It is beginning to look a lot like Autumn!

It is beginning to look a lot like Autumn! That is what I thought as I looked back on a section of the Nature Trail path at the Rocks BY Rail Museum having cut all the grass along it. 

The actual grass cutting was a battle as I had not been down this part of the site foe several weeks.

However, keen vegetational butchery with Mikey Mower saw the area cleared of long growth! 

The Museum site was partly made up ground and with its natural clay base all this leads to differential sinkage in hot weather as witnessed by the track being a bit undulating. Safe to travel at slow speeds I am assured!

Meanwhile, back in the level of the restoration shed, Hazel and new volunteer Dave spent most of the day getting a cast ring out from the boiler top. Having been in there so long and as a cast metal part, it eventually came out in four bits!

In many bits is the Southern brake van which is currently undergoing a rebuild.

Finally, I found these on the footplate of loco Barrington.

I believe they are genuine old oil cans which hopefully are actually older than me! A niceinside  job to clean these up as Autumn turns to Winter which given the current situation may not be too long!

A small step forward.

 A small step forward as I get the profile boards for My Last Great Project Layout painted in the customary WMD Slate Grey. I took them off the baseboard to make painting easier and once dry they can be reattached which will be another small step forward! Mrs. Woody though, is still waiting for steps forward with her list of jobs for me to do!

Brickwork butchery!

Whilst waiting for the glue to dry on my ballasting job from yesterdays post, I needed something else to do so I commenced demolishing a wall! Not on Mrs. Woody's list but never the less a job that needs to be done. WMD Towers has a bow window. A bow window is different from a bay window in that whilst the bay window is constructed from the ground up the bow window is just a window frame that looks like a bay window but without the brickwork underneath, Back in 2004, to hide the ugly wooden supports and the less then perfect brickwork I constructed a false bay window brickwork as well as a porch (which is still fine as it had deep foundations!). It did the job until in 2016 with the draught, the clay that the foundation stands on dried out more than usual and the false wall started to lean forward. I had not tied the wall into the existing brickwork deliberately because I always suspected there may be an issue and I did not want the false wall pulling on the main structure. Now that was either good planning or just an excuse for not digging deep enough foundations. However when I say the WMD Towers foundations go down 5 feet you ay understand why I did not follow with the false wall! What started as a slight lean has progressed over the years so it is time to demolish and rebuild! You can see the gap in between the window sills and the brickwork showing just how much the wall was leaning.

A carful use of hammer and cold chisel has seen brickwork butchery progress!

Despite calling it brickwork butchery, I have only broken two bricks for which the WMD Stores have spares so most will be reused once I sort out the foundation!

Time to relax?

Whilst the wiring the that I described in some previous posts is finished on the baseboard the original ballasting that I did some time ago was never finished (not unusual for me) and to be blunt, some parts were not as I would want them to be. That was partly down to the fact that the baseboard was in place on the layout and I could not reach very well. With the baseboard away from the layout I had the perfect opportunity to put right what is wrong and finish the project. Now ballasting is not the most exciting job to do but it can be relaxing so I have had a few hours of soothing work to relax me! And you do see some progress although I will need to wait for the dilute PVA glue that I spread over the top to dry before doing anything else! That should give me some more time to relax or do some jobs on Mrs. Woody's list!

If you add the two numbers of my age together you get a number between 11 and 19!

It was my birthday some days ago and as always Mrs. Woody did me proud with some fantastic gifts. I won't say how old I am but as a hint, if you add the two numbers of my age together you get a number between 11 and 19!

Whilst loyal blog reader Mrs. B works that one out I will get to the gifts.

First off there is this Gecko Models 1/35th scale Cruiser tank which has a fighting compartment interior to it. Probably one of the less know WW2 tanks it will no doubt be an interesting build and should add something unusual to the collection. Not built a Gecko kit before so that will be something new for me too. Just hope there is not too much in the way of small and fiddly etched brass parts!

Next off is the IBG 1/72 Scammell Pioneer Tank Transport complete with a Crusader tank as a load. Again, as with the Gecko Models kit, I have never built an IBG kit so it will be interesting to see how this compares to the Airfix kit of the same transporter that I built about ten years ago.

Last off, told you she did me proud, is this very nice Heljan Class 33 in DRS livery. It is a second hand or as the current vogue describes it, pre-loved! To be fair it was either loved or never used by its previous owner as the loco is pristine and still has the accessory pack unopened. I just need to get my Last Great Project layout back together to see and hear (it is DCC sound chipped - nice!) this running 

Well, just under a year to go to the next gift day!

That swear jar is becoming rather heavy!

It is back to wiring on the fourth baseboard of My Last Great Project model railway layout and I am pleased to say that it is done! Well just about. I just need to attach the chocolate box connector to the baseboard and harness the wiring runs together but that is it! The point motors are all installed and working despite me wiring two on the crossovers in the track back to front but that was easily solved after trying to work out for two hours what was wrong! That swear jar is becoming rather heavy! It is amazing how sometimes the most obvious can be so difficult to spot as I often inform Mrs. Woody as she enquires about progress with her 'For me to do list'! 

These two chocolate box connectors will eventually take the wiring to the yet to be built control panel. The great thing about these are they are robust and easy to join and take apart.

Maybe the swear jar contains enough for a custom built control panel?

Pull a lever!

Having missed going to the Rocks by Rail Museum last week, more about why another day, I arrived to find that the Museum is planning t go hi-tech! Now Hi-tech for the Museum is not some form of digital display or inductive cooker, it is in fact to control the points on site from a central lever frame saving a lot of walking! What is a lever frame you ask. Well it is this only it is its side in the photo from where it was delivered.

Not sure on the history of these levers but there is this clue casted into the frame which indicates that they are from London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Must check that out when I have time..

Whilst there may be some rust on the lever frame, it has nothing compared to the current Southern brake van being restored.

The amount of rust is so bad that Martyn is having to use a pneumatic needle gun to remove the layers of rust from the steel frame. Hopefully there will be ome sound metal left!

Talking of metal, metal music fan Rob had spent the morning greasing the drag line and looked as though he had been greasing himself too!

He then went off to do some final jobs on the Plant Shed including riveting the final fascia pieces into place. The Plant Shed project has now been three years in the making so by the Museum standards its been a quick job!

Meanwhile, no surprises that after two weeks and a fair amount of rain, the grass needed cutting and that is my job!

 I was surprised by just how much it had grown as was the lawn mower which struggled to get through this stuff!

The nice thing about grass cutting is that unlike restoring a brake van or building a plant shed, you see almost instantons results! Very gratifying!

Just wish I could pull a lever to control the lawn mower from a central point!

 

Another butterfly moment!

Just as I predicted yesterday, I had another butterfly moment and although there is still wiring to finish on the baseboard I decided to make a start on the profile boards! some 3mm ply was used and it was a job and a half to mark everything out so that it matches up to the other already in place boards as well as the scenery modules already constructed. However, the initial job is done.

I just need to paint them grey now! When that will happen is open to debate given my current butterfly mood but at least it is all progress!

It is a bit like keyhole surgery!

Wiring continues on My Last Great Project layout with the point motors having been fitted which is never an easy job. Basically you have to feed the actuation pin from under the baseboard and try to get it through the small hole in the tiebar of the point. It is a bit like keyhole surgery! You then have to ensure that the motor will actually work the point and then mark and drill holes through the mounting plate of the motor into the baseboard and screw it in position. A third or indeed a fourth hand would be useful! However, success eventually came about with all eight now in place.

Further back ache and contributions to the WMD swear jar have seen six of the eight motors actually wired up.

There is still a lot to do once the wiring is finished including things on the surface of the baseboard including profile boards and tidying up the ballast as well as thinking about the scenery. In my butterfly mood at the moment of fliting randomly from one job to another who knows what tomorrow may bring!

A butterfly moment!

In one of my butterfly moments of fliting from one thing to another, I have put aside the oil depot kit for a while to allow me to get on with the wiring of the final board of four on My Last Great Project layout. There is some logic behind this in that I would rather get this job done whilst the warmer weather is with us. Nothing worse then dealing with wires in a cold room! 

The big clear off from the board of rolling stock and yet to be attached scenery saw the board on its side.

A few cobwebs and dust were apparent, must get a new cleaner! However, having already wired up three boards, this last one didn't show anything that I had not already dealt with previously.

A few hours saw the wires connected to the wiring modules which just need to be screwed in place and connected up to the chocolate box connector. 

Next up is fitting the point motors and wiring them up and then the profile boards for the scenery need to be cut, painted and fitted to the back edges of the board. It may be a long while before I get back to that oil depot kit!