A weekly inspection visit to view progress on the Minffordd project gave me an opportunity to pass over the newly-completed body shells of the Barn carriages to Himself to keep safe until he has the time - and the courage - to attempt the 'teak' paint job.
It also allowed us to pose what is going to be one of our standard carriage rakes in position along the embankment where the FR trains run, which gives a little more visual context to the scene.
With just the bare plywood track beds in place it's hard to get a proper impression of how big - or small - the layout will look.
We have the advantage with the way Minffordd is laid out, with the smaller, narrow gauge trains at the back of the scene, that it creates a natural optical illusion, in the same way that some modellers put reduced-scale buildings towards the rear of their layouts to give a perception of greater depth.
It's also pleasing that there will be almost no straight track anywhere on the layout, with the FR line forming a subtle crescent shape.
Most of what Himself has been doing for the past week is finalising the FR branch down into the exchange yard with the Cambrian, which he's worked out is a precipitous 1:19 gradient into the 'coal hole'.
What I think is quite impressive - and explains why it took most of the week - is that most of it was cut from a single sheet of plywood resting on a network of risers.
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