Weekend Update

I had hoped to have news that the trackwork on Swallow's End was "finished" but unfortunately I have fallen short of my goal for this weekend.  At the start of the weekend I still had 5 points and about a yard of track to construct.  At the time of writing, 4 of the points have been mostly done (the switch rails are missing until I have built TOUs) and the 5th is about 12 timbers away from getting rails put on it.  The track which is missing is down to the bits of fill around the 5th point.  The photo below tells the story.  I would guess about 8 hours work for the weekend, comprising Friday evening, some of Saturday, Saturday evening, a bit of today (Sunday) and this evening.  I would expect about an hour, hour and a half would see it at the point where all the plain track was in place and the last bits preped for painting.  The points will be removed so I can check all the plain track for shorts and do the points on the workbench where it is easier to go sleeper by sleeper (or more correctly, timber by timber) to ensure I have done the breaks properly.  Then it is a case of working out a TOU and fitting the points, wiring it all up and...  sorting a locomotive!!! (Late news on this - Shop 3 has the stuff I need and order has been place - stay tuned!!)  The TOUs won't be done until March (as I won't be getting anywhere near a hobby supplier until 25th Feb) so in the meantime, there is ballasting to do and a start on the scenery.  Somewhere along the line I will do something about my traverser as well.

 The bit which took a fair bit of time - sorting out the timbers in the gaps around these three B7 points.  I will try for a better photo tomorrow afternoon in daylight.

The whole layout - the end of the run-round loop is actually done but isn't fixed in place yet, owing the the point not having been finished.  It is done however and it is only the point and approximately 5 or 6 sleepers of exit to the buffers to do.