As the pumpkins appear outside some of the doors on our street, and little witches, ghosts and wizards start begging at my door, it reminds me that November is almost here. In fact there are now just 17 days until the second Weston-on-Trent model railway exhibition. That is quite a scary thought as there is just so much to do. Here is the latest update:

The show

After the children had left school at the end of the half term last Friday, I finally made it into the junior classroom to complete the measuring up. This will form the extra room for this year's event. With the help of the headteacher's husband things were completed quickly. I have since spent the early part of the half term break completing the floor plan and sending out the confirmation emails.

Sadly things have not gone as smoothly as I had hoped. A number of emails have come back with quick confirmations, but one or two have brought additional problems. One layout has changed shape! Yes the dimensions given to me at the original time of booking are now different and that will mean some further tinkering with the plan. In addition to this, one trader decided to moan about their planned change of location in the hall whilst another decided to argue over the agreed price! Sadly a further email has brought news that one layout has had to pull out. Whilst it was one of the smaller exhibits it is still a little disappointing!

At present the layout count stands at 18. This is one more than last year. I had set myself a target of 20 so I am back on the search again. The question is, can I really find two more layouts at such a late stage?? Time will tell! Perhaps it is time to contact those people whose details I have placed "on file".

The layout

As regular readers of this blog will know, I built my first exhibition layout for last year's show. Since then Skaleby West has been stored in our spare room with plans to add a second scenic board in time for this year's event. Sadly that will not now happen.

With our house still on the market the extension board has been stored out of sight in the garage. So far the baseboard has been glued together, but it still awaits the final screws before any scenic work can begin. Even if I manage to complete the baseboards there is just no chance I can do any serious work on it. The extension is now on hold until next year although the board may still be used as a second fiddle yard to allow Skaleby West to be exhibited as a through station for the first time.

With a free day today I did give some attention to the current scenic board. The whole layout was cleaned to remove the layer of dust and a few repairs were carried out. It seems the original modelling glue does not come up to standard. A few of the platform items had come loose as had some of the "goods" in the goods shed. These were all re-glued before some additional detail was added.

A bicycle was added to the platform and some Mini-Natur flowers were glued behind the station name board to hide the white plastic "feet" which could still be seen from some angles. At present red roses dominate the scene as this is the only colour I have. Hopefully I can pick up some other colours from Burton at the weekend allowing me to complete the scene. Here are some updated photographs, apologies for the poor quality as they from my mobile phone.

Fresh from some maintenance Ivatt tank 41324 arrives with a short works train.

A mobile phone shot showing the developing flower bed behind the station running in board.

A shot towards the station building showing the newly added bicycle.

The coal merchants complete with workman now re-glued in a new location.