Exhibition #3 Gold Coast

Hey there Humphrey Bear! Thanks for stopping by to see Philden at this year's Miniature Trains on the Coast. Fresh back from my 3rd public showing of Philden on Australia's Gold Coast, I must admit that the warm weather over the weekend signalled the Queensland model train exhibition circuit is coming to a close for 2017. Swapping the Sunshine Coast for the Gold Coast for another weekend of running trains, I once more dismantled my bookshelf layout, took it down six flights of stairs and packed it safely into the back of our hatchback for the two hour trip down the highway. The warm weekend called for the air-conditioning to be on high and some Coldplay on the car stereo.

The 2018 venue for the Commonwealth Games hosted this year's Gold Coast Miniature Train Show.

Down on the Gold Coast, Carrara is being transformed ahead of the city hosting the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April 2018. The old Gold Coast Rollers basketball stadium was once more the venue for the Miniature Trains on the Coast over the weekend of October 28-29, but this time the giant yellow Gold Coast Sports Complex building behind it was being opened for the public to view for the first time. I think organisers were expecting a bumper crowd next door with food vendors, live concerts and activities throughout the day, but the spies I sent next door to tell me what I was missing out on reported that the numbers were thin and there were more people inside the old building looking at the model trains.

I don't get to park this close when I go to the AFL at Metricon Stadium! Did anyone notice my Brisbane Lions plates?

Saturday saw a good amount of visitors through the doors and called for exhibitors to park their cars next door at Metricon Stadium, the home of the AFL's Gold Coast Suns. Last time I was here was to watch my Brisbane Lions defeat the Suns by just 2 points. Back then I had to park the car 7 kilometres away and walk to the game. This time I was directed to park much closer than anyone with Lions number plates on their car has ever dared before. I just couldn't help taking the above photo!

Denise spent just as much time at the controls as I did over the weekend.

A basketball stadium as a venue for a model train show is superb, in that the floors are dead level and the amenities a cut above most others. Denise and I had no problems in setting up the layout, and posted a new record for packing up and loading the car for the trip home on the Sunday evening of just 20 minutes. The quality of layouts on display over the weekend was the best of the 3 shows I have taken Philden to so far.

Despite adding a new illuminated layout name sign that said PHILDEN, I still had someone point out that my layout looked nothing like the Granville Bridge on account of the 'All Stations to Granville' memorabilia that is attached to the layout's frame. It only proves you can't win them all. I suppose it was nowhere near as bad as the gentleman who stopped, screwed up his nose and exclaimed, "it's nicely detailed and all, but why would you want to build something that just goes up and back? To me it's just a waste of space and may as well not be here. In fact I'm bored already just looking at it." I suppose its each to his own, but if by comparison he's only got a box of old train parts tucked away in a garage he plans to do something with one day, I for one would like to return the compliment when he exhibits his layout someday. If indeed he ever gets around to building one at all.

Exhibiting my layout three times over the course of 2017 has however been a rewarding experience. Now that the Gold Coast Miniature Train Show is done and dusted, I feel like a footballer whose season is over. In fact, at this stage I am unsure whether I will exhibit Philden again next year. The layout from here on can only be tinkered with as far as any changes are concerned, and for the large part I've exhausted what I can write about it here on this blog. I don't want Philden to become one of those layouts people tire of seeing. During the course of the past 2 years, I've not only been enjoying my hobby, but taking the time to self-produce some railway books of my own. To a large point that has been a rather disappointing affair. Readership here and on my author blog hasn't necessarily translated to sales and it is time for me to give it the flick and move onto something else. At this point I am committed to finishing my set of 4 Last Train railway bush poetry photo books by mid next year, after which time I feel inclined to pursue something entirely different in life. By then I may have finished that other layout I've been referring to, and Philden might not make another public appearance at all.

Regardless of what the future brings, I plan to keep Philden standing proudly above my desk.

Armed with the memory of posing for that photo with Humphrey B. Bear at the 2017 Gold Coast Miniature Train Show, and with Denise having recorded just as many scale miles as I did on my small layout over the weekend, we headed home. A stadium quickly becomes a lonely place after the game is over. So with Coldplay filling our ears, and summer storm clouds chasing us in our rear view mirror, we headed north on the highway. Another show over. Another one to come. Perhaps. But as usual, I'll let that be a story for another day.

See also; Exhibition #2 Pine Rivers

Signal Box Part Two

After completing my small New South Wales signal box in my last post, I found myself staring long and hard at the photos I had taken of Neath Signal Box in the Hunter Valley. While it captured the essence of the hardy little survivor from the steam age, I soon realised that I was only going to get one chance to make this look like a replica of the original before gluing it into place on my layout. And that meant taking a scalpel to the so-far finished model to give the building some cosmetic surgery.

The long vacant concrete slab still needed some modification to fit the signal box's shape.

With the assembly and painting of the Walker Models kit already finished in my Signal Box Part One post, I started by testing that the structure was going to fit on the concrete slab I had built into position two years earlier when first constructing my layout. It turned out it didn't. Fortunately the building fitted perfectly between the lengthwise gap I'd left between the fencing. The foundations however were about 9 mm too narrow for the width of the building, which called for me to scrape away some of the scenery base and cut, paint and glue a fifth strip of balsa foundation in the area shown above.

Leftover flextrack ties or sleepers and some 1.5 mm round polystyrene make for easy line-side fencing.

Next up was the white metal post and rail fence shown in the photo. For this I cheated a little and used some 1.5 mm round styrene strip shoved through the holes of some plastic PECO sleepers or ties that were trimmed from a scrap piece of flextrack. I then pre-drilled the holes where the fence would sit alongside the track, and cut the sleepers to the desired height.

I glued the fence into position as I constructed it.

With the extra strip of balsa wood foundation now secured in place, I then glued the sleeper posts with the styrene rod in place into the pre-drilled holes and fixed a second railing to the top using some super glue. I came back to paint the posts white later.

Some orange paint applied to my silver mesh ribbon turns it into some modern orange safety barrier mesh.

Next I turned my attention to the orange safety barrier mesh that had been tacked onto the bottom of the stairs in the photo. Using the same silver ribbon as I did for the security screen mesh on the windows, I painted this with some old Humbrol Enamel No. 18 Orange and set is aside to dry while I turned my attention to the awning supports. There is a strip of piping conduit on the corner of the building that runs all the way from the roof awning to the ground. I cut this using the same 1.5 mm round styrene strip and glued it to the painted using some balsa cement before painting it in the same Senco Off White Acrylic that I used for the weatherboards. I then matched the bottom of the styrene strip to the photo by painting in in the matching Tamiya XF-11 J.N. Green that I used for the brickwork.

Finally I cut the cross beam supports away from the side roof fascia, and also the platform awning support post from the corner of the handrail. Turning to my box of scrap parts leftover from my Faller Cement Works kit, I found a leftover section of 1 mm diameter drain pipe complete with a 45 degree angle bend, and used this as the awning down pipe that is awkwardly positioned between the signal box and the stairwell. I then used a leftover off-cut from this to glue the angled awning support beam that can be seen beside the door on the original. I then drew the latchbolt onto the balsa door with a black pen, and added the blue rectangular security company sticker to the left of the door.

The end result viewed in daylight, and once more out of place against the Caloundra skyline, 

My photos also showed an interesting radio antennae that was anchored to the platform base and platform awning. In the photo it is quite tall, and I guessed it to be around 4.5 metres tall. So I cut another length of 1.5 mm round styrene strip to a height I thought looked right, and then glued two angle brackets from my leftover kit scrap-box either side of it before painting it with my silver paint pen. Finally I could then add all these signature pieces to my finished model, and weather it accordingly.

I next added the LED light and glued the structure to the layout.

To add the tiny LED light inside the signal box, I taped the wire to a 1.5 mm x 40 mm high strip of styrene rod and shoved it up from underneath the layout into the pre-drilled holes in both the concrete slab and the base of the Walker Models building before gluing the signal box in place on my layout. The styrene riser holds the LED just above the height of the window frame so that it is not visible through the security mesh windows. If ever I need to replace the LED, it can be pulled back out from underneath.

The completed signal box now stands guard by the entry to Philden Station.

On the rear of the signal box I added a resin cast silver power metre box. The resin casting was a seconds sample given to me by Stuart from Walker Models to play around with, and I just gave it my silver paint pen treatment followed by a little dab of Rustall. I don't know if there was one on the back of the signal box as it was the one side I forgot to photograph when I visited the Hunter Valley in 2016. But for the sake of adding a little interest, I think it looks pretty neat.

Its a little bit ramshackle, but still structurally strong. Just what I was aiming for.

I measured the length of the orange safety barrier mesh before I trimmed it to ensure it just tucks messily in behind the white track-side safety fence. I've set my model in the era between 2002-2005, and the photographs I took of the building a decade later in 2016 show the building in a little worse condition and the safety barrier near trampled to death. So for arguments sake, we'll just say that this captures the beginnings of trespassers pushing their way through the safety barrier.

The end result was a pleasing enough match to Neath Signal Box. That's me on a visit in May 2016.

Since purchasing this kit two years ago, Walker Models have since released a newer version of the Neath Signal Box kit that is more accurate when it comes to the window sizes, roof awnings and supports and the shape of the platform as you can see on the real life version above. The original version I have just shown you how to build is now sold as the small NSWGR Signal Box. For myself, I'm glad I stuck with building the original kit, as it still enables me to keep the bus set down area on my layout that sits between the backdrop and the end of the railway station platform. Making the few cosmetic changes has enabled me to at least capture the essence of that day back in May 2016 when I visited what remained of Neath Railway Station, didn't see any trains, but at least had a great dinner at the nearby Neath Hotel.

See also; Signal Box part One

Signal Box Part One

I've purposefully held-off from building this NSW Signal Box kit despite having told everyone my bookshelf layout was finished. Regular readers of my blog would have noticed the vacant concrete slab in front of all the photos I've posted of busses pulling up beside Philden Station, and probably wondered why it was there.

The concrete slab for the signal box has stood vacant for almost 2 years.

Back when I was still constructing my layout, I purchased one of Walker Model's NSW small signal box kits, (the one based on Neath in the Hunter Valley), built the concrete slab to the dimensions of the model's base, and set it aside. All with good reason. Being a small layout I knew that one day the inevitable would occur, and I'd find myself sitting back, looking at the layout and ultimately becoming a little dissatisfied that it was now all finished. Well, that day did arrive, and rather than feeling disheartened that I still didn't have the room to expand, (or worse still tearing everything up and starting over), I took out the little signal box kit that I had set aside, and took my time enjoying working on something new.

The Walker Models NSW small signal box is a simple but rewarding laser-cut kit building.

The kit's inner shell glues together easily, and the outer laser-cut timber shell simply glues over the top.

In next to no time the building begins to take shape, although the stairs are a fiddly little item all on their own.

I next test-fit the stairs to ensure that everything aligned.

The instructions in the kit drew my attention to the roof pitch where the walls needed to be filed to the same angle as the roof-line. I simply used a sharp hobby knife to angle the top of the walls and also the roof pieces so they fitted perfectly.

After completing the basic shell of the building, it was time to consult my own photos to decide how I would finish the little signal box. Those who read my final Railway Reminiscing post on Neath over on my author blog, will appreciate that I wanted to try and capture the essence of what Neath Signal Box looks like today. I wanted a structure that would complement Philden Railway Station, rather than trying to model the signal box exactly. So the photo below served purely as a guide.

Neath Signal Box in the NSW Hunter Valley, as I photographed it on a visit in May 2016.

Look closely beyond the rundown appearance of the small stairway, and the first thing you notice is the metal security screens bolted over the windows. They have obviously done their job when it comes to stopping rocks being thrown through the glass windows. Also, the signal box door looks as though it had been replaced at some point. As it was nothing like the door that came supplied with the kit, I simply made a plain door using some 2 mm balsa wood. With my layout set between 2002 and 2005, I wanted to include these modern touches on a still existing remnant from the steam era.

I used some silver mesh ribbon glued to the inside of each window frame to get the desired look.

The ribbon was the same one that I used to construct the chain mesh fence along the cement plant siding, (see a between shows refresh for a recap). I cut and then glued each piece to the inside of the window frame for a neater appearance. The chain ribbon is see through and provided such a good effect, that I didn't bother fitting the clear window panes on the building.

I then put the finished security screen clad windows aside to paint the signal box and roof.

I next painted the building in matching colours to my photographs, of which the weatherboard colour also happened to be the matching shade of cream on my existing A-4 station. I used Tamiya XF-11 J.N. Green for the bottom brickwork and fascia boards, and a well watered down Senco Acrylic Off White for the signal box weatherboarding. The roof received a quick-and-easy treatment from my trusty silver paint pen, and when dry, it glued into position with a generous smear of craft glue.

The finished result looks pretty neat in broad daylight, and captures a lot of the feel from the prototype.

The silver bracket and square panel at the base were just leftover bits from my junk box.

I took the painted model outside to photograph it in broad daylight, although it does look a little out of place pressed against Caloundra's skyline instead of a small Hunter Valley town. More importantly, building the little signal box has breathed some fresh life back into my small layout.

Although I added some clutter to the building courtesy of some leftover bits from my junk box, the model is still far from finished. Next up I will add an LED light before installing the signal box beside Philden Station. To replicate the photo a little better, there is also some bright orange plastic safety barrier mesh and a white post and wire fence alongside the track to be added. While in the odd-shaped corner alcove of the building there is a twiggy frame of a dead bush clinging to the side of the signal box. They're both small details that will give the model a big dose of atmosphere. But as usual, I'll let that be a story for another day.

See also; Railway Station Part Six