Hello, and a very warm welcome to the world of model trains.

My name is Harvey du Cros and firstly I would like to give you a little background on my life and working experience. My background has always been in Sales and Marketing, having run my own businesses from the age of 25. Prior to starting my own businesses, I was involved in the administration side of a large sales team where I first got the ”bug” for my later entrepreneurial enterprises.  A couple of years with the Shell Company as a Sales Representative completed my initial training, before jumping into the exciting world of “running my own business”. The businesses covered a wide range of fields; converting a country store into a supermarket; learning the art of selling real estate and then running my own real estate business with 8 salesmen; building up a small distribution business to becoming one of the largest in Western Australia and finally to designing, developing and selling home units.

During all this time, my main hobby was model trains. It was a hobby that my Father introduced me to when I was a young teenager, when he bought a complete Lionel train set.  It was the first of many that I was to aquire over the years. Initially I was the only one out of all my friends to have such a beautiful train, as they were almost impossible to get hold of in England so soon after the war.  Naturally this increased my popularity with my friends who all wanted to come and see me in order to play with it as well!!

Since those early days of just setting up the tracks around the floor, my hobby has developed into a passion whereby the track has become an ever expanding, sophisticated network with a huge variety of scenery and “towns” that the trains run through on an almost daily basis. It now takes up almost all the space in one room and I am wondering what will happen when the room is completely full and I still need to expand the system!! It still gives me a great deal of pleasure and as has happened over all the years, gives me the opportunity to relax in a world of my own.

It is always a great joy to be able to communicate with other like minded individuals (I have found that a lot of women are also interested in trains), and the internet has made it possible to talk to people from all around the world who share the same passion as I do. We have been able to compare different train models and track layouts as well as all the accessories that are desirable and indeed a necessity to have.  I look forward to being able to impart some of my knowledge and enthusiasm to some of the younger people as they begin what could be a  lifetime hobby of collecting their own model train systems.