The Late Train

The recent (and not so recent) lack of updates about the Barn Station is not because nothing much has been done. It’s because I’ve been a lazy bastard... 

And nothing much has been done...

So, to catch up, last winter I extended the system to build the sidings to house all our rolling stock (flashy phrase for trains). Then spring arrived, and with it a certain proliferating viral particle. Along with those little buggers arrived a certain elderly relative. This combination changed everything. Well, maybe not absolutely everything, I’m still not exactly sure what Dark Matter is...

All this meant a change of routine, and my mind was focused on just three things; cooking, gardening, and getting fit, in a vain attempt at hoodwinking the aforementioned bit of RNA. Somewhere amongst all this the Barn Station was not forgotten, not ignored, more put to one side. The adding of ballast to the turnouts filled me with dread, and my in-house electrician had suddenly become a masked stranger.

Well, finally, I’ve rediscovered my enthusiasm for it. I forced myself to finish the turnouts so that I could transfer my enormous talents onto the scenery. Gluing electrostatic grass has become my new passion.

The rails and ballast are sorted, (involving much sweat and swearing) and the grass planted between the rails is growing well. 

The far end is yet to have scenery put in place, mostly because I’ve no idea what to put there yet. My initial idea of a miniature hadron collider now seems unlikely.

I’ve started camouflaging the beams in the most inaccessible part. This involved climbing over parts previously fixed in place, (becoming unfixed in the process) and involved straining body parts previously undiscovered. 

At the far end of the building, miles of rails away, the farm is beginning to mature. 

Grass, trees, weeds, fences... it now lacks only animals, people, and an illegal still. 

Oh yes, and a lingering odour....

My inertia has now reached venting point; a video is now well overdue. But that must wait. We have temporarily broken free, fleeing in the Gnome to the distant mountains cloaked in snow, enveloped in clouds, drenched in isolation.  

Thus the train is still delayed by unavoidable social distancing and a few inappropriate types of leaves on the track. Instead; the first episode of the new series of Gnome-Trek will be coming to a screen near you any day soon....

Maybe...