Isle of Wight dreaming

 And  into the meat of the project. Unusually, I may put more up here about this one. Most of this is now a repeating cycle of build operations and I'm struggling to make any difference between the previous builds. Essentially I have a) a brief and b) a more or less fixed maximum of overall footprint. This is slightly different as it is the first prototype plan as opposed to a general might-have-been. The shape then is more or less as per Steve's plan in the September RM. For practical transport purposes I've had to jiggle the middle around to create an even split of 3'6" either way to pair the two scenic boards face to face. As with the 009 the curvy boards have pulled me away from baseboard kits so I've been able to go the full aircraft wing lightweight approach, rather than the bomb-proof commercial boards which I'm guessing are more designed for a home and non-exhibition environment.

The curvy front was going to be easy as I had a new sheet of bendy MDF in stock. This has not proved ideal as I found that it delaminates very easily and I've had to drown it in wood glue in and effort to stabilise. Hindsight says I would have been better off with 4mm ply, but it was to hand. This was from Wicks. I don't know whether this is typical of this stuff, but I would be unlikely to use it again.

The TT points too look to be problematic, in that the switch distance is very fine and I'm having to dance around my usual DPDT slide switch method somewhat. Of course the design of these is not intended for this method; I'm just being awkward. I'm sure that if you run them with the Peco point motors they work fine. Above, the wiring for the loco release point goes in. Note that these feel much more robust; more like Code 100 streamline and quite a difference from the uber-fragile Bullhead OO range which needs a lot of handling care.

Lastly, I ummed and ahhed about reintroducing ads on here. I'm not keen, but I need to eat, so do consider the coffee aspect below which makes me more likely to keep this all going.

 https://www.buymeacoffee.com/chrisford2Q