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Thanks Now
- History
My previous experience with layout
construction was very basic and relied on the 2400mm x 1200mm
panel of wood as a starting block. So I read extensively on how
other people made layouts and decided to use the open grid method.
To me, it seemed easier to construct - and as it happened, it was -
with the basic 'grid' being constructed in only a few days. Did I
have a plan all drawn up for all this . . . not likely! I had been
biding my time as an 'arm chair modeller' since about 19
humpty-dumpty years, waiting for the opportunity to 'build me a
layout'. During that time I just collected bits and pieces here and
there. My wife Pauline and I decided to 'do a bit of a back-packing
around the world' (a bit of OE, as a Kiwi does) for a planned two
years and ended up being away for four and a half years. This is when I purchased the most in locomotives and rolling stock, funny ol' thing. When we arrived back in New Zealand, we were pretty much worse for wear when it came to finances. As is the accepted norm, both Pauline and I went back to work and somehow we managed to produce, as it has turned out, two fantastic daughters: Debbie and Lisa.
As time went by funds became such that we managed to buy a house, and thoughts of a layout started to come to the fore. That day turned into reality in 1993 when Pauline advised the board that 'sufficient funds existed for some minor works to be carried out around the house'. Nudge, nudge, say no more, we (Pauline, I and our two girls) found that there was a wooden shed that had been used as a playroom was up for sale, very cheap . . . so we bought it!
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