Time's a funny thing

It's been a long, long time... Never fear, the route is still under construction. The painful task of 'filling in the gaps' is taking its toll. Adding tree after tree, bush after bush - the gantry method of laying trackside scenery is fine to a point, but I'd like to find the balance between realism and practicality.

What I have been noticing, travelling as I do not infrequently between Oxford and London or the north, is that while I have been beavering away at constructing models of real-life buildings, new buildings have popped up to add to my workload or - worse still - old ones have disappeared! Thus a new building is under construction adjacent to the loco refuelling point at Didcot (next to the west curve), and the temporary station footbridge at Radley has now been removed in favour of a more permanent structure (not before time, admittedly).

Even more incentive, then, for me to crack on with the route - otherwise in several years' time it will become unrecognisable! I jest, of course, but it is a reminder to me to distinguish between the ephemeral and the lasting: and I guess it means that whenever I do eventually complete the route people may be forgiving if one or two details aren't quite right.

In the meantime, here's Anton Courtney-May's superb reskin of an IC125 in Swallow livery departing Didcot for the West - just to prove that some things don't change but merely look different.