Please forgive my messy desk! But here are some shots of the locomotives that actually work. There are a few that are now static displays rather than working models.

Sadly a lot need some cleaning - but that's easy!

92220 "Evening Star" and 70036 "Boadicea", both Minitrix

70000 "Brittania" and LNER 4472 "Flying Scotsman", both Minitrix

LNER 4498 "Sir Nigel Gresley" (Minitrix), HST 125 Intercity (Graham Farish), BR Hall Class 4-6-0, no number (Graham Farish), BR Class 27 D5379 (Minitrix), BR Class ? D7645 (Graham Farish)

BR Class 4P-A 40938 (Graham Farish), BR Prarie Tank, no number (Graham Farish), LNER 2801 Tank (Graham Farish), BR Class 27 27014 (Minitrix)

Close-up of "Evening Star"

Close-up of "Boadicea"

Close-up of "Brittania"

Close-up of "Flying Scotsman"

Close-up of "Sir Nigel Gresley", sadly in need of a fair bit of TLC and repair

HST125 Set - Power car, dummy power car and a rake of 7 coaches

My "Brittania" next to a friend's OO "Brittania"

My Scotsman next to a friend's OO Scotsman

There you go. That's basically the core of it. Oh, there's also a BR 08 Class shunter (cute little thing), a couple of American "Chessie System" diesels, a Battle of Britain class (no. 34066 "Spitfire") with no guts (Graham Farish), a BR Class 52 D1035 "Western Emperor" with some gears removed as it wasn't working (Graham Farish), two Class 101 DMU sets (one 3-car and one 2-car, Graham Farish)... and a stack of coaches I haven't gone through yet.

On top of those, I've just bought a new Bachmann/Farish 08 Class and the new release Bachmann/Farish BR A1 60163 "Tornado". Can't wait for those to arrive! I'll put up pics when I have them :)

That's all for now!

Photos of the old Model Railway

I recently joined the N Gauge Forum (www.ngaugeforum.org.uk) to glean a bit more on the wonderful world of N Gauge modelling. When I introduced myself I mentioned the old layout, called "Nearby Exeter" and some requests came through for photos. Thankfully I had some, which I have scanned. My mother took these photos and as perhaps you might imagine, she focused more on little details around the town than the trains themselves.

I'll put up some more recent rolling stock photos soon :)

Some photos

While I sort through my bucketload of photos, I'm goint to put up a few night shots that I've taken. Most of my night shots have been aimed at taking long exposure shots capturing some great light streaks.

 An EL-headed freight train heads north through Point Clare station

A CityRail V Set arrives then departs from Tascott station

I can't remember what was hauling this, but a freight train passes through the Woy Woy Road level crossing

A shot across Woy Woy Bay to Woy Woy Station

An NR-Class hauled freight train passes through South Gosford Yard

A late night freight train passing through Ourimbah station

Broadmeadow yard, viewed from Platform 1 of Adamstown Station

That's all for the moment. More to come later on.

So I'm here

I've been persuaded to start up a blog to share some photos. After many years I've been drawn back into an enthusiasm for rail. Some time ago my father had a wonderful N Gauge model railway based around Exeter in the UK. Unfortunately it ended up sitting idle as he ran out of time to devote to it, and I was busy with high school. It ended up being dismantled after we moved to our current house as there was no room to store it, let alone use it. Fortunately all the rolling stock and engines were saved and stored.

In 2008 I graduated from university with a Bachelor of Music degree and started working as a Percussion tutor at Central Coast Conservaotorium, and for the last four years my life has been music, music and more music. Aside from work, my spare time was devoted to playing music - I have been playing/performing in Orchestras, Brass Bands, Musical Theatre, Choirs but now it seems timely to find a hobby that isn't musical. Fortunately, a chance discovery of a mutual interest with some existing friends has meant that I'm finding a hobby in railway modelling and train spotting.

So, since that re-awakening, I've been doing plenty of spotting and photography which I will share here. I've also started planning to revive dad's old model, although I definitely won't be rebuilding his old layout! Besides, I don't really have space to do that at the moment.

I will start putting up some photos soon :) In the meantime, visit my two rail mad friends, Ben at bm3801.blogspot.com and Greg at nswgrtraintracker.blogspot.com.

Cheers
Dave