The dual-track loop is completed, the first train ran a full circuit in early November, and a dozen friends from a local model railway club assembled on a chilly evening to watch trains run with no major problems!!

This layout seeks to recreate the glory days of the Wettington and Mahawatu Railway when the parsley forests stretched unbroken across the plains and the plucky little 3'6" locos hauled beer in and strawberries and silverbeet out.

Video shot and edited by my son Jack (with a cameo appearance from Astro the dog)

...and a twilight guest run by John's famous railtruck scratch-bash (a lovely piece of work!)

Three years ago it was a sandy hole in the ground, hammered by the Pukerua Bay winds

More to do this (southern) summer:
1) final landscaping: a retaining wall high above the garden will generate more dirt for a hill in the middle of the railway
2) elevated track into the garage to the TranzTrack so i can park trains
3) block power assignment panel and homemade DC throttle
4) garden lighting
5) standardise on Bachmann couplers