My Financial Advisor and Chief Wallet Watcher in the form of Mrs. Woody accompanied me!

I went to the East Miidlands Narrow Gaauge Group show today. My Financial Advisor and Chief Wallet Watcher in the form of Mrs. Woody accompanied me - just to keep an eye on things she said! We went last year and there were some nice layouts but this year the event had doubled in size and the tsandard of layouts was fantastic. We were particulraly taken by this one, Tony's Forest, a 7mm scale running on TT gauge track.

The detail on the scenery was stunning.

There was also some nice rolling stock.

Bunkers Lane was an 009 gauge layout and unusually for an exhibition layout it was scenic on both sides and one end, whilst the other end serbved as a fiddle yard - all very innovative.

Derwent Road was arn 009 gauge layout with a modern feel of a preservation line set in the midst of a housing estate. Very well done!#

Proving you don't need masses of space, this layout on a traders stand was only about two and a half feet long by about 18 inches deep.

I will cover some of the other layouts tomorrow and a rather special tribute to yours truely!

A certain irony - making things better!

A few days ago I posted about the DCC chip that fried itself in my Lima Class 117 DMU. I have been looking at it with a view to putting a new chip in. However, with the power car dismantled it struck me that my plans from years ago to freshen it up were ripe to be carried out now!What brought this thought on was finding my chrome pen and just trying to colour in the door handles on the bodyshell so they were chrome as on the prototype. 

The interior can be painted up too from that drab brown to the blue that the seats were uphuulsteed in later on in their lives.

To make running better I will add some additional pickups on the trailing bogie as I now have that in bits!

So that is the plan - it will be ironic if I actually complete it though!

Another Woody video on YouTube!

Once again the WMD film crew have been at it and another YouTube video is published giving an uopdate on My Last Great Project Layout. Always worth a watch if you have insomnia!

A certain irony!

there is a certain irony in what happened to my Lima Class 117 DMU after posting about a Blue day yesterday! The DCC chip blew up! The DMU had become stuck whilst I was too busy with something else like going through Mrs. Woody's job list and the motor was still drawing current. I am guessing it all got too hot and the chip blew! I knew it had gone as I could smell it. On the workbench the good news was with a bttery on the motors terminals it ran. Meanwhile the lack eveidence on the taope was enough to confirm what happened.

Peeling back the masking tape showed that the plastic sleve that the chip is wrapped in had melted and the chip did not look very well!

Lesson learnt! Don't look at Mrs. W's job list whilst operating trains!

At least the motor is OK so I can fit another chip when I have tiime from that job list! The irony of it!

I had a blue day today!

I had a blue day today! Not that I am feeling blue as in 'under he weather' or feeling out of sorts but a day, well only an hour, (just in case Mrs. Woody is reading this) Playing operating My Last Great Project Layout. Blue, because, during a tidy up, I rediscovered this Class 37 loco in British Rail corporate blue livery.

Coupled up to a rake of Mk2 Br coaches it looked very smart.

Adding a few other BR blue bits made it into a 'Blue day'!

There is the Class 37, a Class 25 and the Class 101 DMU. 

It is probably about 40 years since you could see a sight like this on the real railway but on a layout you can take that Time Machine back to those times. I like this Blue Day!

That's all folks!

 That's all folks! No, it is not the end of WMD, but as the cartoons used to say, That's all folks, refers to the end of another season of events at the Rocks By Rail Museum. Where has a year gone as it only seems like a few months ago we  closed the 2024 season!

Anyway, whilst previous years final events have been blessed with Autumnal brightness, this year we had wetness! The morning was dry but by about 1pm the clouds had opened and we all got soaked! The prospect of rain had not put visitors off and there was a good attendance and the volunteers all had fun so it was a winning day!

I was shunting, as seems the norm these days, assisted by John, Pete and Dave as well as Martyn operating the face shovel and with Mr. D as our shunting loco.

It was a long day but the final train of wagons left with Mike the guard waving goodbye for the last time this year!

Then it was time to put Mr. D to bed in the shed at the end of the day but we still had visitors!

That's all folks! But it won't be that long before we start again!

Not a great deal to report!

Not a great deal to report! The card top for the bridge/tunnel structure has been painted with rattle can primer to represent the tarmac of the road going over the structure....

...and the side profiles of the background hill have been roughly cut to shape out of card. This will form the base and support for the polystyrene that will form the shape of the hills.

Hopefully more to report in the next few days!

In Ya Face!

Looking for something, I came across this kit I built back in 2005 which is now 20 years ago! Time does fly! Despite its age and being dusty I still have fond memories of building this kit. It is a Revell Mercedes 1628S Truck in the unusual to Europe scale of 1/25th scale which because of the large size of the completed model does make it look smaller compared to a similar Italeri kit truck in 1/24th scale. 

Never the less, I did build this as a British truck that would be used to haul across to mainland Europe hence the left hand drive configuration. It was also a model that I did a few additions to with aftermarket parts and decals. There is the lady on the grill, the TIR plate.....

....whilst inside the cab there were tax discs, papers and documents as well as the CB name of In Ya Face! which I just came up with based on the garish paint scheme!

I even added the suzies on the back which are the air and electrical connections to the trailer brakes and lights.

Apart from a good clean and one of the rear mudguards needing gluing back on, this model has survived well and it still has that charm that I thought it had all those years ago when at one time it was on the now defunct Truck Model World Forum! Now theres' a claim to fame!

All in a day at the Museum!

The Rocks By rail Museum cannot be accused of not being innovative. I have posted before about the oversized washing machine, otherwise known as a concrete mixer! This is used to wash ballast and if you wonder if ballast can get dirty you should see what comes out of the mixer apart from the clean ballast!. One of the weak areas of the concept has been the discharge shoot. Various concoctions have been put together over the years but all have eventually failed. So, this Winters task is to sort that out with a bespoke heavy duty shoot and welder ace Rob is getting on with it.

A good strong frame of L shaped metal attached to the mixer itself means it should be strong enough to put up with the battering it will get.

 Of course, with any such project, there is a need to admire the work as Andy, Alex and Rob do!

For me, I was not admiring the overgrowth in the two storage sidings.

So, out came Sammy Strimmer and vegetational butchery ensued!

Now, I do have to admire that! Just need to get between and under the wagons next! All in a day at the Museum!

Inspired!

Having taken a break with DCC chipping the class 150 DMU it is back to the bridge/tunnel structure and I am inspired to get on with it!

Firstly I needed to deal with a bow in the back of the tunnel top

Constructing a card girder was the solution.

Once glued in place straightness was restored!

Hi

Moving onto the bridge part I added some wooden quadrant to act as a stiffener and support for the top.

One each side should do the job so I had to find some more quadrant! Next on the list is the top I think.