IN amongst the various maintenance jobs going on at WMD Towers I have found a few minutes to get a bit further with the construction of a bridge for My Last Great Project layout. With two sides cut out of mounting card the side parts could be attached.
As usual, much more to do but never enough time!
Not a great deal of time for model making at the moment as WMD Towers under goes some maintenance work. I demolished the brickwork under the bay window a week or so ago and then discovered that the drain taking the roof downpipe water was blocked which explained the mossy lawn that has developed over the years as the water was not getting away and soaking into the ground. Time to call in help in the form of Phil the builder who originally was just going to replace some radiators. Radiators replaced, he turned his attention to the drain. Removing the first clay pipe revealed a mass of tree root from the adjacent conifer. Despite using a pressure washer with a drain clearing attachment the root would not shift. Two hours later and using a cork screw attachment on the end of drain rods we pulled about 5 foot of tree root mass out! No wonder the drain was blocked.
Phil has dug out the roots around the drain, replaced the pipework and bedded it in concrete which should hopefully keep the tree roots from getting back in. He also strengthen the foundation for the wall with more concrete which should stop it moving again.
Whilst Phil was in the mood for dealing with concrete matters, he also reset some loose slabs using an innovative method - silicon! He has done this before successfully so I will wait to see how mine perform!
I did mention a money back guarantee but for some reason Phil put on his ear defenders! Must get a pair for when Mrs. Woody enquires on progress with her list of jobs for me!
I see an opening in this case is related to My Last Great Project Layout where work is progressing on getting scenery finished or at least to a point that looks like it may be complete! The latest part is to build a bridge/tunnel mouth on the station/storage yard approaches. It will hopefully all work out but at this stage it is slow going as measurements are taken and trial fittings made which all take time. At the moment one side of the bridge over the railway is mocked up in card and it looks good. If I am still happy in a day or so the rest of the bridge/tunnel mouth will be constructed.
It was not the busiest of days visitor wise at the Rocks By Rail Museum with a Quarry Day running yesterday as there were several other events going on in the area and the weather forecast had predicted rain. However, there was no rain so those that came enjoyed the sunshine and the Museum itself as well as all the activities that were taking place. All in all it was a great day, in a great place with great people!
The usual brake van rides were available and proved popular.
Doing my usual shunting activities I was more than ably supported by Graham and John who was driving Mr. D our shunting loco.
Mr. D, was looking good which is mainly down to John who has spent hours on getting this loco not only looking good but running well.
John's latest improvement has been to paint the operating panel to contrast with the rest of the repainted cab.
Meanwhile, Rob was demonstrating the drag line which always looks impressive.
And Martyn was demonstrating the face shovel.
We were all kept busy shunting and exchanging the wagons until the time came to park up wagons and loco and head for home!
And now back to my Last Great Project layout with the profile boards having been painted and reattached to the rear of the layout and wires connected up I was pleasantly surprised, in fact amazed, to find that everything worked with no short or dead circuits! It must be down to the amount of practice I have had on the previous three boards.
I have left the profile boards off the inside faces of the baseboard to make access a bit easier as I start to form the landscape for the far corner. A small start has been made with the base of the scenic module now cut to shape from mounting card.
This could take some time to finish!
Mrs. Woody had found details for an event from the Lincolnshire Makers Market which was being held at Little pontin Hall in, well, Lincolnshire! I never knew this Hall existed so it was worth a trip out just to see that as well as to find out what the Makers Market was like.
The Makers Market itself was spread around the stables and out buildings. There were probably 50 or so stalls all with interesting stuff including the box of cookies we came home with!
At the moment I seem to be spending a great deal of time building layouts and not playing operating them! So I took an evening off and dusted off my HO gauge USA Switching Layout and spent a couple of hours just shunting wagons or as our American colleagues call them, freight cars, around.
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!
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!
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!
