Hello all, 

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. Yet again other things get in the way of railway modelling!

A couple of weeks ago I attended the first exhibiton since my appearance at the Gartell Light Railway back in February 2020. Although not a huge exhibition, from what I gather the show at Yeovil Junction was a success, and I have been invited back for their Exhibition in April 2022, so I didn't put the events manager off too much it appears!

That said, preparation for the show was a little difficult as during the weeks I am away from my layout, so a seccond Peco Smartswitch was partly installed the weekend before the show, as well as replacement board electrical connectors and a general wiring tidy up. It turns out I was far too ambitious and I ended up installing the last few bits of it the Friday evening before the trip up to Yeovil, so the first day of the show was test day. Not ideal, but by the end of the show it was all running well again, having solved problems with dodgy point blades, and a solder joint insistent on becoming disconnected from the track.

(ABOVE) Images taken the weekend before the show. I decided to set the layout up and try and tackle all wiring at once, which fortunately worked. New connectors and servos can be seen underneath the board.

(ABOVE) A couple of images taken during the show. The response to the layout from the general public was very positive, although nothing beat the compliment given at the Gartell show that my cows were the correct colour for the period!
 

Some stock statistics for you then:
17 locomotives, 40 wagons, and 22 coaches came with me (Thankfully all returned) and I found these numbers to work very well, enabling a lot of different stock to make an appearance before it entered for a second time. 
 

So what next?
A couple of new extensions are being built for the layout. One will double the length of the storage yard to 6ft, as the current length is a little too short now I have much more stock needing to come in and out. The other extension will add about 10cm onto the front, purely scenic, so that I can develop the goods yard a little more, as well as adding a new cattle dock I have in production to replace my scratchbuilt variation which is slowly falling apart.

Overall then lots to keep me busy over the next few months, and hopefully I can get cracking with the front extension soon, I can't wait to get that new cattle dock in place as I feel its a significant improvement over the one in place currently.

Onwards we go!