1960.  Me and Hal had a Hornby Dublo trainset on a hinge down board in Mayfield Road.

2022  Some time in the summer. I took a bus to Glenrothes in Fife to visit an exhibition, it was as I thought it would be, basically men of a certain age, you could swap the trains for real ale. To be fair this exhibition showed the range of scales available.

2025 July. Another trip to the East Coast, this time to St Andrews. The bus, three hours from Glasgow doesn't take you via the links and in my opinion the town was a dump. However, the exhibition was useful for seeing how large the layouts were. Most of them are made by clubs, I found out that there is a club in Helensburgh.

2025 August. A trip to Edinburgh, this time to George Watson's College. The building was very similar to SJC, long corridors with marble floors. I talked to a man about N gauge.

2025 September 11th. I bit the bullet and went to the only model shop in Glasgow to find that it no longer deals in railways and he directed me to the Uddingston Model Centre where I met Ronnie, I explained my situation and he advised Kato Unitrack. He sold me a basic oval, a passing loop and an engine with three trucks. I returned home and set it up.

2025 September, a few days later.  I ordered 2 x1 square meteres of MDF, which came from Sussex ad I constructed the baseboard using battens from my redundant futon. This stayed in the living room but had to moved into the second bedroom.

2025 October. I bought a second oval. A few days later I bought three sidings. I purchased an unknown engine from a model shop in Alexandria, not in Egypt.

2025 November.  I took a trip to the NEC to the largest model rail exhibition in the country, this was not without its problems. My train to Edinburgh was terminated at Bathgate due to a points failure and I had to take a bus to Edinburgh. I missed my booked 0900 train and had to wait for the 1100 which was very crowded. Approaching Wigan this train stopped due to a points failure in Stafford, nothing was moving on the WCML. I walked across the road to the local Wigan station and took a train to Manchester and took a National Express coach to Birmingham and then a train to Coventry where my hotel was. I arrived 7 hours late. I slept very well.

The exhibition was mobbed and I bought an engine and some trucks and returned to my hotel to watch Wales lose to the All Blacks. The journey home was spot on.

December 2025.  I decided to elevate the layout and bought raised track on pillars. This eventually proved to be a pain as I would get continual derailments. I started to build elevated runs out of plywood. I also built a mountain out of builders foam and a tunnel from a Pringles tube, these didn't last long.

January 2026. A disaster!. I leant on the base and it slid off it's supports. Time to order some legs, some 3 x 2 and an electric screwdriver. I also started my first Metcafe model.

February 2026. Another trip. This time to Doncaster, which is famous in railway history. The journey was delayed enough to get some delay repay. The exhibition was at the racecourse and I decided to get there early to avoid the queue, which is what everyone else had done. Again this was very busy and a scramble to reach the front of any stall, I bought an engine. In the evening I visited the best real ale pub town.

March 2026  I visited the Scottish Model Rail exhibition in the Armadillo, nice to have a local one.

September 2026 Another trip was in order. This time a first visit to Sheffield. A nice hotel about a mile from the city centre. I like to make these trips for more than one reason and the other reason was the Kelham Island Tavern. This won the CAMRA poty twice in a row in the early 2000's. A genuine back street boozer with thirteen hand pumps, I did not recognise a single beer, amazing. The exhibition was small, in Grenoside, I actually stayed only six minutes but my third reason saved the trip. the opportunity to visit Rails of Sheffield, reputedly the largest model rail shop in the country. I bought four coaches, BR mk 1 and some Metcalfe models.

Sheffield took some getting used to but I would go back if needed to go to the shop.

October 2026. I needed a second siding to store my six carriage BR mk 1 set. So I constructed a second elevated trackway, a bit heath robinson but it all works. I also finished the castle, a mammoth work.

Once this second elevated track was completed I was a little underwhelmed. The two trackways were not level. I decided to construct a new dual track elevation. Much planning went into this, templates were included, wood was bought and paint plus a new set of points and a bit of track. The whole process took several days but it was worth it. It does rather dominate the layout.

There was something missing, I did not have a passing loop to enable trains to pass. Fitting one in would take some thought, so I thought and found a solution. I moved the turnout on the outer loop to the other side of the layout, this enabled space to fit the loop on the near side. I ordered the required kit which arrived pronto and fitted it all. I had to solder some wires as they weren't long enough. It all looks very good.

I visited the Greenock Model Rail Club exhibition and purchased a Metcalfe model, a half timbered shop with side edition, this looks very good.

I reorganized the triple sidihg to create a little more space and relocated some buildings, I think it looks better.