Oldddudders

Bit of an event yesterday - 29th October 2015 - as I married RMwebber Ashcombe, who I had known since skooldays. She has a nice flat in Torquay, and we will live both there and in my house in France. Modelling will not be seriously impaired by my new marital status, I anticipate.

I'm a retired railwayman - 38 years of largely undetected crime with BR & successors! Now live in rural France, about 120 miles WSW of Paris. Having lived and worked for most of my career on Southern Region, that's where my traditional loyalties lie. Childhood holidays in North Cornwall began with trips on the Atlantic Coast Express, and I did some early gricing in that county. Yes, I saw the 3 Beattie well-tanks in service.

Accordingly, and having regard to the superior quality now available in 4mm RTR, I am constructing a model based loosely on Halwill Junction, Devon. The main track layout bears some resemblance, the yard does not, due to the shape of the space available.

The new layout steals a large area of baseboard from my US HO layout, started in the UK in 1984. There is nevertheless plenty of HO trackage, and the two layouts are combined, such that the track for each constitutes a continuous run and storage sidings for the other. Scenic effects are not readily shared between Eastern Colorado and Devon, though, so separation needs to be effective at that point!

I am also building an On30 layout, paying some sort of homage to the narrow gauge Rio Grande Southern at Ophir, Colorado.

Then there's the French railcar collection to be considered, with my model of Bonnetable on the preserved Transvap railway, a few miles from home.