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!

Straightening the Beach Extension

Philden's track working crew moved in over the weekend to straighten the bottleneck that was hindering operation on the new beach extension. The three track configuration was lifted up and the turnout for the number one siding removed ahead of works commencing on the new Countrylink Travel Centre. The mainline and platform terminus track has been straightened and relaid over the original alignment of the number one siding, while the lead track to the future Port Yard was also lifted ahead of the bridge crew carrying out minor structural enhancements to the concrete spans.

I thought this simple detail addition made a simple balsa wood bridge more believable.

The signals branch also had to retrofit the port access bridge with steel arms to carry signal cabling across the right-of-way. The steel brackets, (leftovers from the Faller cement plant) were attached to the bridge on the harbour side, with the white plastic conduit carrying the cabling (unpainted white 2mm styrene rod) attached to the underside as shown in the above photo.

There's still more detail to be added around the harbour walls.

Port Authority personnel then moved in to finish the concrete harbour walls with timber capping, and attempted to secure the area with some chain link fencing, which unfortunately rusted the moment it was erected due to the salt air.

The bridge looks so much better with the spacing sprues removed from between each sleeper.

RailCorp workers then moved onsite to re-lay the Port Yard lead track across the bridge, cutting the spaces between each flextrack sleeper or tie to ensure closer spacing over the concrete span while also allowing a slightly wider gap for the rails to clear each of the steel signal cable brackets.

Realigning the platform road required cutting a straighter approach through the concrete apron.

Architects for the new state-of-the-art Travel Centre then had to consult with Port Authority and RailCorp personnel over the alignment of the new end platform road, with the result being that the concrete apron on the Port Authority Yard was trimmed back to ensure a straighter approach to what will be a stub-ended platform siding.

The original design looked better, but the space constraints made operating difficult.

Compared to earlier construction photos (above), the resultant changes will now mean that any freight locomotives will have to be stored between duties on the approach prior to the Port Authority bridge at roughly the location of the former turnout in the above photo.

The new arrangement has more room to get hands-on, and size enough to build a bigger station structure.

With Countrylink deciding to terminate all future passenger services at Phills Harbour, the new platform road will be provided with a buffer stop, and earthworks are already taking place at the end of the newly laid track. The concrete area to the side of the platform road will now be set aside for fuel and crew provisioning facilities for Countrylink Xplorer services, while work has already commenced on positioning the platform base and edging for the future station. The new arrangement will greatly simplify rail movements to and from nearby Philden Yard, while also allowing for massive expansion opportunities should the Port Authority move in that direction.

When contacted, the Countrylink Area Manager of Operations stated that the necessary track wiring had already been completed, with ballasting set to commence the next day. Plans for the new Countrylink Travel Centre were already finalised, and once finished, future passengers could expect a pleasant and modern station to greet them when boarding the train to Sydney. For the moment, road coach connections will continue to transport passengers to nearby Philden to connect with the daily South North West Xplorer. Phills Harbour Station is earmarked to be completed by Christmas 2018.

See also; The Port becomes operational

Philden makes the cover

There was a pleasant surprise waiting in my mailbox when I returned home from my week long adventure across outback New South Wales. Just over three years since cutting the first piece of timber for my small HO scale layout, Philden has appeared on August's cover of Australian Model Railway Magazine. I guess it speaks volumes against three decades of telling myself that I simply didn't have the room to switch to modelling Australian trains convincingly. It turns out I was wrong.

Having your layout appear on the cover of a model railway magazine I keep reminding my friends, is the model train enthusiast's equivalent of making the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, minus the leather pants clad band members and spiked hair. Seeing my layout on the cover was a reminder that the basics of what I had set out to do had worked, and worked to the point of being noticed by Australian Model Railway Magazine's editor James McInerney at last year's Brisbane Model Train Show. I was quite pleased with being able to write the article myself, and only hope it provides a train load of inspiration for other modellers, who like me, are stuck for space when it comes to building a layout. You can see more of what's waiting inside the August issue, buy the copy, or better still, support this great hobby and subscribe for just $60 Australian for 6 issues per year by clicking on the link here. Otherwise, the issue is available to purchase at most newsagents now.

Fresh from a week's break from work to travel south from Queensland to Victoria to visit family, I covered 3,882 km by car in the past week to 'detour' via some forgotten railway lines I have been wanting to photograph. If the Sunshine Coast via Warwick, Goondiwindi, Moree, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Narromine, Parkes, Narranderra, Tocumwal, Corowa and Yarrawonga to reach the town of Numurkah just over the Murray River sounds like a long drive, then try to imagine coming back via Echuca, Deniliquin, Hay, Goolgowi, Rankins Springs, West Wyalong, Parkes, Dubbo, Gilgandra, Coonamble, Walgett, Lightning Ridge, Dirranbandi, St George, Dalby, Yarraman and Kilcoy to get home! At last count I'd taken over 1,500 photos. About 24 were of family and some places we visited, while the rest were all railway stations, bridges or trains!

Before I go through all the photographs however, I have a few busy weekends ahead of me getting ready for both the Stafford Baptist Church and Redlands Model Train Shows in August, starting with re-laying the tracks for the new extension. But after that, the trip has given me a thousand great ideas for small projects to do next on the layout. It just goes to show, a layout is never finished, even when it makes the cover of a magazine.