Thursday 18th August

Worklist:
Review the new work space.
Get to know how the layout can be set-up in the larger space.
Investigate new saw bench supports.
Play trains!

The first pleasure of the day was to watch Laurence's face when he put his head around the door and saw that the boat had been replaced by a large space - priceless!

Geoff had been busy and had installed a window beside the entrance door. Although not too large, it allowed daylight to flow into the room and changed the feel immensely. It will also be the perfect place to build a quiet work desk.

The new window. The existing window will be filled in.
He had also fitted a pair of doors where the bubble-wrap strips had been, to form a solid removable screen. This will keep the heat in the work area, in the colder months.

The new door screen and orange saw benches.
Stephen had purchased three saw-benches to use as supports for the layout. These are tubular steel frames with a wooden top rail, that fold flat (£9 @ Homebase). A frame will be built on top, with a board levelling mechanism. The layout was set-up on the old tables and we decided that the current height (workbench + timber spreader) was OK. We then had a very enjoyable running session using lots of John's rolling stock.

Being able to walk around the layout was a joy!
Stephen testing the equipment including light switches never operated on the working layout.
Wheel cleaning on stock that hadn't run for many, many years.
Even watching the layout in use is more comfortable.
Planet diesel, unfinished workshop and mine lighting.
Working the fiddleyard cassettes from the rear will require plenty of practice.
Peco Hunslet and Gakken based coaches.
We're going to have to think about back-scenes, which we've never had before.
The control panel moved to the back, but without rotating it, meant the switches worked
back-to-front (i.e. up = on), which caught us out constantly.

Whilst the control panel had been designed for front-operation (a feature noted on several modern layouts) working from the back of the layout was a novel treat that hadn't been possible before and was very comfortable for us. Whilst point switches were neutral, section switches were suddenly upside-down. We will discuss this further, but the likelihood is that when the final fascia panel is made, the switches will be orientated for rear operation. For the current session, we had the speed controller worked from the front with another operator controlling the points and sections.

We thoroughly enjoyed the running session and were very pleased with the operating potential. Although there is still plenty to do on the layout, we actually found ourselves discussing exhibitions!