Viewing the progress on the viewing platform!

There are days when things come together and the slow but steady progress of many weeks of hard work suddenly comes together giving a sense of achievement. That sense of achievement is what I got at the end of today at the rocks By Rail Museum where I volunteer. Having started back in mid November 2034 with the aim of building a viewing platform so that visitors will have a better view of the quarry sidings and the shunting that we do on event days, that project is nearly complete. The hard work of shifting rocks and spoil to build the platform is done and today we just about finished installing the last of the barriers around it. We had two Heras fencing panels found in the Museum's grounds which we cut down by about a foot and set them against the existing barrier at the front of the platform. We had dug trenches either side of the platform so that the panels could be set in the ground which gives them some rigidity.

Alex illustrates that the barriers are perfectly safe to lean against!

There is just a need to add a thin layer of fine material for drainage, top that with the white Terram sheet that is presently rolled over the front barrier and finish off with some gravel over the top. Hopefully we should be finished by mid March.

What won't be finished by mid March is this!

The works to install drainage under the platform track continues but the corner has now been turned with the drainage pipes actually now being installed.

Next job is to build a manhole where Andy is stood in the hole. As I pointed out, he wont get much of a view from down there but he could on the new viewing platform if we can get the trains to run for Easter! I couldn't hear his answer because of the mini-digger starting up!

Bathroom butchery!

I have, on several occasions in this blog, talked about my abilities, or indeed lack of them, at cardboard butchery, wood butchery and vegetational butchery. Today, I can mow add a new butchery ability to the list, bathroom butchery!

I started with a decades old bathroom in the morning .....

....and by the afternoon it looked like this!

Phil the builder was busy finishing other jobs so I thought I would lend a hand in stripping out the old bathroom There is still more to go but at least it gives Phil a flying start tomorrow and I quite enjoyed the therapy of using a hammer which is an essential tool in bathroom butchery!

Looking like a white van!

Again not much model making today, just a few minutes to stick some brick paper to the card for the walls on the tunnel sub-base that I am building.

However, there was a lot of painting with the various skirting boards and door architrave for the cloakroom getting three top coats. Painting a dark colour over white primer is no fun!

However it does contrast well with the rest of the paint and fittings.

Now here is something that I have never done before - wash a Transit van! Phil the builders van has been filthy for weeks and my questioning as to why he had not cleaned it got no where and with no sign of him getting round to it O took bucket and sponge to it. It was filthy and I did at one point ask Phil if he had a bio-hazard sticker I could put on it!

However, 90 minutes later and it was looking like a .....white van! Just hope Phil doesn't think that this is a regular thing!

The convenience of a skip!

Not much modelling done apart from a stay made on the wall sections for the tunnel sub-base that I have posted about over the past few weeks which will keep me amused for a few days yet!

The reason for a lack of model making is that I am painting various skirting boards and door frames as part of the ongoing rebuild of the bathroom and cloak room. Far easier to paint the parts away from the room especially when you have a convenient skip to support things! If it all goes wrong its not far to dispose of it either!

Maybe I should do my model making near the skip - that could be convenient!

It works and looks good - in my eyes anyway!

The tunnel scenic sub-base works! Well the main construction is now finished following on from the tunnel mouths being glued to the main sub-base and the top where my card board butchery hacked a part of it away has been repaired. That bit was fairly easy as I was able to lay a piece of card under the affected main structure and trace around the 'hole' to give the right shape to cut from the new card.

With that cut, it was simply a case of gluing it in place.

It was then time to glue the tunnel mouths and tunnel insides to the sub-base and strengthen a few other parts of the overall structure.

Left a while to allow the glue to dry, the sub-base was then transferred back to the layout to finally see, for the third time, if it looked OK and that the rolling stock passed through without issue.

I am more than happy to report that it does look good and the rolling stock goes through and pass without issues! Phew! Looking from a distance it does fit in even better with the overall scene now.

So, now it is back to building new top walls and parapets, as the the ones I built for the first design of tunnels no longer fit!

Then there were eight!

Well, following on from yesterdays post about the four second hand/pre-owned/pre-loved Hornby R6424 ARC Tippler Wagons when I said I thought that I had four more of them, I actually found them in the first box I looked in! I now have eight in the rake!

That Makes a fairly impressive train.

Although the four I found are in pristine condition they do look OK with the weathered tipplers from normally viewing distances. However get closer and you certainly see the difference!

  A job for another day prehaps!

A Rare delivery to WMD!

If Mrs. Woody is reading this, a rare delivery of some model related items (as I don't buy many model things!)  to WMD. In this case some Hornby ARC tipplers.

They are second hand, or as is the current trend, pre-owned or pre-loved. They were weathered by The Model Centre and I bought them from there as well at a very keen price.

The weathering is nice and gives that well used and worn feeling to them

There are four of them which makes a nice rake.

And behind a pair of weathered Class 58's they look even nicer!

I do have another four of these tipplers somewhere that I bought second hand/pre-owned/pre-loved about 15 years ago which are in pristine condition which should contrast with these weathered ones, or maybe inspire me to weather them!

Another good day at the Museum!

Progress at the Rocks by Rail Museum today with the last of the track around the platform area having been lifted ready to be re-laid once some drainage has been installed. The digger for that comes next week after which, hopefully things can be put back in place.

With the wet weather that we have been having at the moment it all looks a little bleak and muddy.

Meanwhile, in the restoration shed, the work on Loco 1931 and its retube continues. Although not really visible, there has been considerable progress with 21 of the 134 tubes having now been removed. It gets easier as you get into the job, so I am told which means that the remaining 113 tubes should be no problem to get out!

The tubes come out through the smoke box with the door open.

Having been hammered through from inside the firebox.

These are some of the tubes that have been removed and they show that the water treatment used in the water that is put into the locos saddle tank has prevented any limescale buildup.

And these are some of the tools that are used to put into the tubes in order to hammer them out. I have no idea how the whole process works but luckily there are those that do!

For me, it was another day f moving backfill for the viewing platform. Luckily, Alex had been in earlier in the week and had added to the backfill so we started with this....

and finished with this....

Next stage will be to add some hardcore type material to the top to provide a solid standing area. We have moved a lot of material as this replenished spoil pile shows. All that work will be worthwhile though and all in all another good day at the Museum!

Flushed!

Well, I am flushed - with success! The cloakroom/downstairs toilet rebuild is almost finished with a major achievement - a flushing toilet! The basin also has running water and both drain as they should! It is a major improvement of what was there before too! I just need to paint some skirting and door architrave to put in place and a loo roll holder needs to go in as well but those are minor matters! 

Of course, it wouldn't be WMD if there was not a cat involvement in this project and Monty was the one involved during the latter stages of construction. His paw prints are also in the self leveling compound that didn't self level!

Light at the end of the tunnel?

 After a few days of bleak weather the sun came out and it seemed a lot lighter - a bit like seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Well, there has been some sight of light at the end of the tunnel making saga on my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout as I managed an hour out in the Man Cave. The tunnels have now got a roof and supporting tabs so that they can be glued to the main structure so progress is made!

My work bench is so untidy!

More clamps!

Once all the glue dries it should be time to glue it to the main structure and then I can see if there is light at the end of that tunnel!