I suspect, unlike the 2012 Olympics, Brooke Stone at this early stage, appears to be, on time, on budget and most importantly on size !!

After another woodwork session this afternoon the detachable fiddle/loco hide was constructed and with the use of alignment dowels (4) and side catches (3) added to the main board.

On the fiddle yard board 2 high sides have been installed using 6mm ply with the back left open for access to the 5 running lines. Another scratch built structure will span the depth of the board from front to back and be wide enough and angled across the join to sufficiently hide rolling stock disappearing off the scenic section.

The big moment came at just after 16.00 this afternoon when my lad, tape measure in hand, declared that despite dad's limited woodwork skills the boards, combined, were indeed the magic 67'' x 30'' resulting in 2010sq inches !!

Next up is a little bit of filling, sanding and tidying up on the 2 boards then a coat of paint. A shade of Railfreight Construction Blue, or something quite close, is looking favourite at the minute and I will be tasking my local sign writing guy to run up a set of yellow self adhesive letters for the front panel on the fiddle yard board.

Along the 5 theme, as well as having 5 roads, a couple more thoughts over the last few days have been -

• 5 resident locos, possibly all construction based 56 & 60's from the 1990-95 period. All custom re sprays with weathering, detail & sound.
• 5 major scratch built structures on the board of which 2 have been started, 1 in early stages on the workbench & 2 more to plan, build & place.

Spare time and cash for the layout will be on a drip

feed from now until after Christmas due to work going into silly season & a 5 year old with a 7 page list for Santa !!

Got plenty of building material in the stores though so whilst track, power & control systems, lighting & rolling stock will have to wait until after the festive season I can spend the next month or so beavering away on the workbench coming up with the other 3 structures and finishing the 2 already started.