Well, my original plan called for this layout to be largely complete (although never finished) within a couple of years!

As i mentioned in my previous entry, the new hidden sidings needed their points wiring.

One of the problems when one can only work on the model at sometimes lengthy intervals is that you forget what you have done and what you need to do! Like more point motors.

Well ...... nearly!

Over the last few days I have managed to spend about an hour on the layout every day. Finally, last night, the last (I think!) piece of track was fitted in place!

After the long interval with no work on layout or website, I have suddenly managed two days on both!

Yes - I'm afraid it has been a year since the last entry. Sadly this does pretty well reflect the work done on the layout.

Nonetheless work has progressed in the first scenic section. The tree referred to above has been completed together with most of the fencing.

Despite the 3 weeks of silence work has continued apace on the first scenic section.

Work has continued on the scenery. Most of the lifting baseboard now has the various grasses etc in place although these have not yet been coloured and much remains to be done.

More progress has been made on the scenery and part of this can be seen in Gallery 2 again.

The first scenery finishing touches have been applied to the embankment to the left of and in front of the bridge (see last picture in Gallery 1- "before" and first picture in Gallery 2 - "after").

Obviously the modelling season must be well under way as there is yet another update in less than a week!

Since previous diary entry progress has been sporadic. Most of the Spring, Summer and early Autumn was devoted to home improvements and conservation work - yet another of my hobbies.

With looking after a friend's shop while she was on holiday and continuing work on building the conservatory, progress has been slower than I would wish - but nonetheless, substantial.

Three separate aspects of the layout are being pursued simultaneously. While this might seem strange I find that I can usually do this in the early stages of layout construction and as a result do the job I feel most like!

While work has commenced on track laying with the station throat, a double track continuous run was laid temporarily to allow some trains to be run immediately. This has proved to be great fun but does tend to slow down the construction work.

This saw the completion of the baseboards. Construction methods were very conventional utilising 50mm x 26mm planed timber frames surfaced with 6mm MDF board. This is not a lightweight construction but sturdy, and portability was not a major issue.