The Philden Road Finale

...or the one about whatever became of that Queensland narrow guage and NSW North Coast layout you said you were building?

Its exactly 4 months to the day since I last posted on where I was up to with my Philden Road layout, and a little under 2 years since I first mentioned my new North Coast layout's plans, way back in October of 2019. So I guess the question is, what has happened to Philden Road?

Well... a lot. Or maybe nothing. Or maybe you can just put this all down to life as we know it in 2021, but...

With 3 different layout projects underway in various stages of construction, and with all the structures still needing to be completed for Philden Road, I'd reached the point where I had to ask myself just how much time I had to invest into completing the rest of this layout versus completing everthing else.

Before I could answer, life dictated what would follow. My wife had already been off work with a back injury since the end of March, and despite downsizing my model train collection earlier in the year to help us through the medical costs and associated physio sessions, a second Doctor's opinion and MRI scan in May brought the bad news that she wouldn't be able to resume any form of physical work, ever! From the end of March I'd been perservering with running our cleaning business on my own in the hope she'd eventually return in some capacity. By June the long days, sometimes 3 am to 8 pm, were proving too much, and I had to downsize the business to a one person operation, which we did at the End of Financial Year.

The extra time required to run the business on my own coupled with a downturn in income wasn't very conducive to starting any new layout projects, and here I was with 3 layouts in various states of construction when I barely had the time to work on one!

The last standard guage departure leaves the Harbour back in April 2021.

In the meanwhile, I had fellow modeller and good friend Anthony Veness visit for a short operating session and catch-up, and we soon got talking about all of the would-of, should-have and could-have missed opportunities when it came to my new bookshelf layout. Though the layout was running nicely, there were just one too many nuances with operating it, (namely the Queensland line) that were begging for a partial rebuild in order to fix the issues. I had to agree with him in that opening up the ends of this layout and building it as a continual run loop was the best way to realise the layout's operating potential when it came to siding length, industries etc. The problem was that I didn't have that amount of space available, nor was likely to in the next ten years. It was all just wishful thinking. I also didn't feel like committing the precious little time I now had left into reconfiguring Philden Road again.

I finally reached that 'shut it down' moment. Time-wise, money-wise and for my own sanity, something had to give. I chose to scale back, sell-off and not sink anymore time into Philden Road.

So a deal was struck. Philden Road would pass into Anthony's more than capable hands to incorporate the two modules into his own plans. We'd always talked about doing a layout project together, and this was just a matter of lifting the two modules off the framework above my desk, and taking them for a car ride a little farther north up the Sunshine Coast. In return, Anthony at some point in the future would help me with work on a little micro layout as a replacement for my Queensland line.

I then packed up all my HOn3.5 scale Wuiske Models locomotives and rollingstock ready for when I get the new Queensland micro up and running, and put almost everything else aside to sell on eBay or through Facebook groups.

It is also Adios to my N scale layout which has sat incomplete beneath Philden Road.

The next 'shut it down' call came with my stalled N scale layout that sat beneath Philden Road. After 12 months had lapsed without a blog update or any progress on a project that had already changed settings more than once, it actually felt like a relief to pull the plug on it. I originally sold the layout through a Facebook group, only for the Greater Brisbane and Sunshine Coast areas go into COVID enforced lockdown. After sitting in my garage for seven weeks, the sale ultimately fell through. I then re-listed it and just 3 days later the same thing happened, Brisbane went into lockdown again meaning no-one could come pick it up anyway. I'm so over the all these COVID-19 restrictions and snap lockdowns, and I guess it showed. The next day I stuck the layout on the garage floor and cut it all up!

While I couldn't save much of the N scale KATO unitrack, with a week at home at the insistance of the Queensland Government, I cut the layout length ways down the middle, added a new L-girder to the front and a coat of paint, and soon had a new 4' foot 10" long blank Queensland layout board to show for my time. The rest went into the wheelie bin. At 1490 mm x 350 mm it simply slotted back into place where the N scale layout previously stood beneath Philden Road. Problem solved!

That's the re-purposed N scale layout (below), and the new HO replacement for Philden Road (above).

That left the 'other project' I had been planning for when Philden Road was finished. Despite it consisting only of a couple of sheets of plywood leaning against the wall in the garage, and a few models tucked away in my wardrobe, in the light of everything that was unfolding around me, it was the one idea that I was most keen to pursue. But given how 2021 was playing out, I had to first cost the whole exercise in my head when it came to the time and money it would require.

Timewise; it was certainly doable, if I refrained from blogging its step-by-step progress and simply put any precious spare time into building it. Costwise; I'd come out thousands of dollars in front, by the time I sold-off the no longer required locomotives and rollingstock from both Philden Road and my now obselete N scale plans. Operations-wise; abandoning the idea of including passenger operations and a station scene, and instead building a freight-only layout with a proper staging yard, would fix all the operational shortfalls I'd encountered due to limited space with the previous Philden layouts. A small freight-only bookshelf layout would also only require a minimum sized locomotive and rollingstock fleet, which in the long-term would provide more bang-for-my-buck.

The sell-off allowed me to purchase the missing track, timber and paint I needed to build the new project, add a few new locomotives from which to base the new layout around, and still be able to put a few thousand dollars back into our bank account which has helped us greatly. Knowing that this may also be the last new layout I afford to start for quite some time, I've taken extra care to ensure I build Philden Road's replacement with both interest levels and operational longevity in mind. It needs to still be interesting and reliable to operate in 4, 5 or 6 years from now.

The control shelf was amongst the final improvements made to Philden Road.

The Harbour scene was left incomplete as it will be redeveloped by its new owner.

As you're reading this, the new layout has already taken Philden Road's place atop the framework over my desk area. Its been built to the same width and length as my existing stand alone frame, only this time the shadow-box style layout's backdrop is a more pleasing 450 mm high. Trains are already running on the scenic section, the scenery is almost 100% complete and there are only the building structures and designated staging yard to finish. In a sense the new layout has advanced to where Philden Road was back in March, which is surprising given all that I've had to do for these past 4 months in the precious little spare time I've had to do it.

Like so many others, my weekends have been spent locked away from the world, working in the garage on the layout, and only taking a break to watch the footy or Olympic Games. I suppose 2020/21 will go down as the most constructive era for new model railway layouts being built in Australia. When this whole Pandemic thingy is over, I sure there will be a multitude of new layouts on display if we ever get back to a regular model railway exhibition calendar. For now, the exhibitions only seem to be getting cancelled, which makes trying to plan time away from my business, and affording the cost of accommodation and travel near impossible in my current position. So even though I'm building everything to be able to be packed up and transported to a show in our car, it's simply for my own pleasure and not with the goal of an exhibition in mind at this stage.

So this post makes for one final hurrah for Philden Road under my ownership. The layout will live-on in a new guise, one which I'll still get the chance to be involved with behind the scenes and share updates on further down the track. It will be interesting to see how Anthony works the two modules into his own plans, and of course I'll still get to run some stuff on it whenever we get together. In the meanwhile, here's a few of Anthony's own locomotives he brought down for a short running session.

1460 shunting the Bald Rock Creek Siding and apple shed.

A 442 class SSR loco on a light engine movement across Bald Rock Creek.

Double NR Class locos returning to the Harbour.

I hope people have enjoyed following the ups and downs of my blogging this little layout's progress over the past 2 years. Through bad knees and bad storms, the layout had its share of downs more than ups, but still came close-enough to saying it was finished all the same. I guess that's all a part of modelling isn't it? There's some great people in this hobby who have kept in touch, either by phone, email or through Facebook groups, and that makes for a wonderful network to exchange research information with, or help you hunt down a long sold-out model when you really, absolutely need it. I guess it goes to show that you don't need a dedicated train room or a museum collection full of model trains to still enjoy being in this hobby. And lastly, thanks for helping this blog crack the Quarter Million views mark recently. What an achievement that has been!

The final parting shot of Philden Road, long after the last train has departed.

Now that the replacement layout for Philden Road is in place and running, I'm hoping I may even find the time needed to finish the two book projects I had started at the beginning of the year. I've also become a little more mindful of not letting myself burn-out. So if I go a few weeks without making any progress on the new layout, that's fine. I'll at least have some model trains I can shunt around the layout when I feel like it while I wait for the world to return to normal.

Whenever that may be.

Cheers! Phill O