So, now, to wiring it all up. Although it's all a bit of a lash up for now (until I get correct wire and know where I'm going a bit) I did still need to mount the point motor switches, as trying to use them dangling about seems likely to lead to cooked point motors as I fumble about with them. To this end I marked out the control panel with something representing the layout and mounted the switches. This will be re-visited later when I've worked out exactly what I want. Putting the 08 on the track it all worked. And I get to play trains in O gauge, something I'd dreamed of ever since my friend, when I was 4, took me round to see his Triang Big-Big Train set (O gauge) which made my Triang OO look a bit silly (to me). Happily the 08 and desk-tidy tippler went everywhere with not even a hint of derailing. Ace. Even better was that it did it at an absolute crawl as well, no stopping, no shoving, it just went. On track that has been lying about for 6 years and never been cleaned. So nice after the times back in the day on all my previous layouts where taking a run at points was pretty much the norm.

Above : And there she blows. All looks good and runs well. Hoorah! (sorry about the focus) With the points in No.1 road (general goods) is in position a laid, No.2 road is placed but not fixed as I need to see how the geometry pans out with it leading to the arrival road via some Y points and a headshunt. To this end I went to order a set of Y points and discovered to my horror that Peco O gauge track is out of stock just about everywhere due to the current crisis - so I threw caution to the wind and ordered the two left-hand curved points, the right-hand curved points and the Y points needed to finish the layout - took a bit of finding but got there in the end, just - when I looked a couple of hours later I think I would have struggled to find any. These will be laid with marking out for their point motors done so the motors can be added later when the bank balance recovers a bit. Sit back and wait time.

Above And Above That : A couple of general views of progress to date. When the remaining points turn up, and later some point motors, the expensive start-up phase will be done and I can start on just buying bits and bobs as the budget allows.

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