First, a contrast in packaging…..

Believe it or not, these two packages, each from a well known box-shifter, have the same contents.  Namely, two of these aquatic creatures….

They’re lovely models, but I wish that I had remembered that I’d already ordered two.

Meanwhile, back at the railway, I’ve made my first lengths of Finetrax.  Two very short lengths, that was a helpful exercise to get the idea of threading the rail through the sleepers, and also getting the rail the right way up.

The reason for the short lengths?  It’s to take these two ex-LSWR buffer stops, a very nice etch from the 2mm Association.

One buffer stop complete.  I’ve replace the metal buffer cross-piece with plastic card, as it’s neater than layering up the metal one provided.  This picture is, of course, cruel, but it is probably larger than real-life size when you look at it.

And two buffers.  The whole etch is very neat.  The side rails are six layers of metal thick, but the etch is designed to fold over on itself to get everything lined up.  Held together with solder paint, it works very well.

I’ve also discovered a new toy – some of this UV-activated glue that you can get.  It’s much as the stuff they fill your teeth with these days, and my tube came with a little UV light to cure the glue.  It seems better than superglue, as it is adjustable until you apply the light.

The other job that I’ve done is to mark out the track again, using the proper Finetrax track spacing of 23mm, that tidies up the geometry a bit – and gives half-an-inch extra on the platform length.  Next task will be to try and build my first point.