However we discovered that the floor of the hall we were using wasn't particularly level, which resulted in a couple of high spots. I'll resolve this by purchasing some adjustable feet to fix to the bottom of the legs.
It became clear that the speed of the locos on the shuttle is a problem, ie if we use two trains on the auto changeover, they will need to operate at a similar speed to avoid either crashing into the buffers or stalling mid-journey. A few combinations were tried, even the two Bachmann EPBs have massive variances in performance and wouldn't run together that well.
The CEP finally got an outing, normally this one gets left in the roof due to the amount of space it takes up but it seemed really at home on the upper loop so we'll definitely be using this for the exhibition.
Brighton Belle caused us no end of problems during the last testing session, having been gifted some Wrenn pullman coaches I've replaced the couplings on the two end cars, these stayed coupled and ran faultlessly all evening.
I think the layout is now about as perfect as it's going to get, there will always be gremlins - after all this stuff is over fifty years old now and never designed to be incorporated into a scenic layout like this. The control panel with its shiny new ammeters also performed really well and I'm pleased that I spent the time changing to analogue dials.
And that's pretty much it for now. Next and first proper outing for the layout is at the end of October, one week prior to the exhibition. We decided that no further work is required and the small things like fitting buffer stops, adjustable legs and half fish plates can all wait until then.
We achieved what we set out to do - build a layout in time for the exhibition in November, and we've done it!
Now we can relax for a while.
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