Monday morning and a new email popped up, with some news that I'm still not sure I believe; my submission for the first 'Great Model Railway Giveaway' had been picked and I could have the layout if I still wanted it - and could still pick it up from BRM's Festival of British Railway Modelling in Doncaster. Yes please! Part of me still thinks it's all a hugely elaborate hoax, but I'm going to Doncaster anyway - I'm being a little facetious, perhaps, but I'm still not sure I'll truly believe I won the layout until it's in the car. After that, I expect the scale of what I've taken on will properly sink in. 

So, to put some context around what I mean by scale, I've got big plans for this layout and lots to learn to make them happen. I've already been on a very steep learning curve over the past few months, catching up with years of missed developments in model railways. I started my modelling journey young, but I've had a long break. I was obsessed with railways as a kid, both model and full size, but once teen peer pressure and hormones started to take effect, music and entanglements took over and I drifted away. Three decades later the dust started to settle and I remembered how much I used to enjoy creating models. Much the same story as many others re-entering the hobby, it seems. 

So I started this blog to share progress on my first full layout project in a long time, from start to finish, with my hoped-for successes and undoubted failures along the way, getting back up and dusting myself off then getting back on with it again. And having fun - it is a hobby, after all. Hopefully at the very least it might be interesting or entertaining... even better, just perhaps, the end result could be something I will be proud of, maybe even worthy of a few pics in BRM and an invitation to a show. I'll be sharing some details soon on what I plan to do with 'The Art of Compromise', but until then, thanks for reading and bye for now.