It has been a while since I updated this thread so thought I would let you know what has been happening over the last 6 weeks or so.
The new shed to house the layout is now completed and the general landscaping completed, although there is minor planting still to do.
Much Puffindun has been settled in and appreciates the new surroundings (the trackwork seems to be working much better than when it was sat next to the radiator in the hobby room).
As you can see unfortunately the layout has to share the space with other stored items - the go-kart is the grandchildrens but they only visit about 6 times a year. At the other end of the shed the wall is lined with shelving (you might just be able to make out the blue front upright about halfway across the far window in the first pic. These shelves hold all the essential things that have to be stored in a shed - half-full tins of paint, bent rusty nails, rusty screws bolts and nuts and of course the rock hard paint brushes that are just waiting for the brush restorer treatment because dinner was ready before you could clean them the last time you finished using them six months ago.
Not that I need the space until I build my new layout and then judicious rearrangement of the shelving units will mean that they will become the baseboard support and I will be able to utilise all the 12ft x 10ft space for track.

Back to the model. The track has had a good clean with a Peco track rubber and trains will now happily trundle over all of it with without requiring a push, especially if they are given a couple of warming up laps before the real running session starts in earnest. Without putting a jinx on the thing the power continuity seems to be excellent even though I am relying on rail joiners and switch rails rather than droppers on every piece of track.
I unboxed my full stable of DC loco's and gave them all an extended test run with the result that four have been relegated to the cripple track, and possibly the scrap yard, as they may not be worth spending a lot of money on to repair especially the LMS tender drive that is in poor physical condition as well. Here are the miscreants in the shed area at the moment.
Ten engines are more than happy to trundle around the layout and so received some attention mainly to stop front pony wheels derailing and to clean the wheels to improve pickup.
Further running will be carried out to establish running speed parameters on the controllers and they will be treated to some lubrication to hopefully improve matters further.
Problems were experienced with the track in the goods yard leading to the derailing of wagons and loco's so this whole area has now been stripped out and will be relaid. Poor alignment of the track horizontally and vertically appeared to be the problem although it was alright when I first laid it - honest

otherwise I would not have ballasted it and surfaced the whole area.
The plaster surfacing of the yard was a bit of a pain to get up but I was not to be beaten.
I may also take the opportunity to revisit the town area as well whilst I am remodelling this area.