Layout Update - Facia

Since my last update I've done lots of scenic work on board 1 (that's the first two feet of the station area) including finishing the retaining wall (minus mortar - to be done later) , ballasting the track, painting the 'concrete' setts and adding various scatter materials. I also did further work on the platforms. I'm thinking that once the platform structure is in place that I paint the platform tops with textured paint to give a more realistic effect than tarmac card.

This week I added plywood edging to the fiddleyard. This will eventually be painted a glossy Eastern Region-style shade of blue and provide somewhere to display interesting information about the layout to visitors at exhibitions. Talking of which I went to the Syston MRS' exhibition in Sileby last weekend and had a very good time looking at the layouts and trade stands. I purchased a Dapol Insulfish van (I'm going to replace the couplings with less obtrusive Bachmann ones since the dapol ones have been almost cracked in half by careless fitting(!)) and won a 3-plank LMS open wagon kit from the raffle. I'm looking forward to building that this coming week.

Also done this week was the front facia of the layout, consisting of 10mm ply screwed to pine battons. I'm very pleased with how this has turned out and structurally the layout is almost complete. The remaning key tasks are at this point (apart from scenery) are:

• Attach a large piece of hardboard to the end of the layout (either to the fiddleyard or board 2) to provide a backdrop to the overbridge. The bridge itself is going to be a disused rail overbridge home to some rather delapidated colliery wagons.
• Add the remaining facia sections at the ends of the scenic section, made in part by more hardboard.
  
• Install Wire-In-Tube control to the remaining four points - located in the middle and at the front (public side) of the layout.

Now that's an interesting point to bring up. Which side am I controlling the layout from? Originally I'd intended the layout to be a stay-at-home affair, controlled by a controller plugged into the front. Now that I'm intending to bring the layout onto the exhibition circuit I've decided to control the layout from the rear as this looks better in my opinion not least because the current controller (a Bachmann EZ Command type) is rather large. This means I'm going to add control sockets at the front of the layout when at home or in the clubroom as the layout will probably but stuck up against a wall and some at the rear when exhibiting. I've aquired a neat little shelf which I'm going to get some hooks for. This will attach to the rear of the frame and act as a neat rest for my controller and my movement cards too.

I'll post pictures of the layout later this weekend.