I have been building my model railway for over 25 years. My father bought me my first set, and like many a young boy on receiving such a gift, I was thrilled. The set was about the size of a single bed, which was ideal, as it happened to sit perfectly on the bed in our spare room (what we did with it when we had guests I can't quite remember).

The set was bought from an old family friend and had been built by hand. They had done a great job in creating the basic oval loop, a station with long platform and goods yard at one end, a road bridge at the other. The road disected the board about a third of the way across, before falling off the edge of the earth at the far side. To the right there grew a primal forest where many a wild animal was thought to lurk, and at the nearside a village shop and car park.

Many a hapless car disappeared down the back on our spare bed, having last been seen crossing that little bridge at perilously high speeds. That bridge was also the scene of many a catastrophic accident; tanker trucks carreering over the side of the bridge onto the track below.