The integrated transport system!

The one great thing about building models, and model railways especially, is that you can build your own ideal utopian bit of the World where you make things happen as you want. So with this in mind I have been developing bridge over the station to form part of an integrated transport system.

In effect, all it is, is a bus stop on the bridge next to the station. However, simple as it may seem, how often do you actually see this in real life? Never mind, at WMD we can make the ideal happen! 

In seriousness, it is coming along well with the pavement parts now cut out and luckily my vision is coming together as I imagined! Now that is a rare event as Mrs. Woody will confirm! The bus is one of the Peco kits that I originally built for my 009 gauge layout, Chalkdon. It will probably be changed for a different bus in the future but it works well to demonstrate the concept.

Still much work to do and if it were a truly utopian World, next time I went into the Man Cave all that work would have been done!

A sign of the times?

If you have dipped into this blog before you may know I have a bit of a fascination with signs They are a good indicator about things. My despair that we see signs at the side of the road saying 'Don't litter' when it should be something that the population do not need to be told as we should not be littering anywhere. Anyway, I thought I had seen it all in terms of signs, but my bike ride took me past this  arrowed in red.

I'm not sure whether to be delighted that the existence of a pothole is warned of through the placement of a sign or whether the time taken to deliver and place the sign might not have been better used in fixing said pothole! A sign of the times?

A bit further up the road my frustrations were forgotten as I took in the delight of seeing this pair of swans with their cygnets. I have never seen swans resting like this on their legs so I learnt something! I did look for the 'Warning - Standing Swans' sign but there wasn't one! Maybe another sign of the times!

It is taking shape!

 It is taking shape - the station area on my Last Great Project Layout.

Lots more to do but I am pleased with how this is shaping up.

New mower!

It was the day that the boiler inspector inspected the boiler of 1931. From what I am told, things have gone OK! Hopefully that means that the rebuild can start which means that, again hopefully, the Museum will have steam traction next year!

Meanwhile, on the more mundane matters of site maintenance, someone has taken pity on my battles with keeping the old mower going and I have a new one! It won't stay looking shiny like that for long and I did give it a whirl in the afternoon with a couple of trouble free and relaxing hours of mowing!

The morning was a concentration on vegetational butchery with the strimmer out bringing near six foot weeds down to ground level!

Despite the dry weather the weeds keep growing!

Dirty girders!

With the station building and steps done it is time to move back to the bridge section that the building will sit on and the steps lead from to the station platform. I had already built the girder underside of the bridge some time ago and whilst priming the station building and steps I  aslo primed this structure.

With that dry it was time to top coat it with the same blue as the steps.

Like the steps it looks very nice but not dirty enough! So out came the earth brown paint and a thin coating gives a good base of weathered and rusty steel!

Next stage, once the paint dries, is to mount it to the underside of the bridge itself.

BBC - Brakedowns, Brakes and Couplings!

 Sunday was a Quarry day at the Rocks by Rail Museum which meant I was shunting assisted by Dan and with John driving Mr. D. Unfortunately Mr. D decided that it was time to breakdown with a lack of air to release the brakes being the problem. There was an additional problem in that the other quarry train was now trapped behind Mr. D!

Despite John's best endeavours at sorting the issue eventually we had to call in assistance in the form of Betty! 

Betty, being the Sentinel loco, driven up by Andy who released Mr. D's brakes and used Betty to shunt both Mr. D and eight wagons out of the way of the quarry train and allow that to escape before hauling Mr. D off to be repaired!

So that was the brakedown and before that we were actually shunting so it was brakes on and off the wagons - this is the brake off....

and this is it off!

To release or put on the brakes this wooden bat is used to lever the brake handle.

And finally, the couplings!

So that was the BBC day at the Museum and I did enjot it!

Stairway to dirt!

With the Dapol Booking Hall kit now finished it is time to move on with associated station area projects such as the steps that I built to take passengers from the bridge above the platform down onto the platform itself. I did airbrush them blue at the same time as the windows and doors for the Dapol kit. Much as the steps looked OK in the pristine blue....

 ...they did look as though they were part of a modern industrial unit in some hi tech industry rather than a uncared for item open to the elements in an urban and industrial area. Given that an airbrushing of earth brown followed by rust weathering powders and it turned the steps into a stairway to dirt, certainly not heaven!

Getting in close the digital camera shows the mysterious hair in the paint that I have never noticed!

Strange how you see things in photos but not in real life!

The WMD Film Crew have been busy during the build of the Dapol Booking Hall kit and their results are here for your visual entertainment and pleasure!

Its finished!

Yes, it is finished! Not Mrs. Woody's list of jobs for me to do but the Dapol kit is now done. Final bits were adding the roof and canopy along with the privacy fence for the gents toilet as well as the front doors. Also added were some posters, a clock face and a gentleman inside at the ticket hatch. I think he may have a long wait until he can get his ticket! Anyway, some pictures illustrate the final product far better than my words can but I can say I am pleased with it!

Its nearly there! The windows and doors are now attached to the Dapol Booking Office and things are looking good!

A few more details to add, then the roof and chimneys and it will be done!