Proud to be a Geek !!!

In England, model railroaders have a bad reputation, we are known as geeks. So what? I think it is the World's Greatest Hobby. It's been 25 years or so since I have done any modelling but I am really enjoying it so far.

I live in West London an I am a Deputy Head / Vice Principal at a very large primary school in inner-London. Prior to this I was Head of Primary Education at a London University but returned to school at the end of 2006. Big mistake! (see Sounding Off).

I have a five year-old son, Marc who has also developed a love of trains (and particularly American railroads) and we share this hobby. I hope this continues throughout both of our lives. We travel the country together to go to all of the major shows, Warley, Alley Pally, York, etc. Mummy has actually taken him to a few shows too. He now likes prefers building / cutting / gluing / etc. more than operating.

We have two layouts, a 4mm scale British outline (with Thomas) in his bedroom that folds down from the wall. He thinks we share the American N-gauge layout but it's mine, all mine! Although he does help. He now has plans for a G-gauge layout in the garden. this I can sort of cope with but there is no way I am letting him knock a hole in the living room wall for the trains to come in when it gets cold.

Living in West London, there are a number of local model railway clubs but I can't seem to find one that would suit me. I've been along to a couple this past few months but finding the right mix of people and railway modelling interests is kind of proving difficult. Either the guys are my kind of age at my stage in life and seem a really good laugh or they are interested in American outline / N-gauge. Never the two shall meet. I am still in search. If it does come down to a choice between the two, I'll go for the people rather than the railway interest. The other difficulty is that it all has to fit around my table tennis! The Model Railway Club (the very first one in the world which is why they can claim such a pretentious title) is located in central London but unfortunately they meet on a Thursday night which I can't make. The standard of modelling there is wonderful though