Completing the Beach Extension

The lights are on, the beach extension is finished. Inside the wide spaces of the Phills Harbour Travel Centre, the cleaners are seeing to the finishing touches ahead of the grand opening celebrations this weekend for the arrival of the first Countrylink Xplorer service from Sydney's Central Station. The glass is fingerprint free, the platform clean and the toilets smell lemony-fresh. The air-conditioning is keeping the waiting room at a refreshing 22 degrees Celcius while outside the humidity lingers in a sticky evening that still lurks around 30 degrees. Its the peak of summer in Australia, and soon holidaymakers will be arriving on the New South Wales North Coast by the train load.

I test-fit and sanded the edges of the perspex smooth before removing the protective wrap.

A year ago to the day, I posted my first blog entry regarding the start of construction on my new Beach Extension. Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days later, I'm ready to run my first train. The past week has seen a flurry of activity take place on Philden, as I made sure I had everything finished ahead of this May's Brisbane Model Train Show. I began with getting the 3 mm perspex panels cut from ASAP Plastics here in Caloundra. The perspex for this little project cost me only $15. The main front panel will be removable the same as the main body of the layout. This will enable me to slide it out when operating, but also slide the perspex back in place once finished so that my layout stays undisturbed and dust-free until I next use it. The side or corner panel however, I glued in semi-permanently. While I built the extension to allow for a further extension, I don't see any more space magically becoming available in the next few years. By gluing it in place with some shower screen silicone sealant, it can stop my trains from running over the edge for as long as is needed.

I semi-permanently affixed the corner perspex panel with some all-purpose silicone sealant.

The thin panel will stop trains taking a dive from off the layout, but also allows the possibility to expand in the future.

The removable perspex front matches the rest of the layout and will ensure it stays dust-free when not being used.

With the cabinetry of the layout now looking complete, I had to turn my attention to what I find is the most dreaded part or this hobby. Wiring! Fortunately, while simultaneously working on my slightly smaller N scale layout over the summer, it is something that I am beginning to conquer. Armed with a new soldering iron, I just decided to get stuck into it, and ended up giving the underside of my layout an overhaul from end-to-end, complete with new LED's where a couple had stopped working, and of course installing the new lighting on the Beach Extension.

I next removed the perspex panel and backdrop to work on adding lighting to the modern station scene...

...and gave the entire wiring beneath my layout a good tidy-up including adding these self-adhesive wiring clips.

While adding lights to Phills Harbour, I also removed some from Philden and covered the holes with some grass tufts.

Before flicking on the Beach Extension's new lights, there were a few repairs to make on Philden courtesy of taking my layout on the road four times and moving house over the course of 2018. Despite being extra careful each time the layout is taken apart, there's always the risk of a hand catching on one of those tiny wires when loading it in and out of a hatchback. There was also one area where one of the lamp posts beside the signal box shone too brightly on my newly installed backdrop. So the lamp post came out to replace another which had stopped working on the platform at Philden. Another lamp post beside the goods shed had a wire broken from the layout's last outing, so I just took the sucker out altogether and patched the holes in the layout with clumps of stick-on grass tufts I had left over. Problem solved.

The photo above also shows the area between the signal box and the gum tree where I have something else planned for after Philden comes back from this year's Brisbane Model Train Show. By keeping some small projects in mind for the future, I'm finding my layout still feels fresh and exciting two years after it first went on public display. I won't say too much about what will go here, other than it will involve one of Craig Mackie's famous Hills Hoist clotheslines and another of Stu Walker's model train buildings kits, so stay tuned.

Lights on at an empty station, but all that is about to change this weekend once the first train arrives so stay tuned!

Finally I plugged in the accessories lead and stood back to admire the end result. From the warm white LED's inside the Travel Centre to the cool white LED's on the platform lamp posts, the scene was bathed in the kind of atmosphere I was aiming for. Only with no-one hanging around the station to witness it. Take a good look at the above and top photos of the Travel Centre. It will be the last time you see it empty. Arriving in the post last week were 100 scale figurines, all of whom will soon be standing at the platform and inside the Travel Centre waiting to board the train to Sydney. I may have to take a few more shots of the empty platform and waiting room for future references. They might help paint a story in pictures of some timetable nights I plan to run.

So this weekend is shaping as an important milestone. Not only will I populate Phills Harbour with a throng of waiting passengers, but I should also complete the final wiring for the N scale layout which is taking shape beneath it, and get the first train running!

The as yet unnamed and undocumented N scale layout is proving to be a great accompaniment to what has begun as a fantastic 2019. I should have the N scale layout finished by year's end to replace Philden on the exhibition circuit in South East Queensland for 2020.

Also causing a growing sense of excitement, is the pending arrival of Auscision Model's 442 Class locos that I've been looking forward to since.... well, probably not long after I started building this layout. The CFCLA JL Class and the Northern Rivers 422 Class which should follow not long behind it will probably be it for me. Very soon I will sit down to finalize some kind of operating sequence for Philden & Phills Harbour, and my only fear is that I may have too many wagons to operate freely without having to rotate rollingstock on and off the layout, (which is about as much fun as packing up after a model train show). If that ends up being the case, I think I'd be happy to let some items go on eBay to free up some money for my next QR 12mm gauge project.

But if I had to say that there is one more NSW HO scale item that has tempted me from day dot, it has been the Auscision XPT. I know, I know, it is a 7 car set counting the XP power cars which is waaayyy too long for my layout. But my favourite train to photograph is about to be retired in the coming years, and to have a model of one to remember it by, even if it is more nostalgic than practical for a 9 foot long bookshelf layout, is still an enticing proposition. But $1200 for a model that I'd only be able to run up and back as a 4 car set at most.... that's a big ask. The kind of when I win lotto scenario. Still, both Countrylink State Rail era sets are still available, and if I indeed do move on some other items, and perhaps a few of the XPT carriages that I won't need as well, then anything's possible. It would make for one helluva last addition to my layout!

I guess that's the thing about model railways. Like the trains themselves they're always coming and going and somehow managing to stay fresh and interesting. I suppose the next thing is to see how Phills Harbour copes with opening day. I'd better get those tweezers and the super glue ready!

See also: Beach Extension Part One: When paint doesn't match