The Harbourside Services Club

Another building has been re-signed and re-purposed into its new role on the Coast. The former brown bricked building flat that stood against the end backdrop, has gone from luxury inner Melbourne warehouse apartments to become the Harbourside Services Club, your friendly Club on the Coast!

...and with scaled down signage promoting its new role as Your Friendly Club on the Coast!

Once again I designed the signage using the same program I use to design my book covers, with the yellow to orange honeycomb transitioning background pattern chosen to represent an image fitting a modern NSW licensed club. Services Clubs are generally a combined arrangement between sporting clubs, returned services leagues and the likes, and are more popular in NSW than the separate Leagues Clubs and RSL Clubs that are common in Queensland. So I also designed the four unique sporting club logos that display proudly at each end of the sign. In order from left to right, they represent the Jetty Hotel Knights and Philden Beach Sharks Rugby League Clubs, the Philden Harbour Bulls basketball association and the Harbourside Lions AFL Club. Four very cool local sporting clubs based on my favourite real life counterparts.

Surprisingly the printed interior images used to fill the vacant window frames blend well with the blue skies and open water scene behind the building flat. The Harbourside Services Club likely also incorporate the local Surf Lifesaving Club and Philden Harbour Sailing Club as well, and I can simply imagine this being the rear of the building with the front facing the ocean view behind it. Large plate glass windows framing a modern dining lounge with a view, a fancy drive-up entrance complete with ample parking, while inside is the hum of a live band playing and the constant chime of the poker machines... Yep, that sounds about right. So to that extent, the modelled rear building flat serves its role well.

The rear factory doors are still present on the repurposed building, adding some history to the scene.

I like to imply a bit of history behind the things I model, so perhaps this building once began its life as a local dairy processor or butter factory on the New South Wales North Coast, before being redeveloped after it closed into a local community focal point. Who knows? Afterall, the rear loading doors are still present despite being long out of use. I like to plant the suggestion in the mind of viewer and have them imagine their own story that connects them to the scene, rather than simply tell them a fabricated history. It's amazing what a fictional layout will still remind the viewer of from their own experiences and memories.

Next up I'll unviel the recently named industry that is the centrepiece of the Harbour Yard. My son has long reminded me that I haven't named anything on the layout after him, despite him accompanying me to a model railway show for an entire weekend back in 2005. I guess that simple request is long overdue...