Well not quite starting - I had been on and off railways since I got my first train some 47 years ago - still have it. I never really properly started with permanent layouts, but now I have a tiny amount of space, so I'm starting a new project or two. A micro H0 gauge railway with Maerklin tracks; a minute shelf line (DC); a very short straight O gauge run which ties in with another hobby, tabletop wargaming; and a tiny, simple N gauge line on a 60 cm x 40 cm board, with Kato tracks. Wait, that's four projects.... My collection includes everything I ever owned from age 5 to present, an old Lima set which belonged to my wife, and some newer purchases, including several second hand, some good, some a bit battered but mostly functioning. Most of my locomotives and rolling stock are European, with a few U.S. locomotives and wagons (including one of my favourites, a Rivarossi cab-forward) and two Brazilian locomotives I could not resist buying. In the parallel universe that is work I am an engineer working in archaeology at Uni.
Hi Vanvlak, welcome. Happy to have you on board. Your collection sounds confusing, but very interesting. Please continue to show us how you are proceeding.
Thanks for the welcome to all. It IS confusing even to me! I'd started off early, stopped, returned with Lima H0 scale, stopped for decades, got back with a visit to the Railway Museum in York and a birthday present from the wife, paused and then visited Wenigerode with its Harzer Schmalspurbahnen - and a nice little railway shop in which the owner had to literally dig out the Roco loco I bought from a pile of other models. I try to confine myself to H0 mostly, but couldn't resist tiny forays into O and N. Thankfully these are more or less under control. For now. The most advanced project is the H0 shelf, a simple straight line with a single siding, designed for shunting locos, although I used it to try out my cab-forward when it arrived. occupied about a third of the line without any wagons... Added to the mess is a proliferation of both DC and AC, and one single 3-rail DC which is bound to make the confusion worse at some point.
