My idea is to report progress on a weekly basis but that presupposes that I have actually got somewhere in the last week. Obviously, slate laying is a slow process as I am still on the first side but the worst is probably over as I've got past the skylights. It was tricky to lay the slate strips round these because of the angles but the rest should go a bit quicker now.

The framework for the skylights had to have a coat of dirty light stone prior to laying the slates as I would not be able to do this later without getting paint on the slates. I also took the opportunity to put a first coat of paint on the gutters and part of the underneath timberwork. The grey undercoat is still influencing the final colour which should be a bit pinker but faded and dirty.

As a way of getting a rest from laying slate strips, I made a start on the downpipes for the outer wall of the trainshed. The first one in not quite finished as I need to add one more bracket nearer the bottom of the downpipe. In total, four downpipes will be needed . The pipe is made from 30 thou rod from Evergreen and the bracket made from strips of 5 thou welded round the pipe plus another thin strip across the back.