Evening running session ...

A hot weekend; it was so hot indoors yesterday evening I retreated out into the garden and played with a small train ....

Rockery Bottom Halt ....(3) - shelter roof

A further check on things stashed in the garage yielded part of a roll of roofing felt. Great for the halt shelter roof. So suitable pices cut up and stuck in place ..

...the halt gets its final engineers inspection

Rockery Bottom Halt ....(2) - platform and shelter

Today had a rummage in the garage for anything else that could be used to improve the look of the halt. I found a couple of smaller ceramic floor tiles, so cut these up and used them for the platform surface.

I took the plastic shelter building indoors for some work.....

 first thing done was to carefully take it apart and tidy up the edges ....

 then stick it back together properly. To help with the finish I used a bit of spare black plastic for the awning roof and part of the old base to cover the gap between the awning and the roof on the front.

 the halt now looks much better

(although I will have to find something to do the shelter roof with - further rummaging for oddments required...)

'In Print' and first running session this year ...

The CVR is in June 2018's Garden Rail magazine...

 So today after finishing my garden jobs (cutting the grass and some planting) I had a celebratory running session (the first of the year). Short train - battery Diesel loco, wagon and coach

 practiced stopping at the new halt ....

passengers in the coach had come to see the dinosaurs which roam on the upper central island...

I spent a pleasant 15 or 20mins running the train round the layout  😀

Rockery Bottom Halt ....

As part of refurbishing the rockery,  after removing some plants I sized up where to put a simple small halt for the railway...

The best place was just after curve before going into rockery cutting, a rummage in the garage yielded a spare split log roll and some brick pavers. So a bit of digging out and a slim trench made with a spade to put in the split logs...

 split log roll tapped (bashed) into in place with mr sledge and a brick paver tried for size ...

 used up the rest of the brick pavers to form the platform surface

I used an old 'Sylvanian Families' toy building as the shelter (needs work on the roof/front); engineers inspect the new halt ....

Alternative battery set for PlayMobil R/C diesel

Tidying out a cupboard yesterday I found a nice battery recharger - which can do up to six AA's at a time.  I have 10+ rechargable batteries which I use for my digital cameras, which are not all needed for that purpose now so they can be re-used to power  my PlayMobil R/C diesel.

Battery pack taken out; needs 6 AA batteries - currently using some non-rechargable Duracell ones

 6 batteries re-charged; good little charger with progress display ....

  into the diesel's battery pack

 it works (well of course 😁 it would, doh !)..

so I now have a backup set of batteries available for the running season. The Duracell ones still have some life in them so I'll use them up first and then start using the re-chargable ones.

new wagon completed and a quick running session ....

finished the second of the flatbed wagons, shown here on the garage layout

mild enough today for a quick running session with the battery loco (after clearing up the leaves outside), to give the new wagon a run round

I expect this will have been the last running session of the year ...