Well very nearly one year on and the track has developed quite a bit:-

There is a station crossing which was constructed to take the attrition from lawn mowers and so far has worked very well.

There is an Express route to the rear of the station which links back to the main line

There is second passing loop in front of the station

There is one siding to the rear of the station.

There is a BBQ siding which leads round to where the BBQ is cooked.

AND soon there will be two more sidings ...

The double left cross over

Now I have to introduce ISOLATION to track sections in order that several electric locos can be run and parked up in sidings.

Access to the "Express Way" which runs to the rear of the station

The "Express Way"

Work continues on the development of the sidings and just leaves the track to be laid as can be seen in the pictures below.

Working out the signalling and point operation will be complex so that reliance can be placed upon the signals that if they say the track is clear it is; so some logic interlocking will be needed.

Not a full day on the track as had other things to sort out like electric power to the garden shed, but the results are showing signs of moving forward.

A narrow trench was dug to take 6" grass edging and preparation commenced for other work on the lawn.

I have included the diagram to show what a "thinking session" came up with and I will in due course show a diagram of how it all resolved into reality.If the plan makes no sense to you then do not worry probably when I look at it again it might make no sense to me either !!!

A very full day in the garden , with also help in the morning from a gardener friend who put in the muscle power to dig out level and relay much of the turf. I continued after a sleep from 15:00 to 17:30 when I called it a day. The plan had been to lay 6 sq meters of turf in the end 4.5 sq meters were laid . The remaining turf were unrolled watered and will have to wait until Sunday or even Monday to be laid ... as I am busy Friday and Saturday with the Kent Group of the G-Scale Society.

The is the "old Grotty" corner which I hope will now look much better and made ready as a Fairy Grotto for the Christmas run.

Coming down from the "Bailey Bridge area, some turf laid on top of existing lawn waiting for areas to be prepared and turf laid..

This is the area of the station and siding where in fact most of the work is being carried out. In the next few days 1 ton of rag stone chipping will arrive and most of it to be laid in the area beyond the lawn edging.

Most of the day spent helping the loco G Scale Group set up a show in Faversham so very little done except for laying some more turf.

26th July

Almost all day at the Faversham show acting as photographer to the group and up dating the web Kent G Scale Web site. the 1 ton bag of Ragstone chipping arrived so that means I can move forward on that tomorrow..

Up early and 4 hours in the garden made quite a difference.

Up early and 1 hours work on the final pieces of turf that remained to be laid before off to the Lazer cutter for some timber panels to be cut out but more about that another time.

Now a layer of chipping covers the area and it requires only to be brought to level.

Three slabs need to be set in level with the grass so that will be done soon as will the completion of the timber edging to the lawn.

The afternoon was spent watching Jack's run his new Roundhouse loco "Sandy River and Rangely Lakes Railroad #24" which is about 28" (700mm) long, but still negotiates track which has bends down to 600mm (2') radius.

This tested out the track and it was found that it was all in good order. Minor attention was needed to remove some chipping which had been poured onto the track by mistake.

Then at 23:00 as predicted the rain came down ending nearly 3 weeks of dry weather and of course this is just perfect to give the lawn a good soaking !!!

Up early and off to the laser cutter to collect the coach sides. More about that elsewhere in due course.

General tidy up of the garden and sowing of more grass seed.

Another early start and this time it was to cut up all the timber in preparation for the construction of the signal gantries and posts.

After that possibly the last barrow load of chipping was laid in the station area. When they have settled I can decide if more is needed.

A good start today some more work on the lawn and the edging adjacent to the sidings, start on the construction of the signal gantries.

More track ordered to complete the sidings.

Also started the construction of a Signal Box to cover over the pneumatic pipes that come out from the garage where the pneumatic controls are located for signals and points.

Of course if the 270mm (actually I have measured again and it is 290mm !!) is found to be way too much then the signal box will be put to the band saw and reduced in height - no problem !!! Probably 250mm is about right !!!

Not much done today as out and about getting additional track for siding but did complete the main construction of the Signal box. The vertical clearance height was adjusted to 250mm which will still be well clear of the tallest loco that I know ...