It may not be an action shot of activity but this photo with the trains back on the baseboard indicates that it has now been put back in place following the wiring and point motor escapades of the last few weeks and more importantly trains actually run - and without falling off the tracks! I call that a success! Mrs. Woody no doubt has differing words but I will ignore those!
Another day at the Rocks By Rail Museum where the track work is all back in pace but just needs jacking, packing and ballasting before we can run trains properly.
The ballasting bit means more ballast washing. However, the screen between the oversized washing machine and the ground needs to be steepened following Monday's repairs. The issue was that the stones going over it didn't flow freely to the bottom which meant that they became piled up on the screen rather then dropping into the JCB bucket at the end of the screen. That meant that Rob and me needed to get physical with angle grinders and welders! Now that could be dangerous!
Not that I am a great welder and whilst these welds may not look pretty, they are at least strong!
This meant we were back in business and the ballast washing soon saw loads being tipped into the Dogfish ballast wagon.
And talking of the Dogfish ballast wagon, Loyal blog reader, Mrs. B., curious as to the terminology for naming wagons found this extensive list online which is available by clicking here. If that doesn't make you think of having a fish supper nothing else will!
And finally....Dan, one of our younger volunteers, popped in to see how things were going having driven his vintage Massey Ferguson tractor in whilst his mate followed on his bike! I think the bike may have been faster but the tractor was much more fun!
https://www.ltsv.com/rd/fishkind_list.php
Well, it has taken about two weeks, but at last the wiring of the track and installation and wiring of the point motors on the third baseboard of the My Last Great Project 00 gauge layout is done! I have even tested the point motors to make sure all is well and it is although I had to do some fettling with the two motors for the three way point to get them working properly.
Now all I have to do is put it back in place and connect up the other baseboards and run some trains!
Following yesterdays soaking at the Rocks By Rail Museum where the rain was battling with the over sized washing machine doing the ballast washing to see which could get Woody wetter, it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to sunshine this morning. In fact it was such a nice day that I took Mrs. Woody out and we ended up having a walk around part of a country house grounds.
It was not a massive country house but of a size where if you enquired as to whether they had ducks on their lake they would ask which one of the lakes was being enquired about! In fact there were ducks about on all the lakes just like these.
Today was going to be my day at being a shunter - had the Rocks By Rail Museum been able to open. As I posted some days ago it can not open so today I played with the oversized washing machine cleaning ballast!
There is a lot of clean ballast needed yet, just around this point will need about ten to fifteen tons.
Luckily, we can at least now use the Dogfish ballast wagon to get the ballast up into the platform area.
Anyway, as you tell by the pictures, it was a wet and I mean wet day. Not only the rain made me wet but the water from the oversized washing machine managed to soak me too! So I am off to warm up in a pleasant hot bath!
I have posted about Ray Bennett from the Rocks By Rail Museum before - see here for that post. Ray is one of those people who relishes life, has lived it to the max and has a memory full of experiences, exploits and knowledge and is someone who everyone just loves and I am privileged to know him!
He has celebrated his 94th birthday and hes is still going strong! Seeing how much the Rocks By rail Museum has played in his recent life he had his party there and all the volunteers were invited!
Looking good for 94 Ray!
I'm not sure quite how big his family is but it is enough to fill the Sundew Cafe and overflow outside!
A great day was had by all celebrating another year in Ray's life.
I had to leave early though as the Museum just is not going to be ready to open on Sunday so I had to go round and cover up all the banners I put up last week! It is disappointing not to open but it is the right thing to do and in a couple of weeks we will be back to normal!
What's that then Woody, Part 2, sees the top of the hidden loops structure take shape.
On a seemingly strong streak of things going right, this slotted into place just as I had planned!
When you construct something like this...
...you do get asked what it is. It is difficult to answer apart from its for my model railway. It is only when you fit it to the baseboard that it explains itself - well to me anyway!
It is a cover for the hidden loops! Well the base for it anyway!
This took a lot of thinking out - never my best point. Clearances are tight and there is a need for thinks to fasten to each other and for the whole lot to be able top be removed if I need to deal with a derailment or maintain the track.
My solution was to have cross bars between the upright front wall and the back and my further solution to secure them was tabs that slide into the gaps that I left in the horizontal support that I fastened to the profile board yesterday.
I just need to make the top cover now!
