Garden Railways and me
As a kid, I loved trains and was fortunate enough to get a Hornby 00-gauge train-set when I was 5. Fast forward a few years (I was around 10) and I distinctly remember opening my first present on Christmas morning and being amazed (and confused) as I unwrapped a point [turnout to our American friends] that was bigger than my head. It all made a lot more sense as I opened a couple more boxes to find an LGB Starter Set (the passenger one with the red and blue passenger coaches)
The hobby grew from there and over the next several years I acquired a modest collection. Through my teens and twenties as life gets in the way everything went dormant but was rekindled in 2018 as I approached my thirties and embraced by a wonderful fiancé that encouraged my to spend time doing what I enjoy. From there, German eBay was key in once again expanding the collection.
Why is named HSBA?
We decided to name our garden railway HSBA for a couple of reasons:
First, it’s nod to the HSB Railway that runs through the beautiful Harz region in Germany. Those of you that have encountered G Gauge before will probably notice the distinctive red and cream coaches that are distinctive on many LGB layouts. Nikki and I went walking there in 2020 and had a lovely time so it was nice to include that.
Second, each letter is taken from the start of surnames of the immediate families of myself and my fiancé. It was simply luck they worked in conjunction with the HSB acronym. The intention, when the track is laid permanently is to have 4 stations on the layout named after each family-name in a Germanised styled.