I can't believe that my last blog entry was in June! Where has the time gone?? All of a sudden there has been the first chill of the upcoming Autumn and the nights are starting to draw in and that means the second Weston-on-Trent model railway show is starting to creep ever closer. As I write this there is less than two months to go. So much has happened since the last blog, and so little has happened too.

I had hoped that my six week summer break would see me get stuck into the planned extension to Skaleby West ahead of its second ever exhibition appearance at Weston 2013. Sadly things did not work out that way as other things got in the way - family trips out, decorating and a curtailed deviation into G scale modelling all eroded the time I had to work on the layout. In the final week of the summer break I did manage to glue together the wood to form the extension baseboard and that is it! The board still sits in our garage awaiting the final screwing together before scenic work can begin.

Recently we have put our house on the market, and as we look to move into a new build via the government's "Help to Buy" scheme we have just a four week window in which to sell. During this time there is strictly no modelling as much of my stuff has been secreted away out of sight. It is looking very much like the extension will not get finished in time - in fact I probably won't have time to even start scenic work.

I do have a "Plan B". If I can finish fixing the board together I may use it as a temporary second fiddle yard allowing Skaleby West to be displayed as a through station for the first time. The current scenic section has seen one or two improvements during the summer and I will refer to these in a later blog.

But now the big news!

The show will be extended this year!

Yes I have gained permission to open up a second classroom which should allow me to fit in all the exhibits I have planned. There were a couple of layouts which I had put on my provisional list and had not got back to the owners. Both of these are RMWeb members so apologies to them. I will be in touch in due course. Right now I am measuring up the new room and beginning to finalise the floor plan to include all current exhibits. At present there are 17 layouts and 8 trade stands on the roster! We will also have the raffle and the same ladies on catering so all exhibitors and visitors can expect to be well fed!

Less than two months to go then!

Until next time (I promise to update soon!!!)