So there's the summer been and gone... wasn't it a good one (in the West Country anyway)?

Now the evenings are drawing in, thoughts have returned to the loft layout.  Track has been acquired, and some progress made in laying it.  Each board has to be laid and wired separately in case it has to be removed some time in future.  The dropped board is easily (!) removable to access an under-eaves cupboard.

The fiddle yard area is a bit of a squeeze to get to (see photos) so hunched-up working means limited spells at that end.  The five tracks were straightforward, but the removable join was, er, rather tricky to work on.  But that end board is wired now, so things should get a little easier to access.

The board joiner strips are made from pieces of copper-clad board, intended for printed circuits - the technique is described in many RMweb posts.  It's a very fiddly job, as each piece of rail has to clipped in place while it's soldered - I used a couple of small letter/bulldog clips.  So far, wagons run pretty well across the joints, but we'll see what happens as the temperature and humidity changes...!

Here's a pic looking in the other direction.  The dropped board will have a bridge under the main line and a head-shunt, both providing some scenic interest.  There will also be a tunnel mouth as scenic break just beyond the coal wagon, so that the points to the fiddle yard are all 'behind scenes' yet accessible.  Only six inches or so of height for a back-scene though!

Next steps are to finish track laying and wire up the other three boards so that testing can start.  At the current rate of progress, that'll be slower than Crossrail !