Since my last blog entry it has been one step forward and 3 backwards on several occasions. But now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel - or is it a headlamp of an oncoming train?

The double glazing was installing in the garage on budget and schedule. But the roof, wood burner and main door were not. I couldn't find a roofer who would touch the roof for less than £2000; all I wanted was the ridge re-pointed and about a quarter of the eaves tiles replaced. I couldn't find a water proof garage door that would fit in the current opening without taking up too much layout space inside, and could I find a wood burner installer who would do the job for sensible money?

So for the main door I've added 2"x2"s either side to fill the big gaps and used that wonderful spray foam to fill the small cracks that were left. For the roof I have slid in plastic support trays for roof under lay from Screwfix instead of the missing eaves tiles and added more spray foam to stop the drafts. I also spent yesterday morning sitting on the ridge, chipping out the loose mortar and re-pointing it - I now have a very sore bottom. Fortunately my wife found a wood burner installer who not only gave us a good quote, but fitted it only 8 days later. Plus it was £700 cheaper than the cheapest quote and it did not cost £75 to get them to come and quote!!

So the garage is now in a state where we can work in it whatever the weather and the layout stays dry, mostly dust free and no spiders yet.

Similarly it has been much the same with the layout. Back in October and November we though we were going great guns. Track was being laid in the fiddle yard, the viaduct board arrived from Rob's and we connected up and we thought we were on schedule for a show this April, even though the scenery would not be complete. Then it got cold (actually it was very cold in the garage) and we had a couple of disastrous modelling sessions. Track was laid, but the glue was forgotten; track was glued in place; but the wrong place; point motors were fitted and working; but stopped working the next session; and so it went on. We pulled out of the show with almost 5 months notice and put everything on hold until last weekend.

March 17th. We decided that the top priority was to lay 2 tracks all around and get them running. To do that the last but one corner baseboard was needed; the last baseboard on has sidings and sits inside the oval. So we got everything ready to build it in place and what do we find? We are only 12mm out on the level. The rest of the day was spent working out what was level and what wasn't. It turned out that we need to rebuild the right hand end of the viaduct board. At least we would be able to get everything ready to start the final board next weekend.

March 24th. We finished off the viaduct board rebuild and reset the whole scenic side as it had been moved to allow access for the wood burner installation. What do we find? Again we are out by 11mm. The laser level shows that it was all along the fiddle yard which was level last week and hadn't been touched since. So the fiddle yard was re-leveled and everything double checked and finally the gap for the last baseboard is level.

Double glazing, no holes in the roof, viaduct board rebuilt. Tracking laying here we come.....