Yet more eating out for Mrs. Woody and flood alert at the Man Cave!

Mrs. Woody and me headed to the delights of Norfolk on a far from delightful day of rain to have lunch with some friends which was actually delightful! However as we set of to return back to WMD HQ a phone call from a neighbour warned us that our back garden was flooding. A few photos sent by phone revealed that the green house was definitely flooded with the Man Cave close to being flooded. The desire to get home quickly was tempered by the fact that the roads were truly bad to drive. If there was going to be flooding it would happen regardless of whether Mrs. W. and me were there or not. So a safe drive home found us back still with some daylight to see how things were. Luckily they seemed no worse than the photos showed that had been sent to us. I rolled up my trousers and waded out to the Man Cave just to look inside. At the moment it is dry inside and I just hope it stays that way! The weather forecast says another two hours of rain so fingers crossed!!!!!

More eating out for Mrs. Woody and more signal box building for me!

Mrs. Woody and me went to Skegness today. It has been about 6 weeks since we last went but what a difference. Back at the beginning of September the place was still packed with visitors but today we and a handful of other people were the only ones about. 

Mrs. W did get to eat out again but after the luxurious afternoon tea of yesterday it was a Dominos pizza eaten in the car followed by an ice-cream whilst having a walk along the beach. 

It was actually quite warm today with the temperature at 16C which for mid October is good! A walk back along the main road saw us pass the local theater where this somewhat interesting musical is being performer - could be interesting! 

Back in the non-musical calm of WMD HQ a bit more signal box construction has taken place. This is about as far as I can go at the moment and I need to get some paint on parts. I have left certain sections lose so they can be painted separately which should make the job easier - hopefully!

Placing the bridge and signal box into their respective locations on the layout is giving an idea of the eventual scene. 

I like it!

Well, tomorrow Mrs. W gets to eat out yet again! Can my wallet stand this strain???? Find out tomorrow!

Mrs. Woody has afternoon tea and I start building a signal box!

As part of Mrs. Woody's recent birthday, I had organised for us to have afternoon tea at Belvoir Castle. It is one of those bucket list items that Mrs. W has made mention of before and whilst she may not think I am listening she has said it often enough that I must have heard it at some stage! Anyway today saw us take the steep walk up to the castle which does look good.

Both Mrs. Woody and me were most impressed by the tea room, its décor and service and the food was wonderful! 

Back at the relative dowdiness of WMD in comparison to Belvoir Castle I have had a few minutes to start adding some detail parts to the girder bridge.

And as I will need a signal box I have started that!

It is going to be a modern look signal box too!

Gullies!

Although slow because of a lack of time there has been progress with the second bridge abutment. I did find a pack of etched gully covers. Theses came from the deep store at WMD HQ and Taylor Plastic Models no longer exists and I think has not existed for well over a decade but you can find similar items from other companies.

Gullies are not something often modelled so these two may just add that little bit of extra realism to the road surface 

The second abutment now has the footway walls added to match the first so just a few jobs left to finish - just need to find the time!

Nearly there!

The road over bridge is nearly finished construction wise. A spare hour, (don't tell Mrs. Woody) has seen the road and footways made in card fitted to the second abutment and the supporting pillars are in place. There are just the walls either side of the footway to make and a few details to be added and the next stage will be painting. I did buy some paint today as I have a feeling this bridge will need a lot!

Mrs. Woody's birthday means Christmas is on its way.

Yes, Mrs. Woody's birthday today and as a gentleman (!*?!?*) I won't say how old she is but just that she does not look it unlike me! Anyway an afternoon out after a lazy Sunday morning and we went to Belton House. As the weather was cold but very sunny the place had a fair few visitors but with a site as big as Belton once you get away from the car park there is space to spread out. 

It is a place we have been to before but I cannot recall the Orangery being open during previous visits so with its doors open I was in!

I have no idea why I am fascinated by these places as I have no idea of the plants growing in them but it i is that mix of man made building with enormous plants inside I guess. There were certainly some large specimens.

The glass roof is just perfect! Imagine modelling that!

The only plant that I know the name of in the Orangery is the Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeeana) which Mrs. W told me about. It does look from a distance remarkably like a shrimp! 

Just next to the Orangery is the church. 

A typical old English church with some interesting things inside including this carved inscription from the 1600s. What I found fascinating was the wording and spelling. The letter s is like an f without the horizonal line across midway. Public was spelt publick and capital letters are used on words mid way through sentences. A truly remarkable insight into the development of the English language.

Whilst going to Belton House we stopped off at a shopping park to buy a button battery. They did not have the required size but I could not believe the sudden influx of Christmas stuff including this rather natty flying Santa! I can see that on the roof of WMD HQ! Or maybe not!

Having cooked Mrs. W's birthday meal I think I may see if the Man Cave is accessible!

YouTube video.

Well, yesterdays filming antics of my 00 gauge layout have now been edited and the resulting 18m 49s of final video are now up on YouTube. 

This is now my 29th video that I have uploaded this year. If only I were as productive building models!

New stock !

And if Mrs. Woody is reading this new stock means I have it for ages! I have taken a break from bridge building today and took the opportunity to change some rolling stock on my 00 gauge layout. It is great having different rolling stock but it is a pain and takes time packing items away into their boxes given the amount of packaging that comes with model trains these days. However it keeps them safe which is important especially in my Man Cave with my clumsiness! 

New rolling stock comes in the form of three Southern Railway coaches that I found on eBay for a very reasonable £25. They match the Southern Railway Schools Class locomotive that I got from Mrs. Woody. So if she questions me about the coaches I can justify them being necessary to adorn her gift to me! Does that work???

The other rolling stock is new on the layout but I have had the wagons for some time, regrettably forgetting about this pandemic purchase and having never run them! Well that has changed today and these Accurascale cement wagons do look good.

I also took the opportunity to do some videoing for another YouTube video. I will link it here when done.

Anthracite tiles!

One of those jobs on Mrs. Woody's list that I have put off for sometime was actually completed today. That job was paint the tiles on the front of the house. Originally a textured sand finish when the house was built in the 1970s the tiles have lost much of their texture over the years with the weather. I did paint them some years ago but even that has weathered. Having changed the front door at the beginning of the year to an Anthracite coloured one meant it made sense to change the colour of the tiles to anthracite to match. At least I could tell which tiles I had painted. Five hours saw the job done and it does look a lot better but my back does ache!

Hopefully I will be in Mrs. W's good books - for once!

Back in the Man Cave not a lot of time to continue work on the girder bridge but the second abutment is coming on and I did have the chance to pose all parts on the layout and I think it looks right - well I would!

Its certainly a lot easier building this then painting those tiles!

Two thirds done?

Two thirds done - well nearly! The bridge deck is just about finished as is one of the abutments. Just the other side to do now. 

The abutment now has its supporting pillars attached along with side wall and road/footway surfaces.

I had to 'test' how the two parts fitted.

And why not add a couple of vehicles just to see!

Hopefully once the other abutment is done and it is all painted I am hoping it will measure up to what I originally envisaged! Only time will tell!