How I came to the hobby

 Hello, my name is Bill and I was born next door to a railway goods yard in Coventry in 1956. My first train set was a triang goods set in 1960. For many years due to my parents moving around, my dad went into the Royal Air Force and a permanent layout was not possible. Later I joined the Royal Air Force too, my modest collection spent its time in a glass bookcase. I had to be content with model railway clubs. Our air force base in Germany had a very good club and let me continue to attend after I became a civilian, until the base closed in 1994.

I spent some 30 years working for the BUNDESBAHN (German State Railway) until my retirement in January 2020. As well as collecting locomotives (ROCO and PIKO) I attended a heritige site in Bokhum_Dahlhausen. My first serious attempt at a railway layout was about 2011 when I at last had a whole room for my hobby. In 2012 I decided that I would go over to modelling British railways. Within a year I purchased several very early Triang rolling stock, which would not run on modern track. It was at this time I decided to change to 1950s steel track and went into collecting early vintage items, including going into collecting Hornby Dublo three rail for the first time.

Happy days working for the railways, first in a goods yard, then track laying,ending my days as DB Bahnschutz (Railway security) in Düsseldorf Hbf.

My collection was boxed up several years, due to several moves, but  staying in Germany, the collection was constantly being added to. Then last year I moved into a large farmhouse near the Rhine with a huge attic. Now at last I could build my dream layout and run over 250 vintage locomotives!