It seem odd that just about a year ago I was writing about Shelfie 4 taking a leap forward. Well over the past few months and weeks it definitely has.

In the picture above, the core concept was structured in my head, this had come from separate discussions with Chris Mears and James Hilton around a shelf layout concept, based on Canadian grain traffic.

A peculiar (domestically), year later I now can’t replicate that early stage image above. As typically with me getting the wires down, literally took far too long. It’s less than a month since the track was fixed permanently, but since that progress has been rapid. Originally the thought was to use Rapido Rail crew point motors. However not having firmly planned it, it but me on the bum, and they haven’t been utilised. I’ve not abandoned them however, but they do need placing correctly, something the existing build didn’t allow.

Once that cock up had been identified, the revised version came forward really quickly. Side mounted Peco PL-11 have been used and should be almost hidden by scenery.

A wraparound backscene has been added and LED lighting is being tested. It’s ok and I’ve just started looking again at the ‘add blue’ lighting that I did with Shelfie 1. Basically that allows me to add blue light into the overall scene changing the colour temperature and effect.

The river water I’m think is too low in the image above, so I’ve tried raising it by around 6mm using battens. It doesn’t sound much but the first impression is that it’s a significant improvement. The reflections work better.

The effect can be seen above, as well as the first trial of the ‘concrete canyon’ look I want to achieve. The left hand silos are mocked up from house gutters, and maybe too large a diameter for the size of facility I’m representing. One of those things that I’ve left in situe to mature, and go back to in a day or so to assess it.

On balance though I’m pleased with the progress over the past weeks, I’m definitely going with the grain!