The current project is to configure the loco-shed area. The pics show the progression of the back-drop with the embankment and boundary fence now in place. The turntable (Peco with a few bits added from the Dapol kit and the well walls lined with brick-paper) has recently been sunk into the baseboard and motorised using the excellent "Locomotech" kit.

Advice from the following link http://www.goldcoastmodelrailwayclub.com/motorising-a-peco-turntable.html has been invaluable.

With the well suitably braced (my usual amateur bodge job) the table now turns smoothly. I have no connection to the manufacturer. I built the kit 25 years ago and had tried to make it work with a meccano device from, I think, Frizinghall Models but to no good effect. However, having reinforced the well, I suspect the meccano motor would now do the trick just as well.

The coal stage is a Metcalfe kit with a bit of added detailing while the ramps are scratch-built. The ramps have had to be modified to fit the new location as the pics show.

The loco-shed is scratch-built and again is about 25 years old and in need of a bit of tlc having been boxed up for a long time. It's basically a plywood box covered in mounting card and brick-paper. The smoke vents are strip-wood, each with 4 truncated dress-maker's pins shoved in and supporting a plasticard cowl made by moulding the card round a broom handle in boiling water - it does work.

So, the next step is track-laying and wiring. The idea is that the shed area will be a separate section with its own controller and cdu to operate the points but with the shed throat being a shared section with the main layout inner circuit. This pic gives an idea of where it's heading. ...

Finally, I am wondering whether to sink ash-pits here and there and whether others have managed to do this without resort to the Peco off-the shelf version....