Sign making!

The Rocks by Rail Museum opens to the public on Easter Sunday which is the 31 March this year. The Museum has used banners placed at six local locations to advertise its events which last year became my responsibility to put out on site. Given the number of events during a year and the fact that each banner is unique with the event and date details, there are a lot of banners needed during the year. A lot of banners means a lot of cost! In an effort to save money I have been developing a way to reuse last years banners. Basically the text advertising the event is reusable but the dates need to be changed. I did think about paint and stencils but that has issues such as paint adherence to the banner material and getting stencils lined up. I have therefore used some image software to print off the necessary dates. Using a website I was able to identify the font that is used on the banners so it matches reasonably well. I was also able to reasonably match the background colour using the imaging software. With the dates printed off I sprayed the paper with some varnish to seal the printer ink.

I then cut out the individual dates.

 

The individual dates were then wrapped in clear sticky back plastic - very Blue Peter!

I then attached double sided tape to the back of the wrapped dates.

As with most things in the WMD household a cat became involved and Monty here was curious as to what was going on. As you can see last years opening Easter event was on the 9 April.

With the original banner cleaned with some IPA the backing to the double sided tape was removed and hey presto one updated 'new' sign!

Well the concept is proved so I just have another five banners to do and then the 6 for the Easter Monday! I will be busy but signs are that it will be worth it!

Finished!

At last its finished! Not my best build and one that fought me especially towards the end but look at from a distance and it looks reasonable! So its off to the shelf for the Heller Scania 141 LB where it will be seen as a reminder of my perseverance and my frustration!

So now I can move onto something else with out any guilty feelings that I should finish this kit!

DCC Triumph!

Having almost recovered from the shock of ordering a new kitchen last week I can reveal that having not only ordered it but afterwards having also gone grocery shopping with Mrs. Woody and whilst still in reeling from the shock I did, through a set of naturally occurring and easily explainable to Mrs. W circumstances, find myself at a model railway shop! Strange that but also very convenient as I needed some Lais 21 pin DCC decoders and they happened to have them in stock. Pure coincidence of course Mrs. W!

There are no doubt reasons as to why there are various pin configurations for DCC decoders with 8 and 21 pin being the most common but there are also 6, 18, 20 and 22 pin varieties. Anyway, I knew that this Hornby Class 50, named Triumph, needed a 21 pin decoder and I have been after running it for some while so this is the first to receive a chip.

Getting into the insides was not too bad with two cables to unattached and four clips to pull apart. Once inside the complexity of the circuity is evident! Note, I even had the instructions to hand!

To the right of the chassis in the picture and on top of the main circuit board is the blanking plate. This allows the loco to run on a DC operated layout but need sto be removed to enable the DCC chip to be fitted.

 

Blanking plug removed and on the workbench whilst to its left the DCC awaits fitting.

Decoder fitted and as it allows the loco to run both under DCC and DC power a 9 volt battery was used to test that the chip was working before programming it.

Once programmed and now run in, 50042 Triumph takes on a few coaches on my layout.

  I do like it - and the DCC chip fitting was a triumph too!

Why would you build this?

Mrs. Woody and me went for a drive out today Nothing planned and as I said to Mrs. W when asked our destination I said its a bit like the Toyah song from the 80s, Its a Mystery (see Toyah here)! Eventually we ended up on the back roads of a village called Burton Le Coggles in Lincolnshire. Not a great deal there apart from a pub and Jades farm shop which has a great selection of traditionally vegetable and  meat products as well as a range of specialist foods and gifts. You don't find many places with such a nice looking set of fruit and veg!

Apart from highlighting that I will be enjoying some of Jades burgers next week lets move back to the appropriately named Back Lane.

Nothing unusual about the lane but looking down what is a dirt track there is a massive bridge carrying the East Coast Main Line over it. 

Coming in closer the scale and no doubt the high cost of this bridge over nothing more than a dirt track become clearer. It has to be nearly 40 feet high and the arches are wide enough to build a wide two lane road through them with ease.

Why would you build such a costly structure over a dirt track when a simple culvert type construction would have accommodated the local farm needs? I have tried to find out if there is some historic significance to the track which might explain the bridge but to no avail, so its a mystery! However you have to admit that that whole scene in the picture would make a great model if you had the space!

Perseverance 2 and a broken wallet!

The broken wallet is down to Mrs. Woody winning the discussion about replacing the kitchen. My view was that it was a great kitchen when I put it in back 30 years ago and is still good today - just with a few scratches, dents and worn parts - just like me! Anyway a trip down to a well known kitchen specialist resulted in a kitchen being ordered and my wallet broken as it was emptied! Never mind - the plan does look good and hopefully will last 30 years too!!!!

Perseverance is due to continuing with the Heller Scania 141 LB. Having got the doors fitted I have now managed to refit the parts I knocked off whilst fitting the doors and also fitting the windscreen wipers.

Just the mirrors, gear lever and number plates to fit although I must admit my heart is no longer in this build which has become hard work and a test of perseverance! At least the kit is cheaper than a new kitchen!

Its a blue day!

It may not have been a blue sky outside, but inside WMD HQ it was a blue day on my 00 gauge terminus layout. Whilst my railway interests are broad and I will run old steam next to current day locomotives and anything in-between on my Last Great Project layout, I was struck by just how focused I actually am on the so called 'Corporate Blue' era of British Railways back in the 1970s and 60s. Whilst filming a YouTube video yesterday of the layout, I noted whilst editing it that everything rollingstock wise dated to the 70s/80s in era. Most strange and something I had not really noticed myself until that editing! Thinking about it, I guess those where my early years of being interested in real railways, so there is probably some sub-conscious thinking going on! Anyway at the moment I cannot get too much blue so this photo from today shows just some of the 'Corporate Blue' rolling stock that I have on this layout. There is just something about it all that blue......

Gailston - My 00 gauge terminus layout.

A bit of a dreary start to the day with mist and general gloom so I brighten things up for myself by doing a YouTube video of Gailston my 00 gauge terminus layout. A six month project that is still not finished after 25 years! Story of my life! Anyway, here are a few pics and the link to the video is below them and live once it has fully uploaded later tonight!

 

Peraverance!

Well instead of putting it back on the shelf I have persevered with getting the doors onto the Heller Scania 141 LB. They do not fit very well and would probably make a proper body shop cry with the gaps and alignment that I have managed. I have to say in my defence that all the other body panels are, as previously explained in this blog, warped and twisted meaning even the best modeller is going to be hard pressed to get a decent fit. Anyway they are on!  

I just need perseverance now to finish it which I am getting low on!!!

Soapy times at the Museum.

Strange for me to be at the Museum on a Monday unless there is an event but Rob had persuaded me to go in and help him wash the face shovel! Now a face shovel is not the type of thing that you sponge water on  and rinse off dirt before waxing the paint. After years of outside living the face shovel was as much a habitat for fauna and flora as it was a working machine! Cleaning it was going to take some serious work!

The main pieces of kit were the pressure washer (fed from a water container raised off the ground by the CAT to give the necessary pressure), scouring pads and brushes! In fact Rob managed to run over my brush with the CAT! Well at least he didn't run me over!

You can see what we started with - grime and dirt!

The pressure washer does its magic following a scrubbing with brushes and scouring pads!

Stages in cleaning the rear of the face shovel. Firstly dirt!

Secondly slightly less dirt!

Thirdly, a lot less dirt!

Rob, now happy with the job!

And from a side not often seen.

All in all a great job and the face shovel looks so much better for it unlike me!

Not satisfied with the face shovel Rob moved us onto cleaning the cab of Sundew which was once the World's largest walking excavator. More soapy times!

Pressure washer, brushes and scouring pads out again!

Getting cleaner but the paint does peel off so it will need a repaint! Another job to be done!

Rob perhaps was a bit too clean as he pressure washed the interior!!!

There is no doubt it does look cleaner now. Thinking that was it for the day there was one other job. A welding job!

Being a big welder and the job being outside it would have been easier if we had put it on the pallet to start with but we did learn our lesson!

I did some of the welds and Rob made them actually strong afterwards!

It should hold!

Man with the best job today? Derek! He rode the platelayers wagon down the line as it freewheeled down the 1 in 60 gradient - nice and no soap!!!!! That looks the job for me!