ABOUT THIS SITE

I've long loved railways in general and steam trains in particular.

I guess there were three events that really sparked my interest:

1. I remember being taken to see the Bluebell Line (a magnificent preserved railway in West Sussex, UK) when I was a small child (actually not long after it first opened to visitors). It left a profound impression on me - to the extent that Rose and I are now members of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society.

2. Another railway visit as a youngster - notably to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch light railway in Kent. Not only were the trains almost unbearably appealing to a small child (they look like regular mainline locomotives, but run on 15" gauge track - therefore very much child-sized), but there was also the model museum and enormous model railway at the New Romney station.

3. I had a good friend when I was in primary school who lived just across the street from us. His father was a model railway fanatic and had a large 'OO' scale layout which took up pretty much the whole of their spare bedroom. I spent many an hour up there watching the trains go around.
I never really had a proper model railway as a child - we had the usual rudimentary oval of track, but that was as far as it ever got. As an adult, I built a small layout in Z gauge, but my first wife wasn't terribly interested in trains, large or small, so I eventually shelved the idea and sold all my rolling stock - it's far more fun to do these things if you have someone to share it with.

Many years on, I met Rose. She moved over to the UK from her native Illinois and we finally married in 2004. We've always shared an awful lot of interests, but we'd never actually discussed railways. However, on our honeymoon we visited the Torbay area of Devon and I thought she ought to see Dartmouth (partly for the architecture, but also just for the local scenery - it's a beautiful town). Of course, by far the most entertaining way of visiting Dartmouth from the Torquay area is via the very picturesque Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway. It was at this point that we suddenly discovered our mutual fascination for steam trains - the number of photos Rose took was something of a giveaway! What's more, it turned out that Rose had wanted a model railway ever since she was a child, so I guess we really are the perfect match!

See 'Photos' in the navigation bar at the top of each page for some of the wonderful photographs Rose has taken during our many visits to various preserved railways in the UK (along with a handful taken by me - Rose's are the good ones! ;-) ). New photos will be added from time to time.

Elsewhere there's also information on our first layout, the new one we're currently building and a page of links to other railway sites of interest.

~ Gary