fishytrains

Hope you enjoyed it and got some inspiration. When I am in the UK my house overlooks the railway at Rushden - great to see them running up and down there. Mike

It has been a while since I checked in. The progress is looking very good. Mike

Not much progress since the last update. I am now away for 3 months with work, so no progress on the layout at all, although I hope to make some progress with the backscenes! I am still working on the one viaduct, but still need to fix the tortoise point motor and complete the lower level wiring before I can complete this upper level of the mainline. Consequently I feel I have hit a bit of a brick wall, but then being away for most of the year does make progress slow and sporadic, as I also have to spend time with the family! Maybe there will be some progress at Christmas - if I am lucky! Mike

Looking very good. Mike

Great progress as usual. Mike

Latest update photo. This shows the current state of play. No progress for a while due to family holiday. Mike

Latest update on the viaduct. This is beginning to take the shape I had envisaged. Still a fair amount of work to do on this. Mike

Enjoyed the videos, shows the station area very well. Mike

As promised a couple of photos. The first shows an aerial view of the vegetation done a couple of weeks ago. The far left has yet to be treated in the same way, but provides a good contrast and shows the improvement. The second photo shows the work I have been doing on the viaduct. There is still a long way to go, I am currently debating how to continue the left hand side, where it goes over the top of the branchline. I am toying with the idea of continuing the viaduct, but leaving the middle for the single track branch to pass underneath. It maybe that this will be the impression of the viaduct, depending how it works out. The base of this part of the viaduct will be in a river or canal, still trying to decide which. There will be a second viaduct in front of this one, but I need to complete this first. Which means I had better get back to it! Mike

Brian, I agree with you. Not a lot of progress on the layout as I have had to redecorate the lounge. I have been working on one of the viaducts and will take a photo of progress when I get a chance. I now have a tortoise slow action point motor to install and try out and still a load of soldering and track cleaning to do. However, I also have a family holiday coming up, so progress will again be limited. Mike

The new area is looking great. I have used the Springside signal box interior, it is good, especially as you can get two different sizes of kit. Looking forward to more progress soon. Mike

I know exactly about how you feel trying to fit the modelling in around family commitments. Mike

I like the wire and post fencing, must look into that myself. I also like the work you have done with the point rodding. It looks very effective. Mike.

Thanks to the inspiration from your layout Neil. Mike

Finally managed a couple of hours on the layout today. However, the problems continue. Today the soldering iron decided not to work, so I will probably have to replace this. Therefore no more wiring could be done. Instead I worked on some more of the scenery, and had a go at increasing the amount of foliage, as shown in the next two photos. I have also done a little backscene work. The first is an attempt at perspective drawing, which is not really to scale. The second is a start on painting the walls, but I ran out of blue paint! Mike

SWMBO is getting better, but still manages to find other things for me to do. Hopefully with the poor weather forecast for the weekend further progress can be made. The trouble is I don't like wiring and so can be easily distracted! Mike

Finally made a little more progress. Not helped by the warm weather, lack of necessary wire in my nearest electrical wire suppliers and having to look after SWMBO after she had an operation. Unfortunately it is wiring, so no photos to show progress yet. Mike

Thanks for posting. Nice to see the early development work. Mike

I have been home for two days and finally made it into the loft today. Spent a bit of time cleaning track and fitting track cleaning pads to some rolling stock. Had a look at the class 37 and the short circuit seems to be to do with the engine. Not sure where, so will have to find someone who might be able to take a loom for me. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get the wire I need so that I can get some more of the wiring done. Had a good look at the track around the main station on the layout, at present, this will need to come up as will the track around it and be replaced, it is older track and makes the running much less reliable. That at the moment is a future project, but we will see! More progress soon. Mike.

I like the tunnel mouth and thanks for sharing how you put it together, Mike

Wow! That is amazing track work. Mike

Thoroughly enjoyed those videos. Mike

Looking forward to seeing future progress and also the work done until now. Mike

Good to see the progress you have made. The videos show the layout off well. Mike

Great progress Mike. The platforms look good to me. Mike