I've finally tackled one of those jobs that I've been putting off for a while - adjusting the sharpness of the curve into the main fiddle yard on 'Engine Wood'. Whilst generally around 2' 6"+ in radius, a very short section was inadvertantly laid rather sharper some years ago, which some of my locos didn't like.

As a result, I've lifted the very sharp track, tidied up the board and re-laid it with new track and a re-aligned cassette 'docking station'. This took most of the afternoon, but I also took the opportunity to test the two new sets of coaches with their close coupling over the curves, plus a bit of track weathering in the station (also long-overdue).

General view, showing a still-unweathered 82041 (built in 1995!) coupled to the Maunsell set, waiting to run over the newly-laid curve:

A cruel close-up of the tunnel portal:

D6318 in the fiddle yard, waiting to test the curve with the other new set of coaches, a pair of Bachmann Mark 1s:

And is held at the home signal upon emerging from the tunnel:

53804 is the next test subject:

...and is captured immediately prior to exiting the tunnel:

With Railex only just over 3 weeks away, the priority now is to finish weathering the two sets of coaches, complete one or two minor repairs to other stock and put the full layout up for testing in a week or so.

Unfortunately, I doubt that I will have time to finish 82044 in time for the show, so that will have to wait.