This picture shows the curved section heading to the shed, the two red bricks mark the site where a bridge will cross a pond. Both of these projects will hopefully be done during the Summer of 2007

There is a 2 inch grey plastic edging strip tacked to the edge of the decking all the way around the track bed, this will prevent the small ballast chippings from moving off the track bed. The track itself is pinned down with 1 inch panel pins in places, but I didn't use to many as the track needs to be free to move if it expands during the Summer.

The points used on the railway are R3 or R1. All the mainline points are R3 while the R1 type were used for the sidings. In this picture the points at the tunnel mouth are R3 and the two sidings are R1. There is a third R1 set on right of the picture.

The points are all electrically controlled using a homebuilt control panel.

You can now see how the tunnel was built on the tunnel construction page.

 Click the tunnel link at the bottom of this page.

This is where the station will be located, it will be an island type platform. The picture also shows the second tunnel that was constructed, the line on the left is going into the shed storage sidings.

The tunnel mouth was  blocked to prevent the local cats from making it their home, while the railway was being built.

With the wiring for the points and track power in place, the next job was to put the ballast down. I used 3mm-5mm stone chippings as ballast. I did a small section at a time using a paint brush to brush the ballast in between the sleepers.

Be careful not to put to much around the points as these small chippings can easily stop the points from operating correctly.

It's important to get the right colour and size ballast as it's forms an important visual part of the railway.