Dear wife,

In lieu of a comfy armchair that we haven’t got room for and he’d never get chance to sit in, this Plate Frame Simplex would, I’m sure, be much appreciated by someone coming to terms with turning forty. And if there was any money left in the budget, a proper coach (or even better, this one in green/red) would be great too. (Both in 32mm gauge.)

Love,
Me

A quick line inspection and some basic maintenance over the weekend has confirmed that the Rhach track lives to serve another “operating” season, having sustained no lasting harm over winter (and from some over-enthusiastic leaf-raking). As a plus, we have some lovely primroses growing out of the ballast. Rust was evident on a number of the mending plates again, so I’ve coated them with Jenolite jelly and metal primer, and I’m currently trialling two of the plastic-coated type as well. I’ve recharged the loco batteries and started thinking that I really, really should get round to finishing that station building (which only lacks for a coat of clear varnish) and the last wagon kit…

Not longer after we installed the new bridge, a troll moved in to live underneath it. Which I guess is fairly commonplace, as bridges go. I have warned the junior navvies not to stomp over the bridge too loudly in case they disturb him and are eaten.

Here’s a tip: test your track by running a train both ways round it, with the engine facing in either direction. My circuit is pretty reliable if run clockwise with the engine facing backwards. If it hadn’t been for my junior navvie and her preference for forward facing in the other direction, I wouldn’t have discovered two bad rail joints. Which led to the first serious bout of track maintenance.

I’m weak. I couldn’t resist. I had to have one. Coming on top of a new garden bench, and ahead of the imminent delivery of a tree seat and a playhouse, meaning that the garden will soon resemble a crowded woodyard, this small ornamental bridge is a little extravagant - another good month for my flexible fiend.

As you can see, the vegetation is crowding in on the loading gauge, entropy has taken hold and soon nature will reclaim the trackbed, leaving only a melancholy set of rusting rails somewhere amidst the foliage.

…Excellent!

…My least favourite phrase in any list of kit-building instructions. At six hours per coat, with two or three top coats, this stage isn’t going to be over by teatime. I feel a pang of regret every time I walk past this unfinished guards van, because it’s a lovely model with some nice markings and I just want to see it running.

Some lovely detail on Cwmcoediog, seen here in atmospheric monochrome, including that great slate fencing. I really, really like slate pillar fencing. Not sure I’d have the patience to make such a fence myself, although if it could be as simple as sticking a few shards of slate in the soil then possibly…

“Hey Ade, whatever happened to that railway you were building?” Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s still there and services have even been known to run on the odd occasion (I like to have a train pottering around the garden at the same time I do). But there has been no progress of which to speak lately. At a recent kids birthday party, the subject of an opening ceremony (and BBQ) was broached, which I hastily quashed - the opening of what exactly?

By fortuitous coincidence, the Welsh Highland Railway will also be completed this coming weekend. A brave attempt there, guys, but you’re just a week too late.