Good evening all,

Readers of a nervous disposition may wish to advert their eyes now...no rolling stock has been harmed in the coming update but layouts have been

Since the BH 2013 exhibition I have been relatively quiet on the forum for a number of reasons: post exhibition blues (is it just me?) stupid hours at work, general loss of interest in the hobby (could be the hot weather) and oh, planning an international family relocation from BCN to LDN...

In a previous post I had hinted that some harsh decisions would need to be made on my various collections of model railway stuff and these have now been actioned this weekend. In summary, next weekend we will drive back to the UK and move into an apartment the following day in LDN and a massive downsize has been required due to the inevitable accumulations since we landed in BCN in 2007.

Firstly, many thanks to Cornish trains Jez who offered last minute to store any layouts I had should space be lacking, but I had to think both short term and long term about what I had been trying to achieve and what the future was in terms of our start over again in the UK - In short, I realised that I have no more space to store, erect and develop the layouts so the jigsaw was in action this weekend

First up, a 4mm roundy roundy made last year for my sons. They had a lot of fun with it but weighing in at 8 x 4 it was the first to get the chop. A last minute phone call to some friends who have a son who is sort of interested in trains, but the parents came around and said thanks...but no thanks...even though I was prepared to give it away for ziltch

So the track was duly prised off with a palette knife, stored in a box and then the baseboards were hacked to bits - strike 1.

Secondly, Kyle, which once again someone had kindly offered to buy but I would still need to have got it back to the UK and it never worked as well as I had hoped so I would have felt uncomfortable selling it.

A recent post hinted that I might try and reduce it back from its shelf to the bare state and use it as a photo plank which seemed a good compromise...even my wife said that water looked nice

So, this was cut up to just leave the bones of the scenic part and as can be seen from the pic the back scene seems to have delaminated itself but at least I keep some of it - Strike 2.

Thirdly, Coombe Junction - Moorswater. A lot of heartache over this one as it had been in my mind for 20 years to build it and the 5+ years in BCN had allowed me to realise that and get it underway. I had various ideas ranging from completely scrapping to just keeping the Moorswater board but in the end as we have no-where to store it and I had to demonstrate some ruthless decision making to my wife as we have all had to take some hits on our possessions.

So in the end I decided the boards had to go but I would keep some buildings, namely the viaduct and the dries buildings. I did try and remove CJ station and Lamellion bridge but they were set in pretty solid to the baseboards so I just had to let these go...they were early work so not my best models - Strike 3.

But these were salvaged...

The Paddock Wood layout remains partly because its all packed neatly in its boxfiles already in the UK and I also kept a small 4mm BR blue layout I started for my sons on a 1900mm Ikea shelf as at least this can be stored in their room and they would like me to do more work on it.

So how am I feeling about all this?

Well obviously, mixed feelings as I had always hoped that CJM would one day make it to the exhibition circuit and I could finally see a class 25 with a long load of clay hoods or a 37 on CDA's thread its way to Moorswater dries under the shortest viaduct ever modelled ()...but I had to be realistic to myself and my family. The modelling really came about due to the change of lifestyle and trying to have a better balance of work / home time with the family which allowed me to do some modelling perhaps one evening or two a week. But my work is now taking up a good deal of my time again and like so many of you, it becomes harder to get that enthusiasm in the evening by the time the kids are in bed and the dishes are done...a little more time will be required for the adjustment me thinks.

I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has shown interest and supported my highs and lows of CJM for which I would never have been able to get this far without your help and that at present the blog has had some 95,000 + views which I am bowled over by.

Whilst the layout may get rebuilt in later life, I was wondering whether in the meantime I could keep those buildings retained and make them abstract slices of the layout (bit like my comp entry) to act as both photo planks and perhaps attend a few 2mmFS events as stand alone dioramas?? Will give this some more thoughts...warning: sketches may follow

To round off, I have not parted with any of my rolling stock and I didn't even mention 7mm due to our space downsizing

Thank you all again for watching and inspiring me the last 5+ years...

Pete