I have decided to put another removable, half-relief shed where the backscene photo of the Cooling Towers are - they can still be viewed by simply removing the new structure if desired.  The new shed is being constructed at the moment.  I have also still got a pile of work to do on the steel wagon fleet - all will need Spratt & Winkle couplings like the rest of my wagons.

The Yorkshire, sloped-sided shunter, common at Bilston was from Judith Edge.  I'm not particularly good at kit building and tried to short cut the process by using the motor and wheel set out of an old On30 Bachmann Porter.  It was a disaster and I just couldn't get it to run right - the motor was eventually removed and the Shunter is merely a cosmetic scene filler.  Maybe one day I'll save enough up and have one commissioned!

Another picture of Shelton Bar in Stoke on Trent - a marvellous shot from a 1970 amateur film.  Proving how close you could get to Steelworks back in the pre H&S days.

The start of construction.

I make my own point switching devices - they work too!  The switch block shown here was temporary in order to test the isolated sections.  I have since replaced the nail contacts of each DIY polarity switch with Brass screws and a piece of conductive spring wire from some very old Lima points.

The freelance Hunslet 0-4-0 - copied from the background picture.  This is permanently attached to a Dapol 16t mineral with added wheel pickups.  Not a crawl type shunter but works really well on the layout for a bit of general hauling.  A superb Bachmann Class 08 does all the heavy work on the layout.

The end shed during making - just a 3mm MDF shell covered over with foil corrugated sheets.

I'm not sure if Wills would approve but I used their basic corrugated sheet as a template to create my own foil ones.  Interestingly the foil came from the underside of a Thatched Roof at a holiday cottage complex!  The owner decided to have the roof replaced with a tile one and I was right in their gathering up bits and pieces of the foil as it was being torn down.  It's about the same thickness of baking tin foil you find under your Steak and Kidney Pie and holds the grooves well.  The foil was laboriously flattened out with a jam jar in order to remove any creases and folds, given a light sanding and then cut into 32mm wide strips.  These, in turn, were simply placed on top of the Wills sheet and a small screwdriver was used to scribe out each run of panels.  I think it has worked out rather well for a freebie!

A superb shot of a Yorkshire shunter approaching the scrap steel bays at Bilston.  I might take a leaf out of Mikkel's book with his 'one bit at a time' method he uses for his Farthing layouts and have a go a modelling this bite of the Bilston cherry next!  Notice how dirty and black the track bed is - I tried to emulate this on the layout.