As Joe asked me where I was from in the other thread, I thought it might be useful to give a short introduction about myself and my layout. I'm former computer programer/consultant, I'm English but live in France. Have modeled US prototype in HO for almost 50 years now, my introduction being an article by John Allen.

That is where I got my interest in  large prototypical operations based layouts, but these don't really exist in the UK. So I decided I was going to have to build my own. My first (larger) attempt failed due to some major problems in my life and I started affresh about 12 years ago. Decided to use a much smaller space, with tighter curves and shorter trains in the hope that I might get something finished while I was still alive.

Layout is roughly 220ft point to point run, with branches off, one to a 6 track storage year. It's a multi deck nolix in the back of part of my workshop/garage. Unfortunately I've been both ill and away for long periods so progress has been slower than I intended, but finally after 12 years and a 3 year hiatus I've managed to run a train from one end to the other. Still got no sceney other than a few buildings plonked in place, but all the track is down.

I've tried to simplify things as much as possible - all switches are manually operated  and I've abandoned DCC. Rolling stock is mostly older models without too much delicate details, but mostly well weathered.   I'm 65 now and worry about maintenance as I get older. 

Anyway here is a rather poor video of one of the gas-electrics when it made the first complete run from one end of the line to the other a couple of weeks ago. I shudder to remember that I built this to run a shuttle service on a club layout for an exhibition  in 1981, so it's nearly 40 years old now!