One of those days where it was difficult to get going! Maybe it is the heat from the good weather but at least I did manage an hour on my layout building escapades.
The hidden siding structure just required a bit of fettling as I noticed that coaches were rubbing against the inside wood support for the cross members. Not much but just enough that it needed attending to.
So out the structure came and I used a plane to chamfer the edge which should give enough clearance - hopefully!
Following adapting two year old banners and putting them out for the grand opening of the Rocks By Rail Museum at Easter and then having to rapidly bring them back in as the events were cancelled due to ongoing track maintenance, I have adapted and placed the next six sets of banners out for the May Bank Holiday opening.
Just hope that we are able to open!
There are occasions when we all see or experience something that takes us by surprise but gives us a great feeling afterwards. Today was one of those occasions for me when, whilst on a bike ride I came up towards an old disused canal which the road crossed over on a bridge built after the canal became disused and hence needed no headroom to allow for the passage of barges. Not only is there no headroom for barges to pass under the bridge but literally nothing can get under it. However, wild life has its ways of dealing with obstructions such as this as I quickly found out having to slam my brakes on as these three swans decided to cross the road to get from one side of the canal to the other and had obviously decided they had right of way under the Swan Cross Code (those of a certain age will remember the Green Cross Code road safety campaign) and I wasn't going to argue!
Having successfully and safely (for them), crossed the road they then glided off in the water to continue with their morning cruise!
I know I am lucky to live in the country where these sort of events happen and experiencing this gave me a great feeling afterwards even if they frightened the life out of me as they came out of the undergrowth!
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!
