Chase!

Another Friday which brings the conservatory rebuild almost to the end - well for the builders anyway! I just need to chase them to finish the last bits.

Talking of chase Marty Cat looks on at his new playground! He is an unusual cat in that he does play chase. Throw a toy mouse down the room and he will chase after it and bring it back ready to chase again so he really likes the new space and slidey floor. 

For me the last couple of posts have involved BR green Class 25 locomotives with one on my layout and one at the North Norfolk Railway. The one on my layout is one of the original and earliest DCC ready installed locomotives sold in this country. It came as part of a DCC train set. You got the Class 25, five wagons, an oval of track with a siding and the all important EZ DCC Command controller. I still had the box somewhere so today I chased it down in my man cave. I did find it amazingly given my usual chaotic way of working.

I bought it at the Warley model Railway Show at the NEC I think in 2006 or 2008 having chased around the show to find one. It is an impressive set even by todays standards and you can understand why the sets sold so well. I did have a shock looking at the price ticket which is still on the box. All those contents for £89! Bargain! 

I did see one on eBay some weeks ago with an optimistic 'Buy it now' price of nearly £300. You can buy the latest similar set from Bachmann with a Class 20 loco and some grain wagons for about £330. 

The Class 25 locomotive may be 15 years or more old but in my mind it still stands up against some of the newer models released. It even has a driver and driver's mate in the cab which is a nice touch. In addition it is a solid model with no small parts that fall off that I then need to chase down!

As you can tell I do like this model and that is perhaps why I have a further 3 Class 25's in the WMD loco fleet. Just don't tell Mrs. Woody or she will be chasing me to reduce the fleet!

Floored!

I am a bit floored at the moment with no time for model making activities. However I am also being floored with the laminate floor going in the conservatory rebuild. It is nearly there!

In the meantime I take my self back to the relaxing time last July when Mrs. Woody and myself visited the North Norfolk Railway and a few video clips of the beautiful Class 20 20277 Sherlock Holmes in London Transport livery and Class 25 D7659 which were on duty that day.

In the meantime I think I will floor myself on the sofa tonight!

Track side debris!

Out cycling I often usually see a variety of things on the road edge. A lot of litter but then there are the nuts, bolts and washers and other vehicle related parts that fall off vehicles. It is amazing just how much you see and hopefully none of it is related to safety critical parts on vehicles but who knows! 

Railways are not immune either and from my ballast washing escapades I know there are similar things in the ballast. Now you would think that model railways are immune from such things but unfortunately they are not. With todays highly detailed models with many small parts the problem is that they often fall off the model. I have a bag of parts that I have collected over the last few years from around my layouts - part of that 'never throw anything out' mentality that Mrs. Woody rolls her eyes at when I do it! Most parts I have no idea of which model they are from but if I do come across a piece of rolling stock that looks as though it is missing a part the bag is there to look through.

Today I did come across a lone buffer trackside.

I was sure it was not there a day or so ago so it was likely to be off some wagon currently on the layout. Finding which one meant running the trains past me which was a good excuse to have a running session! It didn't take to long to find the wagon with a missing buffer and it was a Dapol Tunnel Cement Wagon.

A quick application of plastic cement saw the buffer back in place and that was one piece of trackside debis that didn't make it into the bag. If only every part was as easy of this!

On the level!

 Amazing thing concrete. It is a strong material and when you lay it you would think that being in a semi fluid state it would find its own level before setting. Well that is what I thought. Wrong! The floor slab in the conservatory rebuild slopes from one side to the other by 16mm. Apparently that is quite good as the floorer who came to WMD HQ today dealt with a floor yesterday that was 65mm out from one end to the other.

So how do you to ensure you have a level floor - use self levelling screed! Well that was what the floor layer did and once mixed it was poured onto the concrete to do its stuff. The blue rectangles are the level he needed to pour to so once covered the floor was on the level.

Now whilst watching self level screed being poured and finding its own level may be of interest to me I was not staying for the hours it takes to dry. So other jobs were done and then a look in at the Man Cave and after yesterdays running of trains there was a similar activity today. I must admit I do enjoy watching that Garratt running - certainly more entertaining then watching the screed dry although I am not sure Mrs. Woody would agree!

The Bayer Garratt, was I believe the only mainline articulated locomotive to run mainline in the UK. The model I have depicts it during its time with British Railways when it was converted to a revolving coal tender which made life a lot easier for the Fireman. 33 were built between 1927 and 1930 and withdrawn by the mid 1950's with none surviving. 

It was a surprising but welcomed decision back in about 2014 by the Danish company Heljan to produce a model of this locomotive. The first batch had various technical problems but my one comes from the second batch from about 2018. It is DCC chipped although I would love to add sound to it but you can't have everything and I am fortunate just to have the loco. It does run nicely and I think it could literally haul a train 4 or 5 times the length of the 12 mineral wagons and one guards van that I have behind it at the moment. Thinking about that I believe that with 60 wagons behind it and the length of that, the loco would almost be pushing the guards van as it wet round by modest layout!

The mineral wagons are from the Hornby Railroad range and you could pick up a pack of three wagons for about £10 not so many years ago. Today it is more like £30. However with the detailed products released many wagons are now £20 to £30 each so finding three even for £30 is still a bargain. Some may question the level of detail of the Railroad range but looking at a rake of these wagons from several feet away you are not really going to notice if the underframe detail is fully accurate. With some weathering these wagons can look and run as good as ones costing two or three times more. I can understand for a small shunting type of layout where each item of stock is clearly on display, static for much of the time, the cost of the more detailed wagon can be justified. However, everyone has different views but being on the level with you I think I am right but don't tell Mrs. Woody as I can never be right by her reckoning!

Another Blue day!

Another Blue day but one with blue sky and a bit warmer so that I felt confident enough to get out on my bike! That certainly lifted the spirits.

The builders also finished what they are doing on the conservatory rebuild and its looking great. I must admit I did not imagine it looking this good. All that needs to be finished is the floor and final fix of the electrics. That is the easy part for me as someone else is doing it. I then have to somehow get the garden back into some measure of normality and paint the inside which means other things will need painting and whilst you are at it can you just......these are the words that I can already hear Mrs. Woody saying! I think Mrs. W has visions of sitting in the new room watching and no doubt verbally supervising me doing the garden - oh bliss!

Just look at that blue sky! Almost makes me want to sing that ELO classic Mr. Blue Sky but then again my singing would bring in the clouds!

After many weeks of not doing much modelling I continued that trend but did have a happy hour, which was non alcoholic, running a few trains. I sort of stepped back a few decades with green diesels, DMUs and steam.

In fact you can see these running on my latest YouTube video where you can hear my dulcet tones as well. Don't worry you don't get to see me - I have the type of face that is only suitable for audio! 

Winter Blues!

I have to admit having the blues about this Winter. It seems to be dragging on with cold freezing weather and the possibility of more bad weather in February too. I haven't been on my bike in 8 days as the roads around WMD HQ have just been too icy. I don't bounce very well anymore if I come off my bike so I have avoided the risk of unnecessary injury. The man cave is equally cold and although there is a heater in there it takes an hour or so to heat the place up from Artic conditions. By the time this happens I need to pack up and go back in to deal with the conservatory rebuild. 

Never mind and as the song says, always look on the bright side! So in the absence of much model making activity at the moment I have been looking for something that brightened my life when I finished building it and still does. I do however recall there was many a cloudy day as I did build it because it was not the best or easiest kit in the World! 

So here it is - The Revell 1/108 scale tug boat.

I don't build many boats or ships - in fact this is only the second (i don't count the two narrow boats from last year) in my adult life. I won't talk about those that I attempted as a youngster needless to saythey probably form some integral part in a land fill site somewhere! However I really do like this boat and it does give me a smile when I look at it and that is something that a hobby is supposed to do - brighten up your life even when you have the Winter Blues!

n guage and a Pullman

I belong to a couple of model railway forums and recently in the course of various discussions my interest in n gauge came under discussion. I did talk about the 'rediscovery' of my UK outline n gauge layout back in December and you can find that post here. Further discussion led to memories of a large 2mm fine scale (which is like n gauge but the track is built to a much finer tolerance and scale) called Chee Tor which appeared I think in the mid 1990s. It was different in as much as it was mostly rugged Derbyshire landscape with a railway running through it. It was one of the early railway in a landscape layouts which at the time was very revolutionary. It was also mounted high up so you were almost at eye level with the layout. I can remember being awe inspired when I saw it the first time and determined to build my own version. Yes, that was another unfulfilled dream on the Woody list! Anyway back to the model railway forum and talk then went onto the Blue Pullmans which British rail ran back in the 1960s and actually went through Derbyshire. There is a video of Chee Tor on You Tube where if you go to about 2.40 into the video the Blue Pullman runs through. 

Although a the time the layout was built and exhibited no commercial model in n gauge existed, so it was a scratch built model, fast forward to about 2010 and following the release of the 00 gauge Blue Pullman by Bachmann, Graham Farish released the model in n gauge. I have that somewhere but inconveniently I cannot find it! However I also have the later Western Pullman which is a re-liveried Blue Pullman. 

Given all the talk of n gauge, layouts and Pullmans I felt a need to run one so out it came. A fantastic model and it runs so well with both power cars actually motorised and lighting at each end. 

I can only read a lot of the decals with a magnifying glass - all perfectly formed.

All this talk of n gauge is reawakening my love of the gauge! Oh dear!

TGIF!

It has been a busy week so TGIF - Thank Goodness Its Friday! 

The week started with five pillars on the conservatory rebuild and ended with the plastering inside being finished!

Just the floor and final electrics to be done plus a few bits outside and then it is up to me, under direction of Mrs. Woody of course, to paint inside and return the Somme like mud bath that was the garden to something that does indeed resemble a garden!

At the end of last week, whilst still viewing the five pillars, I did get my RC Tiger tank up and running at a total cost of £2.49 for the batteries for the transmitter. I did also highlight that I also had a Panzer iii. Well following a visit to the shops the checkout had 8 suitable batteries in a pack for a mere £1.79. Even more of an bargain! Once installed in the transmitter it switched on and with the tank battery charged it moved under its own power for the first time in about 8 years. It has not got all the bells and whistles that the Tiger has but it drives and the turret rotates. I have the various details that need adding in the original box which is in the loft along with the box and details for the Tiger. I will need to add these at some stage but in the meantime I am just pleased that these two models still live!

 

Electric cookers and model making!

In my inevitable butterfly manner of working today saw the four pieces of track for the Italeri SU-100 assault gun joined together. No glue required! The method of joining entails two pins at one end of the track and two corresponding holes at the other end. in each. The pins at one end go through the holes in the other track piece and then using a suitably heated instrument of some sort, the pin is melted to form a sort of rivet to keep the two parts together.

With the inevitability of getting into trouble with Mrs. Woody, a ring on the electric cooker was used to heat the tip of a screw driver. This was then used to melt the pins.

This rather poor photo just about shows one pin melted and the other awaiting melting.

Having melted 8 pins I ended up with two finished tracks. I am not sure how strong the joints will be but I will find out when I eventually put them on the tank.

In the meantime I better make sure that screw driver is put away and then there will be no evidence of the use of the cooker - apart from this blog!

I've been framed!

 

Yes I have been framed with the rebuilt conservatory now has window frames and indeed even windows! It even has the first fit electrics! Things are moving on with the plasterer coming tomorrow!

Back on the model front, progress with the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma has, as predicted, slowed down with the fitting of the smaller parts. This photo of the main parts left perhaps illustrates this better then I can describe.

However they are slowly being fitted like the lights, bumper and strap down points.

Thats a nicely framed photo!