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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: September 14th, 2023

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  • 9 months here. It gets better. IT GETS BETTER.

    The first couple of months are hell. Make sure you and your girlfriend both get breaks when you can, and prioritise sleep. Celebrate the little things, because the only big things this month will be bags under eyes and bags of nappies. Call on family for support if you can. Invite friends over to meet the baby.

    When she starts sleeping for longer periods your life will start to come back. You’re daddy forever now, though!

    Hang in there buddy. You’re going through the worst part of it all, but this too will pass. You have the strength to power through. You got this.
















  • Oh no, Hattons are closing!!

    I’ve always loved model railways, but the hobby has got increasingly expensive over the last 20 years or so. The high end has eaten the middle, and much as the details and fidelity of the models are now wonderful, the prices are absurd and the target demographic is retired boomers on final salary pensions. Combine that with the space constraints - 00 is the only gauge anywhere near being affordable and it requires 6’x4’ for a simple oval - and it’s a recipe for disaster.

    Hornby are right to push TT, and personally I’d steer the industry heavily away from DCC and other expensive digital add-ons as defaults, as cool as they are. The right angle to push is that of unplugged creativity, not connected consumerism. Not good for profits in the short term, perhaps, but the hobby needs a new generation who dream of joining the local club and building their own large-scale layouts in retirement. If there’s no generationality then it’s over.

    Me? My dream is simple now. Two-track garden railway loop along the fence with a few sidings and passing loops. I have neither the time nor the space to fully model anything, but I want to sit back and watch the trains go by anyway.