Vegetaional butchery reveals - a litter bin!

There is always time for a chat at the Rocks By Rail Museum and in this case it is about further stripping down of steam locomotive 1391 with Richard, Gary and John either discussing how to get the safety valves off or has anyone seen Rob?

Well, it must have been about the safety valves!

AS with anything on a steam engine, it is all about big parts and big tools to get them off as John attaches a tube to the end of a spanner (or wrench for anyone across the Atlantic) to get more leverage..

Meanwhile I found the missing Rob who decided it was a good idea to lie under the loco. He said he was undoing some bolts but....

I think he had a snack in his latest workshop addition of this oversized plastic shopping bag for his tools.Good job Riley the dog was not about!

In the Exhibition Centre, John is continuing flatting the existing paint on Mr. D in readiness for a fresh coat. 

There is an awful lot of work there but John has the will to get it done.

It is the same with David, who is digging out the embankment in readiness to create a viewing platform using Gambian baskets - I need to show those once in place as a picture will explain far better than my ramblings! A lot of digging to go but he will get it done.

For me, it was another day of vegetational butchery, however with something different! This mightlook like a drum of cable for my Last Great Project model railway layout but it is actually a drum of nylon strimmer cable!

I had to put new cable into the strimmer drum so that I could use this exceptional vegetational butchery assistant!

Amongst other places where the strimmer did its business, I ventured into the bone yard where many exciting bits are hidden in the overgrowth.

After an hour or so the exciting bits, such as the litter bin were revealed!

Still a lot to cut back but it is interesting to find what is in there even if it is a litter bin!

Time to tidy!

There comes a time when you know that you are going to have to stop and have a clean up. Whilst I have argued in the past that some of the greatest artists in history have produced their best works in the chaos of a cluttered and untidy studio reminiscent of my man cave,  But, I have also admitted that I am no great artist or produce great work! However things were getting to the point where I was spending more time looking for things then actually doing things so time to tidy! 

An hour saw some bear workbench area being revealed and tools and materials back in places that I knew where they would be.

Meanwhile the wiring on the baseboard is progressing although much to do yet! Just need to keep the place tidy!

Extension pins!

I am eventually going to have motorised points on my Last Great Project layout which will avoid having to switch them with my fingers. All very high tech but it does mean a lot of work. The point motors are the Peco solenoid ones which have an actuating pin that attaches to the tie bar in the point. Apply electricity to the solenoid from one direction and the point moves one way, change the polarity of the electricity and it moves the other.

The Peco motors are designed to fit directly to the point but means you have a big hole in the baseboard which I am not keen on. It also makes changing the point motor, if it fails, very difficult. I therefore mount the motor to a plastic base that Peco makes for this purpose. The plastic base secures the motor and can be screwed to the underside of the baseboard. The only problem is that the actuating pin is then too short to attach to the tie bar of the point. Not a problem as you can lengthen the pin with some brass tube and steel wire which handily the WMD Stores had in stock.

Having measured it did not take too long to make the extension pieces.

It became a bit of a production line. Altogether, on this baseboard I need eigh point motors.

 

It was then onto mounting the plastic bases.

I just need to fix them to the baseboard and then wire them up. Not much to do then!

I must have been lucky!

Well it is back to more wiring on my Last Great Project layout and whilst I thought that I had already previously wired up all the track I discovered I still needed to add power feeds at each end of two points so that is another 12 wires to deal with!

I am using these handy multi wire joiners which I got from DMG Electech, where I can feed up to 24 wires into one unit and then just have two wires powering them. Very handy as it saves cable, saves time and actually makes things a bit neater.

I am also using these screw terminal plug and sockets that I used to know as choc blocks to make the baseboard to control panel (once that is built!) connection. These are again really useful.

Having temporarily connected the various track feed wires up I thought that it might, given my history with wiring, to actually test that it all worked. So I connected up a controller and had this DMU go through all the tracks. Miraculously it powered its way around all the track without a glitch - I must have been lucky! 

East Midlands Narrow Gauge Modellers Group show - some humour as well as a couple of other things!

Still at the East Midlands Narrow Gauge Modellers Group  show, there was some humour about.

What is this on a railway????

Of course it is Thomas the Tank Engine!

Then of course there is that famous locomotive, Mallard!

Followed of course by a duck egg!

Now what's coming?

Ah! It's the flying Scotsman!

There was a Christmas themed 'pizza' layout which was nice.

And then there was Santa having a summer break layout!

Then there was this fantastic 009 Deltic prototype loco on a small layout!

Back to sensibility but keeping it small this layout is the size of two A4 sheets of paper and folds in half - you really cannot say you don't have space for a layout!

Apart from meeting Steve from Steve's Narrow Gauge Adventure blog I also had the great pleasure to unexpectedly meet James and Dylan from Dylington Model Railway YouTube channel - click here to see that. Dylan is a young but very talanted modeller and also a very capable video maker with stop frame animation being something that he excels in. Have a look at his latest video to see why I say that.

Dylan also had his 'in progress' 009 layout on display as part of a Paul Lunn lecture on designing a layout . Whilst at an early stage you can see why this will be a great layout just from the skills demonstrated in building the various structures.

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If only I could build like that!

The unexpected afternoon out for Mrs. Woody!

I took Mrs. Woody out for the afternoon! She wasn't expecting that and equally wasn't expecting to end up at the East Midlands Narrow Gauge Modellers Group  show which mysteriously was on our route!

Never been before and upon questioning neither had Mrs. Woody - strange that! Anyway, it was one of those small shows where there were not massive crowds and you could chat with the exhibitors and take your time looking at what was there. I also had the opportunity to meet fellow blogger Steve, from Steve's Narrow Gauge Adventure - linked on my blog list on the front page or by clicking here. He had said he was attending and as I said I would be carrying a copy of the Beano or Dandy comic if I went we did recognise each other. As I was between him and the exit he had few options other than to talk to me! He did question as to whether Mrs. Woody really does have a list of chores for me to do which Mrs. Woody answered by saying there was a list of lists! That is news to me as well! Being serious, it was great to meet Steve and he is a really great guy with a real passion for narrow gauge modelling and if you have a look at his blog he produces some fantastic models.

Taking in the show itself there were a lot of layouts and traders. I did restrain my purchases but Eddie from 3D Printing For Charity was there to empty my wallet and a number of items from his ever increasing range came home with me.

Talking of 3D printing, this entire layout had been built from 3D printed items including the track.

There were some beautifully executed layouts like this simple circle of track constructed in a cable drum. Very effective!

This O gauge layout only measure 4 x 2 feet for the scenic area  and talking to the builder he only built it to do some shunting at home with a beer or two!

He may only have built it for home use but it had some incredible detail like the guy having a sleep in his conservatory! That could be me if Mrs. W was not about!

This was another layout which was just a simple single track going through scenery but done like a picture with a frame round it.

Get inside the frame and it looks so real!

Another small layout which was for sale - Mrs.W pushed me past this one!

A most unusual layout in that it supposed a narrow gauge layout had made it into a World of automated trains, Amazon delivery pods and the tech world!

Another well presented layout with some real Welsh slate quarry atmosphere.

There were some real example of humour and I will cover those tomorrow but just as a taste.....

Revealing a multitude of wires!

It has been a long tine since I did any work on my 00 gauge My Last Great Project layout but work has recommenced - for now anyway. Who knows what might sideline this!

I still have a great deal of wiring to do and I still need to split three of the four baseboards so that the whole layout is, and I won't say portable but I will say moveable! All the tracklaying was completed back in April ( that post is here )of this year with 86 wires attached to the tracks to wire up the power to the layout. There will be point motors as well so there will be about 200 wires by the time I have finished. 

First off is to cut through some rails at one of the baseboard joints.

With a fine bladed saw these were cut through and it is always a moment I dread in case the rails rip from their sleepers but it went well!

With the rails cut through the end baseboard could be lifted for the first time sine installed to reveal a multitude of wires.

It is at this point you think that I wonder if i should take up flower arranging or fishing as a hobby! However with a bit of thought (not my strong point!) and patience (not a strong point either!) things become organised!

This is going to take some time!