Sometimes, forward progress on the layout is almost exactly counterbalanced by backward steps. Last week I made headway on the scenic (gradual) slope from the mainline to the retaining wall around the shed. Multiple cycles around the fill, sand, check for smoothness cycle and we have the gentle slope I was hoping for.

I’d achieved a nice smooth joint between the retaining wall mount, and the slope into the shed. And then as I sanded one more time, and trimmed hold-melt glue overspill the whole board fell between the two ‘A frames’ I’ve been using in lieu of legs.

Sods law dictates that both ends of the board had to hit multiple times during their descent to the floor. Where I’d laid and ballasted the branch track I’d left a couple of inches overhanging at each end. One end acquired a 90 degree bend, the other a subtle slope which was never going to be flattered again. The ballast, which I’d finally tweaked and tidied to a state which was looking decent, cracked like the cheapest crazy paving. The A frames kindly dug into the Colotex foam and swiftly levelled the terrain at a speed which any landscape engineer would kill for. All the smoothed and sanded filler cracked to leave a fairly impressive representation of the San Andreas after a bad day.

That was last week and I haven’t been able to face it until this weekend. It will be repaired (in fact I think it is already looking better than it was) , hopefully next report will be all forward movement.