Welcome

Hi there and welcome,

This is my first attempt at creating a Blog. I have named this blog 'Muswellbrook and Merriwa Railway' as i hope to recreate this area of the NSWGR in my home layout and would like to share my experience in creating the layout and numerous other modeling projects i encounter along the way with those who are interested. Here is a bit about myself before we get into the good stuff:

Being fairly young, I have had to first set myself up with a home for my wife Trudy and 2 year old Daughter Abbi before actually starting to build a layout for myself. I have been a model railway enthusiast since i was five years old where my father Russell and I exhibited his tramway display 'Russell's Corner', a half inch to the foot tramway based on the Newcastle tramway system in the 30's, or there abouts! My first railway was the good old 8 x 4 witch most of the time never ran as i had more interest in finding out how things worked, therefore not much ran at all! I tended to pull things apart that i was not supposed too. I never really built and finished a layout for myself till i was about 16. A 12 x 6 foot railway named 'Iansville' witch swung down from my fathers shed using a boat winch.

Father Russell with the Good Old 8x4

When i left school in year ten I immediately started work at Norm Mitchell's Model World here in Coffs Harbour. Norm Created a model display centre and hobby shop where along with Dads Russell's Corner,my own home railway 'Iansville' and numerous other models people had built, Norms 1/4 scale W model Kenworth Truck being the main attraction, gave tourists of the Coffs Harbour area a chance to see up close the modelling work of some very talented people. Working in the hobby industry almost seven day a week over three years took a toll on my modelling....I never really done any, and for three years after the center closed. But I learnt allot about both the workings of a hobby shop and the running of exhibition style layouts. And how long an Atlas loco could go one way round a layout before the flanges wore off!

Just before the closure of Model World, a small add in the local paper asking for model railway enthusiasts was run to see if we could create a small group of people to create a model railway interest group in the area. Some 30 or so turned up to the first meeting at Model World and from there on the group here in Coffs has just grown. My keen involvement in the group and my experience with exhibiting model railway layouts led me to co ordinate the successful exhibit of 2 modular layouts that a select few from the group had created. These 13 active members forming Northern Division 8 of the National Model Railway Association (NMRA) AKA 'Coffs Harbour Railway Modellers'. (I'll cover this in a later Post). I have been helping almost all of our members with Decoder installs, Weathering and even loco construction as it seems that i have the best eyes! Will try and cover these in the blog as well.....
Now that I have my home sorted and the wife is happy with Daughter Abbi, I can look forward to Building a life long dream of my own model railway Layout. In the next posting i will try and convey what i hope to create for the railway.

Thanks.