Yesterday we spent a bit longer on the layout; working from mid-afternoon onwards. I would love to have said we made excellent progress, but the time flew and although quite a bit was acheived, not as much took place as I would have liked.

The major track replaying was completed, althought one or two adjustments are needed prior to the ballast being put down. Most significant is the bridge, which has been put into situ.

The bridge deck is constructed from foamboard, with a second narrower layer beneath for extra support. The legs were from a standard peice of dowelling you can pick up from any DIY store. Don't worry if you think it looks a bit spindly, it has not been finished. There are still the side walls to add, as well as cross bracing underneath. The road surface also needs to be added, as well as details such as street lights etc.

A lot of concrete walling will be put into position, and some can already be seen in the new tunnel portal for the branch. This is courtesy of Scalescenes, as seem to be a number of conrete covering on this layout. Personally I think the scalescenes papers look very convincing, and are a great help bearing in mind that Japan uses a lot of concrete...everywhere!

We have also been making modifications to the station area. We now have an extension to the carpark crossing the branch platform. Really this is an attempt to make better use of the space and to give us a car park that this more in keeping with the size and location of the station. The area that was originally going to be the carpark will now be occupied by offices.

More will be done to the track work next Friday afternoon...not by me though, I'm back at work ...and hopefully we'll get the bridge and surrounding area completed then. Incidentally, you may also see that the backscene fitting has started...currently this is just plain wall lining paper...I have plenty of pictures to add to this over the next couple of weeks.