Hornby16

Hi! This is my first real venture into blog writing and my first adventure into the world of RMWeb, which I have used as reference for a long time. I must say I'm not particularly confident that all of this will make good reading. Nevertheless , given the amount of free time which has materialised during this second lockdown, I thought why not. So... A little about me, I'm a Scottish philosophy student who spends too much of his loan on model railways. I'm from the North East and live out Deeside, which explains my leanings towards layouts set in this little slice of the country. From a young age I had a fascination with steam locomotives, and the bug failed to wear off like it does for many when they pass into adolescence. I mainly model the Big four (primarily LNER) and British Railways up to the demise of steam. At the start of last year, I started my first layout, Braemar, based on the fictional extension of the Deeside Line out to my home village from Ballater. The result is a small branch line Terminus with engine shed, run round loop and goods sidings. Set in the final years of the Big four and the beginining of Nationalisation, (1947-1960) Braemar enables me to run a variety of ex-LNER, ex-LMS stock as well as a smattering of Standards and a couple of DMUs. This layout is housed in my bedroom at home and due to circumstances of Covid-19 is currently unreachable. One category of this blog will be allocated to this layout, which is semi-finished but could do with lots of detailing and finessing. Here is a rough track plan of Braemar and a few photos I dug out: My next layout project is Usan, which is inspired by the single track line of the Aberdeen- Edinburgh line, just south of Montrose, where the North and Southbound lines join for about a mile to cross the Montrose basin. The Layout also has a number of sidings and a lumber yard to provide more operating interest. This continuous run layout is presently in my flat at University and was in the process of having scenery added when I returned North for the festive period. The plan from the get go was to be able to run a great variety of different traffic from 1930-1966 and also to have certain items such as signalling and signs to be interchangeable to enable me to run more modern stock up to the present day. Here is a rough track plan of Usan, I'm afraid that photos will have to wait until I get back to Stirling. My third and final layout project is Tarland. Again set in Deeside, this 00 micro-terminus shows a wintery scene in the small country village of Tarland (Where I am currently locked-down). Having begun just after new year, this tiny layout is almost complete sans a few minor details. It represents the 'what if' they had built an extension to the Deeside line from Aboyne to Tarland and has just enough space for a run round loop and one goods siding. This is currently the only layout I have access to and therefore is my present project. I was not able unfortunately to bring a huge amount of rolling stock with me, but the layout is set roughly post war. Here is a rough track plan of Tarland and a few photos: I hope to be publishing an update on what I've been up to whenever I do something relatively interesting and I hope you enjoy reading the blog. Please feel free to comment to your hearts content. As a bit of a noob, any advice is good advice.