.... it's been a long time since the last update and, as ever, progress has been slower than planned.

(Board 1 in progress - 25 of the 2 turnouts now completed, so much easier when you don't have to worry about crossing polarity or insulated tie bars! Basic coat of Humbrol Track Colour which will be weathered in due course, as will the Bachmann Mogul)

Over the winter and with the help of a local craftsman (he runs the local tractor club and I give them lectures on railways, so he helps me in return) I built all the baseboard supports, which I'll describe in the next blog. These now give a datum for the baseboards so that I can measure the gradients with respect to each other and drill and fix the alignment dowels in place.

I also built the weighhouse shown in the photo. (Don't look at the roof too carefully - it isn't finished yet and only laid down briefly to take the photo. It has to have the edge slates straightened out and barge boards fitted). This was constructed from a carcase of some rather dense 3mm foamboard I had left over from an exhibition posterboard years ago. It's supremely solid and warpfree and I'd love to know what it is. It cuts well with a VERY fresh and sharp scalpel.

A number of plasticard layers were copydexed to it and I used a piece of frosted 500micron sheet in front of which I have placed clear glazing. You could never see into the weighhouse so the frosting represents this very well.

The window frames were laser cut for me by Jonathan Buckie from dxf drawings I supplied him.

Once again the generous folk who put their photos up on the internet are to be applauded because there's no way otherwise I could have worked out the dimensions. Unfortunately I got them wrong. I used Evergreen V grooved planking for the wood face, assuming the planks to be 7.5" on the prototype. A mock up in paper just didn't look right. It was far too long and far too wide, leaving very little room between the weighhouse and the sleepers. I decided they must be 6" and scaled down accordingly. Sure enough, the model now fitted correctly. This would have been tedious had I not used CAD.

Lastly, the second board has now been aligned to the first and the current job (between Protocab testing - I give myself an hour's break each day to get on with Brighton) is to dig our and fit the four long inspection pits on the four roads outside the shed. One day, I'll find out what these roads are called!

Happy modelling

Tony Hagon