(Very) newbie - please be gentle!

[Ossian]

Well, I've taken the plunge and returned to the world of model railways (note NOT "toy trains" as SWMBO refers to them) after about a 40 year gap...

I'm an IT consultant, living in NE Scotland and have been modelling (1/35 and 1/48) for some years, but feel the need for motion, and ideally the sound of steam. I have started off in N-Gauge (I have a OO small layout that I made for the kids a decade ago, but they went all iPaddy and it gathered dust. I don't have the space to do that scale proper justice, so N is the plan, with a long layout (about 14 by 3 feet) down one wall of my office/mancave (previously a double garage). I'll be going for DCC and computer control eventually - at the moment I have a Hornby Select DCC controller that will do me for a little while, but eventually I know something better will be needed. At present, though, everything involves a PC and SCARM, and having great fun with possible designs.

The period will be early BR, mainly ex LMS but the odd visitor from other regions

I'll have a lot of questions for the more experienced modellers, so please bear with my probably daft questions!

[Dad-1]

'Tis true, the older a newbie is the more gentle we have to be !!
We're not really a rough tough lot, not the Bash Street Kids.

Still quite young (at heart) as you're going 'N', I can hardly see '00' now.

Geoff T.

[Bigmet]

... please bear with my probably daft questions!

We are pretty good at the principle of 'what is truly daft is not asking questions'.

You can always add a footer to remind us that you are completely new to N gauge or whatever you choose: top right in the header bar: user name>profile>signature, something like that gets you a text box for the footer.

There's great prospects for modelling in Scotland. The entanglement of the old companies, and thus the LMS and LNER leaving a mixed stock to ScR, is very appealing. I suspect 'Union Mills' is a business you need to know about, if you don't already!

[glencairn]

Welcome on board, Ossian.

With you living in the North East of Scotland will we see some Highland Railway or GNoSR buildings on your layout.?

Glencairn

[Mountain]

Welcome to the forum. An exciting fun project!

[Ossian]

Thank you for the warm welcomes, folks

Dad 1 - I quite liked the Bash St Kids, and N requires an optivisor, but as I said I want the sense of space it can bring!

Bigmat,yes, I say the same about daft questions a lot in my work! I am planning to model somewhere around Carlisle where I understand ex LMS and LNER were likely to mix.

Glencairn, as above, although I thought seriously about doing something based on (my local) Formartine and Buchan line

Thank you, Mountain - yes, I hope it will be fun (and a change from messsing around with servers and networks!)

[glencairn]

Modelling around Carlisle area eh! May I suggest purchasing a book titled 'Historical Railway Modelling' by David Jenkinson. (No affiliation). Although the book can cover anywhere in the UK one is drawn deeply into LMS territory; especially Cumbria. An invaluable book (imho).

Glencairn

[Ex-Pat]

I am planning to model somewhere around Carlisle where I understand ex LMS and LNER were likely to mix.

Welcome Ossian.

Although ex LMS and LNER used to meet at Carlisle Citadel they didn't actually mix that much.

The LNER Edinburgh to Carlisle (Waverley Route) traffic shared a couple of miles of ex LMS track into the north end of Citadel, and the LNER Newcastle to Carlisle route traffic shared a couple of miles of ex LMS Settle & Carlisle track from the East into the south end of Citadel.

In later years however some A3's were used on the Settle & Carlisle route and also to a lesser extent on the route to St Enoch via Dumfries, these were probably the best occurrences of mixing.

But it's going to be your layout, and your cover story is what matters!

[End2end]

Hi and welcome to the forum Ossain.

iPaddy

Sounds like an Irish I.T. engineer...... or optician
Thanks
End2end