Greetings from Wiltshire

[GoldenOldie]

Hello everyone!

I will be lurking here a while I'm sure, before I start asking questions.

I've always enjoyed modelling and painting toy soldiers and fantasy figures - yes, I'm also a wargamer and tabletop roleplayer - but my model railway experience has until this point been limited to admiring some of the layouts at the occasional exhibition I've visited.

Art Deco architecture is another of my fascinations and I'd love to someday have a layout incorporating a classic 'moderne streamline' style cinema perched above a mainline terminus. For now I'm here with more modest ambitions to learn enough to build a very small branchline shunting layout (?), set sometime during the 1930s.

Given the above my absolute favourite engines by a country mile are the LMS 'Coronation' class, but I've also a soft spot for the landscapes and buildings of the the Southern Railway and GWR. I know, I'm covering a lot of bases..!

Anyway, that's me. I might pop up now and then and I apologise now for any silly questions.

Simon

[Admin4]

Welcome aboard Simon

[Mountain]

Welcome. Don't worry about silly questions. I can give silly answers too. Haha. Joking. We can have a go at answering all questions. I can usually answer about half. Others can answer the ones that I don't know and so on, so feel free to ask away.

Many of us here all with our own personal areas of expertize that we enjoy. Some are beginners. Some have been in the hobby for most of their lives. What is good is if I try to answer and get it wrong others come to the rescue and can correct us and so on. We all learn from each other.

While most of us have 00 gauge, some of us do things different by using a different scale or gauge combination. I am into 7mm narrow gauge because it suits my modelling needs. I prefer budget modelling as to be honest, many of the new prices seem frightening! But do not let this put you off as there are ways around this. 7mm narrow gauge for me is one of the ways around this, as I can make little waggons and other things in this scale for very little money when compared to buying a factory made model, and there is always the secondhand market in any scale.

I hope you enjoy your new venture.

[Bigmet]

...Art Deco architecture is another of my fascinations and I'd love to someday have a layout incorporating a classic 'moderne streamline' style cinema perched above a mainline terminus...

Don't risk putting anything like 'Milwaukee road F7 4-6-4', 'NYC Dreyfuss Hudson', or 'N&W J class' into a search engine, or you will plunge down a rabbit hole of visual delights, and possibly never re-emerge...

[Peterm]

Welcome in Simon. I've recently decided to follow Southern Railway for stock. I'm a southern softie and also think that down south offers some lovely scenery as well as up north; up north (Cumberland, Northumberland and Scotland are my favourites though. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

[glencairn]

Welcome on board, Simon.

Glencairn

[End2end]

Hi and welcome to the forum Simon.
Thanks
End2end

[GoldenOldie]

Thank you for the welcome everyone, already some interesting to think about. And those North American locomotives Bigmet!

[Bigmet]

There's plenty of colour footage of the last of long distance American railway's passenger services, steam and diesel hauled, just as the WWII advances in aviation were making airline services the preferred way of travelling long distance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH_o5xZ8wRU