Racing Santas!

Mrs. Woody was at home today so we had a look round a local garden center which as is the case these days is more akin to a gift shop with a garden center attached. They had a lot of Christmas stock in and much as I could ignore the fancy Christmas trees with all the trimmings, the motorised reindeer and singing snowmen this did catch my eye.

The Santas are lifted up the elevator to then roll down the roller coaster track. Hypnotically simple but pleases my mind which probably explains a lot!

Back at WMD HQ I started to plaster the valley sides on my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout. A mix of plaster and brown paint was made up (the brown paint colours the plaster so if it ever cracks or chips it shows brown rather than white) and strips of paper towel cut.

The plaster was then painted onto the polystyrene and then the paper towel strips added.

More plaster was painted on top of the paper towel and so it went on...

...until it was all covered.

Just have to wait for it to dry out now. I'm just wondering now whether I could incorporate one of those Racing Santa set ups into this scene??????

Mixed up World.

I had to remind myself that today is the 13th November as I did some work in the garden today. Normally at this time of year the flowering bedding plants are dead and the other plants have gone into their Winter hibernation. I have more colour in the way of flowers now then I had in the Summer drought. These flower beds should be barren by now.

Yes, it is a mixed up World at the moment! However I can isolate myself, unless Mrs. Woody decides other wise, to the World of my Man Cave where although things are mixed up it is me doing the mixing!

Following on from yesterday when I had completed the landscape profiles for the valley sides around the viaducts I spent today dismantling most of it so that I could fully glue it all together. 

However it all comes together with the middle part now having a flat base for a road/lane and canal/river.

The viaducts slot into the gaps which at the moment makes the next stage of covering the polystyrene with paper towel soaked in plaster a lot easier. That will come in the next few days - hopefully!

Despite my previous success at keeping the mess of working with polystyrene to a minimum today in my mixed up World, there was a lot of mess!

 Oh well, it will clean up! Just a good job it is in my Man Cave and not the house!

Infilling.

It is slow progress but the polystyrene formers for the valley sides are just about done on my 00 gauge layout. All that was left to do was infill the arches of the two viaducts. Using the templets that I had made from the Cornflake box (other cereals for your breakfast delight are available) to cut the main valley sides I was able to get more or less the right profile. Luckily I found the bread knife!

The two middle arches need a little more work on the profiles but I have ideas in my mind (never a good sign as Mrs. Woody would say) for a canal/river and road/lane so that will probably develop over the next few days.

That train in the background is a Hornby model of Northern Rail's Royal Air Force 100th Anniversary Class 156 DMU. A fantastic model of the real thing and with a real relevance to me as my Dad spent most of his working life in the RAF.

I bought this back in 2020 during the pandemic and recall thinking whether Hornby and other manufactures would ever produce more models. At the time I don't think any of us really knew what the future would hold.

It looks good in its box and but its even better on the layout which is where models really belong.

Better get that bread knife back to where it belongs or Mrs. W will be infilling me!

Hot Stuff!

Not that Mrs. woody thinks I am hot stuff but my hot glue gun is indeed hot stuff even if I am not. These glue guns are brilliant as long as you don't get the hot glue on you! Yes, I have found that out the painful way! Used properly and in my case probably best under the supervision of a responsible adult, they provide almost instantaneous and strong adhesion of the parts being glued. This was just what I needed to glue the polystyrene parts together making up the valley sides on my dropped baseboard section.

A bread knife makes a great cutting tool for polystyrene. Luckily I got this back into the kitchen before Mrs. Woody had missed it so as long as she does not read this I have got away with it! Only thing is I can't find it now!

Using the glue gun I soon had parts glued together. No need to be too neat just as long as the top is the rightish shape and it is all solid.

I just need to add the parts under the arches but the overall landscape is showing its shape.

Better get some dinner ready - now where is that bread knife???? If I don't find it I could well be in hot water and really become hot stuff!

Cornflake time!

What have Cornflakes to do with model making you may well be asking. Well the Cornflakes themselves are a delicious breakfast cereal or indeed any other time of the day snack but for me the box has uses other than containing the aforementioned cereal. A source of cardboard which in my more impoverished days of model making served as a raw material for making buildings. Today I tend to use mounting card which a £2 a sheet - well it was the last time I bought some last year but has probably gone up since then - provides a good quality card. However where the card is sacrificial in a project I still turn to the likes of a Cornflakes box - a nice 1kg one is nice and large. Good job I like these cereals!

In my case I have moved on with My Last Great Project layout to start to build the valley sides on the dropped section of baseboard. Polystyrene is my choice of infill material and I have a couple of sheets of it as outlined yesterday. This will be covered with a mix of wall filler and paper towel but first I need to get it to near enough the right shape. Having thought about this and in line with my  'Working smarter not harder' philosophy I decided that it would be useful to make a templet of the valley sides which would enable me to cut the sheets to the right shape. Given the mess that cutting polystyrene can make with all those spheres through the wonders of static electricity, attaching themselves to anything nearby namely me (must be my electric personality or as Mrs. Woody would say more likely to my static personality!) minimising cutting means less mess. 

Templets were made and the first polystyrene profiles cut.

Although I am only about a third of the way through the cutting process the mess was reasonably minimal.

Although only part way through things are beginning to take shape. I will need to infill the arches with smaller profiles.

With continually lifing the track it has come out of alignment but once all the landscaping is done I will put it back as it should be ready for ballasting - that is some time off yet though!

Time to make Mrs. W's dinner. Wonder if she would appreciate a bowl of Cornflakes?????

Levelling up!

With my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout being built in sections (I discussed the reasons why back in my post on the 18 March 2021 available here ) I need to have a way to ensure that the joins at the four baseboards and level and flat. Fairly easy for three of them. I can just bolt them together. For the dropped section though is little more difficult as I need to be able to lift it out for when my body can no longer duck under it to gain access to the middle of the layout. In other words as Mrs. Woody would say I need to future proof for when I get old and decrepit although in her view I am already there! 

My mind has mulled on various solutions to ensure that the board is held fast in both vertical and horizontal planes. All sorts of complex solutions went through my mind but eventually the simplest solution came to the fore. Screws and slots!

I used some G clamps to get the board level with its neighboughs and then drilled tow holes through the end boards at each end. Screws were fastened in that went through to the neighboring board as arrowed in the photo below.

Having taken the screws out again and then moving the dropped section out of way the screws were put back into the neighbouring boards leaving them sticking out by the thickness of the wooden cross batten.

I then cut slots into the dropped board cross battens.

THe dropped board was then put back into place where the slots in the cross battens engaged with the srews in the neighbouring cross battens and the board was level and held in place. Nice!

I also started the landscaping of the viaduct section by putting a base of polystyrene sheet into place.

Next stage is to start the valley sides which will be far from level!

Cutting back.

Much as Mrs. Woody would like to see me cut back on spending this cutting back relates to my day at The Rocks By Rail Museum. Following on from last week my battles with nature continued as I cut back more bushes and hedges that have narrowed some paths. Slowly I am winning the battle although it will grow back next year but that is something for Future Woody to deal with. I don't envy that guy!

In my inevitable way before and after photos show my vegetation butchery!

Meanwhile in the restoration shed where I visited whilst it was raining, Rob was tackling the broken step on Harriot the JCB. I have no idea where the name originates from but it sort of suits this JCB! Much rust cut back, much new metal, welding and grinding are taking place so the new step will probably outlast the rest of Harriot!

Back at WMD HQ I have managed to do a bit more on the Metcalfe Viaduct kits and one now has the basic parapets in place. I need to do some fettling before adding the various coping stones but it is looking good!

After this busy day I won't be cutting back on my dinner tonight although I do have to cook it!

Putting a bed in the viaduct!

The Metcalfe viaduct now has a track bed. Yesterday I sealed the underside of the track bed pieces with a sanding sealer which waterproofs the cardboard. Today I did the upper side just to make sure it really is all sealed. Once dry it was time to fasten the various sheets to the main structure of the viaduct. There were one or two places where joins needed a bit of reinforcing with scrap cardboard.

Once the sheets were glued in place things looked a lot better. These may only be small steps but at least this project is moving forward. 

Next stage is to get the various parapets and coping stones in place. In my tidying and sorting of the garage (hope you read that Mrs. Woody!) I did uncover these polystyrene sheets which I saved from a delivery of something or other which Mrs. W no doubt ordered! However it should be good to create some landscape around the viaduct when I get to that stage. 

However it was now time to run a few trains! I do like this picture below - somehow I managed to get the impression of speed with the passing DMU in the background. No idea how I did it so it will probably ne a one off picture! The parapets are only temporarily in place.

A bit later this class52 Western travels in the opposite direction.

I must admit to feeling shattered today so I will be looking forward to putting myself in bed tonight!

 

Cold morning for cycling but I break a record!

It was cold this morning - very cold as my kneecaps can testify as I cycled this morning. However I was warmed by the fact that my total mileage for this year so far has ended up at 5556 miles which is a record for me in my later years of life. Not done that kind of mileage since the times I could get out of bed without creaking! Last years grand total was 5544 so with eight weeks of the year left I may, health and weather allowing, get to 6000 miles which would be a record I would like to get to.

Back in the relative warmth of the WMD HQ I had an hour or so doing some more on the viaducts for my 00 gauge Last Great Project. I have now managed to finish the various parapet wall sections that go either side of the main structure. A bit of a boring and repetitive job but it is now at least done.

I also had a look at the track bases for the viaduct. The track will be ballasted once I get to that stage so there will be diluted PVA glue used. This is great for gluing ballast down but not so good for cardboard which can turn a rather soggy mess. Trying to think ahead, which is alien to me in most cases, I need to seal the surface of the track base. I used the sanding sealer that I used for the balsa canal boats that I built for my 009 narrow gauge layout (which is still undergoing construction). This should at least act as a waterproof coating keeping the viaduct from  ending up as a water infested collapsed cardboard hulk! That is the theory at least.

The various parts awaiting the next stage of construction. I will however have to paint the other side of the track base to ensure they are fully sealed and waterproof.

A day out for Mrs. Woody!

Today I took Mrs. Woody for a day out to the Spalding Model Railway Exhibition! Not sure if she knew she was going but she went and as I highlighted to her she could not only enjoy my company and the show but also see first hand how little I would spend there!

The exhibition was brilliant. Some really good layouts, good selection of traders all well laid out and lots of people talking and chatting, including me. I had not realised until I thanked a member of the club on the way out that this was the Spalding's club first exhibition since the pandemic. 

Layout wise I will highlight a few from the many there - they were all great but some had those little things that make you think WOW!

Firstly is this layout called Kozel and based on a cement works in Czechoslovakia. I really showed my skills of observation when I asked the operator on which country the layout was based. He said Czechoslovakia and then highlighted the large Czech flag on the front of the layout which you can see in the photo below. Oh well sometimes you just don't see these things!

What I did observe though was the inside of this office building. Superbly modelled with office staff at desks and filing cabinets and although I thought I had seen it all in the model railway world I was about to be further educated. In this building even the computer monitors were illuminated! You can just about make them out in the photo below on the top floor left hand office. A brilliant touch and one I have never seen before.  . 

Copper Wort is an 00 gauge layout based upon the brewing industry in the early 1900s. A superb model with loads of detail all scatchbuilt by its owner. The layout featured recently on the TV series about Hornby.

The owner even sculpts and casts his own figures of which there are many on the layout. back in those days labour was cheap and the work hard.

Modelling of this type really captures the atmosphere of the time being portrayed. It takes skill to make and compose all the elements in scenes such as this.

Moving forward in time to the 1970s this rather large but equally atmospheric layout 0 gauge layout called Netherwood played on the griminess of that period on the railways. It was a time when the Country was going through economic problems and there was no money to modernise or maintain the railways. 

All that detail is possible in 0 gauge and the layout looks fantastic.

However there is a price to pay - the space needed. This photo of the fiddle yard shows just how much space is needed for a layout depicting longish trains. It has to be at least 30 foot long by 15 across. Nice if you have the space.

Talking of space no model railway exhibition is complete without a Darlek or two. Mrs. Woody found this one hiding in a station building.

I could go on about the layouts and fill this blog with lots of pictures but I will leave it there and conclude by saying that Mrs. Woody did admit to being impressed! As to my spending? Well lets just say that my wallet is somewhat thinner than I intended it to be which didn't really impress Mrs. W but as I said to her my company for her today is priceless although deep down I know it is going to cost me!