New member from England

[Allegheny1600]

Hello All,
Hallo allemaal!
Firstly, please excuse me as I don't speak much Dutch*, Flemish, Wallonian etc but I do speak a little French (and an even smaller amount of German and Greek!).
My name is John Edge and I am a passionate H0 scale model railroader! I am literally cursed to be English as in England (and most of UK really!), people prefer a dreadful mix of scales called double O (00), where the track is H0 scale and the vehicles are 4mm scale - this is awful!
So, I model H0 and have done since I lived in France from the age of 14 (I'm now 50+!). Naturally I first modelled French railways even though at that time, the models were not usually that good until Roco came along but I couldn't afford them.
After a while I took up American modelling and was passionate about that for some twenty years. This is where my handle of "Allegheny1600" comes from as the Allegheny was a 2-6-6-6 articulated steam loco weighing 600 tons and 7500Hp. Number 1600 was the first one for the Chesapeake & Ohio, which I used to follow avidly.
Later I started to follow German outline and amassed a large collection of stock but now my collection is close to completion(!?!) my interest has waned slightly.
A chance sighting of a Belgian layout (Oeversijde) illustrated at Ontrax has awakened an interest in Belgian railways that started on my first visit to the country some ten years ago and has led me here.
I still have a little Roco class 80 that I bought a few years ago and would like to get some stablemates for it, maybe even build a layout?
I do have a lot to learn first though.
Regards from England,
John.

*dank u wel, slagroom, rook zone - that's about it, sorry!

[marctje]

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure there's a lot of people here who would help you with any issues, just put youre questions on the forum.

[Metpetergaathetbeter]

*dank u wel, slagroom, rook zone - that's about it, sorry!

Welcome John,

some Englishman even speak a few words in the lanquage spoken in Ghent,to be honest not so friendly is is something like You can k...........................
We are curious to see Belgium in someone English eyes !
Greetings Peter

[Steam.N]

Quite some courage joining our forum,  John. 
Don't worry.  Most of our members will understand your postings, certainly if you add some nice pictures of your layout(s) !

[Val-Rikard]

Welcome John !!!

Greetings, Rik 

[Waterman]

.

[Pierre]

Welcome John.

[PeterC]

...rook zone...

Welcome to the forum John.  A smoker I believe? 

[Allegheny1600]

Thank you all very much for the great welcome.
@ Marc - thank you, that's a nice set up you have!
@ Peter - thank you, what a great club you have in Ghent.
@ Jean - thank you! "Google translate" helps immensely!
@ Rik - thank you!
@ Patrick - thanks! I tried to upload my usual avatar but it didn't work. I am relatively similar to Bruce though and certainly like his first wife!!!
@ Pierre - thank you!
@ PeterC - thank you! I used to be but gave up 2 ½ years ago. That saved some money!
Oh! I must also change my "first name" (if I can) as I went and put my second name there. D'oh!
All the best,
John.

[Snobby Crash]

Welcome John !!!

Geert

[Waterman]

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[Gerolf]

Welcome, John 
We would love to see some pictures of your previous layouts

As you probably noticed, English isn't an issue for most of our members