The Station Master's Desk

After months of not being able to find my desk while working towards completing the scenery on my model railway layout, my daughter came to my rescue with a reason to tidy up for Christmas with a gift of some antique-style leather bound desk organizer trays. This soon got me thinking. Wouldn't they make a great display for my antique railway memorabilia? With the layout that straddles above my desk now coming along nicely, my daughter's thoughtful gift transformed my writing desk into 'the Station Master's desk' in the blink of an eye.

My newly organized desk now contains railway timetables and pamphlets from around the world.

I still have a lot of work to do to complete my bookshelf-style layout's overall presentation, but the black leather bound organizers match not only the leather-style insert on my desktop, but also the black legs and under frame of my layout. The underneath of my layout will soon be completed with black curtains, meaning the overall result should be visually stunning. But enough about the tidy desk. I finally had somewhere to store my collection of antique timetables.

The antique-style desk organizers transformed my writing desk into the Station Master's desk.

Being an apartment based modeler doesn't mean you can't expand your hobby beyond the confines of a small layout. I discovered long ago that I enjoy collecting old railway timetables. Best of all, they don't require a lot of room. To all those people who lost auctions on eBay for vintage railway timetables, I make no apologies. But you can rest assure that they have found their way to a good home. I now have a display tray filled with railway pamphlets and timetables from Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Alaska, Germany, France, London and Spain, that make my desk look like a railway station waiting room gone wrong. While inside my felt-lined sliding drawers are the real gems, complete country railway timetables for New South Wales and Victoria from 1981, 1980, 1972, 1964 and 1956, and suburban Sydney-Gosford-Newcastle timetables for 1996, 1984, 1979 and 1976. Add to that a growing pile of neatly organised railway ticket stubs sorted in chronological order, and it's a veritable stash of train porn.

Knowing what you have both the space and budget for when collecting railway memorabilia is the safest way to grow your interest beyond the confines of your model railway. Now, thanks to my daughter's Christmas gift, I have my own Station Master's desk. Next time I operate the Philden Xplorer, I'll be able to do so while perusing through actual CountryLink Timetables from September 2003. Gosh, I can almost feel all that power rushing to my head. So to offset the ego from my newly created position of prestige, I think I'll indulge in a little light reading over the holiday period, with a book called Rules and Regulations, Victorian Railways, as amended to April 1966. No wonder my wife calls me a nerd!

See also; Memorabilia makes modelling better!