Wow. Nothing for 3 years then two in a fortnight. A bit like buses, but with less nutters. Or maybe not.

The goods yard at Cheddar is now sporting a 6 ton crane, courtesy of the Osborne Models kit. I struggled with it if I'm honest. The parts don't seem to be a totally accurate representation of the drawings I found in GWR Journal preview issue but I think it'll do for now until maybe a replacement turns up. Anyone got any ideas what colour they were painted?

In other news; I miraculously found the previously cut platform surfaces and duly extended these through the train shed. They're cut from 1mm Palight which is soft pvc sheet which can be embossed. I'm presently drawing on the coping slabs with a black biro. Once completed the Palight will be primed and painted, leaving only a shallow indentation. The surfaces were prototypically a mixture of slabs, tarmac, gravel and Staffordshire diamond patterned nosings. I'm still scratching my head on that one. Embossed brick paper is worth a go. I'm not going to scribe each brick then add a pattern. That would be mad. After all this P4 layout is being built by an EM modeller and the 3ft rule is going to apply for the sake of my sanity, which is stretched all too frequently.

I've also used Palight to start to form the area around the signal box and include the barrow crossing. The back of the up platform has seen some terraforming done with craft foam. It'll be finished with my usual One Strike lightweight filler from Proper Job as I did with the surrounding areas. It was only after I'd built the boards and laid the track that I worked out the two mileage sidings behind the box actually rose up on a slight gradient to platform height, but hey we live and learn and I won't tell anyone if you won't.

Still it's very nice to have the layout up so I can work on it a little when I've time and the mood takes me.