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Buildings

This is the basic boxfile with track placed in to get an idea of how things will work. I have cut some 3mm thick MDF to shape and allowed slots for wiring and point operation. The ends have also been cut to allow access to the fiddle yard. I was surprised that apart from the spine, they are all thin chipboard. Cutting was with a piercing saw and a round blade tidied up with emery sticks. Track (built by my dad, Brian, because he is better at track than me) is scratchbuilt using SMP parts and is two of the smallest Y-points. The front of the box will be re-attached with two hinges later.

Points will be operated with rods made from brass strip. A pin sticks up through the tie bar and at the other end is the metal parts of an electrical "chocolate block" which will allow me to attach and remove the operating knob which will stick through the spine of the box.

The first train runs ! A K's Y8 is the idea test loco as it is very short. The track has been glued down and point rods fitted. Micro switches are fitted to change frog polarities. Controller wiring hasn't been done yet so a couple of wires from an H&M do the job for now.

The fiddle yard is another file with an MDF base. Track has been extended over. Power is transferred through the bolts that hold the "boards" together. The flap will be held up eventually to hide the contents and will have a little display stuck to it.

At the other end, the track extends into an extension tube. This can be packed in the fiddle yard when not required - as allowed for in the rules. As you can see the wiring is in for transformer and controller. Thus will be hidden by the buildings.

Close up of the extension tube made of the remains of the MDF I lined the bases with. I've had to lop a bit off the top to get it to fit in the fiddle yard.

The track has been sprayed with primer and then track-colour. Card inserts are being stuck in to bring the ground up to the level of the top of the sleepers. Ballasting experiments have also begun. The top one uses traditional sawdust with watered down PVA. The bottom uses the same stuff but the pva was painted onto the card/sleepers. I think tradtition has won out here !