Where's the Time Gone?

Crikey, time flies. Over two months since my last post and I have little to show for it. Since deciding what to base my model railway on I have made no more progress, save making some preparations to move where I work when I'm working from home to free up some room for the railway.

Looking at the only possible space to site a layout I can only think there's not enough room. This was ever the lament of the railway modeller. Even if I had a large shed at my disposal like my friend Trebian (who's sadly wasting it on wargaming) I'm sure I'd find it limiting. So, I shall press on with what I've got: maybe I should try Z gauge?

Recently much of my time has been spent getting to grips with a Raspberry Pi, with a view to configuring it to run my weather station. Linux is a whole new world to me and, whilst I've dabbled with it in the past, I'm having to get really stuck in, up to my armpits. Generally it's frustrating, obtuse, mendacious but, when something works the sun bursts forth to the sound of angels playing trumpets.

I aim to have it working for the new year so I can switch my cheapo Maplin weather station across from the current arrangement. This is connected to the excellent Cumulus software that runs on my PC and updates my website every 15 minutes. It only does this whilst my PC is running and I want it to be available all the time. Hence the move to the Raspi which draws much less power and is silent.

Assuming I make the bloody thing do my bidding I'll post the steps up here. A regular update on what I've done so far and why it didn't work would be too depressing to read (and write). With time off at and after Christmas I hope to make progress with both the Raspi and the railway.

Awkward Introductions

Many years ago, when I lived with my parents, I had a model railway. This was packed away when I left and has since been filling several shoe boxes in the loft. Recently I have had stirrings of a desire to unpack these goodies and to build another layout.

I thought it may be amusing to track the progress of this; photographing key stages; linking to material that provide inspiration or help, and even provide this for others.

It's going to be a slow process; I've not even decided on where in the house it's going to live. And there's the following things to be considered:

• What scale? I'd like to use OO, but lack of available space and having modelled in N in the past means it's going to be the latter.
• British or Continental? Oh wow, this is a tough one. I'd love to build a continental themed layout, preferably Swiss; I have a fair amount of continental outline rolling stock too. Trouble is, the availability of models of some of the classic Swiss and German is limited. So, it's likely to be British.
• OK, what period? Hmm, slightly easier. Whilst I like the modern era there's too few locomotive types and it's too homogenous. The most exciting time was around the Modernisation Plan when there were some, frankly bonkers, diesels and you can run some steam locos too.
• And finally, where? Until recently that would have been a head-scratcher too, but I've been reading The Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands - The Northamptonshire Area by Eric Tonks and Off Northampton Shed by Derek Mutton. Both are fascinating books and have helped me decide to model 'somewhere in Northamptonshire'.

Well, it's a start. It may be a while before I make any progress worthy of a post, and when I do, it may not necessarily be about model railways.