Below there is a number of photos showing different stages of construction.

A modification to the layout not mentioned above was to lengthen two of the sidings. The two straight sidings at the top station (looking at the plan as reproduced above) were too short to accommodate a locomotive and three coaches, either the locomotive or the end coach remained over the points, so I made them curved and made a curved platform for them from balsa wood.

As said above, I had installed point motors (underfloor) only on the main circuit but not on the sidings. To avoid having to make more holes in the baseboard I opted for surface mounted motors. I have decided to leave the motors analogue controlled. Having installed them on the sidings, I found that a certain vehicle would not pass between two motors mounted on adjacent points; they were mounted on the curve, not on the straight. So, rip them up and replace them the other way around. Then one burnt out, so replace it, but moving one underfloor motor to another place, with the corresponding new hole, to get the surface mounted one where I wanted it.

In the meantime I had purchased a Hornby 2-6-4 Stanier 4MT Class 4P tank engine and was incapable of getting it to do even one complete circuit without derailing. I suggested to Hornby that the bogies were too light and they replied that the loco was probably pointing out multiple track faults to me. They were right in that and I have ironed out a good many faults. Bit I still think that I also am right because various other locos perform O.K., while the Stanier still derails too easily.

When I got around to the decoration (mentioned above), there was need for more improvisation (meaning modification of the original plan. As mentioned above, on the front cover photo of the Hornby Catalogue, there is no visible means of access to the houses in the interior of the circuit. So I decided to build a level crossing. I had not seen anywhere a readymade one suitable for the two curved tracks at this point under the bridge.

I imported the card kits, made them and then found that the row of terrace houses would occupy too much space where I wanted to place them to leave room for a street of scale size. So another modification. I had to cut a slice off the upper layer parallel to the sidings to make room for the houses and the road. Compare the following photo with the previous one above, albeit taken from the other end.

Another modification was to raise the height of the engine shed because the electric locos, with the current collector raised, would not pass under.

I also added some semis with gardens and garages. Then I discovered road signs (easily installed) and lighting for the street, railway platforms and marshalling yard, which meant modifying the electric cabling on the underside of the baseboard. In view of my age and the slight flexibility of my body, the installation of the wiring meant tipping the baseboard side on.

This is a very early photo (2008) but shows what I say about tipping the board side on.

Throughout this year I have made much progress in the decoration and removing track faults, but it has meant ripping up the track in different places and relaying it. Currently I can get most locos to move around the whole layout, entering and leaving sidings, stations, etc. without serious problems.

Up to here I have been relying on my memory and the aid of the photographs, so the events related might not have been stated in correct chronological order.

The most recent work has been to place railings and hedge between the top station area and the semis and this again has meant having to rip up one of the curved sidings and relay it because the coaches rubbed against the railings, with the problem, then, of making sure that two trains on the sidings did not touch each other. They will just pass, with about a millimetre between them. But all of this shows what happens without good planning and getting 'brilliant' new ideas almost every time I contemplate the layout.