The wiring is now complete for Ripe - not a great deal of it! - and the frog juicer has been installed to deal with the polarity switching.

It needs testing, but lack of a suitable test loco means that this will have to wait for the time being. The annual bonus from work was lower than expected (across the board, not just me!), which, combined with Charlie's birthday and the Car Insurance stymied my plans to buy a Bachmann E4 last month. I do have some BR Blue stock to move on which will be a substantial amount towards one, but it currently lives in my parents loft, so needs to be retrieved first!

Once I have tested - and also built the detachable fiddle yards - it will be ballasting, but before I can move on to that, Point Rodding will need to be installed. I am planning to use the Wills kit for this, but thinned as per Geoff Forster's efforts on the wonderful Llangunllo - http://radnorailways.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/point-rodding-pt2.html . LBSC Point Rodding was also round, rather than square, but I think careful work to thin down with a scalpel will help to discuss the kits' Western origins, and if not I can always say the independent CVR got some on the cheap from Swindon!

As well as the wiring, I have also put in the platform - made from Stripwood sides, with a thin balsa top, which will in turn be covered with Daler Board. Some polystyrene, and stripwood offcuts, serve as 'filler' underneath this first surface, which I hope should prevent any warping of the board when painted.

You can see in the background of the above, and this picture of the other end, that I have also put in the base (from 5mm foamboard) for the road surface.

This first mockup of the shop from foamboard was built to the wrong size, as I stupidly forgot to take into account the thickness of the road! . As I was pondering how best to represent a typically 'Sussex' flint and brick building, the latest MRJ came out, and in it, Gordon Gravett shows how to make exactly this using DAS on Foamboard, which is the way I will go. The road to the side of the shop leading to the track will be replaced with a road sloping down towards the track to cross on the level.

Along the backscene opposite the shop, I think a simple wall - something like that shown here;

will do nicely, as there will be no room for anything on the other side of it.

I aim to redo the shell for the shop over the next few days, and also get the base for the road in place, with the top dressing to follow much later...