Hello and welcome to my blog, I'm a collector rather than modeller of modern image British outline in OO. Ive got a good selection of rolling stock , D/EMU units and locomotives but I haven't had an operating layout for several years, all my stock remains in their boxes in various place's around the house.So I sat down and decided I'm going to spend my winter time constructing a small HO exhibition layout, the scale change is because I'm getting bored of all the constant franchise changes in the UK, you once could centre a layout on perhaps a geographical area or a 20 year period so unless you model Chiltern Railways who have and will be operating for several years, your 166's in FGW will soon maybe in ARRIVA colours , or your Virgin pendolinos First West Coast thus it's hard to pin point a correct date for a layout unless you use modellers licence and then you may as well run LMS too!

I've always had a little interest in other European railways, pick up any recent copy of continental modeller and nearly every edition will have a North American, Rhb or German layout so I looked to stand out from the crowd. I also prefer modern image that I can relate to in my mind with photo's from visits to the country to be modelled, I eventually did a short list of possibilities for food for thought.

1)Spain

2)Hungary

3)Czech republic

4)Greece

5)Norway

And the winner is-------Norway,,,,chosen as beautiful scenery, loco hauled trains (some only 3 coaches long), not that many different locos (thus not lots of money lol),different (I dont know of any modern NSB layouts on the UK exhibition circuit).

I will start my baseboards in the next few weeks and will keep the blog updated with progress of construction and rolling stock purchases.