Hello!
Hello.
and welcome to the highlands where the sun's getting very low.
Yes.
We've been wandering around for half an hour
trying to find a position where the tripod's not casting a shadow on us.
Or it's not blinding us.
[Laughs]
You might remember a few weeks ago we told you about our plans
to convert one of our barns into the train barn
and we're going to build a model Railway in there.
When the estate agent said it was rustic,
we thought it would at least have had a floor.
[Sound of crashing into the bath]
This is the closet, don't want any jokes about coming out of it.
This is the cage
and this is where I like to
[Cockerel crowing]
Wheelie bin, we won't tell you who's in, what's in there.
[Sound of hen flapping]
Ooooh [Laughs]
We've got hens in here.
Well when we left you, we said we were going to cost it all up
and see what work needed to be done
and take it from there.
And then about a week or two ago
we said we were pausing it because it was quite a big job
and we didn't have the money.
Big job?
Well,
[Laughs] That's what he was doing literally five minutes ago wasn't it?
It was a double flusher!
Ohhhhhh!
Well we've been doing the sums
and adding it all up and we've wasted so much paper with all the sums
We've still got no money left.
[Laughing]
and we finally worked out what needs doing.
And it's not really good news,
it's not bad news, but it's not good news.
But it's made us wonder how we can do this
and it's made us come up with a couple of new options,
which we're going to tell you about today.
[Music playing]
I knew we should do more vlogs from the bath.
Don't! We'll sink.
YAYY!
This is, was the train Barn.
So you might remember it from a few vlogs ago
and we were talking about how we were going to convert this
into something habitable for the big train layout.
Well we've been doing loads of costings, we've had people round,
we've been looking at YouTube and Google and stuff.
It's not happening [Laughs]
So what have we got to do in here to make it worthy?
Well first thing we've got to do is got to dig the floor out,
because it's not level
[Shaun] It's just soil,
[Colin] and then we've got to concrete and level the floor,
Yes.
that's the first thing.
We've got to do something with the walls,
it's the original stone walls, which are just under a metre thick
and they are brilliant, they're going to be well insulated for winter,
but we've got to find some way of stopping all the dust from coming off.
Now some people say don't seal them, some people say to seal them.
There is a way we could do it that we could stop the dust coming off,
so that wouldn't be too much of a job.
The roof is okay, we've just got one joist that we've got to replace,
which is not that bigger deal,
but it just adds to the cost.
Then we've got to put a lowered ceiling
to stop dust from up there falling down onto the train set.
We need to get a new window,
we need to get a new door that's a bit more secure and seal that in
and we've got to make some provision for the birds
and possibly bats that are roosting and nesting mopping the roof space
[Shaun] We think we've got bats up there.
and we've got to protect those.
So it is doable
and then we've got to tidy it all up and build the train set.
So it is doable,
but
the cost of doing that
got us thinking that there's probably a couple more options
that might be about the same price, but might actually be easier
to pull off.
Less sweeping up.
Speaking of pulling off,
do you want to take the plug out?
[Laughing]
What were you thinking? [Laughing]
Come on pull the plug, we need to get out. [Laughing]
Shall I rock us out?
No no no no no!
My knees!
[Music playing]
We have two more options,
well, that we're thinking about anyway.
There's probably about a hundred
that these nice people will say,
oh you should have done this,
you should do this,
you should do this.
[Laughs]
Right,
behind what was going to be the Train Barn,
we've got a little bit of land which we're not using,
it's about a quarter of an acre
and it's where the bees are at the moment,
but they're kind of on a corner of it, so they're not going to be in the way.
And it's nice and flat.
And what we could do is, we could get a new building,
like a a good shed
and put that on and it could be like the train shed.
But then I got to thinking well,
what's even better than a shed
to put a railway model set-up in?
An actual train,
well a carriage,
Yeah.
like an old goods wagon or a small carriage.
Now the prices are about the same
as they are for a decent shed
and the work could be the same really,
because we'd need to insulate it,
because it is quite out of the way here,
so it's open to the elements.
We'd need to find some way of heating it,
which we would have to do with a train Barn anyway.
Yes we would.
We'd have to have some way of controlling the humidity,
because we don't want the track and the electrics and the bits and pieces
to get damp in the cold.
Because it'll start sparking.
So we'd need to control the humidity
and obviously we need some security for it
because as it builds up it will be worth a little bit of money.
So,
they're the tree options,
it's either the train barn and converting the barn
or getting some sort of shed, some decent shed that we can fit out,
or buying an old carriage
[Shaun] I know what you want to do.
[Colin] I want the carriage and the goods wagon.
I'm also going to need about 15 meters of track
and some sleepers and some ballast.
Which is a bit of a pain,
but I think the finished result
Because if we put a carriage on here it'll sink.
I think the finished result would be absolutely amazing.
Now to get a carriage and a bit of track
and then do it all out and insulate it and get it ready.
I've costed this out, would cost about the same
as it would to convert the barn into the train barn
and it would be about as much work.
The difficulty is finding a carriage,
I've actually got my eye on a couple
Finding a carriage that's not too wrecked
and the the ones I've seen are between 8 and 10 metres long,
which is about the length of the Train Barn anyway.
They're about two and a half metres wide,
so the narrower, but we can work with that,
because people have done that.
I've seen some on the internet of somebody that's done something very similar.
So it could be done.
So why are we talking to you about it?
I've got no idea.
[Laughs]
I like to know what you think, I think if we did a poll
that I think the carriage one would work best.
I do.
The problem is getting it here, because we are out of the way
and it's all single track roads
and it would have to go around some corners and through a field and up a bit of a hill.
And a couple of cranes.
So it would be a challenge for any HGV driver to get a carriage
onto this little bit of ground behind us.
[Shaun] very much so.
But I think the finished result would be amazing,
what do you think?
I think it'd be awesome.
I think because it's going to be such a big layout,
if we go for the 10 metre train, that's quite a, 10 metre layout by 2 metres.
I'm actually going to do it in bits,
so I'm going to do sections at a time
Yeah.
and I'm not going to copy any kind of particular layout anywhere.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to be inspired by things I like.
So take the Far North Line like the one that goes from Inverness up to Thurso and Wick,
I'm going to do something inspired on that, so like a single track line,
countryside and things like that
and then I'm going to do like a main line
and then I'm going to do like a branch line and I'm going to do like a goods yard
and it's all going to be inspired by places that we know.
Is there going to be a canal?
There'll be a canal in there, there'll be a little Silver Fox in there
and even things like like the Keithley and Worth Valley Railway
which has got the steam trains on it, because I've got some steam trains already
and I could do that
and then as I'm doing each section,
then we start to connect them together
so you get this kind of, you know what I mean don't you
and that's what I'm going to do.
So,
we've got a plan
He's got a plan.
We've got a plan at last.
I'm going to take it really slowly
once we start building, because I want to do it right
and it can be quite costly, I don't want to make any mistakes.
So I'm going to do it right and take it slowly from the start.
So we want to know your opinions as well,
drop your opinions down in the comments.
I'm dreading that,
I'm dreading it!
I love hearing from you.
I love it.
It's a short one this week, but if you've liked the vlog
and if you're not already, please subscribe to the channel.
Give the video a thumbs up, especially if you like trains
and if you hit the wobbly bell,
YouTube will let you know every time we release a new vlog,
which is usually every week, we might miss the week every now and then.
We might do.
We are doing a live vlog on Tuesday,
Nobody told me!
so if you're watching this a week on Thursday,
you've missed it
but you can watch it on catch-up.
If you want to support the channel, there's a link up above Shaun's head,
or it's in the video description if it's not there.
Are we all done?
I've done, I need a nap!
Can we go train shopping now?
Yeahhh!
See you later, bye-bye!
Une,
deus,
[Beeeep!]
Catnip!
It's actually quite waaarm I'm under Sunny isn't it?
Waaarm?
Waaarm! As my Grandad used to say.
Shaun's wiping his [BEEEEP!] his eyes.
[Laughing]
Same thing.
I hope you've washed your hands.
Ohhhh!
Apart from the Sun been so low, it's literally scraping, not the barrel,
what's it called?
Scraping??
The horizon.
That's what we've been doing since we moved off the boat
with these vlogs isn't it? Scraping the barrel.
Ohhh!
Five, four, eleven, three.
Do you remember we were talking about setting up the train Barn a few weeks ago?
I do.
Yeah... a bit slow, he's a bit slow off the mark this morning.
You've got loads of hair in your ears.
OWE!!!!
[Laughing]
OWE!!!! OWE!!!! OWE!!!!
What's that thing? Rub a dub dub?
Three men in a tub. OWE!!! Splinters
OWE!!! Splinters
Wooaahh!
It's like that Rider Blackpool isn't it?
It's nothing like a ride at Blackpool [Laughs]
It'll keep him out of my way won't it?
Oh he's...
We've
We'd we'd already finished!
[Music playing]