Well, the last fortnight has just flown by. However, I have been tinkering with things, and there has been a bit of progress ...

The track at Temple Halt has now been ballasted fully, and the grass has spread out along the sides. Weeds have also started growing around the ha ha walls - Sir Macintosh will be giving instructions to Gari Biscuit to do something about that soon.

There are also now walls on either side and a general tidying-up of presentation. Still lots to do ...
Ma'm'selle Étoile Michelin and Colonel Sanders are waiting for the next train. The Colonel has been taking the opportunity to practice his French on her. In his younger days he was ADC to the Military Attache in Paris, and enjoyed some cinq-à-sept time with a charming young French married lady called Hortense Michelin. He has been trying discreetly to find out when the Ma'm'selle was born - is it just possible that she is the result of his dalliance? ...
The Ma'm'selle has been rather distant. She was warned about
les officiers anglaise and their winning ways by her mother - although
maman had a slight smile on her lips as she gave the warning. The Colonel does speak much better French than most of the Englishmen she has met, however, and has charming manners.
Peut-être ...
She gazes distractedly along the track - surely the train will appear soon ...
Meanwhile, things have happened at the Cascades ...

A girder bridge with brick abutments has appeared - although the right abutment seems to have been undercut by the water and tilted slightly ...
At the top of the bluff there is a stone-built culvert, from which the water flows down the cascades (or will do sometime soon -ish).
Sir Macintosh routed the tracks through a natural gully at this point, widening and levelling as required. He is contemplating having the estate workers create a sort of cut-and-cover tunnel on the left, with brick tunnel mouths and roofed with fallen tree trunks, of which there are many around the estate after the last great storm. Perhaps he can re-create the scenes he saw from the train through Switzerland on his way to Rome - tunnels followed by bridges - in miniature here. He has the plans in his head - time to get Gari on the job here, too ....