Exhibition #9 Redlands 2023

It has been four years since one of my layouts last appeared at a model railway exhibition, but in August 2023 it was a case of Philden rides again, as my lovely wife Denise joined me in debuting my latest layout Philden Coast at the 10th Annual Redlands Model Railway Show in the south of Brisbane.

Making it's first ever public appearance, Philden Coast makes sure the Philden name continues.

With 8 exhibitions worth of experience behind us from of setting up and packing down my previous layout Philden, I built this layout to ensure it would be easier to transport and assemble despite being that little bit bigger in size. It had it's first test run almost 18 months ago when we moved house after relocating from the Sunshine Coast back to Brisbane. A sectional bench layout L-girder frame and separate modules that are simply positioned on top once it is all assembled, makes set-up time about 30 to 40 minutes. The curtains take up most of that time, given that the only way to mount them was to gaffa-tape them to the top of the frame before the modules were placed on top to ensure they cannot move. Pack down time from the completion of the show to turning the ignition key in the car to head home was timed at 22 minutes.

This was my view for most of the weekend as I shunted the Brandon Industries warehouse.

We angled the layout to bring the viewing portion closer to the public, leaving more room for me to sit and operate the layout from the front, and open up the viewing angles for the Redlands Club layout that was beside me.

There's nothing like a model railway show deadline to put the pressure on getting all those tasks finished on a layout. Having just released a new book, seen to shop orders and commenced a new part-time job all in the same week leading up to this event, I didn't quite see to everything I would have like for Philden Coast's first outing. Come Thursday lunchtime before the weekend, I had to down tools on applying the finishing touches to the Jetty Hotel and say that it was finished. At least for now. The rollingstock and loose buildings were then boxed up, the track given a final clean and the lighting and wiring all disconnected, and that night the layout module, staging shelf and framework were all carted downstairs from our top level apartment to the garage.

Come Friday afternoon, and it could all be loaded straight into the back of our Mitsi Outlander as soon as my wife arrived home from work, and together we made the drive to the other side of Brisbane to set the layout up at the Cleveland High School Performing Arts Hall.

I dressed in my best Coastal vibes to pose for the customary photo before the doors opened to the public on Saturday morning.

Upon entry, the crowds all seem to follow in a clockwise direction to view the layouts. So it took around 20 minutes until they started gathering infront of my layout.

There were two noticeable features of my layout that I wasn't able to see to in time for the show that were both a carry over from it's first year of construction, back when it was originally intended to be completed as an inner-Melbourne layout. They were 1), the Philden St. moniker on the layout's bookcase end (above), and 2), the twin tram tracks down the middle of the Philden Street overpass (below). I couldn't do anything about either without risk of leaving an unfinished mess. So when a member of the viewing public recognised the backdrop as Coffs Harbour and pointed out that I'd even included the old train tracks leading down the to Jetty... I simply went with it for the weekend. As they're super glued to the overpass which is made from MDF board, there's a real chance that the surface could be significantly damaged from trying to remove them. It's something that I'll need to investigate further.

Philden Coast at the 10th Redlands Model Railway Show, August 26th & 27th, 2023.

Finally, my Jetty Hotel is open for business! The Walker Models kit has been in various stages of construction tracing back to 2019 when it was going to be built for my Philden Road North Coast layout. When those plans ended, it was then built to the point of being a bare shell for my Philden Street Yard layout, only for the layout to be revamped from inner-Melbourne back to a North Coast NSW setting before it could even be completed. Apart from a few finishing touches, (yes, the overhanging verandah still needs angled supports coming from the wall), it drew quite a lot of comments from the public over the weekend. The Live Music @ The Jetty Hotel sign was made to have interchangable billboards slide in and out, (I'll have more on that later), and in this example is advising that tickets to John Williamson are selling fast. I made half a dozen billboards featuring different Australian artists that Denise and I have actually seen in concert and would often change them as crowds would come and go over the two days.

The Jetty Hotel finally reached an almost finished stage only the day before we set up for the weekend.

Of course that wasn't the only bit of humour to be discovered over the weekend. Fellow modeller, blogger and resident funny man Craig Mackie stopped by to pay homage to my Muttonbird Island backdrop, by... placing a sheep up a tree!

Yes, that's Muttonbird Island in the background... and a Muttonbird up the tree!

From that point onwards on a Saturday afternoon, it was time to do a quick walk around of the venue. I recognised many of the exhibitors whom I've stopped to talk to over the past few years while visiting the various model railway shows in south east Queensland. A lot of the layouts like Walloon, Victoria Creek Sugar and Snapshot I had featured photos of on my previous exhibition recaps from my original Philden layout days, (you can read them all here). So here are a few that I hadn't featured before...

This N scale layout was called Nothing. In the background Denise can be seen operating Philden Coast (the back of which looks all white).

Laidlaw, by the Victorian N Scale Collective, is relatively new to the SE QLD circuit.

Glinvale is a bit of a veteran layout around the Brisbane model railway scene, but I don't know if I've ever shared a photo of this layout on my blog? Probably because I always stop to chat to Alistair, who built this layout with his son.

The Logan District Model Railway Club had their N Scale Layout High Country on display.

For now this is about as close as I will get to visiting Canada!

...and Philden Coast, by some guy in rolled up boat jeans and white shoes named Phill Overton...

So, there you have it... 1,575 days after exhibiting Philden for the final time, its replacement has finally made its exhibition debut. After having an idea for a completely new model railway in May of 2019, a few false starts later and my HO Scale NSW North Coast layout has eventually become a reality.

Philden Coast completely fills the back of our 7 seater Mitsi.

And a packed down layout stays waiting in the garage for another show next weekend!

There was a lot to like about exhibiting Philden Coast compared to my original Philden layout. While it was bigger, it was lighter to carry and easier to set up and pack down. Having the framework upon which it stands assembled using bolts with wing nuts and washers was my wife's idea. As was having the staging shelf built for the modules to slot together using dowell joins to align the two sections. Again, brilliant and easy to set-up. Changing the layout to DCC early in it's construction also allowed for constant locomotive lighting when operating on a slow speed shunting layout. This is something that held the viewing public's attention much longer than my previous DC layout, and I could leave a loco sitting in the diesel service tracks with the marker lights and number boards illuminated for added effect. And sound? At first, I thought it might drive my neighbouring exhibitors mad, but once the crowd filled the hall, it became difficult to determine if I had started up the loco when switching diesels between the service tracks. Hearing a short horn blast kept viewers standing in front of the layout just that little bit longer, so that too was a success.

This was the second time I have exhibited at the Redlands Model Railway Show, and with the weekend now behind me my thoughts today turn to this weekend's Sunshine Coast Model Train & Hobby Expo held at the Dicky Beach Church of Christ hall. The advantage of back-to-back weekends of model railway shows is that the layout only has to go up and down the stairs to our apartment once! For the past week it has waited quietly in the garage for a Friday final track clean before being loaded into our Mitsi one more time.

After openly talking about how I was going to rebuild the existing staging shelf into an extended scenic portion of the layout, packing the layout into our Outlander to take to a show for the weekend quickly pointed out that this isn't possible without making two trips in the car. The minute I extend Philden Coast is the moment it becomes a home layout. So once again I need to be happy with my bookshelf layout staying exactly as is. (I guess I'll now need to un-update all of those plans from the Philden Beach page on this blog). But happy I shall be. There are still enough mini-detailing projects on this layout to say it is a while away from being 100% finished, and I now have the prospect of exhibiting my Philden Coast layout at some future model railway exhibitions next year.

Until I update again next week after my layout's 2nd outing, take care and happy modelling!

See also; Exhibition #7 Redlands 2018 and Exhibition #8 Brisbane Finale