Hi all ! Vetran modeller - picked up first US model rail magazine in 1974, been messing about with model trains since 8yo. Have built a number of layouts, usually hampered by lack of time......now having retired from my business some 4 years ago, and forced to downsize to eliminate a bank debt over same even after a sale, I have got some time, but challenged for space ! About to embark on a 2.4m x 2.4m (8'x8') C shaped N gauge layout inspired by the WM Thomas Sub layout described in Kempinski's Realistic Track Plans for Medium Sized Layouts (Kalmbach) pge 21. I don't have the space to even reproduce the published plan, but my wife ceded the space the builder called the Home Theatre room on the plans for our home as a bribe to get my enthusiastic support for the new build. It worked both ways ! So, off on an exciting new layout....but I'm not convinced that retro fitting all my N gauge locos for DCC ( I do have a Lenz DCC controller ) and, well, I like the switches and wiring for DC, - kind of reminicent of the old manual signalbox (tower) I remember from my days on station platforms hearing the bell codes and crash of levers setting the road for incoming and departing trains. (My eldest son recently presented me with a handbuilt microprocessor wired up through buttons to a speaker which has bell codes which I can use to receive or despatch trains on a small shelf layout in 4mm (00) pre-nationalisation British outline .)
I live in Perth Western Australia, born and bred here and my 9 grandchildren are 5th Generation Australians - fairly rare, but we will be out-genned by a good number of others, of course. ( Aboriginal Australians can show evidence of 60,000 years of continuous occupation of the land ). I have an international taste in railways - travelled on trains in Britain, Europe, Taiwan, China, New Zealand, Canada, USA, and love 'em all. I have driven diesel locos and fired enormous 2ft gauge South African N Class steam locos on a local metropolitan regional park preserved line (WALRPA -look it up ! ) here in Perth. My choice of 'lyctus' - my user name (wood boring beetle which leaves a pile of wood dust where he has been busy) relates to my other interest in woodwork where I do make a bit of sawdust.
So, I have commenced benchwork and look forward to steady progress on the new layout.
I live in Perth Western Australia, born and bred here and my 9 grandchildren are 5th Generation Australians - fairly rare, but we will be out-genned by a good number of others, of course. ( Aboriginal Australians can show evidence of 60,000 years of continuous occupation of the land ). I have an international taste in railways - travelled on trains in Britain, Europe, Taiwan, China, New Zealand, Canada, USA, and love 'em all. I have driven diesel locos and fired enormous 2ft gauge South African N Class steam locos on a local metropolitan regional park preserved line (WALRPA -look it up ! ) here in Perth. My choice of 'lyctus' - my user name (wood boring beetle which leaves a pile of wood dust where he has been busy) relates to my other interest in woodwork where I do make a bit of sawdust.
So, I have commenced benchwork and look forward to steady progress on the new layout.
