In the beginning...

Hello and welcome to my blog. This one is on my railway experience and is kind of my way of keeping a track of all the bit and bobs I use on the internet to help me plan and build my layout. So expect to see a whole load of links posted here as I go on.

History
Since I was a wee lad my Dad had an interest in model railway. Occasionally he would bring some of his stuff out and build a small layout but mostly it was stored away in a crate or two in his part of the wardrobe. To a child it was a thing of mystery and wonder. All my childhood I remember wishing that Dad would bring it out and set it up, but it happened only rarely.

As I grew to a young teenager I got older I got sneakier. Sometimes my parents went out on a weekend afternoon leaving my older brother and I at home. I would then sneak into their room and open up the box and pull out the carriages and engines very carefully and look at them. I would then repackage them and put them all back exactly as they were before. I sort of remember getting caught once with them coming home early and me having stuff everywhere. Very embarrassment!

Anyway, as a way to connect with my dad now that he is retired, I have started buying him model railway related things for presents and taking him to train shows and the like. Recently I decided that I should give it a go myself. That seemed like a nice idea but I already had a room full of WW2 tank kits (from a previous hobby re-exploration) waiting patently for me to build and adding a new bunch of gear seemed a bit much. So the bright idea went off! Why not combine the two!?!

So now I am researching information on tanks and trains in WW2.

Today
Over the last few weeks I have gone on an purchasing phase. I have researched sellers of Märklin (my Dad's chosen system) products in Australia and overseas and also eBay sellers looking for Era II (1930-1945) rolling stock and steam loco's. I have had some good luck and certainly learnt a lot. See my next post for a list of items that I procured.