Since my “Beechmouth” layout was featured as Layout of the Quarter in September 2011 work has continued refurbishing and completing many of the scenic aspects of the layout. This is an on-going task and will always provide an excuse to get into the garage and away from family chores!

The harbour area has been finished plus houses. A Scalescenes coastal freighter and some fishing boats have also been added. The outfall of the river Beech now has a small boat servicing area and a new public house and the yard area of the Kerrisfield station looks more like a goods yard than the bare wasteland it was formerly. Non-working semaphore signals have been added to all parts of the layout and I am contemplating gradually replacing these with working signals. Scenic work continues around the main loco shed and wagon repair facilities.

The locomotive stock has been increased as new RTR models of Southern origin continue to be released by the major manufacturers. It is good to see the models of more unusual locomotives produced by Oxford enter the market.  The new steam locos added to the stud include classes; C, 700, Rebuilt MN, WC, Adams Radial, Beattie Well tank, O2, USA tank and S15 whilst I have also added a Class 08, 24, 33 and Hampshire Thumper.  All these new locomotives and several of the older, but still relatively recent stock, have been fitted with sound which gives an entirely new dimension to the layout.

I have also added some new coaching stock and some of the more recent releases of goods wagons and parcels vans whilst pensioning off some of the older stock bought in the 80s and 90s.

Some of the track and the electrics have begun to show their age and fault finding and repair is a continuous problem as is keeping the track clean for operations. The climate here on the coast is much more humid than it was in Cooma so the track tends to get dirty more quickly. To clean the whole system takes a couple of hours and this needs to be done every couple of months in an attempt to ensure reasonably reliable running, particularly with the some of the sound fitted short wheel based locomotives.

The two branch line boards which I first built in Thailand almost 40 years ago and which would not fit into the space available here in the garage are being resurrected and two new boards developed as a transportable layout.  This is a long term project which will keep me out of mischief, or should I say the Pub, for many years to come!