My Son John came over to see us today and brought with him lots of his N Gauge stock so that we could test the track and check the fiddle yard capacity with the stock. We had an excellent morning and every rake fitted as we had hoped for and the running was excellent.

I must admit that the Kato track has many good points, but there are a few downsides as well. The fiddle yard area gives us six through tracks and four sidings, two on each circuit. The six main lines will hold up to an eleven car Pendolino and the sidings will hold two, two car DMUs each. So that will give us 10 made up trains, this is way short of what it could have held if we had used Peco N Gauge track. The good point is being well spaced helps with the removal and replacing of stock.

The reason we have used Kato is that we have amassed quite a lot over the last ten years at very modest prices, although I am now purchasing a few bits at full price to complete the layout.

Well there you are – the good and down sides of Kato, no ballasting the track, point motors enclosed and very easy wiring against far less storage in fiddle yard using the same area.

Now working on the backscene between the fiddle yard and the scenic section – watch this space.