After all the drain works, this week was the chance to reap the benefits. Unfortunately, the timings went a little awry - the groundworks all got done as expected, but the ballast wagons were several hours late. Anyone who has worked on Big Railway civils projects will be somewhat familiar with this scenario. But eventually, the ballast did arrive and was duly spread and rolled. At which point, out came the Crane, and work commenced to lay out the ladder of points leading to the Museum site. On a model railway, one would do the initial trial using paper templates, kindly provided by Peco. We could have done with those for this job, but sadly we couldn't find a photocopier big enough. So, a certain amount of trial and error commenced. Trial and error can be quite hard work with full-size pointwork! But, after several attempts, much measuring and scratching of heads, the first two points were put in more-or-less their final places. The 3rd point just could not be made to fit, and Plan B - changing it for a Y-point - was evolved. Unfortunately, the Y is in the Bottom Yard, so a job for next weekend is to extract it and convey to site. It is fair to say that a few of us went home wondering whether "00" gauge trains had their advantages after all. As ever, get in touch
here.
