Philden makes the cover

There was a pleasant surprise waiting in my mailbox when I returned home from my week long adventure across outback New South Wales. Just over three years since cutting the first piece of timber for my small HO scale layout, Philden has appeared on August's cover of Australian Model Railway Magazine. I guess it speaks volumes against three decades of telling myself that I simply didn't have the room to switch to modelling Australian trains convincingly. It turns out I was wrong.

Having your layout appear on the cover of a model railway magazine I keep reminding my friends, is the model train enthusiast's equivalent of making the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, minus the leather pants clad band members and spiked hair. Seeing my layout on the cover was a reminder that the basics of what I had set out to do had worked, and worked to the point of being noticed by Australian Model Railway Magazine's editor James McInerney at last year's Brisbane Model Train Show. I was quite pleased with being able to write the article myself, and only hope it provides a train load of inspiration for other modellers, who like me, are stuck for space when it comes to building a layout. You can see more of what's waiting inside the August issue, buy the copy, or better still, support this great hobby and subscribe for just $60 Australian for 6 issues per year by clicking on the link here. Otherwise, the issue is available to purchase at most newsagents now.

Fresh from a week's break from work to travel south from Queensland to Victoria to visit family, I covered 3,882 km by car in the past week to 'detour' via some forgotten railway lines I have been wanting to photograph. If the Sunshine Coast via Warwick, Goondiwindi, Moree, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Narromine, Parkes, Narranderra, Tocumwal, Corowa and Yarrawonga to reach the town of Numurkah just over the Murray River sounds like a long drive, then try to imagine coming back via Echuca, Deniliquin, Hay, Goolgowi, Rankins Springs, West Wyalong, Parkes, Dubbo, Gilgandra, Coonamble, Walgett, Lightning Ridge, Dirranbandi, St George, Dalby, Yarraman and Kilcoy to get home! At last count I'd taken over 1,500 photos. About 24 were of family and some places we visited, while the rest were all railway stations, bridges or trains!

Before I go through all the photographs however, I have a few busy weekends ahead of me getting ready for both the Stafford Baptist Church and Redlands Model Train Shows in August, starting with re-laying the tracks for the new extension. But after that, the trip has given me a thousand great ideas for small projects to do next on the layout. It just goes to show, a layout is never finished, even when it makes the cover of a magazine.