I doubt any of my original followers will see this, but to whoever might possibly be reading... hello! And if you are one of that original gang - I'm seriously impressed that you're still following a website that's been completely dormant for the past 5 years!
I can't believe I'm saying this but I started this blog 20 years ago!!! Back then I had plans to build a small portable layout to P4 standards and over a number years dabbled in some track, kit and scratch building as well as RTR modifications. However, with the arrival of children and the resulting squeeze on time, space and money, things started to tail off until finally coming to a complete halt 11 or 12 years ago, everything either being sold off or boxed up and put away in the loft.
I've kept in touch with the hobby primarily through continuing to build my Model Railway Journal collection (complete all the way back to issue 0 I should add!) but in the last couple of years I started to watch more modelling content on YouTube which opened my eyes to just how much has changed in the RTR market while I'd been away.
20 years ago the desire to 'go P4' was driven in part by a natural tendency towards perfectionism and needing to do things the 'right' way or not at all, but also by the feeling that most RTR was, to my eyes at least, lacking the fidelity and level of detail and realism I was after to allow me that suspension of disbelief that is so necessary to the enjoyment of this hobby.
Things have changed dramatically in that time. We now have PECO bullhead which, while still not perfect, is to my eyes 90% of the way there, when compared to anything off-the-shelf we had before. Add to this modern locos and rolling stock, particularly from the likes of Accurascale, with DCC sound, lighting etc... and what can be achieved today with out of the box models is beyond anything many so-called finescale modellers once even dreamed of.
During the last year I began to feel a serious urge to get back into the hobby again. I think the tipping point was seeing the pre-production samples for the Accurascale 57xx. Something clicked and I immediately placed a pre-order. I had, at the time, no intention to build a layout, although the fact that I ordered the DCC sound fitted version surely indicated, even if subconsciously, that I wasn't ultimately just going to stick it in a display case!
Fast forward to today and a layout is in the works... and yes, this time for real, not just on paper as so many previous ideas were.
Work is already well underway to create a permanent home for it and construct the baseboards, a track plan has been finalised, and track, DCC controls and additional locos and rolling stock either purchased or ordered.
I'll be writing more over the coming weeks, introducing the concept, talking through what I've done so far and plans for next steps, and hopefully providing reasonably frequent updates as I go along.
I hope you'll join me for the journey!
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