I was on a train back from Prague all Saturday because of work, so took Monday off in lieu and decided to tackle a fiddle yard upgrade. The yard I had was cobbled together from what I had at the time, and was always supposed to be temporary (originally until I completed the loop around the room, but I decided against that - for a line which was end to end it made no sense). It ran poorly, with dead spots, wobbly bits and frequent derailments. So needed doing.

After driving all the way to Gas Cupboard in Trowbridge (amazingly on a Monday all the Bristol and nearer model shops are closed) for supplies I got going. The board was reinforced and levelled and then completely new track laid.

It's all Peco streamline in the yard, so that I could use short radius electrofrog points, which allows for four roads on a 215 mm board. I adjusted the outside road so that I can fit two peco loco lifts side by side on the outside roads - very handy for turning my locos hands free (also the 2MT is a sod to turn and keep articulated).

The loading gauge is pretty tight but everything fits! The curves at the end are two shocking 1st radius setrack pieces which are necessary, and don't actually seem to cause any problems. Without them fitting my boards after the move would have been impossible. I used a couple of transition tracks to go between the track grades at the yard and scenic boards and they work very well. All pinned down it now runs beautifully, and I can run trains at breakneck speed! Happy days.

As it's always visible I thought I'd do a full scenic treatment. I was never very happy with the ballasting on the main boards, so tried something new here - it's Woodland Scenics fine light grey ballast, applied with drops of PVA:Water 1:4 with a drop of washing up liquid in too. Then airbrushed with raw umber and black - my gas ran out so there's still some more black to go on. Track sides are painted with Phoenix Precision Track colour [rusty rails] (P977) and then sleepers individually painted precision Track Dirt (P991). The rear two roads are yet to be done.

So there we have it. I'm going to plant a few bushes, and I've got some left over point rodding and levers in the spares box - so if there's enough that'll go on too. Here's a final look at my pilot 08 (gasp!) sitting in my nice new dirty looking yard.

Marcus.