Amazing, it’s just past mid-February and spring is here already. (But then, winter was a month early.) Perfect weather for getting back into the garden with some track and a few bricks. Just for once, the DIY indoors can go hang.

Today, I laid the final curve and the last whole straight length. These are the two gaps remaining in the circuit, and it looks like the only remaining yard should be sufficient to plug them with a bit of careful sawing which I hope to carry out tomorrow. There are a few other outstanding jobs as well, such as using the turf removed so far to fill in some of the bare patches on the lawn created during construction, and to clear a small mudslide in the cutting. Regrets? I have a few, the chief one being that I didn’t curve the lawn section the other way, inwards to the middle instead of outwards away from the last curve. It’s going to make for some rather wibbly trackwork to join the ends up. But still, it’s prototypical so long as the trains stay on the track (and if they don’t, it’s even more prototypical - and just as infuriating).

The more pleasant surprise has been that, despite barely thinking about garden railways through the winter, my enthusiasm is brimming nicely as I finally return to the task. I was worried that the thrill had worn off at the first delay, but with the finished line coming within approx. 30 inches and one more day’s work of existence, I find I’m spurred on to see my rackety little diesel wobble round the garden. Cross your digits.