When I was flicking through some of the stuff for the last mention of the 15 years passing, I started counting layouts... then I realised that I not only had missed a couple, but had completely forgotten some. These are purely built during the 15 year life of the blog and throw up some questions.
Unnycoome N
Talcoed 009
Rhiw 1 OO
Rhiw 2 OO
Morton Stanley O-16.5
Garn 009
Edge 009
Orne 009
AotC OO
Dury's Gap OO
Svanda HO
Seething 009
Froxington OO
For RM: Hopwood OO, Oake O, Half Acre N, Trefach 009
I make that 17, not counting the current build. Some would say quantity over quality and I would tend to agree. However if I stand back and look inward it's not a bad innings over the period averaging more than one a year. The questions are I suppose, why did I not just build one layout properly (or a home beast)? The answer here is that the interests are too wide. Which would I return to? This sort of answers itself as it's just been done with Rhiw. The most popular with the public is undoubtably Svanda. Simply because of the number of invites over the period. Though the 009s are always better received than the standard gauge amongst co-conspirators. The bigger question is why do I keep doing this? Dunno.
I'm not so sure about the quantity over quality thing (or even quality over quantity)...I suppose it boils down to what you want from and enjoy in the hobby. I've been messing about with EM Gauge for 40 years ("quality"?), with very little tangible to show for it, but have also managed to build a fairly "quick and dirty" German H0 layout in under 6 months. I enjoy both, and hope to do more of each in the future.
ReplyDeleteDefine "properly"...I'd say all your layouts work, some more to your satisfaction than others, perhaps, but had you just built one "proper" layout, would it have satisfied you more?
Looking at the list, it's a pretty impressive CV. Another angle is that the layouts and your writings have inspired a lot of people over the years.