The club chairman spoke to our team this week. There are going to be 22 layouts at the joint show with Dorking club on 30 Sept/1 October. We did say that we could make that 21 but were firmly told "no way". So over the next two months we will concentrate on making our efforts as interesting as possible as completion to exhibition standards is totally not feasible. If it ever was.

One of the issues we have had since the beginning is that Horsham club do not have a dedicated club room. We do all our stuff in a church hall - one that was once rocking to the sounds of the Rolling Stones (well before they were famous obviously) - but one with limited storage and one where we have to set up and clear away each week. Still, we have finally got some space in the cupboard so the baseboards can now be available on short Wednesdays too.

But we have a station sign:

Colonel Stephens railways were not shy to advertise their presence, or exaggerate the comprehensiveness of their services, complete with exhortations to support the local railway or to ride on home-made steel rather than imported rubber. So we will do the same.

The bridge over the River Arun is progressing well too. Side railings have been fitted and all that remains is the decking and the track itself. But we couldn't resist a little posing.

Other scenic treatment is progressing. There are quite a few trees in various stages of construction with club members beyond the immediate team contributing, and the landscaping using foam plastic is proceeding well. The base of the River Arun is in place but there is a lot more work to do around the Warnham Mill site.

A country lane to run behind the Holbrook station goods yard is under construction. The sketch here shows the sort of thing we are trying to achieve.

The gates will give access to the cattle dock located at the end of the long siding. The dock only sees occasional use and the treatment of the ground will reflect that. The main traffic on the long siding is domestic coal and the access road for that is a bit up the lane. The backscene on this part of the layout is on the right hand side of the lane.

One final success story this month is that the DCC controlled point-motors were programmed and tested. This may only be a light railway layout but the plan is for full DCC operation. We don't want to get bogged down with section switching and operators jumping around switching points. Route setting where selecting a route from a specific fiddle yard siding to a destination on the layout automatically sets all points correctly and operates any signals there might be is what we are aiming for.

Aims for August are to get the track ballasted and all electrics tested. After that its finish as much as possible of the landscaping and install the low scenic features like the cattle dock and station platform