Stranded boat on the canal!

Lets start today with a bike ride which took me past a certain canal that I have posted about previously. My last post highlighted that the canal was back to normal with water filling it from bank to bank. I was therefore somewhat taken aback, as no doubt loyal blog reader Mrs. B will, that the previous trickle of a stream had returned leaving an expanse of mud and a stranded boat!

I have no idea why this has happened again as I thought that all the repair works had been done. I will visit again!

Meanwhile my visit to the Man Cave saw the wiring of  the baseboard that I am working on just about finished!

Whilst not being over pedantic about neatness in the wiring I have tried to keep it organised and tidyish!

This is where all the wires will join onto the control panel when it is eventually built! There are a lot of wires and there are three other baseboards so that control panel will need to be fairly large!

The point motors all have their own wiring using a 3 cabled ribbon wire that has made that job a lot easier!

I need to finish a few jobs on the rail alignment up top and then I might just run some trains - if it all works of course!

Spalding Model Railway Exhibition 2024 part 2

Carrying on from yesterdays post, where Mrs. woody was enjoying her day out (!!!!), there a few more layouts of the many that were on display worth highlighting. 

Zeedijk was a Dutch layout and whilst being simple in that it was just two mainlines with no sidings and flat scenery, what else for Holland, it had a certain charm with longish trains running as you would see them in real life.

Of course there had to be a windmill!

Interestingly, off stage, the return curves to the rear fiddle yard were just the width of the track which saved weight and materials - nice!

The fiddle yard itself was a large one to keep a constant parade of trains.

Crossing the Atlantic, in layout terms anyway, Kamiack Falls was the opposite in that this was very much a switching layout where everything was done slowly but with realism. 

Thye autominal scenics were done to a very high standard.

You could almost think this was a photo of a real railway or should I say railroad as it is the USA!

Finally Loch Dour was another Scottish themed layout but unlike Loch Syd that I highlighted yesterday, was a large layout. Being large did not mean cramming it with track, just a single line with a passing point at the atation and a few sidings just like the real thing in the Scottish highlands.

I was particularly taken by this snow plough train with a pair of class 20s.

It was a great day and there were a few purchases that no doubt will feature here soon!

Spalding Model Railway Exhibition 2024 - Another day out for Mrs. Woody!

Mrs. Woody was delighted when I told her I was taking her to the Spalding Model Railway Show. My confusion at her positive view on this trip out was soon solved when I remembered the shopping outlet that was just around the corner! No doubt Mrs. W would seek retail therapy following the viewing of model railway layouts!

I always enjoy the Spalding show as it is a largish but not over large show. Lots to see and buy but easily doable in an afternoon. This year the show organisers seemed to have concentrated on more smaller layouts and the normal large layout that would take up the space of ten smaller layouts was absent which was fine with me. I like smaller layouts and this Scotish based one, Loch Syd, caught my eye and being only 7 feet by 5 feet is small for an 00 gauge continues circuit. However being based on Scotland the small size worked well.

  

Cutting the corner of the baseboard at a 45 degree angle as on this layout does make it easier to move baseboards as well as visually looking more interesting than a right angle.

Smaller still were these briefcase layouts which if you cannot find a space at home for, you really are pushed for space!

If was not just briefcases but also this guitar case in which there was a sizeable layout in n gauge. Not sure where you are supposed to keep your guitar if you go down this route!

An interesting take on a box file layout with the main layout in the box and another on the underside of the lid. Remove the bridge and the box file can be closed and stored away!

Moving up from n gauge to 00 gauge Sutton Bank TMD showed that a layout can be built in this scale in about 3 feet by one.

Operationally it may be limited but to display a collection of locomotives it is a really nice and compact way of doing so.

Getting back to bigger layouts, Hornby Magazine were exhibiting their TT gauge layout. Not sure what to make of TT even after two years of it being about now. Nice layout though and certainly a lot smaller then if built in 00 gauge!

I will cover a few more of the layouts tomorrow but to end this post you just cannot beat Hornby Dublo three rail in a tail chaser format. Most of the models on the board are sixty plus years in age and still going strong.

Retail therapy after the show - well lets just say that Mrs. W exercised my wallet!

Point motor wiring.

After yesterdays excitement with the strimmer at the Rocks By Rail Museum it is back to more mundane things at WMD HQ with wiring point motors being the current job.

I had already mounted the point motor and its base to the baseboard but to make wiring easier it was going to be best to take it off again and wire it on the workbench. Before unscrewing the base I made life easier for myself by drawing around the base so that I knew its exact position when I came to remount it.

In my continued desire to make life easier I also determined which wire needed to go to what terminal on the point motor. The red wire, red being for 'straight ahead' was marked up on the motor as was the green wire using a small piece of masking tape and a pencil.

On the bench it was just a case of stripping back the sheaving from this triple wire which has red, green and black wires.

Then a quick dab with the soldering iron had the three wires, plus a loop of black wire to join the two poles of the solenoid on the one side of the motor, all soldered in place ready to go back on the layout.

Just another seven to go for this baseboard section!

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!