Next Stage

Not much more I can do with the test track.

These are the skills that I think I have acquired as a result of building it:

Laying track on a cork underlay.

Joining sections of track.

Pinning down the track using Peko pins and the hand turned vice drill.

Connecting power to the track using a  heavy BUS cable and finer feeder wires, the latter soldered to each section of track.

Joining feeder wires to the BUS cable with choc blocks.

Wiring the electro frog points so that their polarity changes when the points change.

Testing out different points motors and choosing the Tortoise brand.

Wiring and installing a Tortoise points motor using two separate power sources.

Installing a switch so that the points can be controlled from a distance away.

Ballasting track.

Installing buffers.

Installing a DCC chip in an ancient locomotive.

Experimenting with scenery especially getting the scale correct.

Acquiring the necessary tools and gadgets to achieve the above.

Connecting everything to the DCC control system and getting the whole thing to run - including by my 10 year old grand-nephew, Jack.

Having a good understanding of how DCC works.

The next stage is to apply all these skills to the final layout!!!

A reminder of what the final layout is all about.

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Prokofiev:

I was expecting Shostakovich's 5th Symphony to be the highlight of last night's concert at Glasgow City Halls.

In fact, the first half of the programme was so exciting that the 5th which took up the second half of the evening seemed  a tad ordinary.

The first half consisted of two pieces:

Martinů's  Memorial to Lidice  and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.5.

The Martinu was dramatic and deeply moving.

The Prokofiev was pyrotechnic - thanks to the young (23 years old) Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin.

A real virtuoso. The chap in front of me was jumping up and down and shouting at the end of the performance. I've often wondered who these people are who shout out their approval at the end of performances - now I know at least one of them.