Introduce Yourself

Hello everyone. I hope you are well and keeping safe. My name is Gavin Hall and like the title implies, I really could not be further away. (By the way, I just joined your lovely club today). For starters, I live in Singapore. Secondly, while I've been in model railroading for over fifteen years, I've modelled exclusively in Marklin Z Gauge! Yes you heard me right.

Living in Singapore is wonderful but as some of you may know, space constraints is a real issue. This was the primary reason why I chose Z gauge so many years ago. And by and large, I'm still very, very happy with it.

However I've always been tempted to try a different scale or more precisely to explore another aspect of the hobby. N scale and HO while different, would honestly just represent a change in size. I know that I would, over time, just fall back to building an operational layout like I've done several times in Z. I love Marklin 1 Gauge, for it's quality, details and functionality. But again, it's too expensive and I would NEVER have the space to run those trains anyway.

Then there is the aspect of live steam. I knew of large garden live steam and was already fascinated. Then a few years ago, stumbled on 009 live steam and was smitten - but alas, that route is seems more impossible than catching a unicorn. AND THEN TODAY - I discovered (through the magic of the Internet) that Hornby actually made live steam sets in relatively smaller scales - OO! I was intrigued!

So that's my day. Reading as much about this lovely scale and your club, watching the videos on youtube - and almost THAT ready to give my money away! I really welcome any and all advice...not just because I would be totally new to your aspect of the hobby. But also with the distance in mind (Singapore again!), I probably would want to make some bulk purchases and decisions when that time comes. From what I've read so far, it seems that the best way to go about it, is to get a Starter set...however I've read advice that the track radius that comes with it is too narrow for newcomers so I should also consider a rolling track (road)?

Thanks again in advance to anyone and everyone for any advice.

Gavin