Apologies in advance this entry's a bit boring I'm afraid. I've been focussing on my track and trying to get it all laid. I got another three points and motors which I've installed down the front of the layout. These were intended for the service yard but the points were far too big for the area I have so I used them for more express train platform access. I have also installed the point switching kits included with the points.

I've stained the track and painted the rails on all the track. This was fairly time consuming but it's all done now. I'll hold off on ballasting until I've done some more running to check it's all ok, installed platforms and signals and done other related stuff. So here's the pictures. Starting from the right hand side view.

Now over to the left hand side.

This section at the front is the most recent addition.

Some closer shots.

Bit of an over view. The white stuff is to get painted and will be cable conduit.

A few things were waiting on me installing another backdrop to the left hand side of the station area. I did this the other day so this has opened up a whole load of things I can be doing. First up was to finish off the shuttle lines.

I've extended the raised shuttle lines round the back so that they are a decent length now. I've also wired them up so should probably get round to testing them out before ballasting. The other thing I will do before ballasting is scenicing them into the layout so that the ballast won't drop off the edges. As it currently stands the lines are sitting on a plank. What I need to do now is to add countryside to this.

Just the day before a very large box arrived from Germany which had loads of buildings, buffers, walling and an ESU BR215, so well pleased to see that. The day before a smaller one arrived from Orient Express in Adelaide which had Viessmann signals and some more Tillig points. Unfortunately I didn't think to order the point motors as well so that was a bit of an oversight. Orient Express were nice enough to include a printed sheet with lots of information on signals and the correct positioning so that's a big help. I'd done a bit of research on the net already but this is quite handy. The Viessmann signals look great but are pricey and I need quite a lot. I don't see my layout getting populated with signals in a hurry!