Despite the fact that my layout, Rempton & Clensmouth has been designed to accommodate many of my eclectic tastes, and also the fact that I have tried to keep my growing fleet of locos and rolling stock within a certain sphere of operations (albeit with a large pinch of modellers' license), I have found myself recently wanting to purchase and indeed purchasing some, let's call them, "out of context" bits and pieces.

Rempton & Clensmouth - as introduced in my last blog entry - has been designed to accommodate my two main interests, namely Southern region with a modern image and preserved feel. When complete (if it ever is), a few changes of buildings and platform furniture will mean that I can swap from running modern DMUs to preserved steam and vice versa, therefore satisfying whatever mood I'm in at the time. It will also provide me with an interesting design/engineering challenge!

But despite all this, what's the one model that has been trying desperately to burn a large hole in my finances since it was first announced last year? None other than the venerable HST in First Great Western's latest livery.

Ever since I was a little kid, I've always wanted an HST set - and not just the Hornby train set version - I wanted the whole thing - all 8 coaches. I grew up travelling on them from our home near Chippenham on trips to London, to uni in Reading and now travelling back to see the parents. I've always felt a thrill seeing and hearing them, either idling under the train shed at Paddington or roaring into Chippenham's island platform. I even remember one holiday to Dawlish we took when I was a youngster, watching them pass at speed from the bridge, choking on the belching fumes as they roared beneath us. Even now, my favourite journey (and thankfully one I take quite often) is from Paddington to Dartmouth via Paignton. If we're lucky we get the HST service all the way to Paignton then hop on the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway for the rest of the journey. It somehow brings out the kid in me. I'm glad that these fantastic machines are still going strong and in their current guise, they're still just as impressive and enigmatic as they were when I was a kid.

I've stopped myself from buying the complete rake - all I have for now is 1 each of the 4 different coach types and the power cars, which is still a pretty hefty outlay. Even so, as the above image suggests, the train doesn't even fit on any tables in the house, let alone on the layout. Apart from running in and testing purposes, it won't be running on Rempton & Clensmouth - even in its reduced size, it's still far too big for the branchline setting. In fact, it almost certainly won't have a proper home for at least a decade. But that hasn't stopped me somehow. For some reason, I just had to have it.

And what, I ask myself, is wrong with that, eh? I'm very happy I bought it, and I'm looking forward to eventually completing the rake (I'm wondering whether to go ahead and buy the existing ones now and re-number the coaches or wait to see if Hornby decide to release new numbers in the not too distant future). The plan is to one day have a layout large enough to do the HST justice. Wouldn't it be great to one day see it hurtling through stunning scenery in a larger than life loft layout? Yes it would, and that's my long term aim. For now, it will be run in and more than likely boxed up again and stored. Maybe I'll spend a few evenings weathering it and perhaps renumbering some coaches.

But that dream's there, and whether it'll eventually happen or not, I'm glad I have it.