Isn't it funny how things in life can work out at times? The concept of Roath concived when I was a mere Year 10 at school - the combination of the hectic South Wales freight scene, with grimey green and relatively clean blue locos in a relatively domestic setting utterly appealing to me. A quick check on a road atlas gave a suitable location and the idea of Roath was born. I'd never visited the real Roath nor knew a vast amount about the area but now six years on, with the project slowly coming to fruition, the twists and turns of life have lead me to to living within feet of where the layout would have been.

Very little has happened on Roath in recent times - if anything has happened then I guess it's a bit of a step backward. In the haste of packing the layout away after an operating session I'd left a set of the house castings out in direct natural sunlight. I guess I don't need to say what happened next....

It is a bit of a kick in the balls but c'est la vie. It's an oppourtunity to improve on the houses further. I'm starting to think about changing the master to utilise etched windows frames to add a bit more finese and also get them spot on, rather than bodging widely available plastic items. Living in the damn prototype doesn't leave me with any excuses for lack of measurements either.

Deaprting from sleepy '70s freight sidings now, I thought I'd share some photos from the other end of the railway technology spectrum. This summer I was very lucky in being able to fulfil a childhood dream of visiting Japan. It's a stunning country and the culture shock is something else - I reckon it's the closest you can get to an alien planet without leaving earth. I could ramble on for hours about the place, but I'll save you all the ear ache and let the photographs do most of the talking.

Above: The Shinkansen are something else. They're not fast. Forget everything you've heard about them. They're way, way beyond fast. I can only equal travelling on them to being on a plane at an altitude of a couple of feet. Why can't we have something like this?!

Above: The view from our hotel we stayed at in Tokyo. And the best bit about it all? Creme Brulee flavoured Kitkats!

Above: Is it just me who thinks this really looks like Llangollen?! This is Hakone and is a real contrast to Tokyo where we had stayed a few nights previously - calm, sedate and peaceful.

Above: Bored of the bog standard GW pagoda? How about a shrine as a place filler? Taken at Tonosawa on our way up to see Fuji.

Above: Finally a photo of myself and my fellow travellers. Rich on the left (who I think dwells on here), my girlfriend Lindy in the centre and myself on the right in Shibuya. Happy Days.

Anyway, I'm meant to be reading up on Mohr's Circle, I guess I should dash. Oh RMweb - what a beautiful distraction from more important and pressing matters you are.

OMS -

Pix