New rolling stock has been put to one side for the last few months as efforts have concentrated on getting our two EM layouts ready for future exhibitions. The test track has been dismantled and the group room tidied – producing a quite amazing increase in space.
Both our EM exhibitions layouts have been assembled and are being enhanced by their respective teams.
With a bookings to appear at the NEC in November and a smaller Salisbury exhibition later this year, work on Navigation Road is concentrated on the fiddle yards as the layout is converted from end-to-end to round-and-round format. A number of new baseboards have been constructed and laying of the fiddle yard track has begun.
Chitterne meanwhile is in a race to be ready in a new extended configuration for Salisbury Railex in May. We are delighted to have been invited to this greatly expanded Salisbury show at its new venue in Thruxton but there is a great deal to do if Chris H’s vision for the extension is to be realised. Fortunately, Chris H is doing a great deal with others lending a helping hand.
The glorious new rotating fiddle yard is complete and track has now been laid on the “Codford extension board”. This mostly consists of a single track meandering through countryside as it approaches the terminus, which we feel will set the station much more in context and avoid the rather sudden appearance of trains into the station which we had previously.
Richard S has been tasked to make another set of bridge girders (how we wishes he had made proper drawings of the first set!) whilst Clive R is planning a couple of farm buildings.
This report – written by Richard Simpson – appears in issue 244 of the EM Gauge Society newsletter.