Narrowing my modelling projects

With so many half completed model railway projects either underway or accumulating in boxes in the wardrobe, last month I had one of those honesty sessions with myself where I asked; 'just where are you going to find the time to complete any of them?' As I'm now busy writing my final Philden Model Railway book, and preparing to return to full-time study next year, the solution turned out to be picking one project, and one project only to coexist beneath my Philden Beach HO shelf layout.

For the past 18 months, my tiny Queensland narrow gauge layout I'd dubbed Philden Creek had sat forlornly beneath my HO scale layout's staging yard gathering dust. Built in a rush early in 2022 prior to our relocating back to Brisbane, the 3 track Inglenook layout had contributed to my Model Railway Scenery Secrets book, but I'd just plain lost interest in finishing it.

It is now gone.

My newly cleared space for my next layout project, a OO9 Welsh Highlands layout.

That a small DC shunting layout based around some HO scale narrow gauge Australian rollingstock is gone, should come as no surprise given how much it's larger HO scale counterpart above it has evolved over the past 12 months. With Philden Beach accommodating a full staging yard, DCC sound operations, lighting and an interesting to operate goods yard, the 3 track Inglenook affair just couldn't compete for attention and interest. In fact, it was my wife who finally spoke up after counting a year pass by without any progress or interest from myself, asking if it could finally go downstairs in the garage or under the bed with a sheet put over it. The reason? She'd rather have the space to put some pictures of our Grandbaby on display in our loungeroom.

To her, the layout never made any sense. In her words... 'even when it's finished, it is just going to go up and back without being anywhere near as good as your Coffs Harbour one.' Fair point. Especially given that there was never likely to be an opportunity to expand it.

The compromise will see me construct a small oval shaped OO9 layout, and still leave room for a Grandbaby photo to stand alongside it.

The newly arrived items displayed in the recently cleared space give away what I am going to model, a OO9 scale layout based on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways in Wales. In a happy compromise, the two IKEA Eket cabinets that stand beneath my current HO shelf layout, are long enough to accommodate both a continous run, oval shaped OO9 layout using 1st radius curves, and a framed Grandbaby photo to stand alongside it. But change, like anything else these days, costs money.

Behind the scenes, over the past month I've been busy selling off all of my 12 mm gauge Queensland narrow gauge locomotives and rollingstock, as my little Philden Creek layout was consigned to the Philden Museum. Some of it, (along with the layout), went the way of a good friend who had been hinting at taking it off my hands for the past year. I then rounded up my American N Scale stuff, my Australian N Scale stuff and some British OO rollingstock I had been hoarding in case I would one day build this, that or the other, and listed them all on eBay. I even went as far as halving my HO Scale Australian roster on Philden Beach, knowing that I still had more than enough wagons to fill my staging shelf.

I love this little Harbour Station Gents & Office building based on the station at Porthmadog.

The sell-off was necessary not only to dive into my OO9 project, but also to cover the course outlay for myself to return to TAFE early next year, and still be able to finance and produce my final Philden Model Railway book which can now be expected sometime in 2024.

Not that there won't be a further book or two to follow, but at some point you financially have to direct your time and talent towards the areas that are most profitable. That for myself, now involves some further full-time study to broaden my creative ideas beyond the realm of model trains. Next year's study load will consume a lot of time. So I'm only planning to work on my Welsh Highlands layout at my own leisure as a welcome escape.

The station structure gives me a ready to place guide to model some slate walled scenery around.

As for the name, Bryn Nadolig? It's Welsh for Christmas Hill. In itself another indication of the setting for the layout; gripped in an early wintery dusting of snow. There will be another update to follow as soon as I have finished overhauling The Philden Model Railway Blog. Doing so will ensure it's future is happy and bright beyond the completion of the next book. So enjoy clicking around the blog to see everything that has changed. Until next week...