Another short work session in the shed today as I've had a bit of gippy gut but long enough to do a bit of scenic work on the Poplars estate board, mainly sticking down the paving I recycled, some landscaping and making a start on painting the emery cloth roads. Now you might think why the hell paint the emery cloth, which is pretty black, with a grey asphalt colour only to then add black paint pigment when dry? Well the answer is the emery cloth is too uniform black, and roads tend to, just like Visage, "Fade to Grey" before oil, tyre detritus and crap in the rainfall adds streaks of darker patches, so painting the emery cloth with a uniform road grey, then just working in some dusty paint pigment should make the road surface more realistic - plus the paint does help conceal some of the joints in the emery cloth, although not the humungous six scale inch step in the car park which with hindsight I need to add some plasticard to in order to reduce the suspension threatening step.

I've rejigged the housing estate, removing one of the "Court" low rise flats and relocating ex-Councillor Wright-Burke's "In Cod we Trust" chippy into the centre of the quadrangle. You will recall Wright-Burke was convicted of the "Chips for Votes" scandal and disbarred from office, Whether the residents of "Crowne Court" and "Euneda House" are happy with the smell of Wright-Burke's Emporium of Lard permanently invading their flats is another thing.

It hasn't been raining, it's fresh paint. I've kept the pedestrian areas in naked emery cloth to simulate high quality asphalt, as opposed to the crud the Borough Engineer sticks down on the roads.

The two blocks of flats with shops under (Kibri 1970s kits) enclose a green space and "The Poplars" pub (Piko Post Office kit from 1960s). There's a drunken stooshie going on outside the rub-a-dub. There's the step in the car-park which would destroy anything trying to park there. There's traffic calming and traffic harming.  I'll add some plasticard to reduce the difference in height.

Still to add: weathering, streetlights (working) and interior building lights, so they are not stuck down yet.

How the Poplars estate hides the fiddle yards, ably demonstrated by my glamourous assistant, the Centro 3 car Sprinter lash-up I created...



...and an all-trailer Limby Class 101. Two sidings directly under the board, and one just behind, give two-train operation on the "branch".  The Class 101 comprises Hornby bodies fitted to a trailer chassis from an intermediate TS and the non-motorised "motor" chassis, to be hauled by a Bachmann 105 as a typical East Anglia to the Midlands DMU set of the 1980s.



Another two car trailer set for 1968 and 1975.  The two trailer cars from a Bachmann 3 car Class 108 were purchased from Tatbay, and a spare Hornby 101 body fitted to the "dummy" motor chassis to create a hybrid 101-108 unit, which will be towed either by a parcels unit or another unit for Cambrian line services.



Two higher level shots showing access to the fiddle yard.  The scenic board with the "Poplars" estate only occupies the central third of the length of the fiddle yard, allowing easy access to points and for loco changes.  At the other end, the low retaining wall and factories allow access to the pointwork and for loco changes, whilst allowing some additional scenic treatment, important for me as the shed is relatively small (just under 12ft x 8ft) and giving up a large amount of the available space for non-scenic storage didn't sit easily with me.  I think this solution is a good compromise between ease of access to the fiddle yards and creating a sense of place.