After Christmas, I got back to work on the layout.  The short extension to the baseboard is complete (but needs another coat of paint.)  I’m hoping that this area will also store all the transformers and electronics needed for operation.

And a big thank you to Wayne Kinney. I messed up (read destroyed) the bases for the first Finetrax crossover that I tried to build.  So I contacted Wayne to ask whether I could buy replacements, without the rail, as that was all intact.  They dropped through the letterbox today, and no charge!  That’s customer service for you!!!

The second attempt at a crossover went far better, as shown below.

There were a number of ‘tweaks’ that I adopted to change the published instructions, and I think that these help construction considerable.  Not least, a dab of solder at the frog and joining the frog knuckle and wing rails strengthens the point and required less droppers for electrical feeds.

Before I start laying track, I checked the track plan and the locations of point motors with the Finetrax templates and my trusty railway curves.  I will, I think, add an extra loco/parcels road – two short sidings might be more interesting than a single long one?