At last some more progress - on two fronts. Both baseboards for the junction station, Newton Purcell, have been built and initially installed. The construction is the same as the rest - 2x1 inch framing and cross members with 6mm MDF on top, glued and screwed, topped with insulation board made for going under laminate floors.

The station is roughly a "handed" version of Grandborough Junction on Peter Denny's Buckingham Branch - why reinvent the wheel fully? you may think, but the design actually came from planning how the layout would be run and what traffic types it will have. Not unsurprisingly, as the concept behind the layout is so strongly influenced by Denny's classic, the traffic and operations led to very similar requirements and once you apply steam era rules to platforms, junctions and trackwork (ie, double junctions off double track, as few facing points as possible, trailing access to goods yards etc.) the plan looks very familiar.

Due to the length of the station, and more importantly because it is above the storage loops, I have decided that for now, the boards will remain in two halves so that once the track is glued in place, I can remove them one at a time and wire them up, add the servos etc. Only when all is neatly stowed away underneath and wires taken to chocblocks will I replace them and join them together. I need to ensure that there are no hanging wires etc to snag on trains below and there is insufficient access to the undersides when in situ.

I have modified all the points, most here are insulfrog. I will explain why in a future blog, but it's for control panel reasons. I know this is a compromise. Consequently, most only need the centre throw spring removed for servo control. The rest need the switch blades soldering to the running lines in the common fashion for electrofrogs.

The radius of the curves has been marked out. This is tighter than I ideally want and varies from 610mm to over 900mm. I next laid out the pointwork and joined them into larger units. The holes for the servos now need to be drilled and the track glued down using PVA.

The pointwork comprises 3 main sections. The up end of the station has 2 single slips forming the trailing crossover with trailing access to the yard setting back from the up line (furthest away), and trailing access into the ironstone quarry, setting back from the down line. There are also 2 small private sidings trailing onto the up line (at the top of the photo).

At the down end of the station, there is the double junction off the mainlines onto the branch and access to the bay.

The final area is the ladder of points in the yard and headshunt. The line nearest the mainlines through the platforms runs through and trails into the down main via a curved point at the very end. It is protected with a catch point, in the traditional (but seldom modelled in freelance layouts) manner.

I have had the old Airfix 61xx apart a few times, and whilst it is running better, I can't get it to start reliably enough. I also think the rear driver axle is slightly bent. So I bit the bullet and bought a Hornby 51xx. Well we all need some therapy at times. It's a lovely runner. So is the Bachmann 45xx I also bought. This came via a list of never-used locos owned by a local collector who unfortunately died. The list was sent to my club, HWDMRS in High Wycombe.

I am gradually getting the locos out and running them in after all these years in boxes. I have two Mainline 43xx's. So far I have only run one. It was bought off an auction house and so was a risk anyway. I bought my other new, so I hope it has faired better over the years. Anyway, early on, the drivers got out of alignment all of a sudden and it threw some strange shapes with the con rods! When I took it apart, the chassis was cracked as well. I bought a cheap BR version on ebay and swapped the chassis, but after a short while the drivers slipped in the same way. It transpires the glue keeping the metal stub axles connected to the plastic insulator mid way, comes adrift, so the quartering goes caput! When trying to find out what best to do, on this site, help was offered by a very kind, and helpful modelling couple: Polly and Ray. Polly is Southern 42. They offered me the Bachmann Chassis as they have built a Comet chassis for theirs and a deal was done. Duly fitted, the loco is good as gold. A big thank you to you both.

Now should that lining remain on those cylinders??

Rich