Having collected some more parts from Chris at the Ally Pally show last weekend, noteably a new shed floor, I have spent some time this week marking out the positions for all the inspection and disposal pits on the layout in preparation for a routing session.

I made a visit to the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in Chippenham and obtained digital copies of a number of ex Swindon Works Drawings including the 60ft Cowans Sheldon turntable for Barrow Road, Water & Drainage diagrams and drawings for new preparation pits. It is the latter drawings which have given the necessary information to accurately position the pits on the layout.

The new shed floor was required because I discovered the 24 roads are not all at the same angle radiating from the turntable.... I must do my research first!! The shed has two lattice girders supported on octagonal columns, which support the shed roof. There are four columns for each girder and the two centre ones of each set are positioned between pit roads 4&5; 9&10; 16/17 and 21/22. The spacing between these roads needs to be wider than the others in order to give sufficient clearance for locos.

Other parts collected from the show including show new windows - the originals did not have the arched frame 1mm inside the outer edge of the window - and sets of walls and floors for the inspection and disposal pits.

Here are a few more photos of the front of the shed before the new windows are added. The first photo also shows the original shed floor with the equi-distant spacings of each pit road - roads 16&17 are visible in the top corner.

In the meantime I have made further progress colouring the front of the shed....... watch this space.