A spot of dry weather was the spur for taking an overall view of the layout:

This is the whole thing now, with the backscene permanently mounted. Just to be on the safe side, I did see if it fitted in the car! It did, and while there was plenty of margin of error on the height and width, I was surprised at how close to the limit it was in terms of length. That's with the back seats folded down, but the front passenger seat still fully upright, allowing for a spare operator! In fact, it should be possible to go with just one rear seat folded, assuming no trestles or legs go with it, so in principle three of us could ride down with the layout.

And I've started on the scenic landforms a bit at this end. Speaking for myself, I struggle to maintain interest in a modelling project unless I can hop around and work on different aspects at the same time. So while there's still a magnet to be added, and therefore the wiring isn't yet complete (never mind the rudimentary fiddle yard) I was itching to get on with adding some contours, so that I can start to envisage the thing more clearly in my mind's eye. 

I've also been working on the final tweaks to the track, adjusting a few places here and there where there were some discrepancies in levels between adjoining rails. It's been a learning curve, as I've never had to lay track without fishplates before. To help with the alignment, I started soldering in very short lengths of phosphor-bronze wire into the outside web of the rail, which helps keep things level. I'm using the phosphor-bronze that comes with the DG couplings pack - there's a lot of it, so a few snippets won't go amiss! Another issue is that the recent warmer weather has exposed a few areas where rail expansion was still causing electrical difficulties, so I've had another round of taking care of that issue. Hopefully the ups and downs of temperature we've had over these recent weeks (the layout sits in a cold conservatory overnight) will help give it a thorough stress-test!

That's it for now. In the next exciting installment I hope to report on some positive developments with the Dapol pannier.