Thank you for reading my blog.

So why do it? And do what?

Well starting with the "what?", my project is a loft layout. And "why?"...well about 30 years ago, I stopped railway modelling, went to Uni, started a career, got married, had kids, furthered my career etc etc. Now one daughter is 20 and the other nearly 18 and I have a little time on my hands and a little space in the house (albeit in the loft).

Over the last 30 years I have mused on different layouts, read books and magazines and in the last few years collected locos and stock. I developed two passions - Peter Denny's Buckingham Great Central and the Great Western Railway in the mid 1930s. And so now.......Buckingham West.

The purpose of this blog is twofold. 1) to maybe help any other new-comers or returning modellers and 2) so more experienced modellers can help me!

The layout plan is inspired by Peter Denny's classic layout. It will have three stations - a large terminius (Buckingham West) leading to a junction (Newton Purcell), from which a small single track branch leads to Brackley Road whilst the main line runs on to join the Oxford to Banbury line near Aynho and Adderbury, heading north. My addition is that there are two circuits passing through open country before the line enters a tunnel and runs into 6 storage loops which eventuallydumbell back out. These storage loops represent Banbury and Birmingham etc. I prefered this "hands off" arrangement to other fiddleyard types as I can drive the trains in and forget about them until the timetable directs me to drive them out again.

Yes, a timetable! It is important to me to try and make this project run to a timetable and a fast clock. We'll see.

This project is large! Perhaps too large for a returning modeller, but I've started and so need to finish. Lets hope I get it all done - as much as any layout is ever done!

That's the plan and the reasoning. Please stay with me and I'll outline in the next entry what I've done so far. Please add any comments even if just to say you've read it, so I'll keep going.

Thanks.

Rich