2023 TOP 10 ranking

As we fast approach the 8th Anniversary of this blog, the 2023 Feedspot TOP 50 best model railway blogs list for 2023 is in, and Philden Model Railway has this year been ranked in 8th position!

Number 1 position this year went to Rails of Sheffield in the UK.

Flying the flag for Australia, I jumped up from number 23 (2022) to sit at number 8.

So what does this mean for my blog? Well... firstly I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own horn here, but in a world where literally anyone can be a celebrity, influencer, call-it-what-you-like, for me it was some timely reassurance that this blog is still being read and enjoyed by so many people around the world. Behind a simple post, a lot of work goes into composing photographs, correctly sizing them for blog publication, crafting something worthy of reading and finally adding the right keywords so that it can be found. Blogging as a communicative medium has long been on the downward spiral, and back in January 2018 I wrote a piece on my author blog titled is blogging still relevant? that I felt was worthy of being printed in TIME magazine. If only anyone would have taken me seriously as a writer at the time, (pun intended). The truth is... right now I'm at the top of my game. This blog, my writing and my modelling for that matter are as good now as they've ever been.

I leave the YouTube tutorials to expert modellers such as Luke Towan, and the model railway roundups to the ever-popular Will James, as I'd rather spend my time watching their content than trying to copy them. First and foremost I am a writer. So along with creating this blog back in May 2015, I set out to self-publish my own range of railway books, and more recently my own line of model railway books. Should anything ever happen to my blog, the books will survive. Likewise with the idea of submitting pieces for model train magazines, as each issue ultimately becomes superceeded by the next and is generally lost in time.

Media however changes. So while I have put a lot of effort into indexing pages of this blog to make my past content more searchable, 2022 saw the blog take on a different format, with briefer recaps and more linked YouTube clips from my own Phillip Overton channel to showcase how the layout was progressing. There was some puppet-induced fun and frivolity, and a string of weathering showcases as I weathered a lot of models ahead of my next book project before offering the majority for sale on my phildenmodelrailway eBay store afterwards. All of this attracts more attention, both good and bad. Good for my books, but at times bad for me personally, as you ultimately have to learn to filter out the negative comments.

2023 will likely see another format emerge on this blog. I'm one final building away from completing Philden Street Yard, and am still hopeful that the new layout may get an invite to a model train exhibition here in south east Queensland this year. With my narrow gauge Queensland Granite Belt micro layout a feature of my upcoming book Model Railway Scenery Secrets, the challenge is now to complete this small layout to magazine standard by year's end. So expect some Philden Creek posts to soon overtake my Melbourne themed layout on this blog. As for the posts themselves? I'm aiming for a more raw format for 2023. Perhaps a little more of a behind-the-scenes look at the layouts and where certain angles have contributed to photos within the books. My Philden Street Yard YouTube videos wrapped up with my Christmas Special finale and I'm unlikely to continue further with them in order to make the time to take on a bigger project this year outside of my model railway hobby. And of course the next book is due to be released any week now, so keep an eye out for an announcement soon.

Finally, thank you to the readers who have made this blog special. Not everyone follows the blog publicly in the links on the side, as a lot of of my page views go out through email subscriptions or feedburners such as Feedspot.com while many just click through via the blog lists of the other great model railway blogs that I follow. So cheers to everyone who helped this blog make Feedspot's list for the second year running!

Now, to get back to writing the promotional material for my new book announcement...