I have to admit that I find RMweb blogs so irritating that I rarely look at them! I much prefer the forums, but decided to give blogging a try, as it seemed the most logical place to write up what's happening on my workbench. Maybe I'll become less irritated by them in time if this works!

I've had ambitions to model several subjects for between 40 and 47 years, but haven't yet managed to achieve any of them! I've built a few layouts, but never had enough locos and rolling stock to operate them, and much of the stock I have had has been the wrong type or from the wrong period. I used to exhibit my layouts quite regularly, but always needed to rely on borrowed stock. So before they cart me off in a box, I want to try to achieve these ambitions, if only on a modest scale. It may not seem like it, but I actually have some sort of plan for this, and it seems to be working so far. I can't guarantee it will last though, as life has a habit of getting in the way!

When I first got interested in railways, when I was about 12, I discovered the broad gauge and thought it would be great to model it. At the time I never thought it would be possible, and it wasn't until some years later when the Broad Gauge Society appeared, that I realised I could actually do it. I started my first broad gauge layout in about 1986, and exhibited it quite often, but relied entirely on borrowed stock, as I only had five wagons, and two locos. I've got plenty of part built and unbuilt kits though! I'm currently on my third BG layout, and the stock situation has actually got worse, as several wagons have started falling apart!

It wasn't just the broad gauge that interested me. Early on my main interest became pre-grouping railways, especially the GWR. I gave up OO gauge and went EM when I was 16, but didn't get anywhere with building a layout until about four years later. I exhibited Abbotsbridge regular in the late 70s and 80s. It was set in the early 1900s, and had a few people and horse drawn vehicles to suggest that, but contemporary locos and rolling stock were rather thin on the ground. Most of my stock was converted Airfix RTR, dating from the 30s and 40s, as a temporary measure until I could build the right stock. It's only now that plans are afoot to resolve this problem!

It wasn't just GWR stock from the wrong period that appeared on Abbotsbridge at exhibitions. It often tended to have a bit of a Colonel Stephens flavour to it, as I used to borrow stock from Les Darbyshire's Maidstone Road, and several times we joined the layouts together at our club exhibitions. That's what got me interested in light railways, especially those that the Colonel had a hand in, and it's something I've wanted to model ever since. It's only starting to happen now, as I was recently seduced by the forthcoming Dapol Kent & East Sussex Railway Terrier, and couldn't resist pre-ordering it. Until then I had absolutely no intention of modelling in O gauge!!!

Last Christmas I was getting fed up with not having had a working layout with enough stock to operate it, since my OO days that ended in my mid teens. So I decided to do what I thought I'd never ever do again, and started a OO gauge layout using Peco track and RTR locos and stock. It's not quite working yet, but a few days spent on finishing the wiring and it should be.

My priority is to get Ingletyme, the OO layout, running, and to work towards finishing it. Just being able to operate it will be a big achievement though, after so long without having a fully usable layout, even if it's not one I had planned to build. Having done so little modelling for years, I'm going to try to work through my collection of unbuilt kits and other projects in some sort of order that helps me to practice and develop my skills, and get my workspace properly organised. So I may concentrate on say, plastic rolling stock kits for a while, in whatever order is easiest, regardless of scale or gauge. I've never got on with scratchbuilding in 4mm, so maybe I'll have more luck starting with 7mm, and move down a scale once I've mastered that. So my projects will be jumping around all over the place! I'm planning small layouts in every scale and gauge, but they will initially just be test tracks, and I'll only aim to finish them once I have enough stock to operate them.

It seems like a big and rather crazy plan, but as each scale/gauge combination has quite modest aims, it's much more achievable than building one big layout. I only need two locos and a fairly small amount of stock for each of them, and I have some of it already. I just need to try to work at it at a steady pace, and not let life get in the way again!

PS: I've also wanted to build a narrow gauge layout for just as long, but that can wait for now!!!