Hello

I have ben away from the hobby for a while, well actually 20 years plus, and I have decided I want to start modelling again. In the past I have modelled in 00 because at the time is was the easiest thing to do, though my strong NER leanings did make this difficult.

That's what has surprised me, lately as modellers are we all a bit lazy? I have over the last couple of months been buying the occasional magazine to gain some inspiration and get a feel for what's available and the prices of stock, and although I have been massively impressed by what's out there, it seems like everyone just models the transition period. In fact it just seems from talking to the local shop owners I have visited that people just "cheque book model".

From what I have seen of this forum, you seem to be the last place anybody does any real modelling, and some of the blogs on here are very inspiring, after reading Railway Modeller I found an article on an N gauge LMS layout, did a web search and found that Foster Street is on this site, and then I discovered more great layouts like this one, rather than ones that just have out of the box models. I have noticed that sometimes if you look at articles in magazines you can see the same locomotives, a couple of times but ion different layouts.

Does nobody modify there stock any more, or is it because its that expensive people are scared to even think about it, I remember with LIMA models it was the first thing people would do?

Anyway that's where I need help, and advice, should I go back to 00, or change to N or even O gauge, what would provide the best challenge, to avoid becoming a "cheque book" modeller, and where are all these excellent layouts being exhibited, or are they all just home based models.