It's a hot summers night, the sandflies are biting worse than usual, steam is gently drifting from every joint on the little 0-4-0. The little engine sits impatiently at Acorn Halt whilst the driver grabs a quick bite at the kitchen. There are no passengers waiting tonight, in fact there are never any passengers on this line. A sudden realisation strikes us that this whole line is a mere folly in the mind of the management and the scene rapidly dissolves in our faces... but really folks... after months (seems like years) Donna and I moved from our town house to a larger home with a decent back yard out of town, and so we can now start building a permanent version of Squirrel Valley Railway.

The reference to Squirrels stem's from Donna's interest in collecting ornamental Squirrel's. A close inspection of our display module will show a number of these creatures hiding under trees and down the valley. They are also scattered from one end of our house to the other.

We have been collected "G" scale equipment for nearly three years and our modest collection includes around 30 freight cars, 10 passenger cars, and about 10 engines including one Live Steamer. Most of our equipment is Bachmann, but more recently we have been purchasing Aristocraft equipment as the increase in quality far outweighs the increased cost. We also have around 60 to 70 lengths of PECO track mostly code 250, but some code 200. Also we have some code 290 aluminium track that I have been running the Live Steamer on.

Up until our recent move, I depended upon other members of the "Auckland G Scale Group" for "Running Rights" on their lines to ease my need to run trains, and when this wasn't possible, I set up a small oval at home and let my imagination do the rest. Now at last I can commence my first permanent line, but as it won't be completed for some time, I still need to negotiate "Running Rights" on other lines.

Our new backyard is about 22 metre's wide by 15 metre's deep, with a 2% grade up from the house. Although I have permission from the "Management" to build over this entire area I thought it wiser to leave about half in lawn for entertaining, and run the line down the fence line from this rear yard to another small yard near the front of the house, thus giving a far longer run and only tying up half the rear yard.

The plan we have developed is basically a dog-bone giving a continuos run of somewhere around a scale mile. At one end of this dog-bone there will be a feeder off to a garden shed with a five line storage yard to be fed by a cross between a traverser and a turntable, and at the other end of the dog-bone will be a couple of sidings for visitors to stage their equipment. I expect to have a couple of "Halts" on the line with the one near where the line passes the kitchen being called "Acorn Halt" (in keeping with the Squirrel theme).

So, onto progress to date. Firstly, a garden shed has been ordered and it is to be 2 metre's by 4.5 metre's as this gives us the maximum size that the council allows without a Building Consent, and maximum storage area for trains. I have ordered the shed without a floor as I intend placing it on a concrete slab, also it will be constructed such that it can be lined, thus giving a degree of insulation to the equipment stored within. Secondly, we have had a "Skid Steer" digger (Bobcat) in and he scrapped the topsoil off the backyard and reshaped the land below giving us our level lawn area, a mountain and a ridge with a valley between and this will be the actual Squirrel Valley. This left us with a third mountain, being topsoil, that Donna and I are slowly re-distributing over the yard and trying to encourage the grass back. Which brings us to our third area of progress, re-establishing the Lawn area. The digger did remove a lot of clods of topsoil with grass attached, so we are extricating these from the topsoil mountain and laying them back down on the newly levelled ground and watering them like crazy. At this stage we seem to be having success.

And that is progress to date, not bad considering that as I write this we have only been in our new home for two weeks. Plans for the near future are to erect a retaining wall between the lawn area and the railway, laying a concrete pad for the garden shed, and ordering about 150 metre's of Todd's track to get the mainline underway.

Thus, with the engineer's thirst quenched after a brief stop at Acorn Halt, he climbs back onto the little 0-4-0 puts a couple more shovel's of coal onto the fire and heads off towards the Valley with a couple of four wheeled passenger cars in tow, and then back home for the night.

Once again our engineer and his little 0-4-0 make their way slowly from the muddy engine shed to perform their turn. A short trip backwards to the water tower to top off his boiler then back down past "Cactus Flats" and round "Squirrel Mountain". His short journey is to take him across the head of "Squirrel Valley" on a low trestle then behind the ridge and onto another larger trestle taking them through "Acorn Halt" and onto the yards at "The Landing". As usual there will be no passengers here or at Acorn Halt for him and once again the engineer will shrug his shoulders and wonder just what the management had in mind when they designed a simple dogbone shaped line that really went nowhere and served no one, and wasn't much more than a mile long anyway! But seriously folks...

Since our last installment there have been a number of changes and rather a lot of growth at Squirrel Valley Railway. You might remember that we were in need of a retaining wall to seperate the Garden from the Yard, and also we hadn't actually ordered the track needed for the mainline, and thirdly the concrete slab hadn't been poured for the Shed, hang, there wasn't even any boxing in place for the concrete.

It seems in this world of Model Railways that money does seem to fix most things. $300 provided about 4 cubic metre's of scoria boulders which transformed themselves (with an awfull lot of effort from the management) into a dry stacked wall. Actually quite a successfull structure as shortly after we finished construction we suffered an enormous storm with torrential rains, and the wall stood firm. This then is the retaining wall that supports the raised garden and part of Squirrel Valley Railway's roadbed.

Another problem that was fixed with money was the lack of track. We have ordered and since taken delivery of 100 length's of Todd's Brass code 332 track and we are now at the end of the long process of laying this track using a mixture of plastic, hard wood and tanalised pine sleepers. We are trialling Don Hugh's sleepers, and for the hand spiked track, trialling Llagas Creek track spikes and bronze nails (as used for fixing cedar cladding to houses) as different ways for fixing Todds rail to our sleepers. At this stage, I much prefer the firmness and apparent longevity of the bronze tacks, as after just one night in the open, the Llagas Creek spikes showed signs of rust.

With regards to the concrete slab for the shed, unfortunatley our poor engineer might just have to wait a little longer to be rid of the muddy engine shed, as management is running a little low on funds. Anyway, we are still waiting on the company engineers to design then subsequently build a bridge which will provide access to the shed so he can't really complain too much just yet.

The first train to run on the Squirrel Valley Railway was my Lehmann Porter with a couple of flats (USA Trains) and a bobber (Bachmann) bringing up the rear. The flats were carrying gardening supplies, and my friendly Porter followed me around as much as it could over the first 9 metres of track that had been completed. As each new part of the mainline was opened to traffic I had an enjoyable running session, in fact at one stage (at the 72 metre point) we ran 28 frieght cars with 3 diesels at the head, both forwards and backwards multiple times without a single derailment.

The mainline loop was completed on Auckland Anniversary Day 1997 just 1 month after the first tracks were laid. The first engine to complete a lap was Adelaide, my 0-4-0 live steamer, and this was done with all due Pomp and Ceremony. Gold spikes and ribbons were planned, but somehow these things don't seem to get past the idea stage when it comes to the crunch, and anyway, I just wanna run trains! An official photo was taken of the last rail joiner being installed.

Since this official opening progress has continued and the yards at The landing and Acorn Halt are nearing completion, and we hosted a Get Together (late March). It was most enjoyable to see visiting stock rolling on my lines. Still to be completed is that darned concrete slab and after that we can complete the 5 road storage area within the shed. And of course, all those jobs around the garden and house that have been neglected due to work on the Railway will probably catch up with us at some stage too.

So, our engineer still has to wade through gumboot deep mud after he has dropped the fire and blown down the boiler of his charge, and as usual he proceeds to curse the management who seem to find money for such niceties as new bumble bee Mogul's and fancy circus Diesels, but not for a new floor for his engine shed. What a way to run a railway!

Now what's our engineer friend been up to? When we left him last he complaining about the management's purchase of silly circus diesels and a yellow bumblebee Mogul, not to mention the mud problems in his engine shed. Well it got worse before it got better, a little diesel switcher turned up next with no paint at all!

So.... our engineer decided to take matters into his own hands. Firstly he got a pot of black paint and dealt to the Mogul. After about a dozen coats the bumble bee lines finally started fading but it was a job he would rather not have started as it used a lot more paint than initially anticipated. As for the circus diesels, our friend learnt from his errors and stripped the graphics off the coach work prior to applying the new red and grey corporate colours for Squirrel Valley Railway. Now you may be asking what the engineer is doing painting loco's, well Squirrel Valley Railway is very much a back woods operation, and as such there are not a lot of surplus staff about to complete such unimportant tasks as painting equipment! Most normal railroad companies would have outshopped this work, but not Squirrel Valley Railway!

But onto more serious matters...

The engine shed STILL lacks a concrete floor, although there is some good news, the right-of-way is surviving it's first winter with nothing more than a bit of dirt splattered onto the railhead's, and this only required a quick run round with a rag. Boy am I glad that most of the railway's right-of-way is built above ground level! Other maintenance issues have raised their heads and these are primarily the track getting black and grimy resulting from over oiling the live steamer, a lesson I am still learning. I have found that meth's takes this gunk off, but I would much rather it wasn't there in the first place. Oh well, the joys of live steam. On the positive side, the live steamers do tend to control the plant growth around the line as these plants object to the hot oily environment the steamers have around them, so my right-of-way is kept partially clear by the simple action of running live steam. (It's my excuse anyway). Bert's Sandy River #24 is particularly good at this as when the blow-down valve is opened, really hot high pressure steam goes everywhere effectively killing any growth within range!

We have had a number of very pleasant running sessions both in sunshine and rain since opening Squirrel Valley back in January this year, and with the new halogen lighting we have even run trains late into the evening. I'll tell you what tho, thumping great PH Hobbies diesel sound systems sound great in the dead of the night! The neighbours must wonder what's going on as Tranzrail's network doesn't get anywhere near Albany! We have had quite a number of varied live steamers visiting here at Squirrel Valley including the SR+RL 2-6-2 and a lovely free running Merlin. Having built the mainline basically level means it is great for running live steamers, and having minimum diameter curves of 3 metres means that if they do get away from you, they probably won't come to a disastrous end. Two definitly worthwhile suggestions to those of you still planning new lines.

There is talk around the valley of pioneering a new branchline half way up Squirrel Mountain as there is word of a new source of treacle there, and as every good railroader knows, a line isn't complete without the obligatory Treacle Mine! This will entail a turnout at Cactus flats, and a steeply winding branch right round Squirrel Mountain terminating somewhere above Cactus Flats. This will be the first "planned" gradient on Squirrel Valley Railway and this departure from the flat gradients and large radius curves is something new for Squirrel Valley, so some extra research into what can and can't be done will need doing.

Well, the shed still looks like it is a long way off getting it's concrete floor, and when it does it will require quite a lot of manpower, so our engineer friend will probably be looking for help from you lot! Well, back onto his trusty stead, another quick stoke of the fire and he's off round Squirrel Mountain again with his little rusty train of flats, through Acorn Halt and on to the usual non-revenue earning stop at The Landing!

Good news, our engine driver finally got his way with management and convinced them to lay concrete on the floor of his engine shed. He even convinced the engineers to erect a temporary bridge so that he could get from the mainline (near past Cactus Flats) into the shed. Unfortunately now that management has seen the potential storage room in the shed all sorts of non-train related equipment has found it's way in there. Lawnmowers, wheelbarrows, shovels and spades, "oh well" he sighs, "at least it's maintenance of way type equipment!"

Winter has been very kind to us at Squirrel Valley, there was just one decent frost and so the management dug out the snowplow and went mad with the camera. Probably the closest we will get to a snow scene without making an awful mess with flour! I did notice that nothing would run that morning with the ice on the track, even the rolling stock didn't want to roll properly, derailing from time to time.

As some of you know, a lot of Squirrel Valley's right of way is layed directly on a bed of ballast about 150mm deep and about 200mm wide. This was put in a trench about 150mm deep with weed mat in the bottom, and below this is just the natural ground. Unfortunately some of this "natural" ground is actually built up, and with the rain over the past few month's it has settled some. This doesn't bother the electric powered trains (they can still pull 40 odd freight cars with two diesel outline Loco's up front) but the small undulations do become apparent when running the live steamers. As the track is loose in the ballast, this won't be a major problem to fix, just another pleasurable maintenance task.

Squirrel Valley Railway has also taken delivery of another Live Steamer since the last part to this saga. A 2-6-2 tender engine from the stable of Round House now proudly struts its stuff around the line. This loco is of definite American outline and looks great with a short train of my red passenger cars in tow. We have strung 12 freight cars on the drawbar and the Loco didn't hesitate but the engineer and his fireman weren't too happy. Actually that was easily fixed as soon after purchase I fitted Radio Control to it and eliminated the engineer!

There was an attempt by the "Signals" section of Squirrel Valley Railway to erect a signal to protect the new turnout that provided access to "The Shed". After many attempts to operate it off the turnout, it now stands forlornly at "danger" with no mechanism to operate it, and so all the engineers simply ignore it! This is the first attempt by the "Signals" section to try and control the haphazard operations at Squirrel Valley, and at this stage it looks like the last. But watch this space, the "Signals" folk aren't that easily put off.

I seem to recall in part 3 of this saga that there was treacle discovered up Squirrel Mountain. Upon further investigation it turned out that a child had simple left his half-eaten treacle and jam sandwich there and this fooled the geological engineers. There are now rumours of a potential source of "tall timber" at the bottom of Squirrel Valley and so the track laying gang are contemplating a new siding. This will depart from the mainline at the sidings at Acorn Halt and head towards the Valley finally terminating somewhere under the through truss bridge that currently spans Squirrel Valley. Thus there are also rumours of a geared logging loco to work this new branch as it will be rather steep. So, watch this space too.

Time's up again for our 1/24^th scale engineer, he must make his way back over Squirrel Valley, noting that the earthworks had started on the new siding, and get to "The Landing" before sunset as the lights have failed on his stead. As he goes he laughs quietly to himself thinking that not only did he manage to get out of having to operate that new fangled 2-6-2, but that he still had a job on a line that seemed to have no visible way of earning money

It's been a while since we've reported in, and there has been a lot of changes here at the Valley. The geared loco did turn up for the steep branch down to the tall timber at the bottom of Squirrel Valley, even the "Tall Timber" turned up in the form of some mature Dwarf Alberta Spruce, only trouble is that the spruce weren't planted, the branch wasn't laid, and to everyone's surprise (except the loco driver of course) the whole venture collapsed in a great heap.

Over a period of just two days in early January the entire mainline was lifted, all the supporting timber recovered and sent to another railway company, and the entire garden has been restored to a large alpine style rockery. This although complementing the house does nothing at all for my NEED to run trains, so once again, Squirrel Valley Railway needs to negotiate running rights on other lines till something can be done about this awful situation.

Okay, I guess some explanation is in order, we're selling up and moving, hopefully to somewhere with a bit more land, and perhaps away from the peering eyes of the neighbours. Of course once Donna and I settle again we will be into railway building, probably even before the last box is unpacked.

So, here I am looking forward to rebuilding Squirrel Valley Railway as a "2nd Generation" layout. I would do some things differently but the overall plan of a long and level mainline (for the live steamer) is something I would retain if possible. Changes I would make would be including gradients for the electric powered trains, and where the line is at ground level setting it on concrete rather than floating it on loose ballast. One thing I do like about the layouts featured in the commercial press is the "Over and Under" functionality so the gradients on the track powered division of the future Squirrel Valley Railway would include this feature.

One of the big chores with my old setup was cleaning the track after the live steamers had run. To avoid this in the future I want to have independent lines, although connected at a yard (division point) so that the rolling stock can travel on both sections. The live steam part won't have track power at all, and then I can have return loops and wye's without the associated wiring hassles. I have run my steamer on a friends line that had NO track power, and turning on the wye and return loop created great prototypical functionality.

So, there we are, lots of trains, lots of track (packed) just no railway. A Bachmann 0-4-0 Porter turned up the other day, and to test it all I had was a 2' length of rail with a controller left over from my "HO" days. How pathetic! Anyway, I do intend to continue this saga as now part of Squirrel Valley Railway lives only in History, may the memories provide inspiration and hope for things to come.

Well it happened, Donna and I have arrived at our new home, and Squirrel Valley Railway arrived a day later along with the rest of our personal belongings, in the back of a removal truck. And of course the big question is where have we ended up? I have had a transfer with work and we are in Wellington, to be more precise, about 20km north of the city, and away from that typical windy Wellington weather (we hope).

Our new property is a little bigger than previously but there is rather a lot of slope. Now I've always held that there is more scope with slope, and boy does this place have plenty of scope! Fortunately the previous owners have already done a lot of the basic ground work for us in that the back yard is already terraced, there being three of these between the house and the neighbouring reserve land.

At this stage the plans are just in the "imagineering" stage, and I plan on using just two of these terraces and centring most of the action on the slope that separates them. With some cutting and filling it might just be possible to create a scaled down version of the Raurimu Spiral (just north of National Park on the North Island Main Trunk), but at this stage this is just a plan. If all else fails, I still intend incorporating a spiral of some description in that gradient. With regards to the new Live Steam division, I envision this circling the lower terrace, perhaps as a double mainline depending on Live Steam interest here in Wellington.

Upon initial investigation the ground here is nothing like I have ever seen before (being used to Auckland's clay), this is more like decomposed red/yellow/brown rock. It is not very kind to the garden and is very difficult to dig in, making the use of a large pick or adze preferable over a spade. But there are two immediately apparent advantages, firstly, it will restrict the growth of the miniature trees, and secondly, I suspect that the ground will be a lot more stable than the clay I have worked with in the past, making relevelling the track not such a regular operation. And on that note, I intend to try my luck at floating the track on ballast again as I had at Auckland, hopefully without the hassles I had in Auckland with the clay. Now I know that this goes against what I have been saying previously, but I think that it's worthwhile considering the makeup of the ground here.

We are still seriously peering at the drawing board hoping for divine inspiration at this stage, and also sharpening up the picks ready for some major digging. But in the meantime we'll just have to be satisfied with an oval on the garage floor, and another smaller one up in the house. We still haven't located the local Model Railway Club, although we haven't really tried too hard just yet, will keep you posted on both Squirrel Valley Railway, and the level of "G" scale interest here in the capital city.

It's another wet and windy day up at Quicksilver Camp near the top of the proposed route of the long awaited Squirrel Valley Railway. The men are groaning, as they always do, that the railway just doesn't seem to be getting any closer. They had high hopes originally as they had heard through the grapevine that Squirrel Valley Railway had a reputation for getting things done quickly. What they heard was that the last line constructed by Squirrel Valley Railway was built in a month but it looks like there must have been a change of management, or direction, or something as they are still waiting. So to get to the nearest town they need to negotiate a very rough track by foot that makes it's rather precarious way down from their camp along a couple of roughly formed ledges hammered out of the rock to the township below. As usual, the camp finally settles down as darkness falls, but we all know that tomorrow will see the same groaning from the men at Quicksilver as the railway will be no closer!

As you can see from the complaints above, progress has been rather slow at the new Squirrel Valley Railway. We are digging through the rock, and with the assistance of a loaned "Kango Hammer" progress is steady. To date the main "Valley" has reached full depth and is nearly ready for track. This will be laid on bedding sand that has a 65mm nova-flow drain buried in it to reduce the chances of flooding. There are two ledges required to connect the upper level with the lower levels and these have been cut directly into the rock using the Kango Hammer mentioned above. This gives an extremely realistic look without resorting to chicken mesh and concrete. Unfortunatley there is still a place for cement as the rocks weren't cut out cleanly, there being a few unplanned gaps in the future roadbed that will require filling. The lower level is going to be primarily on a raised base of tanalised timber, probably around 450mm above the ground with the level station and township area retained, using tanalised timber, at the foot of the bank.

Planting has also continued slowly with the aim to eventually disguise this above mentioned timber support structure. We are using natives to provide a windbreak for the operating areas, and of course there are many more scale like plantings recovered from our previous line in Auckland. Some of these are already back in the ground as they were showing signs of stress having been out of the ground since January this year. The others are still awaiting replanting, and are surviving well in pots under some larger shade trees in the corner of our property.

The town area is approching completion but is currently without name at this time. It's also void of buildings as I only have four, three small shops and a two story hotel purloined from JADE railway some 400 miles distant. There is of course a water tank planned for the township and another up at the camp as I had scratchbuilt two of these for the earlier Squirrel Valley Railway in Auckland. Also, the water tank at the camp will have a windmill to keep it fed from a bore. The name of the camp up in the valley, "Quicksilver", is a derivation of the name of the road we live in, Mercury Way. Apart from the water tank and windmill, there are no buildings for Quicksilver Camp at this stage, but that will change once the railway arrives. Another point to note is that it is not yet obvious just what the men get up to at "The Camp", apart from moaning of course! The main reason for this is that we haven't actually decided what's happening up there. Most probably it will be a logging camp, but there is still an interest in mining that hasn't been entirely put to rest. Unfortunatley there is no sign of treacle at this stage.

The "Valley" that has been dug into the upper level separates the upper grassed area from the more scenic mountain area's of the layout and will have both track and a dry creek bed running through it. To provide access to the mountain across this valley I intend to build a solid wooden bridge, and using the tunnel mouth's advertised in the Gazette, disguise this as a tunnel, probably with suitable plantings to soften the edges. The mountain has some "scale" plantings already started including a very old Dwarf Alberta Spruce that we found in the front yard of our new residence and transplanted up there. Again we have used Rosemary to imitate the more heavily tree'ed area's away from the tracks, but closer to the trains I will be sticking with the Dwarf Spruce, Juniper Nana and other more scale like plantings. Also there are a lot of very small Ti Trees growing in the rock bank and these are naturally bonsai-ed by the fact that they are growing in cracks in the rock! These we are trying very hard not to disturb as they are rather delicate and "in scale" but the Kango Hammer is rather ruthless in operation.

Further progress and plans? Apparently Rome wasn't built in a day, and I suspect neither will the new Squirrel Valley Railway. Having said that we are really looking forward to getting some tracks down with the aim of completing a loop as soon as possible, but we are not in such a hurry as with the original Squirrel Valley Railway. So to alleviate our "training" needs for the time being we have been locating and visiting the local garden railways here in Wellington and in the surrounding area. By the time you read this we do hope to have a loop completed so that we can exercise our rolling stock again on "home rails" but time (and weather) will tell. Please feel free to contact us and call in when passing Wellington as it's amazing just how much the expectation of a pending visit can motivate this stalled garden railroader.

So, as usual, the men at Quicksilver Camp up in the valley send the bravest of their company down the mountain track to the local Township to pick up the wages and supplies for the coming month. Whilst there they always like to deliver their wrath to the executives of the Railway Company, asking when they can expect to see the twin steel ribbons of civilisation reach the Camp at Quicksilver. But as usual, no dates are forthcoming, not even any estimates, "maybe next summer" is about the best that they get. So our hero slowly makes his way back up the mountain trail lugging the supplies and bearing the usual bad news. If anyone was listening the man is heard to be muttering under his breath as he climbs up the rough hewn track, "mumble...squirrel's...valley's... non-existent railway's...mumble."

Post Script, Since writing this episode we have finally got some track down permanently and have had our first operating session albieght point to point as the loop's still require completion.

 We came, we laid tracks, and we run trains! Look out Wellington, Squirrel Valley Railway has arrived!

With 230 feet of mainline, another 100 feet in a level steam loop, and a further 100 odd feet in the yards and passing loops, Squirrel Valley Railway is up and operating it's usual non-revenue service just like old times. And what a relief too, I much prefer to run trains than build railways. Now we can get onto the serious side of watchin' dem trains tackle the grade. Hmmm, yes, we did build in a quite serious grade on the 230 foot mainline, all but about 35 feet of the mainline is on a 4% grade. That's 1 in 25 for the un-initiated, so in every 2 feet of running the line either rises or falls about 1 inch. This excessive grade was necessary to conquer the hillside that the current incarnation of Squirrel Valley Railway is built into.

Now grades are not for the weak of heart, especially if Live Steam is the order of the day. As I have learnt on other lines, live steam locomotives really take some serious driving when tackling grades. Certainly some attention needs to be paid when ascending, but when coming back down you just can't let your attention waver for a moment or you will have a disaster on your hands. Which explains why I also built a basically level steam loop. Both this and the main line are connected and share a common marshalling yard. And yes, the track-powered trains also need a bit of driving on the hill, but at least there is a certain amount of natural speed regulation supplied by the controller.

But now onto more serious business, the township of Cactus flats is really growing since the arrival of the railway, with the latest addition being that of a two-story factory of non-descript business. This structure came from the same source as the Hotel mentioned in the last episode, which was JADE Railroad, about 400 miles to the North. Also, QuickSilver Camp up in Squirrel Valley has two nice new structures to keep the water tower and windmill company. Another birdhouse from the Warehouse joined the ranks here, and also a toyshop furnished a very nice dwelling that was originally intended as a backdrop to a wargaming set. So both Cactus Flats and QuickSilver Camp are really starting to develop, but there is still the problem of just what the men do up at "The Camp".

Actually, I do have a bit of an idea as to what these guys get up to as I have had to lay the track in the vicinity of the camp three times just to get it right. It seems that these workers are so bored that firstly they put a kink in right by the water tower, then after management fixed that they again caused problems, causing the track to be torn up and laid for the third time. I'll have to send Donna up there to have a word with them!

Also, since the last episode in this long and drawn out saga we have hosted the first meeting of the CCGRG (Capital City Garden Railway Group) and what follows is a brief report of this event.

The day went very well with about 15 guests. The first arrived just a few minutes after 1pm with the last leaving well after 5:30.

There were 9 separate families serious enough to kick the group off and we've got the next four months planned out, also a few tentative visits planned following that. So it looks like it might keep going for a while. Two folk were especially keen, but then these folk had just got back from the Garden Railway Convention in Santa Clara. We were all surprised at there being so many Garden Railways here in Wellington! The day was great, the weather was mild, very little wind, and basically clear skies. We had 5 (yes FIVE) live steam engines, all the way from a Mamod (that ran extremely well) to an Aster C11 (Japanese 2-6-4T). All ran, with our Liberty Belle performing as well as ever.

And that's about it for this issue.