2009 March 25 A New Beginning...

Wednesday March 25 2009
Well as I am starting from scratch I thought I might as well document the progress of my model railway too.
Before I go much further, you must understand that I am 63 years old and have been collecting model trains for 50 of those years.  So please don't think that I am bragging (I am not) And no need to feel envy either I have what I have because I waited 40 years to get it!  Don't wish you were in my shoes, rather relish your youth and a long time setting up things so that one day,you might get a little going your way too. oh where was I?.....ah yes...
Anyhow for most of that time I was buying a house, bringing up my kids and had little space to do much with my Trains. And little money left spare to buy the brass models that was all we could get in Australian outline.
When I got married I was determined to buy a house as soon as possible. No way was I going to make some land lord rich at my expense. So I moved into my house a year later and made a bank and a finance company rich instead.
So my first layout went into a 3.6m x 3.6m  bedroom. It disappointed me, and about 5 years later my son arrived and the bedroom became a nursery. It took another 4 years to clear the second mortgage, and I decided to build a 6m x 6m garage out back and layout number 2 was quickly put together. However it was never sceniced, and was a disappointment.
Remember that son that took out the first layout? Well at 17 he also took out the second layout. His Mum talked me into pulling out the layout and turning the shed over to Dale's brand new pad. That was in 1990. But it was Ok because I had got together a whole heap of railway mates, secured a building from the VR and started a model railway club, that was going to build a massive model railway, and I got my running done there.  http://www.hbmrc.net/  Here we are come over for a visit. Tell them Rod sent you :)
In 1997 I transferred to the North East and worked as a driver in Wodonga, So I sold everything and bought a new house in Wodonga. This time the one who shall be obeyed picked the house and you guessed it, no room for a model railway, or a garage / shed for that matter either.
So apart from a visit to HBR in Melbourne I was again a collector with no way of running trains. In 2004 my wife succumbed to breast cancer, and 2 days before Christmas I kissed her goodbye as she left this World for another place. It took me a while but I finally got rid of Riitt's house amd moved to a 10 acre block near Yackandandah, where I built a house (small) and a studio (huge) and started to plan my model railway. This one will get finished, I hope and God willing.
These first pictures show a massive big mess! I got my stuff out of storage and am steadily working through all the boxes to remember what I have got. The boxes will eventually store under the bench work, so everything is getting moved around as the bench work finally starts to spread around the room.
The room is 15 m x 8 m. The railway will start to the left of the door, and loop back and under itself (two levels (stacked one above the other) will then go down the long wall turn along the end wall and into the middle where a centre module will be built. Returning back to the end wall, and then up the other long wall, into another loop where the bottom level climbs up to the top level and circulates the room a second time. It has been a painful process and the design changes day to day as I remember previous mistakes and pick something up from all the books I am reading, and web sites I am visiting.
Oh and again I have helped start off a model railway club, this time in Albury-Wodonga,The Murray Railway Modellers Club This little group is one of the keenest groups of people I have ever met in a model club.  Lets see how we go, but next time I will show you the studio :)
Cheers
Rod