The idea was that the little outing in Jan to Mickelover was going to sort out all the problems with the layout so it would just be a case of packing it all up, throwing it in the car and then off to the Nottingham show for the weekend. As you can guess the snag list got longer and I got diverted by things that weren't on the list and life just got in the way a bit. Appologise also for lack of posts as have been problems with internet since my 'seamless' change to a new supplier (is a £125 Sainsbury bribe voucher really worth it?), and having to fight for space in the office as my wife has been working from home a lot. Got a few moments now as everything is all set up and ready as it is ever going to be and waiting for a nice man from British Railway Modeling to come and do some video of the layout for an article.

Note above 'all set up' - this is the first time it has all been put together in it's new 21 foot guise and it is going to be a rare event I can tell you. Who would have thought that the extra couple of feet would case so much trouble. As you might be able to tell from the rather rushed pictures it now completely fill the studio and has to poke out of the door to fill half of the conservatory -limbo dancing required to get in! Also on display is my Mk2 back scene (all 24 feet of it!), which now extends the full length of the fiddle yards and around the ends. I do need to add a little more support though. One thing that this does highlight though is how bare the fiddle yard boards are so some scenic treatment will probably be in order but not before the weekend!

In the next shot you will see another long overdue addition - a name - courtesy of letters cut out with the Cameo cutter and glued to the pelmet - why didn't I do it sooner? Also in this shot you can see my test rake of three wagons that all couple to each other and stay that way. I have been laboriously adding loco's and other wagons to this benchmark rake to try and get the couplings actually do what their name suggests. Very time consuming, very boring and so far not completely successful!

My mystery project is pretty much finished now but to do it justice will require a couple of posts of it's own but if you come to Nottingham you can have a sneak preview!