I started this morning by removing the weights from the cork (a wide selection of old Railway Modellers does come in handy at times), and started marking out the track plan. Had to move the point for the rear platforms a bit to clear the baseboard framing (One thing I hadn't considered when planning - these boards have 1 3/4" thick frames, compared to the usual 1" softwood). I then started cutting the track to loose lay to check for look and fit.

This is my first foray into using finescale track - up till now I've always used code 80 - definitely an experiment. Already I like it. It's much harder to work with than the code 80 I've used before: cutting the sleeper webbing is not a simple cut to the base of the rail; getting a bend into the track is an art, as is getting unintentional ones back out; the rail isn't as accessible for soldering droppers to. On the other hand, once the curve is in the track, it can hold itself in place, and it looks a lot better than the normal stuff. Oh, and listening to the concert performance of War of the Worlds on the radio certainly made things better!

Having finished the station end, I got some stock out and decided to see what things looked like (and whether I'd got the sizes right). 'Tis a busy time at the station - with 4 of the 5 types of DMU represented, and a colourful range of liveries as well. (Yes, I know they are a little mismatched, but they were what was easy to grab off the big layout).

As everything looked right, nothing tried to fall off as I pushed things around, and it was getting late, I decided to glue it all down to finish the day. Cue the discovery of another thing about finescale track - fitting the extra sleepers is interesting - not a problem with normal joints - but the extra sleepers supplied with track and points don't seem to be sized for insulated fishplates. Having tried to force them for about 10 minutes, I finally decided just to cut the sleepers up around them, and lay sleeper bits - very fiddly, but looks to be much better. Ended up having to weigh bits down to get them to stick in place (with the help of a couple of track pins to hold things steady).

In the gloom at the right end of the layout is the pit for the sector plates - the pair of them are sat under the pile of magazines having cork applied. Hopefully will get a chance to work on them tomorrow.