so, I registered in here as "oilman" and discovered that I was formerly signed in as "rockershovel", and it was still live, so I'll stick to that and let "oilman" lapse, or whatever the mods do to dud screen names.

where to start?

well, model railways are a problematical hobby in the offshore oil business, for one thing. I started to become interested about six years ago after a very long lapse, because I saw the MMI D&RGW locos and HAD to have one.. I'd intended to be at least, semi-retired by now,with my kids off my hands but despite the late drop in oil prices, and the usual working of anno domini, seems not!

So, vintage motorcycle racing (no 1 son does the riding these days) remains very much on the agenda, my loft and indeed, much of the house are still piled with transient heaps of useless clutter, my loft layout project makes no progress....

Next, I do rather find that I seem to be a modeller who happens to be primarily interested in certain types of narrow gauge, rather than a "narrow gauge modeller". This distinction wasn't apparent for a long time but I see it now.

My railway background is to some extent, in 12"=1' scale, with particular emphasis on mine and tunnel railway systems, London Underground and the 3' and metre-gauge systems of French-speaking Africa and the USA. It is proving to be an intensely personal thing, with past memories and images inextricably intermingled with modelling, and that produces a very specific view of what I see, and don't see.

so, to progress! I've joined a club, having made an unsuccessful attempt with another one (incidentally, am I alone in finding club politics rather off-putting?) and I'm learning to hand-lay track, which is rather therapeutic after the stresses of several weeks offshore or in the beck of beyond. I have learnt, or am learning about DCC. I've discovered, to my great pleasure, the standard of RTR models these days, at least some of them. I've passed through various fora and come to the conclusion that given the very personal nature of my pespective on the hobby, I'll do a blog so that only people who sympathise will bother with it.

So, I've taken the plunge and ordered a kit for an oil depot in O scale, and I'm going to start a small (insofar as anything is small in 0 scale layout in my garage..