As some of you know, I acquired the micro layout, 'Crewe Corner' from Tom Davidson a few months ago and I have been trying different ways of extending it. I originally thought of adding the diesel shed from 'The Berwyn Railway', my preserved railway set in North East Wales, which was dismantled after its appearance at GWR175 (which I still haven't received my 'token' expenses for!), at Winchcombe on the G&WR, back in July. After trying it with a centre fiddle yard, I decided it would be better to start from scratch and rebuild the extended Crewe Corner on a new 5' x 2' baseboard, with the fiddle yard at one end, allowing me to add another four or five foot board adjoining the fiddle yard at a later date, if I so desired.

As Crewe Heritage was looking for Diesel layouts for their 50 years of the Class 37 celebrations and I have around 10 or so 37s, along with some contemporary locos, I offered this and had it accepted, giving me a month (from now) to complete it. However, I love deadlines, having working in advertising/publishing/exhibitions for most of my working life!

The baseboard has been built and painted and the track laid, after changing the trackplan quite a few times! Tomorrow, I will start on the overbridge and commence painting the track. Trackwork should be completed by Saturday and the scenics (the buildings have been selected from the remains of previous layouts) started on Tuesday, as it's the Rawtenstall show for me on Sunday. Hopefully, I'll make this deadline without any problems...