2022 RMCQ Open Day

I've come back from last Sunday's Railway Modellers Club of Queensland's Open Day Buy and Sell reinvigorated, and ready to push on to finish my next model railway book before the year ends. As far as sales of my books are concerned the day was a huge success, but it also happened to mark 9 years since I last made a public appearance as an author promoting what was then my 3rd novel.

Not only was the open day a chance for me to meet so many people and answer questions about my books and what I am up to next, the buy and sell was an opportunity for me to move on a few model railway items that were just taking up room in my wardrobe. To be able to say that I easily made twice as many sales from my books than the bargain priced models I put out for sale on one half of the table was extremely encouraging, and has already got me thinking of doing another book appearance next year.

An inside look at the RMCQ club layouts. N scale in the forground, HO at the rear, G scale outside.

As far as model railway clubs go, the RMCQ at Brendale is relatively close to where I live in Brisbane. Over the years I've come to know a few faces amongst their members, so its always nice to have a catch up with people at events such as this. Inside, the club layouts have grown over the years that I've visited, especially the N scale layout. And the members are a friendly group that can cook a sausage on the BBQ like the best of them, which doesn't help with ignoring your hunger if your table is down wind of the BBQ gazebo!

For once I was on the other side of the table. Instead of hunting through the treasure trove of model railway bargains that buy-and-sells are known for, I was instead selling a lot of the stuff that I'd amassed over the years with plans of one day doing a model of this or that. I decided a few weeks back that if I wasn't going to build it or use it within the next 6 months, it was time to pack it up and sell it. After becoming empty-nesters this year and moving into a smaller apartment in the city, I'm acutely aware that space is no longer something I might have more of one day. It's crazy how much stuff hides in the back of the wardrobe that makes you question why you bought it in the first place! Bulky items such as completed kit structures are just too delicate and expensive to pack and send in the post if you sell them on eBay or Facebook, so if someone makes you an offer for something you no longer need nor want, its easier to take their money and reclaim the wardrobe space.

Most of what you see is now gone!

De-cluttering tends to put more focus on the things you actually want to do or model. Scrapping ideas for small project layouts that I might never get around to actually doing, shines the light back onto the layouts I am currently building. Philden Street Yard I'm hoping will be completed before Christmas, and ready to make its exhibition debut early in 2023. While my Queensland narrow gauge Philden Creek layout is laying dormant beneath it while the books and Philden Street take priority. That will change next year. But with years of lockdown projects and ample time to do some modelling now being replaced with the want to get out and travel once more, I'm conscious of not taking on too much. While there's a couple of pre-ordered locomotives I'm looking forward to in the coming year, I could quite happily not buy anything else and still be content with my two little layouts for the forseeable future.

I guess that all changes whenever a new must-have model is announced. But for now... well, I've just booked a holiday for late next year that might very well yield another railway photography book after I travel through some previously unvisited railway territory. That actually seems more exciting than a new model of this or that. And as I've learned, this or that projects only lead to cluttered wardrobes followed by buy-and-sells. So it's back to the books for me, and hopefully I will have an update next week on Philden Street Yard's new lighting upgrade. There's some big improvements ready to be revealed.

Trackside Tips Video Review

Australian Model Railway News September 2022

A huge shout-out to Will James for a great review of my new book Model Railway Trackside Tips that was featured on the latest episode of Australian Model Railway News, (above). If you haven't already checked out Will's monthly program, then you're missing out on everything that's new in model trains in Australia. There's even a FREE GIVEAWAY of a copy of my latest book PLUS one of Will's signature beanies to be won, details which of course are in the above episode. His website Will James Railways is also a great place to view his own railway photography and growing range of merchandise, (I've personally been collecting his railway pins over the past year or so).

Behind the scenes I'm busy laying out my next book, Model Railway Scenery Secrets, and have just received the finished cover artwork for the next book after that, which I am keeping secret for a big reveal later in the year. So if all goes to plan, I will have three Philden Model Railway books available by this Christmas, and a fourth to follow early in 2023. Make sure you follow my blog so you can hear all about it here first!

Trackside Tips Book Launch!

Break open the bubbles! It's time to launch my new book Model Railway Trackside Tips.

September has been a great month! Some long awaited models have arrived, and now I'm proud to say that my second model railway book, Model Railway Trackside Tips, is finally available both instore and online. Between the covers there are 72 pages crammed with helpful chapters to help you advance beyond basic track laying skills, and yield a rewarding layout that both looks good and runs great.

Out now for September 2022!

Trackwork is the one area I have improved the most over the 40 plus years I have been involved in the hobby. Most of the things I learnt along the way were the results of my own mistakes, before having to seek advice, rip up track and start over. I wrote this book with the mindset of wanting to send it back in time to give to my twenty-year-old self! There's a lifetime of experience laid-out inside, with more than 70 colour photos and enough informative text that will keep you coming back for a second, third and fourth read-through.

I've always championed the saying that track is a model too! Good track starts at the bottom, which is where many people overlook things such as surface preparation and adding elevation, two areas that are impossible to address once you have laid track. Radius, diameter and clearance are also areas where modellers can easily get confused, so after showing you the basics involved to get your track laid correctly and running reliably, inside you'll find that half the book is devoted to making your model railway track resemble the real thing. We're talking grime, brake dust and oil spills on the way to ballasting like a pro! There's also plenty of short cuts for adding trackside details such as lineside fences, abandoned sidings and modelling rails that are set in concrete, none of which are going to break your bank account!

I held back on announcing the release of this book until all of the hobby shops I had contacted had received their copies from the publisher. The official launch has also been timed to coincide with Will James' monthly instalment of Australian Model Railway News which will be aired on YouTube at the end of September, so watch out for a free giveaway in the coming week!

This book also marked my return to full-time writing, something which I haven't been in the position to do since my last novel was released back in 2011. Now unless you're an author on the scale of James Patterson, these windows only open for a short period due to a combination of timing, circumstances and needing the necessary finances to fall back on while you pursue a string of projects with the hope of recouping the money once the book is released. All of my past 12 railway related books have been produced while also running a small business over the past 7 years. It required the wise use of all of my spare time combined with rationing sleep, as there were simply not enough hours in the day to simultaneously pursue two careers. If you think that sounds like a hard task, as a full-time writer, I'm writing this blog post after spending the past 96 hours or 4 days solid, overseeing another new book from blank page to its place in the queue with the publisher. I think I've caught 20 hours sleep over the past 5 days, and that has just been from editing, laying out the book and designing the covers. Not the actual process of writing which was composed previously over a period of years.

Writing yields a terrible return on the cost-per-hour that you dedicate to it. But as someone who has been writing professionally for the past 15 years, it's been the longest position I've ever held! I have definite plans to produce another 2 Philden Model Railway Presents books, but I've also set myself the deadline of this Christmas to gauge their profitability, release some other new material plus return all 4 of my novels to print. Model Railway Trackside Tips marks my 18th book release across multiple genres, and I'll also have news of a 19th book release, (non-train related), over on my Phillip Overton blog in the coming month. The best I can ask for in people's support, is to consider buying a copy and also supporting the stores who in turn have supported me.

So I'm going to stop now, catch some extra sleep tonight, and celebrate the launch of Trackside Tips tomorrow by popping the bottle at the top of this post with my wife Denise, and maybe running some trains over the weekend! Hopefully I'll have another update on all things Philden at the end of next month. I'm thoroughly enjoying being this busy, combining my two passions and doing what I love most!

Model Railway Trackside Tips is available now both instore and online, through Australian Modeller in Sydney, Train World in Melbourne and instore at Modeller's Warehouse in Brisbane, Apple's iBooks Store plus direct from the publisher at Blurb.

Available now from

   

Bookshelf Layout Book Launch!

Another year... and another new book!

After a busy Christmas and New Year's break, I can finally announce the release of my first All-Australian model railway book! Build a Bookshelf Layout is available now to kick-off what I hope will be a fantastic 2022.

Five years in the making, this 72 page colour instructional book is a great starting place for newcomers and old-heads alike to read before constructing their next model railway project. A good finish begins at the start, and I've often found that overseas books offer little beyond a trackplan and some diagrams that leave you floundering to work out why your finished layout doesn't resemble the masterpiece shown on the cover. This book is the opposite! Its' hands-on, step-by-step approach is designed to fast-track your skills and enjoyment, without learning what works, and what doesn't, the hard way!

There's over 40 years experience laid-out inside, more than 70 photos and enough informative text that will talk you through what you need to consider on the way to constructing an enjoyable small model railway layout. The book covers the planning process, benchwork construction, painting and layout presentation, lighting and basic track laying skills that all result in a rewarding model railway experience.

Two more books covering scenery and trackside tips will also be available in 2022. Build a Bookshelf Layout is to the best of my knowledge, the first Australian model railway how-to book to hit the market.

The book will set you back $21.95 Australian + postage for the 6" x 9" printed version direct from the publisher Blurb, or you may pester your local hobby store and they may just stock it for you. All my books are also available to download as eBooks direct through Blurb or the Apple store, with prices starting from $5.99 AUD.

  

It was an idea that I first nutted-out while exhibiting my Australian HO layout Philden between 2017-2019. During the 8 exhibitions I took the layout to, I was inevitably asked time and time again, "how did you do this", as countless members of the public pointed to various items on the layout. While I answered as best I could given the limited time I had available between questions, I ended up printing business cards with the address of this blog to hand out. The writer in me however, was already pondering how I could layout a book that would serve as a guide to fast-track new modellers to build an exhibition quality layout of their own. And that is what this first book is all about, avoiding losing someone from the hobby because they can't seem to progress beyond the poke-your-train to get it to move Plywood Central, that does nothing for anyone's enjoyment.

So while I busy myself on working on the second book, I'm also working behind the scenes contacting various outlets and bookstores who may be interested in stocking the title. Time and work-wise, it has been a huge investment. More so on account of the work I've turned away from our small business to accommodate the time needed to write and produce this book myself. As most businessfolk will attest, I'm so heavily invested into making this next project successful, that it's become impossible to walk away from.

The best way I can ask for support, is to put out a call to share or like this post, follow me on Facebook and recommend the book to your friends, club and local hobby store. Purchasing direct online from Blurb offers bulk purchasing discounts from ordering as little as 10 copies, and if you're in one of the many Facebook model railway groups that I'm a member of, watch out today for a special advance copy offer.

Now... I must get back to working on my layout. I have a DCC system to wire up and track to lay for the staging yard!

Cheers,

Phill O

New Model Book Coming...

Here's the final cover reveal as I put the finishing touches to the first of my model railway how-to books entitled Build A Bookshelf Layout. Fingers crossed I will have the print file off to the publisher before the Christmas holiday period, and the book will be waiting to have those magical first copies printed when they return early in the new year!

It's been a long, drawn out project. One that I have been planning for the past 3 to 4 years, and ultimately one that I have had to oversee and fund myself. Compared to writing a novel, producing a model railway book without assistance or paid product placement as they like to call it, can be an expensive affair, (I'll need to sell a LOT of books before I even think about claiming my model train collection as a tax deduction). I'm hoping the next two instalments will follow closely behind, and along with a third Favourite Australian Railway book, all be available by mid 2022.

You'll recognise all the photos featured in the book as my own, with the first book drawing upon the construction process of my earlier layout Philden as an example. The legal and contractual obligations to use other readers' imagery would have been a nightmare. Nevertheless, I'll have my first model railway textbook on sale early in the new year. One hundred percent Australian and completely ad-free!

Build A Bookshelf Layout will be my 17th book. Retailers and hobby shops interested in stocking it can contact me through the About Me page to be advised of the release date and bulk purchase discounts.

Favourite Australian Railway Scenes

60 page premium colour 8" x 10" Hard/Softcover/eBook

Here's the first of many surprise announcements to fill my readers in with what I've been up to during the course of a very busy year. Available as of today, 1st October, 2021, is Favourite Australian Railway Scenes, the follow up book to last year's well received Favourite Australian Railway Stations. Once again, I've tried to keep the cost of a premium full colour 8" x 10" book attractive, and at roughly $40 AUD for the softcover paperback version (plus postage), this 60 page collection features 80 uninterrupted images of a wide array of railway scenes from across Australia.

Both hard and softcover copies are available now to order for immediate shipment directly from Blurb in Melbourne, as well as in eBook format from just $4.99 AUD or .PDF at $6.99 for reading on your PC. As part of a huge push in the second half of 2021 to increase my library of available work, this book marks my 11th title now in print. With a career spanning back to the release of my first novel The Long Way Home in 2006, now more than ever, I'm really needing to lean on my writing as a main income source, rather than just a side project. While I next turn my attention to the re-release of my library of novels, there may just be another railway surprise in order to close out the year.

I also would like to express my appreciation to all my loyal readers for their past support in spreading the word. Getting physical copies onto bookstore shelves has become financially near impossible and riddled with political minefields to negotiate. Mastering the art of doing everything yourself is now as important as having an idea for a book in the first place, and if Favourite Scenes is as well received as Favourite Stations has been, then there will definitely be a third instalment to follow in 2022! I've already received a number of requests for a book on Australian locomotives, and it is just a matter of again wading through more than 10,000 of my own images to collate a book of the standout images.

So please, tell a friend. Give it a like on Facebook, or just satisfy your curiosity by clicking the link below to preview the first 15 pages. Apple readers will soon be able to find the title on Apple's iStore, and I'll have a special offer of signed copies available through my eBay store in the coming months.

  

I really appreciate your support!

Phill O

Anybody spot what's new?

Blogging has fallen a little behind the construction pace that I am maintaining on the layout of late, but that's all with good reason. As you can see in the above image there is something new to show, and not just the finished scenery on the sand dunes at Saw Point. The black and white paperback is a compilation of 45 of my own railway poems covering a period of more than 30 years, and features all of the poems from my Last Train series of books. For those who may have baulked at the price of my 8" x 10" full colour photographic poetry collections, Great Aussie Railway Poems at $12.99 plus postage for the paperback edition, or just $3.99 for the eBook make this a much more economical alternative for railway buffs and poetry aficianados alike.

You can read more about this latest release and my other available titles over on my author page at phillipoverton.blogspot.com

With many different projects currently requiring my time behind the scenes, I've also made time to give this blog a complete freshen-up. You'll notice the pages appear a little different and the Top Links page is gone, replaced instead by a Philden Favourites page. For those not familiar with web SEO, the number of links you place on any given post or page can either count for you, or against you. The hundreds of links that I have been kind enough to give to other reader's blogs, hobby websites and the like had reached the point where it was killing search traffic to phildenmodelrailway.

Dead links, inactive posts and add-saturated content all combined to give my blog a negative score, and to make it worse many of the blogs weren't even following this site in return. So the page has been replaced and the links all removed. If you're a loyal follower of my blog, you'll now find a link to your blog on the right hand column where it says Great Blogs I Follow. It only shows the 10 most recently updated blogs and clicking the Show All tab below these will display those blogs that haven't been updated of late. For everyone else... well, I've been blogging this site for 5 years now. I guess you musn't find it interesting.

Creating a blog on a scope such as this takes a large amount of time. Almost as much as self-producing a book. Good blog maintenance is also time consuming, so now that is all behind me I hope to get caught up with the state of my layout real soon. Until next time, safe modeling, and be sure to check out my latest book.

New book, new direction

My new book is finally released! Now to channel all that nostalgia into the new layout.

A book launch party for three... Here's a toast to a ten year project!

I wanted to break news of my new book here first. Before the usual trumpeting of such a feat takes on the usual angle on Facebook, or the usual mention is made over on my official author blog at phillipoverton.blogspot.com.au. I'm sure news will follow on these other sites at some point in the next few weeks, but it doesn't seem the norm to break such news accompanied with your own personal thoughts on how producing a book such as this has effected your personal hobby, and vice versa.

I first came up with the idea to do such a project back in 2010/2011 while touring the east coast of Australia with my first two novels. I had just signed what I thought at the time was a good-enough contract with a US based publisher, to take a six month break from working upon the sale of our house, and re-write the entire novel (and sequel which would follow), in American English. Through contacts, I was able to leverage interest in my feel-good beachside fiction to generate a full page article in no less than 29 major regional newspapers up and down Australia's east coast. I thought I was on the verge of having it all, and while travelling through distant towns that I'd only ever heard of but never visited, I would always stop to take photos of any railway stations that we'd come across, and to this day continue to do so.

For a long time, writing, self-promoting and touring had come at the expense of my model railway hobby, and I told myself that one day I would collate all these photographs into a single book, sit back, and build another model railway layout to replace the one I had dismantled shortly after moving to the Sunshine Coast back in 2008. Unfortunately, success never followed. While the sequel to the novel in question was in its final stage of editing, the much-touted book was pulled from sale after only 18 months due to poor sales. And just like that it was all over.

I hope you can appreciate why I can only share something like that here, amongst readers (many of whom I have met or personally email with), whose own modelling skills I admire, and whose criticism I have come to respect. Yet despite the negative overtones in admitting that my writing career never amounted to very much at all, I cleared my head with a train trip to Cairns-and-back before they retired The Sunlander in 2014, and went on to write a further eight, make that nine, railway books in the years that have followed. The model railway layout I suddenly had the time to construct went on to appear on the cover of Australian Model Railway Magazine in 2018, and its' successor has now reached that exciting stage of laying track.

Favourite Australian Railway Stations is available now!

So with the excitement of announcing that my new, full colour, 72 page 8x10" photo book Favourite Australian Railway Stations is now officially available, (pause to take a breath), comes the realisation that this book may very well be my last. I've talked about this often, and arrived at the conclusion that another book can only follow if I have another 10,000 images of entirely different railway stations to sift through in another 10 years time! So for now it is time to take a bow, and leave the stage for someone else to command.

Behind-the-scenes, my nostalgia-filled romp from sifting through countless photos, and recalling the highs and lows of both my writing career and hobby, has greatly shifted the direction that my new layout has morphed into. I don't think it would have been possible for one not to have influenced the other. Even after blogging that I wasn't willing to compromise, came the realisation that in life or a hobby, you must choose what you have when you can't have it all. All those plans I've been blogging about, those ideas of building a split-level bookshelf and even my future model layout ambitions have one thing in common, money. And unfortunately the economic landscape of 2020 is about to change all that for me.

With the year starting with the news of the Coronavirus outbreak, and trade from China greatly effected in the process, I made the call to do a model train shop run to Brisbane with good friend and fellow modeller Anthony. There's nothing like a bit of anxiety-fuelled panic buying to pass the time on a rainy Saturday! We called in at Railco in Deagon before crossing the river to visit Austral Modelcraft in Mount Gravatt. We simply ran out of time to make it the trifecta and visit Aurora Trains as well. With my layout unable to progress any further until I was able to lay the track into position, my wife gifted me $350 from our Christmas fund to get what I needed. Unfortunately there's been a bit of a jump in price since I bought the track for Philden back in 2015. It cost me just under $500 to get everything I needed. So any further purchases are hereby cancelled indefinitely until my model railway budget recovers!

I guess from this point onward, its now a case of being thankful for what you do have, and making the most of what you've got. I'll now reassess where I go from here before commencing any track laying.

It feels great to have the release of my new book out of the way. Its a bit like getting a huge monkey off my back after years of not being able to decide how to lay the book out, or indeed what formula or theme the book should follow. Now that I have something that I am truly pleased with, it sadly also marks the end of an era. All that nostalgia that it has evoked will now see me with only a HO scale representation to follow all those years of work on my book.

Nostalgia. It seems to be the theme for the year so far. From my book, to getting all of my track for the new layout from Ray and Eileen Nunn at Austral Modelcraft, and reminiscing about all those years in between from when I first visited their shop in the mid-1990's. There's just a growing sense of change in the air at the moment surrounding everything. It seems the more we try to keep things the same, the more they seem to change around us, and 2020 has bought us new lows from a summer of storms, bushfires and floods, news of Holden finishing up for good, and uncertainty from a Coronavirus-fuelled economy. When we're so reliant on things coming from China, (insert practically every model train manufacturer here), you begin to feel a bit of anxiety about where our hobby is heading in terms of future pricing and availability. I guess it was just a nice weekend to be able to visit Austral Modelcraft again, and get all the track I needed for the new layout, purely so I can concentrate on stepping back in time with a little bit of nostalgic model railroading for the remainder of the year.

Signed Copies now available

  

   

2019 promises to be a much quieter year. Aside from the pending (and long overdue) release of Last Train to Bunbury, (the third such book in my photographic railway bush poetry series will be out sometime in mid 2019), I've been taking some time out for me. Even to the point of cancelling my planned book appearance on Saturday 9th March at Clifton's 150th Railway Anniversary in South West Queensland. For reasons both personal and logistical, the time and money I would have had to expend to make my being there possible, was going to be another example of the moment asking for a whole lot more than what it was prepared to give in return. Someone once told me that you will reach a point in life where you will know your worth, and after a 2018 that seemed to ask so much of me, I'm enjoying more of the time that I would otherwise have put towards one endless project after another. It's taken me a long time to realise that my books aren't the be-all and end-all of me.

So with a few hundred dollars worth of signed books that were stockpiled for Clifton now at my disposal, I have listed them on eBay for readers wishing to add some of these to their railroad library. There are only half dozen of each title, and the Train Tripping Around Melbourne and Sydney titles always seem to sell out every time I list them on eBay. So first it, first served!

Which brings me to a spot of good news. After much procrastinating, gnashing of teeth and general frustration at how slow these books have been selling, I have now reviewed enough material and photographs taken from my last sojourn south to the Victorian border to decide that a fourth and final installment will follow in 2020. Why 2020? Well, the bad news is that while making my way across outback New South Wales in 2018 to photograph some obscure and out-of-the-way relics from our railway past, I failed to obtain even one suitable photo with yours truly wearing the trusted black hat that has become a staple of my railway adventures so far. So you guessed it, I now have to plan another sojourn south to the Murray River to capture the photo for the cover, and that journey won't happen before mid 2020. Last Train to Sydney will be my fourth and final railway bush poetry book, so expect to see me taking a bow on the cover.

One of the highlights of last year was seeing my HO scale Australian model railway layout featured on the cover of the Australian Model Railway Magazine, all while taking it to no less than four model train shows in South East Queensland. 2019 will see me attend just one exhibition at the Brisbane Model Train Show on the 4th & 5th May at the Brisbane Showgrounds as I construct a new model train layout in 160:1 N scale, with no blogging, no Facebook, no Twitter or Instagram. Just the pure enjoyment of building a model railroad of the Pacific Northwest of the United States for my own satisfaction. Why? Simply because I like the scenery and hope to travel to that part of the world one day to see it in person. For once, my books and everything else that life demands can simply take a back seat to my hobby.

Instead of planning more books for the future, it seems I'm doing the opposite. My first two novels The Long Way Home, and A Walk Before Sunrise will soon disappear from sale. Temporarily of course. In order to plan a way to re-release my first two novels in print sometime in 2020, I want to first be sure that they will have disappeared from every possible sales channel. Through Smashwords.com, the eBooks both filter down through almost every sales channel bar Amazon.com. Making them disappear is anything but an instant click of the mouse, and can take upwards of months at a time for each online sales channel to reprise their listings. Best to get the ball rolling now while things are quiet.

Then there is.... or was, my most recent railway photo book Behind the yellow line. Just four months after release it has already disappeared from sale. Why? Because of an opportunity to create an epic railway book project to take its place in the near future. It's more advantageous to remove the book from sale now, rather than later. We're talking a hardcover, 200 page plus lifetime volume of work that won't come easy, and won't come cheap! It gets back to that whole 'you will know your worth' mantra that I seem to have embraced this year. All I can say is that the book will be out sometime in mid 2021.

Yes, it's still coming. Last Train to Bunbury will be out mid-year!

Which brings me back to Last Train to Bunbury. A book much talked about and long promised since my Western Australia trip back in 2017, that you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a model train pre-order! The thing I've loved about writing these books, is being able to have complete control of the production process. I've captured that sense of nostalgia with each of them that I set out to achieve, and without rushing my latest project, Last Train to Bunbury has only gained an even greater sense of nostalgia in my writing as time has passed since trekking through South West Western Australia. The four collections, for being self-financed and produced, will live on long after I have finished writing them. As will my 10th and final railway book that will cap-off this era of my writing in 2021. For those who haven't yet discovered my writing career, a trip over to phillipoverton.blogspot.com will set you in the right direction, and probably amaze you with the 100 free posts I have compiled over the course of my railway reminiscing years Down Under.

After that? Well who knows. Perhaps by then I would have saved up for that dream holiday to Canada, the US Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. Now wouldn't that be nice. I only have to sell a few thousand more books!

Review: Last Train poetry books

From the October 2018 edition of Australian Model Railway Magazine.

The October 2018 edition of Australian Model Railway Magazine featured a review on two very obscure, and quite possibly never-seen-before, books on railway bush poetry. If you're wondering who is responsible for trying to mash-up some traditional Aussie bush poetry with photographs of surviving relics from our railway past, then I'm going to own up. It was me.

  

The books in question are both self-produced, and I say that with a sense of pride as they feature my own photography, my own original poetry and were laid-out, edited, proofed, blocked and had the covers designed by me. The only thing I haven't done is handle my own distribution. I've set that up to be fully automated through Blurb.com. As for the lack of posts on this blog over the past month, that can be attributed to my working on the next instalment, the cover of which you can see above.

The review by AMRM was much appreciated. Overseeing a project such as this is time-consuming to say the least, and the next book to follow in the series is the result of my adventuring through the Southwest of Western Australia over the summer of 2017/2018. The costs alone in going out of my way to photograph abandoned railway stations and bridges on the other side of the country will ensure that the next Last Train book will never return a profit, given that a modest sales expectation for any kind of self-published poetry book would be no more than 100 copies. For a niche project such as this, no publisher was ever going to touch it. That makes getting a review on the book so important. So what were some of the kind words that editor James McInerney had to say?

"Some of the photos are visually quite stunning, capturing the atmosphere of the scenes with great artistic flair."

"...I enjoyed reading the poems and they certainly convey a very effective 'word picture' to go with the images." 

Although I've often reviewed other company's products and models on my blog, I could never bring myself to review my own work. So kudos to the kind words from James Mc.

While this may all seem like a bit of self-serving hoopla over something that anyone could do if they really wanted to, I've looked at the past few years of my writing and blogging about trains and model railways, in much the same way as an Actor or Actress taking time away from acting to work on another project. Eric Bana stepped away to film a documentary about his muscle car, and followed it up with some part-time rally driving. Come mid next year, I'll have a small body of railway books to look back on fondly in old age while sitting on my couch and sipping cups of tea. As for my next move? I feel I owe it to myself to finally have another crack at writing that blockbuster novel I've always dreamed of, (however long that takes). Hopefully in the years to come, these self-published railway books will all become an interesting 'before they were famous' story!

With October already in full swing, this weekend I'll be attending the 2018 Modelling the Railways of Queensland Convention. Following that, I'll be applying the new photo backdrop to Philden, getting some more work done on the Travel Centre for the beach extension and hopefully, (yes, hopefully) seeing the post man arrive with the 442 Class loco I'm waiting on. I suppose it's nice to always have something that you're waiting on. So from that point of view, I've added a 422 Class loco in Northern Rivers Railroad livery to the waiting list, (even though I did say I was done with pre-orders and adding anything more to my NSW layout). It seems there's always room for one more model train isn't there? Oh, and did I say I was about to start building a new layout? Thought so. But as usual, there never seems to be enough time. So I'll let that be a story for another day.

Stay tuned to this and my author blog at phillipoverton.blogspot.com as I'll have a big announcement to make regarding my books in May 2019.

My books can be purchased directly online through the following outlets

 

See also; Retiring a good series