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You don't want to show that to Pete, you might just hear his scream all the way from Spain . Looks to have come out very nicely.

As promised, I am posting several pictures of the yard crossing following clearance of the flangeways. Once the filler had set, I initially used a Stanley knife to score close up to the inner of each rail, down as far as the tops of the chairs. This was cleared out using a 1/2" paintbrush. The knife was reversed and the score widened using the flat back of the blade, and brushed clear again. Finally a hacksaw blade was used to give a little extra width to the flangeway; I merely used the rounded end where the hole is, so no teeth came into contact with rail or filler. After all that, the flangeway was brushed clear. Again! Last but not least, the filler was burnished with the back of my thumbnail to ensure that the rails were proud of the outer filler and that there were no crumbly bits. Tomorrow, I'll test with a loco, but the Standard vans roll through without problems:

I really didn't mean to vanish for several months - it just sort of happened. I had a big burst of activity to get Whitemarsh ready for the challenge and then the show at the end of November, then a short break from modelling. Unfortunately this ran into Christmas, which ran into a new work contract, which was happening at the same time as writing a conference paper and a hobby game project. Yikes. Anyway, the culmination of all this madness was a two week trip to the 'States involving a lot of work and alcohol. I'm now back, and starting to think I should make or do something train-ey before I forget which way they go. This was catalysed slightly by receiving an exhibition invite for Whitemarsh and/or Tanis in August. So... what to do now? The three main options I'm mulling over are: 1) Do more work on Whitemarsh, finish the depot area (foreground) and maybe install a backscene. Weather up more stock as well. 2) Build a new module for Tanis: This would probably be 2xA3 off to the left of what you can see here, with the terrain elevation lowering slowly to track level and incorporating the edge of a camp/airstrip so I can land weird things like a Dornier Pfeil. 3) Build a Z gauge layout based on the Hirschsprung section of the near Freiburg. This would be a single track electrified branch with no points in the visible area, fiddle yard behind, and small trains in big scenery. This video shows the section I have in mind: I've bought reference material and made a few stock purchases towards option 3 so I can run some legitimate trains and I'm quite tempted to do it, but I suspect I'd really enjoy working on Tanis some more as well. I'm tempted not to take Whitemarsh to the show in August and instead work on that for next year's Railex in November, since it's hard work to operate and the August show is in Masterton - there's less chance I'll get any support from Micky out there since it's not a bus ride from home. In the longer term I want to do something with On30 in British Columbia, and do some more work on my 1:35 modern construction stock which is still sitting in a box looking sorry for itself, but those are a bit ambitious for now. Particularly the On30 since I'm having real trouble coming up with small track plans that I'd be happy with. Or I could put my head under the sand for a few more months I'd be interested to hear what people think - and thanks for listening if you made it this far into the ramble...

Didn't get much chance to do some modelling last night, but did get some paint on the Narrow Planet plates Just got to seperate them from the etch without damage now I did try to get the shed and number plates with white lettering by painting them white first then black and wiping off. Sadly this didn't happen for me. Looking at the loco the build plates will need to go on before the deflectors.

Following a long and highly informing (for me anyway!) discussion on the forums I have now done the basic carcass of the engine shed. There is still some fettling to do, I have to put the smoke channel in, as suggested by Kris, tidy up the corners and put on the roof, as well as the roof lights. I am fairly pleased with the progress so far but any improvement suggestions are welcome. This is the front view which compares fairly well with the prototype. Some compromise about lintel height was required for loco clearance. The top view showing the purlins, the top ones will have to come off to make space for the smoke channel. Distortion from macro lens not wonky plasticard! Top view from the front Just a quick prototype view

Starting to look like a Single!