The first thing you'll notice is that I have re-named the blog. I did that at this point in time because I just learned how to do it! More to the point the name made no sense as the station names have changed along with all of the design concepts.

The detail change of Corkerton to Corkerbridge is because I think it sounds better and feels more appropriate for the major station.

Construction has begun in the loft and we now have some flat baseboards for the fiddle yard which is now located under the main layout. We also have the backscene in the form of brown MDF. Once the joints around the joists have been sealed I will paint some random sky using watercolour techniques but working with white emulsion and artists' acrylic paint.

Our first foray with DCC has not gone well. The old Farish loco failed at the first when its brushes disintegrated. When Martin told me I realised that I had been a bit stupid and have ordered a Dapol 57xx from Model Junction which will come to me chipped and ready to go. Thus we will have a guaranteed test unit. I have also ordered brushes from BR Lines who are specialists in Farish repairs. If we don't get a tune this time I will turn the loco into a static model of a loco being worked on in the Corkerbridge running shed.

Last night I drew Fornham St. Jude full size using Peco point templates and what a good job I did. I expected that standardised format points like we must use would take up less space than those in the real world but I was wrong. The next problem shown up was that some tracks will be too close to accommodate the goods shed so I will build that next. I have in stock a Ratio kit which was given to me, many Christmases ago, by Jackie. Once I have this to hand track laying can begin.

I now have 15 Seep point motors and yesterday I did a bodge test to check that a transformer I have in stock will do the job. It delivers 18v and is rated at two amps. It worked a treat. I intend to wire each motor back to the mimic panel using 3183Y three core cable. Blue to A. Brown to B. Green/Yellow to C. In this way I have a simple colour code for the motor, I can pick up the common (C) from a hefty busbar under the panel and I will only need a label on the cable to show which point it operates e.g. F01 = Fornham St. Jude point number one. I will put the numbers on the mimic panel