I'm always intrigued by articles describing railway modellers early fascinations with (almost invariably) steam engines etc etc.

For me it begins differently, as a boy in the early/mid 70s when family magnolia, having fled fortress Scotland and secured economic migrant status in Ingerland, became located on the Bedpan line. Not for me though any fascination with the real thing, but rather many brief periods with my nose pressed against a toyshop window in St Albans as I waited for my bus home from school.

In the window was a collection of amazing looking tiny working trains - n gauge stuff, surely? I was fascinated and horrified to find that they cost even more than the big Hornby stuff that we certainly had no room for.

Must be like some horrible disease, lying dormant until opportunity rears its head again - in this case, playground chat about what a shame it was that I had 3 daughters and wouldn't I have liked a son to allow me to play scalectrix and trains etc.

hmm, trains, equal opportunities, dadly duties; maybe my girls would be interested in model trains? yes they are! And here we are too (wherever that is), following an appropriate birthday and a group present of some of the modern n gauge stuff.

So far its been a very slow 15mnth descent (or ascent?) into geekdom, that will either accelerate, decline or stabilise once I have the initial " trainset" layout fully under control.

Control will mean having to stop buying every railway modelling mag going and setle down to, perhaps, one or so per month. I suspect that it will also involve a journey into something that might approach 2mm finescale land eventually...

First ideas for a layout basis?

well, we stay in Portobello, Edinburgh, very close to the root of the Waverely Line (both old, current and proposed). So there's a thought...

Work takes me via road or rail to the obscure parts of Inverclyde, wherein lie railways of amazing gradients and retaining walls and proximity of lines, one to another (see Bogston station in particular - an incredible jumble of trains and bridges and roads and housing This Photo does nothing to fairly represent the place, but the platform shown is perched high above the A8 to the left, the Wemyss Bay line is up to the right, the bridge shown is an old road bridge over the top of the glasgow line and then passing immediately under the Wemyss Bay line; just beyond the bridge was a connection to the adjacent docks and another branchline. Its a scene that comes straight out of a trainset!

enough, enough! I'm only typing this because the Farish class 04 sitting upstairs seems to have got some large amounts of childrens hair wrapped around its workings and its too late to start to take all that apart without wifely complaint...