Flushed with success!

No model making today but I am flushed with success as the bathroom refit now boasts a fully working toilet! No more bucket to flush! In fact there was a great deal of progress today with all the cabinets fitted and with the already installed bath now having been tiled it is really coming together! 

The skip which has been on the driver for the past five weeks or so also went today.

Unfortunately it went just a bit early to get the old toilet in it so that now sits outside under a window until I can get to the recycling centre! Meanwhile I am sure Mrs. Woody will be impressed! It will certainly be a talking point!

My job was a simple one of preparing and painting the door architrave and skirting board which was a nice job to do out in the sun. Just needs a second coat of paint tomorrow.

A fraction of the price!

Still working on the cable trunking with a bit more file work to mark the vertical joints.

Then it was time to paint with some concrete coloured paint.

I sprayed this as it was easier than painting.

Looking good - in my view anyway!

So how does it compare with the Wills kit parts? Well lets have a look!

I think it compares well and at a fraction of the price - now that is nice!

DIY Cable Trunking.

On most real railways these days the vast array of colour light signals, point motors and general communications systems are controlled and linked by electrical cables. In the old days, (when I was a lad!) there used to be telegraph poles that carried telephone lines and most points and signals were controlled by mechanical linkages with a nearby signal box. In the modern World the various cables that now do these important functions are protected from damage by concrete cable trunking.

In the model World you can buy various kits to make this trunking and I have used the Wills version myself.

You get about 24 inches of trunking and some junction pieces.

When I bough two of these kits a couple of years ago they were about £4.50 each. Looking through a few sites today the cheapest I could see was £6.61! I need about 10 feet of trunking and possibly more which means that the cost is a minimum of £33 or £3.30 a foot. That is a lot and I got to thinking there must be a cheaper way - and there is!

Evergreen strip No 188 3.2mm x 4.8mm. You get six 15 inch strips (for £5.20) which equates to 7.5 feet length in total . 

Add some 0.5mm square strip at 15pence for an 18 inch length (from DMG Electech) and for a total cost of £6.70 I can make 7.5 feet of trunking which works out at about 90pence a foot! Bargain! So how do I make it?

First off, to make the lip of the covers I glued the 0.5mm strip to the side of the Evergreen strip.

With that done I constructed this jig.

The jig allows me to slide the trunking through it and every 12mm, see the mark on the bottom of the jig, use a saw to cut a grove to simulate the joints between the individual covers. 

With the saw cuts done I used some needle files to add some depth and relief. Once painted and weathered it should look a lot more defined.

It took me a couple of hours to sort out the method of making the trunking and constructing the jig but I think I could now do a 15 inch length in about 30 minutes so it is not that time consuming. There is also the possibility of some additional details but that is for another time as in the meanwhile I need to get some more of this DIY trunking made.. 

Frustrations!

One of those small frustrations with model railways is when you get an item of rolling stock that continually derails. You know it is not the track because no other rollingstock derails at the same places so it has to be the loco, coach or wagon that is the culprit. 

Derailing is usually down to the wheels but it can also be down to the bogies or wagon running gear on occasions. In this particular case with an old Lima Express Services coach, and from observation I was fairly certain that the issue was with the wheels on one bogie. 

Strangely this second hand coach has a Kadee coupling on the bogie in question so always is at the rear of the rake of coaches. I don't think the coupling had anything to do with the derailing though.

Anyway, I checked the back to back measurement between the inside surfaces of the wheels with the brass coloured strange looking tool in the above photo and all was as it should be.

The wheelsets themselves are unusually made of brass which is something that Lima preferred. Looking at them there was some dirt that could affect running.

Whilst I would have preferred to put new wheels into the bogie, unfortunately the WMD stores had no suitable replacements available - most strange!

That was cleared off and a file run around the wheel tread and rim as there appeared to be some 'dents' in both surfaces.

Whilst the wheelsets were out of the bogie I also used this other odd looking tool just to clean out the axle housings of any burrs of plastic or dirt.

With that done the wheelsets were put back in place.

Putting it back on the track at the back of the rake it looked the part and there was a significant improvement in running

However, the derailing is not fully cured! Instead of once or twice on every circuit of the track it now only derails about every tenth circuit! Much better but still frustrating! I think I need to get some new wheels for it!

Taking stock!

Having finally finished the tunnel scenic sub-base, it is perhaps time to sit back and take stock of what else I need to be getting on with in the future to finish this particular baseboard section of my 00 gauge Last great Project Layout.

This is the baseboard in question. 6 feet by 2.5 feet in size. 

The wiring and point motors have been installed but need to be fully wired into the as yet to be built control panel. The scenery is basically complete with the various sub-bases. There will be additional details to be added but these can be done over time but there is nothing major to be done, apart from over the tunnels. That though will depend on what I do over the hidden sidings so that is on the back burner at present.

One thing that does need detailing is the Metcalfe goods shed that I built about 25 years ago. A great kit but looking at it now there are a couple of areas that could do with some detailing. The flat cardboard roof with printed slates could do with having a new roof laid on it with some relief in the tiles. In addition it could do with gutters and downpipes and finally a good dose of weathering would enhance it.

Then there is a small amount of track to be laid from this point that is supposed to allow for future expansion of the layout -0 if I have the time, space and inclination!

Then all the track needs ballasting.

The end of the goods yard needs ballasting and details adding.

And once all that is done I can move onto the next baseboard!

Maybe I shouldn't have taken stock - there is still a lot to do!

Bonfire time!

With only a few of us in at the Rocks By Rail Museum today things were going to be quiet so what better than to use the opportunity to have a bonfire without upsetting anyone!

There was plenty to be incinerated including cuttings from the viewing platform project but I also took the opportunity to cut this back

So that it was a bit less likely to hit visitors as they walked under.

Any evidence of my cutting work was incinerated and I can blame my accomplice Alex if there is any comeback - he is the official Scape Goat as I informed him!

I also had time to unload the platelayers trolley by shoveling its contents up on to the viewing platform.

The platform is now getting a good layer of fine material to level things off. Hopefully another trolley load will finish things off and probably finish me off too!

My Last Great Project Carboard Butchery - The video!

The long drawn out saga of the tunnel sub-base is recorded to some degree in this YouTube video. The WMD film crew have carried out their usual magic in producing this visionary delight which you will either find fascinating or as a sure blown way in which to cure insomnia!

Painting, weathering and shattered whilst Mrs. Woody has a spa day!

8am this morning Mrs. Woody went off for a spa day. That was nice! It left me to my own devices so instead of enjoying a day of pampering I got down to some painting of the freshly plastered bathroom. Luckily the plaster had dried over night so out came a watered down undercoat followed by top coats with the only part of the room escaping paint being where the tiles will go above the bath. By 2pm I was done - in more ways then one! 

Shattered i still went for a bike ride and then off to the Man Cave to weather the tunnel sub-base that has been an ongoing model making saga!

I airbrushed a misting of thinned down brown paint over the brickwork and then some black as soot coming from the locomotives above the tunnel mouths.

I think it looks good but then I would! Mrs. W, having returned from the pampering of her spa day, thinks the bathroom looks good although not sure what she might make of the tunnel! I could do with some pampering after today - maybe a spa day would be good!

Key moments!

A few key moments at WMD HQ today. Firstly the tunnel scenic sub-base is just about as finished as I need it to be at the moment. Just a stretch of coping stones to add and some weathering and I will be calling it a day on this for the moment. What goes on top of it is still open to debate, which is a polite way of saying I am not sure yet! It very much depends upon what I do on the next baseboard when I cover the loops at the back of the layout. However a key moment in that it is back in place and despite of my card board butchery of the last few weeks the trains still run through it!

The second key moment is that the bathroom was plastered this morning. The plasterer arrived at 8am and was gone by 11.30am! I have every admiration for those with the skill to plaster. My attempts usually end up as a pile of plaster on the floor or even if it stays on the wall it ends up looking like a lunar landscape! Once the plastering is done you feel as though things have turned that corner where the destruction becomes construction. A key moment indeed! My next key moment will be painting it after it dries. Oh joy! More painting!

Coping?

Much as there is a lot going on at WMD HQ and in my life I do tend to cope with these although Mrs. Woody may have a different view especially having travelled to the Bingham Model Railway Show only to find I was a month too early! 

Enough of that for now and in this instance, the coping I am talking about are the coping stones that I am adding to my tunnel scenic sub-base as this long drawn out project slowly steams into the port of completion!

I needed to build up a the top of the piers so that they straddled the wall along the top of the tunnels. Fabricated from card these were quick to put together.

These were then covered in brick paper.

The brick paper was then trimmed after the glue set and the pieces glued to the rear of the existing piers.

With theses now in place I could add the coping stones which are just strips of card cut from the backing sheet of a pad of paper (never throw useful stuff out!) and marked up in pencil. I taped the strip of card to the side of one ruler and that enabled me to read of the measurements and draw the lines at the required separation using another ruler and pencil.

Still more to do but these two pictures give an idea of how these additions make the plain brickwork look a a bit more interesting and whilst these details are a time consuming activity, it is something that I can cope with!