A full XPT schedule

What a week it has been! Hot on the heels of adding an XPT set to Philden was the news of Auscision Models' arrival of their long awaited 442 Class loco. So after a Friday afternoon of running XPT's to and from Philden and Phills Harbour, I thought I should explain how I transform running a train back-and-forth on a 9 foot bookshelf layout into something so much more, before this blog gets overrun with pictures of the new locos which are headed my way.

Actual timetables from the era you are modelling can be so much more than just a reference tool.

Just as I do with my 2 car Xplorer train, I begin by selecting a random Countrylink timetable, in this case from September 2003. Collecting timetables from the era I model is another extension of the hobby that I enjoy, and in this instance I've grabbed the North Coast timetable. As my operating session is taking place on a Friday afternoon, I scan through the timetable to find a starting point and time for my simulated 7 day sequence. Sure enough, back in 2003 the next departure time is for Countrylink's service 004 The Murwillumbah XPT departing Murwillumbah at 9.50 pm. From this point I now have 7 days to have this XPT set returned to Murwillumbah in time for next Friday's departure at the same time. All while making as many trips as I possibly can without overlapping any arrival and departure times. The challenge is to maximize the amount of trips and station stops the XPT set can make and minimize the amount of down-time the set will accumulate between runs, all while making the scheduled stops listed on the timetable. Its a challenge that can yield different results every time I try this.

Stations were designed to be more than viewing platforms for passing trains, so enjoy making your trains actually stop.

Phills Harbour momentarily becomes Murwillumbah and Philden at the other end of the layout becomes the next stop, Mullumbimby, as I work the train back-and-forth while making all the stops listed on the timetable on the up service to Sydney's Central Station. Train 004's arrival is at 11.38 am the next day. The next Saturday service the train can realistically be serviced and turned around to work is Train 001, the 4.24 pm overnight Brisbane XPT. So its back up the North Coast we go, with Philden and Phills Harbour once more filling in for each station shown on the timetable before arriving in Brisbane on Sunday morning at 6.35 am. Here the train is refueled and returns south as Train 002, departing at 7.30 am and arriving in Sydney at 9.51 pm Sunday evening.

One of my highlights is making the trains slow to a smooth stop at the platform.

Monday morning sees the same set head west, this time on Train 427, the Dubbo XPT. Departure from Sydney is at 7.10 am with arrival in Dubbo at 1.40 pm. The same XPT set returns as Train 428, departing Dubbo at 2.10 pm and arriving back in Sydney at 8.48 pm Monday night. Tuesday morning 7.43 am, and the XPT forms Train 603, the 'Daylight' Melbourne XPT, arriving in the Victorian capital at 6.15 pm that same evening before returning at 7.45 pm as Train 602, the 'Overnight' Melbourne XPT arriving back in Sydney Wednesday morning at 6.25 am.

A physical timetable to hold in your hand lends a sense of attachment to the model train you are running.

About this time, my wife interrupts to ask if I'd like a cup of coffee while I'm 'playing trains'. I consult the on-board services section of my timetable and inform her that coffee is available from the buffet car which happens to be Car D on my XPT set. She returns minutes later and tries to charge me $4 for it. Anyways, Train 005 is now ready for departure from Sydney, the 11.35 am Grafton XPT arriving in the north of the state at 10.00 pm Wednesday evening. After an overnight layover in Grafton, it departs at 6.30 am the next morning as Train 006 arriving back in Sydney Thursday afternoon at 4.34 pm. Friday morning and you guessed it, 7.15 am sees the departure of Train 003, the Murwillumbah XPT which will arrive back where we started at 9.00 pm that evening, bringing to an end my 7 day schedule.

Crew changes, refueling and overnight lay-overs between services all add to the realism of running passenger trains.

By now, more than an hour has passed without my having to worry about a fast-clock or timing the departures of each train. From my laptop, I'll play a station announcement prior to the departure of each new service, and randomly play an XPT sound clip featuring the train's twin air-horns and passing diesel rumble to add to the scene. By the time I've finished my $4 cup of coffee, I'm ready to call it a day from running the passenger train. The next time I power up the layout, I'll pull a different Countrylink timetable from my collection, an depending on the time and day, end up with a completely different sequence as I try to coordinate a schedule without any pre-planning.

Operating is probably the most enjoyable aspect of a model railway once the layout is complete, and adding some form of realistic attachment between your layout and the way it is operated becomes just as important as the scenery. I've found with a point-to-point layout that I prefer running my passenger trains in the manner I've outlined above, rather than the more traditional approach of drawing my own chart that would effectively only shows arrivals and departures of trains running between Philden and Phills Harbour. But I suppose it is a case of each to their own. If you find something that works, and makes operating your layout more enjoyable than simply making your trains move, then you're onto a winner!

See also; Running some Countrylink Timetables and Snacks for operating sessions

Phills Harbour Opening Celebrations

The 1st train to Phills Harbour breaks through the commemorative banner on my new Beach Extension.

The Champagne has been popped, (all 3 bottles of it), and the first train has rolled into Phills Harbour Railway Station on Australia's New South Wales North Coast. Wine time and model trains have never been such good friends as what they were on Sunday 24th February, 2019.


A year after rebuilding the staging shelf that was an important part of Philden, the new Beach Extension has proven to be a far worthier addition than the two stub-ended tracks it replaced. While still performing exactly as a two track staging yard should, this new section of my layout now gives me a greater sense of operating pleasure. It now feels like my trains go somewhere, even if it is just 9 feet down the line from Philden to Phills Harbour. So to mark the occasion, I once more created a banner for the first train to run through.

But first the waiting room needed to be populated with waiting passengers.

First I needed to populate the Travel Centre's waiting room with passengers, and while I had bought 100 of them off eBay for something like 10 cents each including postage, more than half fell into the category of looking rather bodgy. Fortunately it only took 35 of the tiny figurines to make the platform and waiting room look busy without over-doing the scene. So I simply placed the better figures in the more visible areas and glued the less detailed figures toward the back of the waiting room.

There are 25 passengers spread out in the waiting room inside my Countrylink Travel Centre.

While there are a further 10 passengers on the platform and the ramp leading up to the station.

The HO scale figurines, (although by no means from the top level of painted figurines that are available), really enhance the station scene. Along with some wheelie bins and painted blue Countrylink benches that I glued on the platform, the station scene captures a little of that modern New South Wales railway look I was after.

The anticipation builds as evening falls at Phills Harbour. The first train is less than an hour away.

Returning our attention to the encroaching evening, with the lights on at the station I was reminded of my own memories of train watching in New South Wales whenever I'm holidaying that way. Apart from the morning XPT from Brisbane to Sydney, most of the passenger trains that call at stations along the North Coast do so at night, and Phills Harbour when lit up seems to evoke that sense of overnight train travel that now seems almost forgotten to travelers whom board flights expecting to get there that same day or evening. Night operating sessions are going to be something that I indulge in more often now that my layout extension is complete. In my opinion it only conveys a stronger sense of atmosphere than if I had left the lights on.

A sole visitor checks out the beach from the subway beneath the station, oblivious to the history about to unfold above.

Speaking of atmosphere, I wanted to include some figures standing by the entrance to the subway tunnel that leads to the beach beneath the railway tracks, but by the time I remembered I only had one suitable figurine left that wasn't already glued in place. Under lights however, a sole figure standing alone at the end of a subway tunnel draws more attention than in daylight. So I'm leaving her be. I've named her Jenny from the block, and her presence raises more questions than it adds detail. Who is she? Why is she walking alone after dark? Is she safe? Or is she a ghost?

Sometimes the best mini-scenes that emerge on a model railway aren't necessarily the ones we set out to create. As a writer, I find it fascinating to see this tiny figurine appear in my photos, like in the one below.

A moment in history as an Xplorer service becomes the first train to arrive at Phills Harbour Station, 24 February, 2019.

So with the first train having already been and gone, the bottles of bubbles long empty by 10.30 pm, and the Ohio State Marching Band on their flight back to the U.S.A., calmness has once more descended over the seaside city of Phills Harbour. I want to thank my wife Denise for being the train driver for the evening as I filmed the historic occasion, and also my son Brandon for being the sound guy and cuing the station announcements and marching band music under much duress, (sorry Champ). I now have two nice railway stations to run my trains between and nothing for me to have to worry about ahead of this years Brisbane Model Train Show....

....All except for Jenny on the block.

See also; Completing the Beach Extension

Strange Saturday at Philden

Some absolutely downright bizarre movements occurred over the weekend, when a number of strange sightings were recorded passing through Philden late on a Saturday afternoon. It was if the hands of time were turned back, as one-by-one a procession of out-of-place, out-of-time trains time travelled through the mouse-hole portal and onto my layout. But before you jump to the conclusion that I've changed eras, the accompanying photos were all models belonging to another Sunshine Coast modeller, Anthony Veness, who stopped by for a much shortened running session after we were both waylaid in the north of Brisbane at the Pine Rivers Model Train Show. With the beachside extension now ballasted and operational once more, I captured the following images, beginning with the Berg's Hobbies Sydney suburban parcels van shown above, running between Philden and Phills Harbour.

Another Berg's Hobbies Sydney suburban electric set, this one with the blue & white 70's era driver car.

No sooner had the parcels van cleared the station, a 3 car single deck suburban set magically arrived without any wires, reminding me of the days I would see a mix of red rattler and blue & white single deck sets poking their heads out of the Hornsby car sheds as I'd ride the train from Gosford to Sydney.

A pair of heavily modified and beautifully weathered Powerline 48 class locos.

Next spotted in the yard at Philden, were a pair of Powerline 48 class locos, one in Indian Red and the other in the 125 Years of NSW Railways commemorative livery. It was around this point that I began to question my reasons not to have bought one of the recently released Auscision 48's.

As evidenced by this photo, the 48's would actually have suited my layout very well.

Fortunately the 48's were only brief visitors, and soon the pair departed light engine from the platform, taking with them any lingering questions as to whether I should still try to find some money to add the little Alco to my layout's roster.

What's a V/Line passenger A class loco doing shunting in Philden Yard? That ain't right!

It was around this time that things got really weird. Next spotted shunting in Philden Yard was an Auscision A class Victorian locomotive painted in V/Line passenger colours. I'm not sure if this loco ever ran on standard guage to be this far from home, and it looks about a strange as seeing Gary Ablett Jnr lining up for the Cronulla Sharks!

The newly released Wombat Models C30T class steam loco. What a delightful little engine it is to run!

Next to saunter into Philden Station was the C30T NSWGR steam locomotive recently released by Wombat Models. This loco is delightful to run, and the fire irons, driver and fireman figures and footplate details have me thinking that this model is a steal at the $350 it was released for. Apparently there were some minor issues for its owner to smooth out such as adjusting the spring arm that pushes the front pilot wheels to the rails, and removing some minor flash moulding that is visible on the top of the boiler, but that aside, it sure is a delightful little engine!

One nice little New South Wales steam loco!

Once the 30 had simmered at the station long enough to be admired and photographed, it too chugged out light engine and never to be seen again, as its owner plans to install a DCC chip inside it, thus making it unable to return for a visit. Still, it was nice to have the rare opportunity to photograph some steam at Philden.

Now that's nice! An Auscision Models pair of Interail/QR National 421's seen in Phiden Yard.

Things then started to return to normal, as my own 421 class Interail loco 42109 appeared, only this time coupled with visiting QR National sibling 42103. The QR eagle livery on this model is striking! Had I had the money and foresight at the time, I too would have added this loco to my roster.

Seen idling above the harbour, these 421's look right at home together. Pity only 1 of them is mine!

With the 421's last seen trundling off into the Port Authority Yard at the newly opened Phills Harbour, the eagle livered QRN loco was soon packed up into the time-travelling locomotive storage box along with its other friends, and I farewelled Anthony and thanked him for an awesome day of driving down the Bruce Highway to the Pine Rivers Model Train Show and for an afternoon of talking and running trains. Having the chance to run some different locos on my small layout was an eye-opener. It was a real surprise to discover that my small layout has a strong non era-specific nature about it when it comes to swapping locos or rollingstock. I hadn't quite expected that.

The beautiful character of Auscision's 46 class is there to be seen, but what do I do about the wires?

And finally to round-out the afternoon cavalcade of colour, I placed this newly acquired 46 class locomotive on the tracks to consider another case of the 'could-have-been's'. I've had this loco for a few months now, only I've kept its knowledge quiet from my model train friends on account of one thing.... the wires. Or lack of any on my layout.

Pent-up over the pantographs. They're beautiful, but running them up requires a rebuild of one end of my layout!

This model sold out the first time, and whilst the re-released version with the white roof was still available, I bought one and tucked it away while deciding if, or should, I add the overhead wires to the short beach extension of my layout. My thinking was that I could have a country/city transition between sections, with the wires emphasising the rails had reached Sydney's outer reaches. But the extension in its new form is still nothing more than a staging shelf, with the added bonus of having scenery in place. Adding wires? Well, that's just going to complicate placing and removing rollingstock from the rails. As for the pantographs? Unless I want to rebuild the mouse-hole beneath the overpass to make it 1.5 cm higher, then I'd have to always run this model with pantographs down. I wish I had the chance to run one of these locos first on my layout before buying one. And after a great afternoon of running some different locos on my layout, I thought the timing was right to move the 46 Class on, and place it up on eBay.

I suppose chopping and changing locos is a way of keeping a small layout looking and feeling fresh to operate. I also recently moved on the AustrainsNEO NR class on account of it being a little too long to work in and out of every siding with a wagon in tow. Now, I'm hoping that the soon-to-aarive 442 Class loco proves to be the final answer for my layout. A simple roster for a compact bookshelf layout in the form of a 421 Class and 442 Class locomotive to work alongside my 2 car Xplorer train. Apart from that... there is always the option of having another Strange Saturday at Philden somewhere further down the line!

Bringing back the Bulldog

It seems that unmistakable EMD Bulldog nose has reared it's head once more in Philden Yard. More than a year since a 421 class locomotive was last seen at Philden, the classy curves of a Clyde Engineering built AJ16C General Motors Electro-Motive diesel have emerged from the shadows of the overpass to work the cement plant once more.

After spotting loaded cement hoppers the night before, 42109 returns the next day to collect the empties.

Unlike its predecessor 42101 who was last seen working Philden still wearing it's NSW State Rail Authority candy livery, 42109 has been deployed by private operator Interail on hook-and-pull duties to work the cement plant, and arrived recently overhauled, looking clean and sporting the rainbow colours of predecessor Northern Rivers Railroad.

The 421's are a classy looking loco. Retaining the American Bulldog nose at the no. 1 end, they had a second cab compartment added to the flat no. 2 end that made them one of the most unique examples of their type in the world. There were only 10 built in 1965-66 and by 1986-87 all had been withdrawn from government service. Four were later purchased by the Northern Rivers Railroad group who restored them and returned the locos to service in 1997, working cement and flyash trains between Grafton and Murwillumbah. By 1999, NRR were using the locomotives on the Ritz Rail tourist train between Casino and Murwillumbah. The party only lasted to March 2002, when the Ritz Rail train was discontinued and the Northern Rivers Railroad was purchased by Queensland Rail and renamed Interail. All four 421 class locos were included in the sale and were later used on infrastructure work on the NSW north coast, coal haulage in the northern Hunter Valley and container trains between Casino and Acacia Ridge Yard in Brisbane.

And viewed from the other side of the layout, the Bulldog returns through the mouse-hole with another loaded cement train.

Despite not even being born at the time the 421 Class locos were introduced into service on the N.S.W.G.R. there are a lot of stories I can tell of the surviving class members' second life wearing rainbow colours. Such as the 7 years I worked for Woolworths Distribution, driving a forklift in their distribution centre alongside Acacia Ridge rail yard in Brisbane. Often on a Friday night I'd be assigned to work the pallet yard which just so happened to be hard up against the fence of the railway siding. In between loading trucks and sorting pallets, I'd always leave a gap so that I had a clear view of the 2 sidings that ended hard against the fence. At some point after 6 pm on a Friday night when they were done shunting for the week, a pair of 421's would always end up parked at the end of the siding, their round noses glistening in the light of the distribution centre truck bays. It became my Friday night train fix before the weekend.

42109 poses on my desk alongside a photo of her in my book working a ballast train in the summer of 2003/2004.

Another story was from over the summer of 2003/2004, when I set off with my young family on a day's adventure through the Brisbane Border Ranges, driving the Lions Road while following the NSW North Coast Line from the back of Beaudesert to Kyogle. After waiting at the top of the Cougal Spiral to photograph a train, the batteries on the camera died and I couldn't buy anymore until we reached Kyogle. Deciding to drive south to Casino and cut across to Byron Bay to stay the night before heading back to Brisbane the next day, my wife Denise became excited for me when we passed a slow train on the highway near Nammoona. Pulling off to the side of the road in a hurry at a level crossing that was only a short distance in front of us, I jumped out with my camera ready and the sound of crossing bells chiming in my ears only to discover the train had stopped and was now travelling backwards away from us. The bells stopped chiming, the traffic continued across the railway line once more and I remember returning to the car shaking my head and saying, "of all the luck." Just as I started the car to continue on our way, the crossing lights sprang to life and the distant rumble of two diesels filled the air once more. I jumped from the car again and this time snapped 42109 with a 422 class diesel tucked in behind as they struggled up the crest of a grade with a loaded ballast train. My guess is the train stalled on the hill leading up to the road crossing and needed a bigger run-up. For a weekend of chasing trains, it was the only photo I returned home with!

It was stories such as these that prompted me to put together my photographic memoir titled 30 Years Chasing Trains, but funnily enough the memories of that train chasing mis-adventure with my young family, (back before my kids grew up and moved out of home), made adding 42109 to my small layout all that more special.

I had to go out and buy my new Auscision model before the 2017 Brisbane Model Train Show weekend to operate as a partner-in-crime with my Pacific National 82 Class loco. The model performed faultlessly over the entire weekend and is easily the nicest locomotive I've owned to date. Bringing the Bulldog back to Philden has been a special moment for me. Just like the first CountryLink Xplorer I owned was sold, and later came back in the original phase I CountryLink livery, the original candy liveried 421 that I also sold over a year ago has now come back in another form, this time in the much more era-appropriate Interail livery that perfectly positions it in the 2002-2005 era I find myself modelling on Philden.

Through a lot of trial and error, I am now happy enough with the roster I have built for my small layout, and will hopefully look at adding just one more locomotive to Philden in the coming year. I think a sound equipped loco capable of operating on DC mode will be the order of the day, and nothing that doesn't belong between 2002-2005. I had a close look at Southern Rail Models' West Australian L class while at the Brisbane Model Train Show, and one of those would look terrific working back and forth in the Interail livery which it wore from 2003, whereas the L's didn't dress-up in Pacific National colours until 2006, after they were purchased from ATN. They had a great offer on the ATN Access sound-equipped locos over the weekend, but as they only pulled grain trains and there's no room for wheat silos on Philden, it was a well-educated pass. Besides, my wife really likes the Interail livery.

So for now I'm going to let it all be a bit of wishful thinking for later this year, and simply enjoy having the Bulldog back. I'll also be following with interest SDS Model's 81 class refresh of the former Austrains model, only this time with sound, after ruling out the Auscision Models 442 class as the only paint schemes on offer for the mid 2000's was the R&H Transport (again, only seen on container trains) and the unique CFCLA livery (which didn't really see much service on anything before being donated to the GL rebuild program). With wet weather the forecast for the weekend, I'm going to weather up my NCTY steel wagons and the NLJX louvered van.

See also; The ALMOST Mail Train and Review; Auscision Models' 421 Class

Creating Authentic Station Announcements

I recently downloaded a program from the RailPage chat forum called DVA 5, and started the fun project of creating sound files for the station announcements on Philden. The program was written and copyrighted by Jonathan Boles back in 1999-2000 and I believe it was the same program used by CityRail to collate their station platform announcements across the Sydney network. With the program now obsolete, Jonathan posted the links to download the Javascript program which he updated to version 5.3.4 on 8th January 2017. Not wanting to be one who violates any redistribution laws, I've simply included the link to Jonathan's post on railpage.com.au below, for those who want to download the program for their own personal use.

https://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11377028.htm

The program setup file is 27.1 MB in size, is free to download and is also free of any addware. It was simple enough to install and even placed a groovy little CityRail L7 logo as the icon on my desktop. On the screenshot above, you'll notice that the left hand column shows the different sound file catalogs, including Sydney-Female and Sydney-Male. Sydneysiders will remember that the male voice that made the platform announcements on the CityRail network was that of Grant Goldman, the 2SM breakfast radio guy, Manly Sea Eagles ground announcer and now the voice of Sky Channel. He was of course replaced by the female voice of Taylor Owynns around 2010. Before recording the announcements for what is now known as SydneyTrains, Taylor was already famous for being the voice of Lulu on the popular children's show Bananas In Pyjamas.

Anyway, using Grant's booming male voice to fit the 1995-2005 era that I model, I soon started playing around using the 1,251 pre-recorded sayings that Mr Goldman had recorded during his time, to collaborate my own CountryLink station announcements for Philden's South North West Explorer. As my fictional Explorer train goes everywhere except east, (or it would fall into the ocean off the coastline of Australia), I had a bit of fun recording the following announcements. Simply press the play button on each of the following clips below to hear what I mean.

There's this train that goes anywhere ending in 'O'.



Or this train going everywhere ending in 'I'.



Or perhaps you'd like to ride this train heading everywhere ending in 'E'.



Or perhaps you'd like a ticket to anywhere ending in 'A'.



Each file you create can be exported as an MP3 file into a folder of your choosing. I then uploaded the MP3 files above to a free sound file sharing site called Clyp, which I felt was a safer way of publicly sharing these examples than providing a link to each MP3 file stored on my Google Drive account. I figured those serious enough to want to add these station announcements to their own layouts, would simply have way more fun downloading the program and creating their own announcements.

After the fun of creating some bogus station announcements had passed, I soon took out my 1990's railway timetables and began compiling announcements for the trains listed within them, starting with all the CountryLink Explorer trains that I could simulate passing through Philden. I then moved onto the CityRail services that I'm going to pretend my 2 car Sydney suburban double-decker is substituting for on my upper level.

So far, I've created over 40 MP3 files. Next up, I'm going to load the completed files onto an iPod Mini Shuffle and connect it to a small hidden speaker beneath my layout. I figure that playing a different station announcement each time my same 2 car Explorer set or double-decker electric train comes and goes from my station, will do wonders to help create the illusion that my models actual connect to somewhere beyond the layout. Because having a small layout sometimes calls for a bit of creative thinking outside the box.

Speaking of boxes, another feature of the DVA 5 program is the station indicator boards. Clicking the indicator tab will open the boxes that enable you to call up various services from actual timetables, and alter the arrival times and platform numbers etc., before sitting back and watching the station names scroll up on the screen just as the blue computer screen indicators do at the Sydney stations that are fitted with them. Perhaps after I have the sound files finished and working in time for the Brisbane Model Train Show in May this year, I can then look at building a working replica indicator screen into the upper level expansion on my layout. Or at least I can have the program open and running on the desk in front of my layout when I running my trains.

Finally, in keeping with the light-hearted approach to my modelling, I'll leave you with one final clip in honour of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks winning last year's NRL Premiership. The Up, Up Cronulla service.

Next week I'm heading to Sydney for a short break where, apart from some general sightseeing, I'll be scouting a few train stations in the hope of finding some inspiration for the NSW A-8 centre platform station building on my upper level layout extension. But as usual, I'll let that be a story for another day.

That steel ain't light

Following the recent arrival of the NCTY Tubemakers Structural open wagons at Philden, coil steel shipments have begun arriving at the open concrete yard alongside the cement plant. A concrete reinforcing shed has been erected 'just beyond the layout edge' as part of a Nation Building upgrade for the Interstate Highway that crosses the tracks at the mouse-hole end of my layout. The steel rolls are being milled and cut on site to reinforce the giant concrete spans needed for the highway construction. So I thought I'd venture trackside with my camera to capture the first shipment of 1:83 scale steel as it arrived. You may notice the rusted rails from a long abandoned siding that are still embedded in the concrete loading area. I sure hope that 'forkie' knows what he's doing before he tries to unloading the wagons.

She'll be right mate! It just needs a bit more Gumption.

Apparently not. After struggling to lift the giant coil from wagon number 85117G, it appears he didn't have enough back tilt when jolting across the old rails and has ended up with his back wheels in the air, (something that happened to myself a few times during my years driving forklifts). Maybe the site foreman needs to look at buying a bigger forklift!

Those abandoned rails are going to make unloading a pain in the butt for the forklift driver.

By the time he had finished unloading both wagons, it was fast approaching nightfall, and the new LED lights I had installed were on in the yard. While the construction crew probably won't get to work rolling and cutting the steel coils till morning, meanwhile the train crew had returned to collect the empties and were growing irate by the minute that their pick-up wasn't yet ready and were holed up in the platform road at Philden Station, waiting to drag the two empty wagons forward before they could run around to couple on and head off in the up direction towards the staging yard.

While chatting with the Senior SM on the platform, they were however heard to speak highly of the new LED lighting installed recently at the station. The driver even recalled humorously a previous visit when he asked the Assistant Station Master at the time if he was burning the toast in his office. It turned out it wasn't the toast, but the old platform lighting that had begun to melt like toasted marshmallows. Fortunately by now the NCTY's were ready to be pulled clear of the cement road siding and the crew were on their way just as the last slithers of light disappeared in the west.

This short operating session was all just a bit of fun, but it does show that a small bookshelf layout can be used to simulate some real life operation problems. The 86 class, having ventured further than any NSW 86 class has ever ventured before, will now be packed away to await the construction of the upper level of my layout, which will feature overhead catenary and a giant OneSteel receiving shed. Next week 8243 will return in its place. Also due next week, (by means of the post man), is the first of my major rollingstock additions for the as yet un-named upper level, (no, its not the Tangara), but something else that combined with my 86 class electric will provide enough operating pleasure all on its own. But as usual, I'll let that be a story for another day.

See also; Auscision Models NCTY/NODY Wagons

Snacks for Operating Sessions

I recently decided to sort through a box of railway paraphernalia I had collected over the years in-between modelling projects. I'm very glad I did. For among the stash of clutter I discovered a CountryLink on-board service guide that I had.... um, somehow obtained from a trip on the XPT from Brisbane to Grafton back in 2007. Travelers may be familiar with the type of fold-out buffet car menu and on-board safety guide I am talking about. This one is now almost a decade old, an inside is a picture of the CountryLink Xplorer in the same livery that now operates on Philden. This got me to thinking, 'what if I simulated the on-board menu selection when operating my Xplorer just for fun?'

Page 2 of the CountryLink on-board service guide for the Xplorer and XPT train services.

For those who are curious, I have carefully scanned each of the four fold-out pages for you to reminisce over. After all, following the demise of the CountryLink brand in June 2013, it is now a piece of railway history.

Page 3 of the CountryLink on-board service guide for the Xplorer and XPT train services.

Apart from the no-smoking and alcohol policies that place this guide in the modern era, it is interesting to see that an on-board Pay Phone was heralded as a feature. Phone cards could be purchased on-board from the buffet car. These days, every child from the ages 11 and up seems to be carrying their own personal mobile phones. But anyway, to the most important part of this amazing treasure find, the on-board menu.

The on-board menu for the CountryLink XPT and Xplorer Buffet Cars, 1989-2007.

Apart from the usual staples that you would expect to find on a train, the XPT and Xplorer offers some fine examples of Australian cuisine, such as the meat pie with sauce, Anzac biscuits and a Cornish pastie. Although it must be noted that the Cornish pastie was only available on the Canberra, Armidale and Moree Xplorers only, so all you unfortunate XPT travelers sadly miss out on this ravishing delicacy. There were a number of differences I noticed between the XPT and Xplorer menus that baffle me. Notably, raisin toast is only available on XPT trains, as is/was the selection of plain toast with a choice of jams. But the menu item that leaves me completely flabbergasted, was the snack pack with wine; available on Canberra Xplorer services only. Now I know that Canberra is the nation's capital, and home to our mightily esteemed politicians, but why is a well-deserving farmer catching a train to Narrabri unable to indulge in the afternoon pleasure of a Chardy with a slice of Coon cheese on a cracker? To me it seems a bit unfair, perhaps almost Un-Australian. So, if I am to play the part of a rivet-counter and stick to the particulars of prototypical model railway operations, then my whole model railway is going to have to be re-themed to portray the Canberra Line. Because there's no way that at 3.30 pm in the afternoon that I am going to run my Xplorer without a glass of wine in my hand!

And yes, my 2 car Xplorer does feature an on-board Buffet Car.

See also; Running some CountryLink timetables

Running some CountryLink timetables

I like to keep running my trains fun. Yet even once my removable staging comes online later this year, I'll only have around 9 feet of line to simulate trains coming and going on my bookshelf layout. So how do you keep operations fun? Well, I'll reveal a little bit of my nerdy side here, only if you promise not to tell anyone.

First-up I'm heading west, on the CountryLink Broken Hill Outback Xplorer.

The other part I love about model trains is collecting railway timetables. So with my circa 1993-2007 CountryLink Xplorer now here to stay, I pulled out my set of 2003 CountryLink timetables and created my own fun. Simply by simulating station stops at Philden from the pages of the timetable for each up-and-back movement on my layout. Beginning with the Western timetable, my 2 car Xplorer set had to cover for what is normally a 3 car train on the Broken Hill Outback Xplorer. In this instance, Philden becomes both Sydney's Central Station, and every other station the Xplorer is scheduled to stop at between Sydney and Broken Hill.

Out west, all the stations are starting to look the same.

It sounds simple. Perhaps a little too simple. But running a train up-and-back all afternoon on a bookshelf layout, can in time become a little boring. By pretending that the Mondays only CountryLink service 445 due for a 6.20 am departure from Central Station is scheduled to stop at; Strathfield, Parramatta, Penrith, Katoomba, Lithgow, Bathurst, Blayney, Orange, Parkes, Condobolin, Euabalong West, Ivanhoe, Darnick and Menindee before arriving in the outback city of Broken Hill at 7.10 pm Central Standard Time, I give my highly detailed plastic model a sense of purpose and occasion each time it comes to a stop alongside the station building at Philden. And then there is the matter of returning the train to Sydney once more.

Next I head south....

Once back at Sydney's Central Station, there is just enough time for me to go to the toilet, grab a fresh cup of coffee and perhaps a light snack before taking out my CountryLink Southern timetable and boarding CountryLink service 621, the Canberra Xplorer.

....to the Nation's Capital of Canberra.

The daily 12.14 pm midday departure from Central Station will see my 2 car Xplorer stop at; Strathfield, Campbelltown, Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale, Bundanoon, Goulburn, Tarago, Bugendore and Queanbeyan before arriving in the Nation's Capital of Canberra at 4.20 pm.

Along the way I meet my fair share of passing freight trains and connecting road coaches.

On the return 5.15 pm evening service 624 to Sydney, I may even catch a glimpse of my 82 class locomotive shunting the cement works at Philden, or should that read Boral's Maldon cement works. I can never be sure as Philden is simply located 'somewhere in New South Wales at a railway station far, far away...' That's just the beauty of having a fictional model railway.

Changing trains, I'm now headed north west....

Back at Sydney's central station once more at 9.26 pm after my trip to Canberra, I may decide to call it a night, or board the other Southern timetabled Xplorer service, the Saturdays only Griffith Xplorer. I choose instead to stretch my legs around Central Station's grand concourse and once more grab a cup of coffee before pulling out my CountryLink North West timetable and boarding the combined daily 10.05 am service 223/225 to Armidale and Moree.

....on the Xplorer to Armidale.

This service operates as two Xplorer sets coupled together before dividing at Werris Creek. Today I am taking the 223 service to Armidale. After leaving Sydney's Central Station at 10.05 am, the train stops at; Strathfield, Hornsby, Gosford, Wyong, Fassifern, Broadmeadow, Maitland, Singleton, Muswellbrook, Aberdeen, Scone, Murrurundi, Willow Tree and Quirindi before reaching Werris Creek at 3.34 pm. Here the train divides in two with usually a 2 car set operating to Moree, and a 3 to 5 car set depending on passenger bookings to Armidale. For some reason or other, the authorities today have only rostered a 2 car set to Armidale. Leaving Werris Creek, service 223 continues stopping at; Tamworth, Kootingal, Walcha Road and Uralla before arriving at Armidale at 6.19 pm.

And finally the waiting road coach will take me back home to Queensland.

By this time, I've had just about all the fun I can handle for one day. The return 224 service to Sydney isn't timetabled to return until the next morning at 9.00 am, and it will be 5.00 pm before it arrives back at Sydney's Central Station. So I leave the train at Armidale and board one of the waiting road coaches, in my case, a fictitious connecting Deluxe Coachlines service to Brisbane that will take me home to sunny Queensland, (will someone please make a CountryLink road coach?).

So there you have it. That's how I came up with the name the South NorthWestern Xplorer for my layout. The train bloody-well runs everywhere! And for a small layout where you can easily tire of running a train back-and-forth, being a geek and running my Xplorer to an actual CountryLink timetable prolongs the fun just that little bit longer. Now next time if I board the train in Armidale, I wonder if I'll simply head all the way to Griffith?

See also; CountryLink resumes Philden services

CountryLink resumes Philden services

As Stephen King once wrote; sometimes they come back. Less than two months after the final Philden Xplorer left town, CountryLink have restored passenger services to Philden once more. Only this time, the period is the CountryLink Mark I livery as used between 1993-2007.

It's now 1994, and the South Northwestern Xplorer is making its scheduled stop at Philden.

In perhaps the biggest feel-good, good-news story of the year on Philden Model Railway, the 2 car South Northwestern Xplorer is once again pulling up at Philden Railway Station, somewhere in New South Wales. After reluctantly letting my Southern Rail Models Mark II livery CountryLink Xplorer go for a bargain price on eBay in the midst of a financial pickle, it seems that once more the hobby Gods have smiled down on me in the form of a Mark I Xplorer in the original CountryLink livery as worn between 1993-2007, at an equally enticing bargain price. I've always said that this hobby has a way of being good to me, and the old saying 'what goes around, comes around' certainly rings true in this case.

There's a lot to like about the Mark I CountryLink livery. It's clean, neat and now a modern classic.

The thing I like most about the original CountryLink livery, is that it represented a huge departure for railways in New South Wales in both the way they operated long distance trains, and certainly in the way they projected a clean, fresh corporate image to the Australian travelling public. The first new train to be born into this new corporate image in 1993 was the Xplorer, so named in a marketing exercise so as to tie it in with the existing, repainted XPT train fleet.

These are the kind of gorgeous models that my wife approves me looking at on the internet.

I have already posted a review of the now almost completely sold-out Southern Rail Models Xplorer based on the model I once owned in the Mark II RailCorp era livery. However, straight out-of-the-box, I think the Mark I livery won me over from a number of angles. Firstly, the livery captures a period in my life when I travelled extensively by train between Brisbane, Murwillumbah, Sydney and Melbourne. I just see that blue and teal pin-striping and immediately I recall all those wonderful memories of heading off into the night on an XPT. Secondly, the train represents a reminder of my Uncle Frank's involvement with the railways over more than three decades. Frank Overton was Reservations Manager for CountryLink at the time of the Xplorer's inception, and I'd often hear his stories of how he petitioned long and hard behind closed doors to reinstate passenger train services to the north west of NSW using a new train set. The result was the Xplorer, the newborn baby of the XPT fleet.

The number 1 end has the large CountryLink logo behind the door.

There are only small differences between the Mark I and Mark II Xplorer models. Most noticably being the single windshield wipers on the Mark I model as compared to the twin wipers on the Mark II, and the small cow catcher bar beneath the coupler box that I didn't recall being there on the Mark II CountryLink version.

The number 2 end just has the small CountryLink logo in front of the door.

After breaking the windshield wiper on the number 2 end of the train when removing it from the box, I once more cut away the foam packaging around the windshield area inside the box before gluing the wiper arm back on, and having to touch up the paintwork where the glue reacted to the painted surface. My advice to other Xplorer owners is to do the same to the foam insert inside the storage box.

Cutting the foam insert back will save you breaking a windshield wiper like I did when taking it from the box.

So with the Xplorer now firmly planted on the rails heading in and out of Philden, I really need to get a wiggle on to complete my station building to a 2002-2008 appearance, from when the 82 class were re-badged with Pacific National decals, to when CountryLink repainted their Xplorer fleet into the Mark II livery.

What I originally built my layout for, a 2 car CountryLink service coming and going.

Until I eventually expand the layout with some removable staging, I can be content to run the Xplorer up and back once more and know that although trains do occasionally leave layouts for a number of reasons, sometimes they do come back.

And finally, the view from my desk. Isn't she gorgeous?

Having had to say goodbye to this HO scale model once, I think this Xplorer now goes straight onto the protected species list. That is, if ever I head in another model railway direction in the near future, this train shall remain untouchable on Philden's rails.

See also; Review: Southern Rail Model's Xplorer and The Last Philden Xplorer