The Final Bend

We've decided on a strategy of getting the trackbed and the scenic base of Bron Hebog finished first rather than doing each board in turn.

Hopefully this means we can guarantee we'll have a full run to show off at the exhibitions we're attending in the autumn.

It seems a long way away but once you take into account summer holidays and Himself's regular trips to volunteer on the FR it suddenly seems a lot sooner!

As a result Himself has been pressing on with the back right hand board where the track curves around into what will become the fiddle yard.

The first of today's pictures shows the plywood base of the fiddle yard being glued into place - that old iron chair coming in handy again.....

Quite what we'll do with the fiddle yard is still up for discussion. The track will enter at each end at different levels and so the question is whether to have two completely separate yards or to have a linking track - in the style of the Nantmor 'ski jump' - to connect them and enable continuous run operation?

This is not prototypical, of course, but it is quite practical when one considers that Himself and the Artistic Director are, quite frankly, a pair of old women and like nothing better than to spend a considerable amount of exhibition time gossipping with the punters. Consequently there can be long periods where there is nothing moving on the layout until I give them a metaphorical, and sometimes even a literal, jab in the ribs.

Our next picture shows all the chicken wire in place. This is a new batch and Himself tells me it is not as good as the old stuff because the wire is only twisted together as opposed to being soldered on the stuff he was using previously.

Once the wire was all in place Mod Roc was spread across. I guess you know how this works by now...

The flat square area in the foreground is where the farm house model will sit.

You may also notice, on the far right hand edge of the board, a small dip which is our representation of where the unused PB&SSR trackbed heads off, at a fearsome gradient, in a cutting towards Rhyd Ddu.

The next stage will be to brush on a coat of plaster followed by our 'interesting' shade of brown emulsion.