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Looking very good. One thing, the big dome at the back of the tender is for water pickup troughs, so really needs removing and blanking over.

Two Murphy Models Cravens coaches ending soon: https://www.ebay.es/sch/i.html?sid=lockheed12    

When I wrote the previous post I thought I had come across some information on carriage overhauls in the IRRS Archives last week. I've been gradually cataloguing all the documents I photographed on that frenzied Tuesday evening, and I have found several documents with relevant information. In July 1950, in a discussion about conversion of carriages from electric to gas lighting, J.J.Johnston (assistant CME) stated that 94 carriages had received a general repair (G.R.) between 1/1/1949 and 28/2/1950, which equates to 80.5 per year. In 1950 there were 815 coaches in the fleet so this would indicate an average 10-year interval for general repairs, which is quite long but may be indicative of the shortage of money and materials at this time. One would expect that that a carriage would be repainted at G.R., but additional vehicles may have been repainted without receiving a G.R. and this would shorten the average interval of repainting. In January 1961, a budgetary control statement gives details of the quantity of general repairs budgeted for, and those actually carried out: Adding together the different types of coaching stock listed, the budget was for 90 vehicles and the actual number receiving general repairs and repaints was 101. I assume this is for 12 months, but it's possible that the heading 'programme to date' indicates the financial year, starting on 1st April 1960 and in that case the figures quoted in January 1961 represent 9 months. In the latter case, the equivalent annual total would be 135.  In 1961 there were 824 coaches so the repair interval would be 8 years or 6 years depending on whether the report covers 12 or 9 months. Fourteen buffet cars were introduced in 1953/54, with four more in 1956. Thirteen of them received general repairs in 1960/61 when the majority would have been 7 years old.  So I think this evidence tends to support carriages receiving a General Repair interval of about 7 years. I'm sure the vehicles would have been repainted at G.R. but in some cases additional repaints might have been carried out between G.R. especially when new liveries were being introduced. The influence of new-build stock should also be considered - this would appear in the new livery without being in the maintenance records, replacing older coaches withdrawn probably without a recent repaint.   One other snippet from the article 'Modern CIE Coaching Stock' by G. Kennedy, published in IRRS Journal 37, 1965: "Drab the bottle green may have been, but as late as 1957 some of the 1951 compos were observed looking little the worse for their long absence from the paint-shop."  In other words, the new stock introduced in 1951 was still carrying its original paint job 6 years later.   Going back to the budgetary control statement, the railcars were mostly delivered in 1953/54, and it's notable that 26 of these received body general repairs, with a further two receiving a 'paint and trim' repair. Again, these would have been 7 years old in 1960/61. However, I should also note that the railcars had more frequent repairs to their engines, transmission and bogies. In the archives there are some quite detailed records from the 1950s of which railcars received mechanical / general repairs, when and why. Poor availability for service seems to have encouraged this detailed assessment. The railcars also had more than their fair share of collisions and fire damage which required bodywork repairs and a full or partial repaint. I have not yet fully analysed this data and I may need to revisit that file in the archives.   Sorry, I'm on still on statistics and haven't got to paint shades yet! But this stuff is important when we start to look at the livery changes and how long old liveries may have persisted in service after they had been superseded in the paint shop.  

Not quite a pay train but similar / this little account gives some glimpses of life onboard such a contraption https://svsfilm.com/nineelms/bug.htm

Welcome! That's a massive space for a model railway, and it will be a big project. It sounds like this will be the first model railway you have built, so you're on a learning curve.  Despite the huge space available I'd suggest starting with something small so you can learn the techniques, and discover which aspects you enjoy the most (e.g. scenery / rolling stock / operations / electronics) as this will influence your priorities for the future big layout. It will also mean that the inevitable mistakes made whilst learning will be on a small scale, and you can avoid those issues with the later big scheme. Building a large and complex layout can be daunting for an individual - I speak from experience here.