The Summer of regrowth...

It has been a summer of regrowth on Philden Beach. Both literally and metaphorically. Exactly one year after starting down the path of converting my HO scale Australian shelf layout from its former inner-city Melbourne setting to a slice of railfan paradise on the New South Wales North Coast, the layout's transformation is now complete.

Behind the scenes, it has been an exhausting year of navigating a layout revamp as the focus of a new book, trying to keep a full-time writing career financed, and working through some personal health issues that I previously hinted at in my Philden Street's curtain call post.

I'm glad to say that Revamp An Existing Layout went live on my publishing platform Blurb, in the early hours of December 31, 2023, keeping to my goal of completing book 23 in the year '23 by the barest of margins! Having grown up a huge Michael Jordan fan, there was a feeling of personal satisfaction in being able to call time on a writing career with the same number of books as his famous number 23 jersey. To me, it's as close to perfection as I'm likely to ever get.

My layout now has a clear green signal with it's new North Coast setting.

The layout revamp has turned out to be just as good as I had imagined, and my new book takes the reader through each of the steps in identifying existing problems, costing-up a layout revamp and finally a series of budget-savvy projects that will help you re-imagine your own layout. Philden Beach's revamp cost a total of zero dollars and didn't involve lifting up a single section of track!

Amongst the many improvements to my layout, the above CTC signal I installed at the exit of the secondary track from staging has really enhanced my switching layout's operations. Trains would need to come to a halt here anyway, beside the former marker post that once stood where the signal mast now does, to wait for a clear track to run around in the yard. Now they have to wait for me to change the signal from red to green before proceeding.

There has been a lot of new growth around the layout, including these Norfolk Island pines.

Around the layout, there has also been a lot of regrowth that has occured since my Welcome to The Coast post back in March last year. With my much-loved NSW Goods Shed now surviving onto its third layout, the former sign to the left of the structure has long gone, and in its place a towering Norfolk Island pine has seemingly sprung up out of nowhere.

These banana trees were rescued from my previous Philden Road layout.

Of course, these latest summer improvements were in addition to my original Trees by The Harbour update from May last year and needed to be completed for inclusion in the book. Given the dramatic coastal backdrop, it was important for me to tie all the colours in with those of the backdrop. And despite not having room for a banana plantation on the layout, I can't think of Coffs Harbour without picturing banana trees growing on the surrounding hillside. So, I added a few wild plants growing alongside the rail corridor just to channel that vibe, including the above examples which were returned to me after being carefully pried off my previous Philden Road module.

It's taken a while for me to finally get to my happy place of simply enjoying some model railroading by the sea. Producing 4 model railway books over the course of 2023 strangely hasn't helped. Not when I've needed to cost every hour spent working on the layout, photographing, writing and then editing the final results. Add to that the time I have poured into this blog over the past few years, and it leaves you with little to no time to actually enjoy running some trains.

Either side of taking a vacation for the first time in three years, there were a lot of days where I somehow survived on four hours sleep while working on my latest book. Knowing that I needed to complete the final instalment before TAFE started in the new year was a big motivator! Yet despite the success of the previous five Philden Model Railway books, self-financing and producing all six have left me mentally, emotionally and financially drained.

Anyone thinking that being able to claim a new model locomotive as a tax deduction sounds like a good thing, would not be aware that my royalty return for self-funding all of this averages out to $4 AUD per book sold. If I simply factor in the costs associated with producing each book, bulk purchasing wholesale stock and covering the distribution costs, then my books have all proven to be successful. However, once I factor in the income I have lost since winding-up my previous small business to concentrate solely on writing full-time, then I still need to sell another 25,000 copies to be able to fully recover. That is a big ask.

From a summer of regrowth on the layout I now head into a year of regrowth for myself. As I have already mentioned when signing-off on my Author blog, the time of writing as Phillip Overton is now over.

The final revamped view looking back over Philden Beach.

While I hope to keep my occasional model railway ramblings continuing here for the foreseeable future, I'm unsure what that may look like on the other side of all this. Already, in the background I have removed well in excess of 100 outdated blog posts, and completely overhauled the design and layout of the Philden Model Railway Blog to ensure it remains a strong and relevant source of information for years to come.

What I am sure of however, is that in time, I will look back on my series of six Philden Model Railway Books with immense pride. To be able to have combined my two passions of writing and model railways into the one project, and self-fund, self-publish and self-distribute a series of books that proved to be profitable, is a great legacy to leave behind.

The most important project for me to work on at the moment however, is myself. That starts with a return to full-time study of visual arts and photography in the coming weeks. For me, it's a chance to recharge, reinvent and rebrand myself away from writing, and is equal parts exciting, and a little scary, to see where my creative side will next lead me outside of the world of model trains.

News of the new book's official launch date will follow soon, with early pre-order copies available for purchase now through Blurb. Expect copies to make their way into your favourite hobby stores from February onwards.

Now, do I dare say it? Maybe I'll power up the layout just for fun...