! Has Woody finally lost it you may be asking. Mrs. Woody thinks I did years ago but that is another matter! 

In this case I am talking about the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck that I started building a few days ago. The RHD refers to Right Hand Drive. Just about every 1/24 and 1/25 plastic truck kit produced is based on continental or USA brands with left hand drive layouts. It is not unheard of UK trucks being left hand drive, especially those that spent most of their time hauling through Europe into the Middle East and Asia especially back in the 1970s and 80s. However most UK trucks are right hand drive so if you want to build a genuine UK spec truck you need to do some work to convert it. Swapping the steering box over is fairly simple but once you start the more visual stuff such as the dashboard in the cab things get a bit more complex. Luckily there are some companies who specialise in aftermarket truck kit parts. Kit Form Services is one of those. They have, in their large range of items, a RND dashboard for the DAF95 so I ordered one of those yesterday. They also do aftermarket wheels which have a much better representation of the wheel nuts then Italeri wheels. So a set of those were also ordered. Lastly they also do the DAF drive hubs which are finned rather then the generic hubs that Italeri have. I already had those in the WMD stock room but I was pleased to see they still do them. The order arrived today which is great service!

Laid out next to the chassis are the various parts.

You can see the level of improved detail n the KFS wheels in this comparison with the Italeri wheels. 

They look wheelie great!

How much wood?

Tuesday - another day of grass cutting at the Rocks By Rail Museum! With the warmish and damp weather it just grows as fast as I cut it so for the next few weeks at least I know what I will be doing! I did have time to pop into the workshop where John was eyeing up the now cut to length wood that appeared last week to make the body for a wagon. Just how much wood is there?

I am not surprised he is eyeing up just how much wood there is as he has the job of painting it, If I know what I will be doing for the next few weeks, John also knows what he will be doing for the next few days!

Model truck wise, I am starting to glue some of the parts together ready to be smoothed off to hide the joints So far the engine block, two rear axles and the fuel tank are together. The chassis has dried nice and flat to which is good!

Getting it straight!

Time to start the chassis on the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck. This is probably the most important part of any truck kit build. Get it anything other then straight and the consequences on the rest of the build are enormous. Everything either fastens to or sits on the chassis and the whole truck will at best look twisted and at worse never go together as a kit. How do I know? Lets just say I have been there and learnt the lesson! 

Chassis sides and cross members glued and taped together.

And now with added weight! That should make sure it gets straight!

You may think all that weight is a little over the top but better safe than sorry. Talking of being over the top I had to look twice on a drive out with Mrs. Woody today when we came across this house with an obvious roof issue but with scaffold that might look more at home on a factory.

That is going to be a big bill for the home owner!