The GWR goods shed has been added to the layout. The images below are the first taken during an initial siting of the building on the goods siding – to the north of the station.

As you can see from the above photograph, the building needs to be positioned on the very edge of the current baseboard. Some thought is now being given to extend the baseboard by a few inches in this area to provide an area in front of the unloading bays – large enough to locate one or two lorries.

This image shows the goods shed as seen from the Down platforms. The physical space available on the layout meant that its position is nearer to the station than it actually was.

Here is the latest express locomotive to be added to the collection of engines used on the GWR section of the layout. It is the Graham Farish ‘King James II’ and was purchased as a ‘used’ model. It is shown here at the head of a Down express train leaving Leamington Spa General in the direction of Birmingham Snow Hill.

The signal box has been constructed from three kits supplied by Metcalfe Models.

The second image shows the view of the signal box that would be seen by southbound trains approaching the Leamington Spa General station from Birmingham. You can see many of the joins in the cardboard walls when viewed this close – but they are not so obvious in real life.

Thanks to my friend Chris I now have a number of Sixties vehicles displayed in the roadway and car park areas at the front of the mainline station.

Work is ongoing in the area north of both stations which formed part of the exchange yards for goods wagons belonging to the two railway companies of GWR and LMS. It is impossible to replicate all of the sidings in the exchange yard and even those that I have planned cannot be fully replicated due to the limited space in that part of the layout.

Below you can see LMS wagons standing in one of the exchange sidings, and on the left is the line connecting into the yard from the GWR. In the distance is a prototype drawing – a first attempt to show the yard disappearing into the distance.

Another view of the yard – this time from near the Avenue Station:-

And below is a view from near the GWR Leamington North Signal Box looking towards the two stations:-

GWR 4-6-0 Clun Castle stands at the end of the Down Platform Line awaiting the signal to depart for Birmingham Snow Hill.

The motorised signal is a GWR lower quadrant purchase from Dapol. It has been positioned to control trains departing from the Down Platform. The signal needs to be connected to power lines and a controlling switch on the Leamington North control panel. Once the signal has been proven to successfully work its base will be hidden by ballast.

The latest modification to the layout has been the introduction of two goods sidings into the Down area of the GWR General Station. These two sidings are merely representative of the many actual sidings that fed into this area.

The sidings in the model do not actually meet up with the mainline – but join to go around the northern bend and then into the fiddle yard. The idea is to show goods trains arriving into this area, locomotives decoupling from the wagons, and then for a selection of wagons to be shunted into one or both of the sidings.

It may be decided to have a static display in one of these sidings – showing milk churns being prepared for loading into a parked siphon wagon. In the photograph below a siphon wagon is shown in the left foreground.

The ballasting of track on the GWR mainline track has completed after a few weeks of dedicated action. Here is a view of the southern approach to the Leamington General Station with the mainlines crossing the road bridge over Lower Avenue; a Paddington express train is waiting at platform 6 for clearance from the South Leamington Signal Box.

Below is a close-up of the express 4-6-0 locomotive 4080 Powderham Castle standing at platform 6 with the LMS Avenue Station in the distance.