Lazing by the Sea

A C Class has returned to the seaside!

Nearing the end of a difficult to navigate 2024, my beach layout has had a happy face return to the roster in the form of the Auscision Models C Class locomotive. My original C Class model C509 in the Cootes Industrial green & yellow livery was one of the models that I reluctantly let go earlier in the year when needing to acquire some camera equipment in order to return to full-time study at TAFE. Looking back, I don't know why I thought photography would be a cheaper hobby than model trains!

In a nod to my brief Victorian heritage, this ex-VR C Class now wears SSR warpaint and resides in NSW, although prototypically it might never have made it as far north as Coffs Harbour.

The reasons for me wanting a C Class loco on my layout, despite my modelling the NSW North Coast, were covered on this blog over a year ago when I first wrote that I see a C by the Seashore. Although I'm still trying to find evidence of whether a C Class locomotive ever trundled north of Telarah on the NSW North Coast line, my layout is a fictional what-could-have-been affair had the goods yard not been removed at Coffs Harbour back in 1996 anyway, so who really cares? I made the decision to return a C to Philden Beach's roster to handle the infrastructure train consisting of open wagons and spoil bins. What it does allow for, is an excuse to potentially add a second SSR locomotive to my small fleet at some point in the future and include a ballast train to operate alongside the infrastructure wagons. For that, some NDFF ballast hoppers and a 49 Class locomotive would be perfect! It's something that I'm now going to endeavour to save for in the coming years.

SSR re-badged green & yellow C509 on a grain train inland at Moree, New South Wales in 2018.

But first things first, I was fortunate to be able to replace the original Cootes Industrial leasing C509 I had sold earlier in the year, with the Southern Shorthaul Railroad re-badged C510. This makes my model more resemble the above C Class loco I had photographed on an SSR grain train at Moree back in 2018. And it was all thanks to a now famous plastic bag.

Ignoring my sci-fi themed staging shelf art piece that will soon be populated by little green men, I desperately wanted this green and gold liveried loco back on my layout.

For those who don't remember or maybe missed the joke, read my post Plastic Bags and Piddly Bits. But after receiving 640 views and 26 watchers for a plastic shopping bag listed at $465.23, I raised enough money from my other genuine listed items to return a 4th locomotive to Philden Beach's roster. I had some awesome responses to my eBay listing, and it gave me a laugh to read them all. For those who thought my eBay push was a desperate money grab from fellow hobbyists, it was. I desperately wanted to replace at least 1 of the 10 locomotives that I needed to offload when affording the return to study earlier in the year.

For the record, my former Philden A4 NSW railway station that featured on the cover of the August 2018 Australian Model Railway Magazine was posted out to its new owner along with the above-mentioned plastic bag. And every major item of value I sold during August had a free signed copy of my book Great Aussie Railway Poems packed inside the parcel as an unannounced thank you.

Whenever in doubt of prototypical authenticity, I always refer to Rule 1), my railroad, my rules.

With all of that now behind me, in other news, as you are reading this I will be sitting in my backdrop and enjoying some fish n' chips by the harbour. That's right, I wrote this post ahead of a long overdue holiday with my wife, and the two of us are probably right now lazing by the resort pool in Coffs Harbour as life returns to normal. Coffs Harbour is the place that first made me want to build a layout set on the NSW North Coast, and while my model locomotive roster might have shrunk a little and crept forward a decade since its inception, Philden Beach with its Coffs Harbour backdrop is still providing me with a lot of joy. A pair of Pacific National diesels, an Aurizon counterpart and now an SSR locomotive to handle infrastructure trains seems to be enough to operate a 3.3 metre long shelf layout, and about as much money that I feel I want to outlay on this layout for now.

A flashback to 2023, when I debuted my new layout alongside my wife Denise at the Redlands Model Railway Show in Queensland.

It is surprising to think that this time last year I exhibited Philden Beach at the Sunshine Coast Model Train & Hobby Expo. That makes a whole year since I have attended a model train show of any kind, even as a paying visitor. With my good friend Anthony Veness helping me to exhibit Philden Beach in 2023, this year I returned the favour and helped Anthony with setting-up and exhibiting his layout Dagun. The Sunshine Coast show is a great little one-day exhibition as they cover the public liability insurance and provide free electrical test-and-tagging on the day, which immensely helps an independent modeller such as myself. And I have already indicated to the show's organizer that I will alternate with Anthony and bring Philden Beach to the Sunshine Coast in 2025.

C510 hiding in the back dock of the Brandon Industries warehouse.

As my hobby time slowly returns to a lazier pace away from the public eye, there is only the small tabletop OO9 narrow gauge layout that I'm really wanting to finish for Christmas. It seems there's not too many more layout updates I can write about before I bring up 10 years on the blog and take a big step back.

But next up, I will re-commission the old concrete plant from my original Philden layout and leave Philden Beach to reside as a permanent beach escape in our apartment. When I get back from holidays that is.

Until next time...

See also; There goes the Eighties and C by the Seashore