I've been quiet for a while because although I've been very busy and productive on the layout, there's not much of photographic interest to show. I'm still wiring the hidden tracks, board by board, and testing them individually prior to reassembly. The loft is a complete mess, the floor strewn with layout wire offcuts.

A number of things had to be done for a second time. I'd made a hash of the control panel so built a new one, and also had problems with the wiring index which led me to come up with a completely new and much more simple way of annotating it. Of course what is taking the time is the need to wire it like an exhibition layout with electrical connectors between each board. Simply finding and deciding what type of connector to use has been "fun". On my old layout I had a marvellous 36 way connecting system, bought from a specialist modelling supplier whose name I cannot remember. The socket at each end was mounted on a PCB with 36 screw terminals, and the cable was an old style printer ribbon cable (a parallel cable I think it was called). It was expensive, but simply marvellous. I have now managed to come up with something almost as simple, which are computer D25 sockets with right-anged pins for mounting on a PCB prototyping board, and ready made male/male connecting cables which have been wired "straight through" (i.e. pin 1 goes to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc.).

Overall, things are going fine, and with a fair wind I should be able to call the hidden section complete by the end of next week. We shall see - that's the target anyway.

In early October I am going with a friend to the IOW to take panoramic shots from the East Bank of the Medina for the backscene between Cowes and Newport.

Great excitement when I received the new kit for the 18t double verandah road van, of which one ran on the island, on the heavier freight trains.

And I've been dabbling with Sketchup in order to create 2D drawings for laser cutting - the first project to be Newport Engine Shed. But that's a background task as the basic construction has priority right now. First train into Newport at Christmas? It's certainly possible!

Chris