Scenery progress

Yesterday i laid down a mass of pink gravel or tarmac around the station (providing a kind of "road" around the station. The centre part of the layout will be given a bit of a patchwork of pink and ballast and maybe some of the remaining ballast mat too. Then we can place buildings atop it...

Fish van

Latest piece of rolling stock to arrive is this SPV Fish Van, although our one depicts it in its later years when it was used for parcels traffic especially in the Southern Region.

Next step for HOe

The Falcon had a test run on the Knell Lane layout earlier today, just a couple of circuits to make sure the main loop is still suitable for HOe locomotive running in. Maybe some of the bushes alongside the track are a little close but the mighty Falcon made it around OK. Current plans are for a small end-to-end layout for HOe with the loop of the N gauge Knell Lane layout available for extended running to keep the locos in good shape.

I was having a look around at what rolling stock is available in HOe to augment the fleet in future (next year at the earliest) and this little montage i made shows there are some interesting options available old and new.

Ballasting done!

The ballasting (apart from maybe a bit of touching up here and there) is all done now. Attention can now be turned to the centre of the layout where a little village will be built up.

MPD

The MPD is pretty much done, just the long siding needs a bit more ballast. The station is next and then all the ballasting is largely done. Then we can start operating trains again and also think about the scenery in the centre.

Populating the platform

The Permanent Way Department is busy ballasting the track on New Knell Lane, over half of it is done now and its looking fine. Meanwhile the Infrastructure Department has begun populating the platforms for the new station.