Progress on the control panel is still painfully slow and would not make for entertaining reading at the moment (saving it up for all in one go), so shall talk about something kinky instead! With the Hunslet (4-6-0), now picking up on almost all wheels - I have cut one of the spring pickups too short so will have to replace - I tried it on a section of the layout. Result - much better but...... It just won't run through a small section which, rather inconveniently is right at the the start so no avoiding it. There is a small 'S' shaped kink there which the four wheel petrol engines manage fine but not the Hunslet. I know how this kink appeared - it was after I had to move the points on this section further down when I realised I had misplaced them so to align with the traverser board this slight kink was put in.

You can just see the kink in this pic.

Now what to do... First idea was to try another big loco - problem - I don't have another running at the moment. I could just leave it until I have but I am itching to get on with finishing this board and this section is going to disappear behind another building and become hard to get to. Guess I could either get on with finishing a Baldwin or just relay the track anyway. Am not really happy about leaving things though so might try a bit of remedial work on the loco first. I have noticed that there pretty much no side to side play in the rear axle so first thing is to remove a washer or two. I am also not happy with the way the pony truck is fixed so will have to address this as well. A more radical approach might be to try to turn the flanges off the middle set of wheels but suspect this might be harder to do than say - has anyone any experience of doing this?

Will continue to muse on this but could really do without such complications!