8th Birthday Blog Announcement ...

May 2015 to April 2023... what a ride! Now for the big announcement...

But first of all, thank you! Eight years of blogging and processing out loud my every thought, idea and success since I first shared my journey of building a HO scale Australian model railway layout, hasn't been the easiest of all the projects that I've attempted. There have been a lot of false starts, white flags and do-overs on the way to building four, or is that four-and-a-half layouts? On the other side of all this, there are three, soon to be five model railway books that I have written especially for the Australian modeller, to covert all this enthusiasm into an easily navigatable book. But as for the future...

One of my earliest Australian acquisitions, (an Auscision Models 421 Class loco), standing against the backdrop of my 2016 release book 30 Years Chasing Trains.

Being a railway modeller and later becoming a railway author, although intrinsically tied together are two very different crafts. Being a writer has always been my dream, yet becoming a full-time writer has not yet lived up to my own expectations. For a 34 year-old man who set out to become the next Bryce Courtenay back in 2006, time has marched on. I'm now 50 years of age and as for my goal of becoming an award-winning novelist, I was beaten to the post by my award-winning younger sister Tanya Bird, 2022 Ruby Award winning Australian Romance Writer of the Year.

 

 

Instead, I am about to leave behind a volume of my own self-published railway photography, train travel guides, railway poetry and the Philden Model Railway range of how-to books rather than a New York Times Bestselling novel. It's still a fine achievement and one that I hope will be remembered for years to come. However, having lived enough of life to know that nothing last forever, I can anticipate that this is all about to come to an end.

Sparing all that cliche 'it's with a heavy heart' stuff that often gets bandied around whenever someone makes a grand announcement, I'm actually pleased to admit that May 2023 marks a year of being able to say that I am a full-time writer. The catch however, is that after 17 years of chasing after this goal, by the time I actually got there, inflation and cost-of-living expenses have seen the goal posts shift and the financial reward for achieving this milestone diminish right in front of my eyes. It seems that time once more necessitates change. However, not until I finish what I set out to achieve and make a big announcement in the process...

'I've just accepted the keynote speaker position for the 2023 BRMA ~ British Railway Modellers of Australia Convention in Brisbane.'

The timing of this opportunity was terrific. Not only should I have the next one, (or will it be two?), Philden Model Railway books completed in time for the convention on September 22nd to 24th, but it is a great lead-in to one of the small projects that lies waiting for me on the other side of my HO scale Australian modelling. And that is a micro OO9 Welsh Highlands narrow gauge layout. So the remainder of 2023 will need to see me hold-off completing Philden Coast and the Philden Beach extension where the staging shelf currently stands, in order to work non-stop on completing my books and preparing my keynote presentation for the September convention. I plan to give it my all, bringing my past experience from library presentations, book tours and meet the Author events, to delve into the immersive side of a model railway addiction. More information on this to follow so watch this space.

 

I've found that the upside to change is that once you realise it is coming, you can both immerse yourself in the present whilst also preparing for the next move. With a holiday throughout Victoria's West Coast and into South Australia finally scheduled to go ahead this November after being cancelled multiple times throughout the pandemic, I should be able to gather the final missing photos I've been holding out for to produce another Favourite Australian Railway book. One that is likely to be released in early 2024 and will mark a decade since I took a break from writing novels to write a book on train travel instead, (2014's award-nominated Train Tripping Coastal Queensland). Which brings me to the next announcement...

'2024 will be the end for my volumes of railway and model railway books.'

A decade is a long time, and by year's end I should be able to say I accomplished everything I set out to achieve with my railway related books. Announcing this now allows me time to plan ahead for exhibiting Philden Coast throughout 2024/25, once the layout is complete and can simply return to being a hobby instead of a cost-driven exercise in accounting for your every working hour. It also allows me time to plan for the next big thing, and I can begin creating flow charts of where I can take all this experience and craft it towards something that isn't simply reliant on book royalties to keep the lights on. Editing, book production, workshops, book layout and cover design, online tutoring, article writing for magazines... or maybe just a job that provides a more secure form of income. I haven't yet explored each avenue fully.

As for my Australian HO scale modelling endeavours, they started in earnest right here, eight years ago when I created the Philden Model Railway Blog. After a 30 year journey from a OO Scale Flying Scotsman train set, to decades of modelling in N Scale that were interrupted by writing four novels, I just wanted to take a break and model something that I could possibly see in real life. Well, mission accomplished. Only I also happened to produce a further 14 (soon to be 17), books as a result of my railway addiction. Beyond 2024 when Philden Coast should make a few exhibition appearances just as I did with my previous Philden layout, those days are coming to an end. Philden Coast is the layout I'm happy to be content with until I'm... well let's not look that far ahead please!

As the year will end with my wife and I stepping into Nanna and Poppy-hood, future layout projects will likely be small, grandchild-friendly affairs, starting with a OO9 Welsh Highlands micro layout that will serve as a Christmas themed table centrepiece. It's all very different to the Philden Model Railway Blog of today, so will take place quietly in the background rather than on a blog. Philden Model Railway too will soon reach the end of the line, with updates for my Queensland Granite Belt micro layout and the Beach Extension for Philden Coast being the only items of note to follow my upcoming book release announcements. So in acknowledging this blog's 8th Birthday, I wonder if it might celebrate a 10th Birthday in May 2025? By then, both my Creek and Coast layouts will have been finished and exhibited. With only a solitary C Class loco and some NPHH cement hoppers to arrive to complete the journey, I can sense another era coming to an end in the approaching years.

As they say, there's no time like the present, so best get to enjoying it. Keep following for what will perhaps be the biggest 12 months of this blog's history. For now it's all full steam ahead.

Until next time...