Although I entitled an earlier page on this site as “First Layout” this was not my first railway.

As a child I have a classic train set which had a clockwork engine but I have little memory of it beyond that.

I then migrated to an electric direct current layout and I presume that I had that from primary school days, though again I am not certain. There was no permanent layout, instead at holiday times I would put out the track and run trains. I can remember the power unit and only got rid of it about 3 years ago when we downsized to Leyland. By my mid teenage years I had there electric engines, the oldest was a black tank engine, then came a large blue diesel with accompanying coaches (two or three) and finally a Jinty which ran at a manic speed and had trouble with electrical contacts which resulted in me twisting a piece of wire.

The only board I can remember with certain was initially made by me and my dad and served other purposes such as snooker (even though it was square) and table tennis. I think I eventually could put together a board 2.25 x 1.25 metres consisting of two 1x1 and three side pieces that bolted together. When my sister had moved out I was able to have a layout up for longer.

Much of this stuff survived and I created a layout for my son but he was never as enthusiastic as I had hoped, possibly because I wasn’t good at letting him just do things.

I think I got rid of my engines when I decided to go digital, for my “third layout”. The BR blue stock went at a similar time as I had settled on the 50s/60s era. I think I kept some wagons for longer, but they also went in due course.

I think I still have some OO track pieces and definitely two other items, one a metal plate layers hut which has lots some of its paint. I will include a picture when I can find it. I also have one conifer tree bought in my teen years. This has survived as it was turned into a Christmas tree for the Dolls House.

I have added a second page of pre-history.

Added 28 Dec 2025.