All trackwork laid

At last, all track laid in place, with turnout wiring installed and a start made on installing power droppers to the rest of the track. The only section not fully in place is the coaling road approach to the turntable. My thought is to lay this in place once the turntable is working to help get the track aligned correctly with the turntable's rotational steps (if that makes sense?).

That said I've also been working on a design for the Shed Offices. A little off-the-cuff design with an attempt to come up with a building that looks and feels GW along with complementing the Timber Tracks Buildings. In discussions about its construction there has been a suggestion that it is laser cut rather than built using plasticard. A laser cut building should be a better fit with the other buildings.

Design so far

I've not drawn a plan of a building before let alone one for laser cutting so have much to learn. On another duplicate drawing I've started to create a brick pattern  nd colour the cut lines blue and etch lines red. The windows have been drawn to match the etched windows available from London Road Models. At the moment I'm unsure whether to etched windows or use laser cut ones but will have the option to use either.

The whole layout was being built on top of some Ikea Ivar shelving units which were also being used for storage. While this has been convenient I started to think this is was not ideal especially as there was no convenient access underneath the layout without moving the boards elsewhere. Thinking it would be better to complete the build on its own support structure I spent last weekend reorganising the 'Man Cave'. Rospeath Lane is now self-supporting, giving access underneath. This should also help with ironing out any issues with the supports as far as stability and construction.

Current state of Rospeath Lane

What helped in the reorganising of the Man Cave is my decision to scrap Heath End, the roundy-roundy P4 layout that I acquired. In re-evaluating what would be involved correcting baseboard alignments, improving the wiring and bring the scenic areas up to a standard I would be happy with, it would distract me from what I'd really like to achieve over the next few years. On top of that it did fill one end of the Man Cave making it a tad awkward to access and making the room look very untidy.

On the plus side it has enabled me to have both Tredethy Wharf and Fiddlers Wharf on display with good access to both. Hope they'll not be too much of a distraction.

Tredethy Wharf now on top og the Ivar shelving units

Fiddlers Wharf also on Ivar shelving units

I'm a little behind schedule with Rospeath Lane but should still have locos moving around the shed by Christmas...