Hi everyone, just wanted to introduce myself and the layout I am working on – I had planned to do this earlier in 2015 but you know how things are. So in an effort to speed things along I though putting my thoughts on here might help me achieve something in 2016. Kind of a new year's resolution!

Over the past years I have had a number of “models” from my first round-and-round OO GWR layout, a Swiss HO layout , through narrow gauge 009 and a large US N gauge layout. My most recent was a large HO layout based in Norway in winter time (think snow). The problem has been that it was too big and too time consuming and I ended up making lots of compromises in an attempt to achieve something. In the end it all become rather disappointing. The layout still exists and will be worked on when I have a place for it - maybe. A move to Arctic Sweden (yes you read that correctly – you think you have a long trip to the model shop!) has meant that I have less space for the next few years, so something new was needed that keeps me occupied on the cold dark nights (no daylight for a month and it was -37C today).

After much thought I came up with a brief for the new layout:

1. It has to have some new challenges – I didn't want to just “buy” things and run them around the track.
   
2. GWR – I was brought up in Plymouth and spent many hours watching the WR diesel hydraulics. If I was to return to modelling a UK-based railway it had to be the GWR.
   
3. EM scale – I wanted to build my own track and have something better looking than the standard track. I contemplated P4 but having read various blogs and other sources decided that EM will good for me and a sufficient challenge.
   
4. Small – I wanted something small enough to complete in a reasonable timescale yet provide challenging operation combined with realism.
   
5. Use as much as possible of the material I had to hand. I have built previous layouts using Aluminium framing and ply to produce a lightweight structure. So I would use the spares I had for the baseboard and reuse anything I had around.
   
6. I had recently seen the great modelling by Mikkel on his Farthing Layouts and MikeOxon’s work. These inspired me to try something different particularly as I didn’t want this to be “yet another between wars GWR branch line terminus”. I had always had an interest in the Broad Gauge but though this was perhaps a bit too ambitious at this stage. But I love the old gleaming liveries. I therefore took the decision to set it in the Edwardian period (nominally 1910-1913 but “flexible”).
   
7. I also much admired the way Mikkel has made his layouts “personal” – focusing on the people involved in running the railway. I doubt very much whether I could match Mikkel’s skills nor would I want to copy. I do, however, want to make the layout more about the people than just be an exercise in how good I could model the stock and buildings (which probably isn't that good!).
   
8. I had come across Brentford Dock in the literature – a site which seemed non-typical GWR. As a number of others on rmweb have pointed out this would make a good scene in a reduced format. I therefore decided on a Dock scene based on Brentford as a concept but to remind me of my hometown in would be called Sutton Dock.
   

More to follow!