Hi all,

As a first post, a recap of where me and my lad got to after ten months working on the layout.

Starting at Xmas 2009 we embarked on creating our son his first model railway. He had acquired an interest in trains when visiting his 'grandma by the seaside' for holidays where grandad had an exhibition standard n gauge setup in the spare room.

Using a starter set from the Argos sale and a few trackpacks we got a basic trackplan going with a double loop and a siding. This was enough for playing trains over Xmas but it was clear that a more detailed plan was required.

A CJ Freezer plan book from grandad got us started and then I found NRM and RMWeb - what a great couple of resources for new modellers. I spent many hours researching and started to get a rough idea of what we wanted so a box of flexitrack and on we charged. It now occurs we had no idea what we were doing and a few months rather than weeks research are in order before starting such a project.

The plan we had settled on was still little more than a 'train set'. Once the track was temporarily fixed down with drawing pins it was clear that we needed something more realistic in order to keep my interest in building and give longevity to the layout for the boy.

So it was that we settled on the plan you see here, a fiddleyard, station and station goods yard make up the elements of a double track 'disguised' oval. Track was ballasted with aquarium sand, scenics were added using homemade materials, recycled tile grout and HBL. Buildings are kits or scratchbuilt from mountboard and printouts/DAS.

Most of the scenery has had a first pass now to give a completed feel to the model for Kaneda. However there are many areas which will need more detail or re-doing.

Overall I'm really happy with where we are, which is in part due to the encouragement and advice of the members here, and of course plenty of beginners luck!