Hi everyone,

I've created this blog to document the build of my first layout - which is called Burwood. I'm an electronic engineer by profession - and I hope to incorporate a significant degree of automation in the layout. This might stretch to computer control and a scripted timetable but at the very least I hope to control operations remotely without any interference from the big pink finger in the sky.

Having previously played with HO as a child I've chosen N scale as a compromise between model accuracy and operational interest. I wanted to use a smaller scale to allow me to model part of a railway network (rather than just a single station or junction) but thought than 2mm FS was a leap too far for a first layout. Having said this I am keen to overcome the worst deficiencies in N (like those horrible couplings!) - so will be looking to what is done by many finescale modellers for inspiration.

My chosen subject is a fictional 1930s/40s GWR setting in the West Midlands. Given a childhood of being taken on the Severn Valley Railway every summer by my grandfather (a keen G scale modeller himself) there was never going to be a choice on which of the big 4 to model!

I hope to cover most aspects of the layout build in this blog. One potentially interesting aspect of the layout is that, given the space constraints in our house, it has to be completely concealable when not in use - so a significant part of my effort has been to design a system to allow the railway to fold completely out of sight when not in use.

I hope that some of what I post here will be helpful and interesting to others - particularly in avoiding the mistakes that I've made and I'm sure that I'll continue to make!

Best wishes everyone,

Robert