A quick update to followers and visitors. A change in plans required me to return to England for a couple of weeks. I left most of Shipston behind and took only the track components and the half finished Dean Goods upgrade with me. The Dean Goods tender is proving to be a good track tester at the moment but I do have plans to struggle with the lamp brackets again, having seen other peoples' excellent efforts.

Living in two small residences does have its limitations - no extensive loft for a decent sized railway, no garden for an O Gauge indoor/outdoor concept that I have always nurtured - but I now have two small workbenches with Dremels, soldering irons, etc. which means that I only need to carry a small tool kit around with me. This level of organization still needs to be fine tuned but the good news is that if I forget a tool I can usually find a replacement quite easily. When flying, however, a tool kit of sharp craft knives, needle files, etc. does mean checked baggage.

I see that C&L Finescale (Pete Llewellyn) has found a potential copper clad supplier with a relatively attractive price increase. He waits to see the quality of the trial product before getting too excited!

I do find track building to be therapeutic and would recommend it to anyone interested in improving on the "over the counter" Peco, etc. track and switches. I will be offering my Peco switches for sale once the new Classified section is up and running. Some of these are brand new, some have been carefully lifted from an existing layout, but they are all stored in their original trays. PM me if interested!