The road cameo scene has progressed well, with the walls, roadway, tram tracks and pavement in place, all are still to be fully painted and weathered. Street lights and overhead wiring for the trams are also still to be fitted in place.  Despite a lot of work going into this scene, it will hardly be visible beneath the various overbridges.  The whole scene is removable to allow work to continue with on the workbench.
The bespoke signal box which I drew up to be laser cut has been delivered but still requires a fair amount of work to complete. The industrial unit is also very much a work in progress, the window frames were laser cut at the same time as the signal box.
Some of the ground works have been profiled using foamboard formers and plaster bandage.

Recent months has seen the completion of a further two locos, both in LMS red livery.  Both DJH kits, the first a 944 class 2-6-4T. The other a river class 4-6-0.

I had a lot of trouble with the paint coating on the River.  Seems that acrylic varnish reacts badly with the enamel top coat. This was the final coat to go on, to seal in all the lining,  I wasn’t happy with the finish and so stripped it all off and re-did the whole lot, lining and all.  Eventually I was happy with the finished article and both locos look good.
 
I have also been pushing forward with the scenery work.  All the coarse stone retaining walls have been completed and work has started in roughing out the signal box and the factory building at the fiddle yard end of the layout.  At the other end a further retaining wall, holding  up the canal with the road bridge under is in place.  All these walls are now ready for painting but I need to experiment to see what method of painting gives the look that I am after.
 
Plans for the new year is to continue with the scenic work and start some more rolling stock kits.  These kits include both coaching and goods stock to be finished in the appropriate LMS colour to complement the Caley stock that I have available for Rockvilla. 

Work on Rockvilla has been slow. I have erected the backscenes  and put up the structure that will cover the fiddle yard. The LED lighting strips have been fitted under this structure and give enough light to permit stock handling. I have started to put up some of the retaining walls and started to rough out the signal box but I am struggling to get the development for the roof sorted out.

Work on rolling stock for this layout has been progressing rather better. I have finished quite a few locos recently. One 782 class and one 29 class both 0-6-0Ts also a 439 class 0-4-4T. All in LMS livery.
 
I have also completely rebuilt a damaged 0-8-0T that was dropped at the Wakefield show. This was so badly damaged that the entire model had to be stripped back to bare metal, repaired, repainted, relined and a complete new chassis, with new gearbox and motor built. Looks better than it did before as the lining is now based on photographs and not just a general description.
 
A DJH kit for a River class 4-6-0 in LMS lined black livery is now complete and runs nicely. A further one of these in LMS red livery is also nearing completion. Building is finished but the final coat of varnish caused the top coat of red to crack and craze. This will have to be stripped back and the painting process started again. Oh well its all good practice.
 
The diesel fleet for Rockvilla is finished and I don’t have any plans to extend this section. Somebody, however suggested doing a black 5 in Caley livery as a bridge between the older Caley steam and the modern diesels. Food for thought there.
 
I have also been catching up on projects started but not finished, two bogie 30 tonners, a couple of Highland coaches, 3 Highland wagons, a couple of whitemetal road vehicles, circa 1920.
 
All in all, although Rockvilla has been slow I am not unhappy with the amount of kits , bits and pieces that I have completed.
 
Hopefully, after lockdown eases and we are allowed to get together again progress on Rockvilla will start again. I need the buzz that a proper group meeting brings to motivate me into making better progress.

Work on the actual layout has been shelved for moment to allow preparation for our forthcoming visit to the Preston show with Eaglesham at the end of this month.

Work has however been progressing on the rolling stock for both the 1923 and 1963 version of Rockvilla Pre-Visited, some pictures below.  Some of these will be fitted with sound.

Bill is powering ahead (steaming) with Rockvilla Pre-VIsited, both boards are now almost complete with track, electrics and electronics 99% complete.   A test session highlighted a couple of areas that need a little work, these will be address and we’ll make sure everything is working as it should before scenic work begins.

We had a good chat about the scenic features for the layout, banding ideas about and have come up with some good ideas that we’ll hone as we progress.

We were trying out a Megapoints DCC Module, which will allow point control via the DCC handset, couldn’t quite get it to work but an email to the tirelessly helpful Dave Fenton will get it sorted!