There is still no modelling to report from Kernow Towers, and Callow Lane remains in the same state that it got to, almost exactly two years ago.

However, I find that I'm having to start work on the wooden covers for each of the two main baseboards, to ensure that they are protected over the coming months, as they may get moved around the house in connection with decorating work etc. At the moment, they've got no protection over the embryonic scenic sections, other than a lightweight dust cover.

I found out to my cost many years ago, that removable covers need to be built 'in situ' on each baseboard. 'Callow Lane' has (or will have) quite a deep backscene, which would mean that to bolt both boards 'back-to-back' would make the resulting unit virtually unmanageable by one person, so each board will have backscene boards semi-permanently attached at the rear and at each fiddle yard end, with the rest being removable. Apart from the end pieces to protect each 'board joint' end, the rest of the cover will consist of 1" x 1" timber, with a clear polythene covering (as per 'Engine Wood', for those who may have seen it).

The backscene boards are being built of good quality birch ply.

There is the scene earlier last week, with one of the boards in the garden. I was gluing some 2" x 1" blocks to the inside of the frames, to give the screws that will hold the backscene board in place, something to grip:

Today, I glued up the end pieces that will protect the board joints on each board. Rather than bolt each piece directly to the flat face of the board end, I glued some 4mm ply to each piece, to enable them to be slightly 'off-set' and thus hopefully protect the scenery a bit:

I then put one of the main boards back up on the trestles, to measure where the recently-glued in wooden blocks were, as a prelude to drilling the screw holes in the birch ply that will form the main backscene boards along the rear of each board:

It may be best not to look too closely at my wiring and I would certainly not hold my methods up as a paragon of virtue:

It was at this point in the proceedings this morning, that I realised that I had blundered big time in measuring the birch ply for the rear of each main board.
You may note the different coloured timber of the baseboard extensions. When originally constructed, each main board was only 3' 6" in length, but I realised that the layout needed to be longer, so one of my earlier blogs did feature the 1' extensions that I fitted. That is what you can see in the photo above.

However, I made the serious error of assuming that each board was 4' 6" exactly when I went to get the birch ply cut to size. I should have measured it, and then measured it again, as each board is slightly longer than 4' 6".

There's nothing for it, if I am to avoid having an unsightly gap at the back, other than to get new sections of birch ply cut to size, and to find a new use for the original pieces.

Anyway, back to other model railway developments at Kernow Towers.

I went to RailWells yesterday, and a very good show it was too. Upstairs, in the main hall, I once again encountered the Ixion/Minerva stand, selling their delightful 7mm R-T-R industrials, amongst other things. I had been very impressed with these when I saw them for the first time at RailEx in Aylesbury this year, and a plan to re-start the modelling mojo has been bubbling away ever since.

Yesterday, after valiantly holding out for most of the show, I gave up the unequal struggle of resisting these 7mm delights, so I now appear to own a 7mm locomotive!:

This was advised to me as the last of the red ones to be available. I've always liked red engines, so now I've got to build something in 7mm to run it on. I'm really rather enthused about the prospect!

In the meantime, here it is again, next to another loco that also isn't P4:

I would add that the purple hue of the buffer beams and side rods is a trick of the light/exposure.