Here are a few biographical details to start. with. I  am Richard Hall, and the webmaster for the model railway pages on the Hall Family website. I have been happily married to Pat for 25 years, and we have two sons Ben and Eddie (who is the webmaster for the Motor Sport pages). The family is completed by Monty & Sonny, our black Labradors. Model making is quite popular in this household. Ben has built an enormous collection of over 100 model aeroplanes  in 1:72 with other scales in addition, as well as ships and other items. Eddie used to build 1:20 Formula One cars, but now prefers the real thing!  Mum has a 1:12 doll's house, though her main interest is genealogy. We live in Essex, England although I originally hail from Gloucestershire and my wife from Warwickshire. 

My interest in railways and models started at a very early age. As far as railways were concerned,  I think the rot set in when I was lifted from the platform at Gloucester (Central) onto the footplate of an ex-Great Western 0-4-2T one cold winter's evening  just before returning home to Stroud with my mother after visiting my grandparents. This was a weekly odyssey sadly made more often by bus than by train. I cannot remember exactly when this was - I would guess I was no more than 4 - but the memory has stayed with me vividly. I spent my early childhood in Stroud in a house overlooking the line from Gloucester to Swindon.  I attended a small school in Woodchester, a few miles from home. I often walked home along the old LMS Nailsworth branch, which still had the occasional goods during the 1950's pulled by an ex-LMS 0-6-0. Frequent visits to my grandparents in Gloucester (about 10 miles away) enabled me to experience both ex-GWR. and LMS motive power in abundance. The GWR. has always been my first love, but the LMS runs a very close second! Model making started with Airfix aeroplane kits, but I soon progressed to ships. I also loved Dinky Toys and built up quite a collection and there was, of course,  a Hornby Dublo train set - a "Duchess" and BR 2-6-4T in my case. Sadly, when I was in my early teens and "too grown up" for toys, they were all disposed of - how I regret that now!

My interest was re-kindled in earnest about 16 years ago when I joined my local model railway club. For anyone who is interested in starting in this hobby joining a club is, in my opinion, essential. I embarked on building locomotives in OO and then a small, portable layout "Witcombe" that appeared at several shows in East Anglia. I did, however, become increasingly discontent building locos with the wrong wheels and finally took the plunge to try P4 after visiting Scalefourum in 1989, where I purchased the Martin Finney GW 28XX 2-8-0. This was my first venture in P4, and you can see the end result elsewhere among these pages. I was hooked, and after building another (the 47XX 2-8-0) decided that I needed to build a layout to run them on. The result, Grindham, was started about 4 years ago, and is a joint venture with my friend and neighbour Peter Howell. and is featured elsewhere in these pages. I have recently taken early retirement I therefore find myself  in the privileged position  of having more time to devote to my hobby as well as setting up this web site to share the results.

Now I don't "do" them for a living, computers have become fun, and creating this web site has been an enjoyable extension to the model railway hobby. My thanks to Eddie for his help with Java Scripts, and to my wife for her support and tolerance of my hobby.

I hope that you will enjoy visiting this site it as  much as I have enjoyed building it and will visit again in the future to see progress. I would welcome any comments about this site, or about Grindham - please e-mail me or leave your comments in the visitors book