The Summer of regrowth...

It has been a summer of regrowth on Philden Beach. Both literally and metaphorically. Exactly one year after starting down the path of converting my HO scale Australian shelf layout from its former inner-city Melbourne setting to a slice of railfan paradise on the New South Wales North Coast, the layout's transformation is now complete.

Behind the scenes, it has been an exhausting year of navigating a layout revamp as the focus of a new book, trying to keep a full-time writing career financed, and working through some personal health issues that I previously hinted at in my Philden Street's curtain call post.

I'm glad to say that Revamp An Existing Layout went live on my publishing platform Blurb, in the early hours of December 31, 2023, keeping to my goal of completing book 23 in the year '23 by the barest of margins! Having grown up a huge Michael Jordan fan, there was a feeling of personal satisfaction in being able to call time on a writing career with the same number of books as his famous number 23 jersey. To me, it's as close to perfection as I'm likely to ever get.

My layout now has a clear green signal with it's new North Coast setting.

The layout revamp has turned out to be just as good as I had imagined, and my new book takes the reader through each of the steps in identifying existing problems, costing-up a layout revamp and finally a series of budget-savvy projects that will help you re-imagine your own layout. Philden Beach's revamp cost a total of zero dollars, and didn't involve lifting up a single section of track!

Amongst the many improvements to my layout, the above CTC signal I installed at the exit of the secondary track from staging has really enhanced my switching layout's operations. Trains would need to come to a halt here anyway, beside the former marker post that once stood where the signal mast now does, to wait for a clear track to run around in the yard. Now they have to wait for me to change the signal from red to green before proceeding.

There has been a lot of new growth around the layout, including these Norfolk Island pines.

Around the layout, there has also been a lot of regrowth that has occured since my Welcome to The Coast post back in March last year. With my much-loved NSW Goods Shed now surviving onto its third layout, the former sign to the left of the structure has long gone, and in its place a towering Norfolk Island pine has seemingly sprung up out of nowhere.

These banana trees were rescued from my previous Philden Road layout.

Of course, these latest summer improvements were in addition to my original Trees by The Harbour update from May last year, and needed to be completed for inclusion in the book. Given the dramatic coastal backdrop, it was important for me to tie all the colours in with those of the backdrop. And despite not having room for a banana plantation on the layout, I can't think of Coffs Harbour without picturing banana trees growing on the surrounding hillside. So I added a few wild plants growing alongside the rail corridor just to channel that vibe, including the above examples which were returned to me after being carefully pried off my previous Philden Road module.

It's taken a while for me to finally get to my happy place of simply enjoying some model railroading by the sea. Producing 4 model railway books over the course of 2023 strangely hasn't helped. Not when I've needed to cost every hour spent working on the layout, photographing, writing and then editing the final results. Add to that the time I have poured into this blog over the past few years, and it leaves you with little to no time to actually enjoy running some trains.

Either side of taking a vacation for the first time in three years, there were a lot of days where I somehow survived on four hours sleep while working on my latest book. Knowing that I needed to complete the final instalment before TAFE started in the new year was a big motivator! Yet despite the success of the previous five Philden Model Railway books, self-financing and producing all six have left me mentally, emotionally and financially drained.

Anyone thinking that being able to claim a new model locomotive as a tax deduction sounds like a good thing, would not be aware that my royalty return for self-funding all of this averages out to $4 AUD per book sold. If I simply factor in the costs associated with producing each book, bulk purchasing wholesale stock and covering the distribution costs, then my books have all proven to be succesful. However, once I factor in the income I have lost since winding-up my previous small business to concentrate solely on writing full-time, then I still need to sell another 25,000 copies to be able to fully recover. That is a big ask.

From a summer of regrowth on the layout I now head into a year of regrowth for myself. As I have already mentioned when signing-off on my Author blog, the time of writing as Phillip Overton is now over.

The final revamped view looking back over Philden Beach.

While I hope to keep my occasional model railway ramblings continuing here for the foreseeable future, I'm unsure what that may look like on the other side of all this. Already, in the background I have removed well in excess of 100 outdated blog posts, and completely overhauled the design and layout of the Philden Model Railway Blog to ensure it remains a strong and relevant source of information for years to come.

What I am sure of however, is that in time, I will look back on my series of six Philden Model Railway Books with immense pride. To be able to have combined my two passions of writing and model railways into the one project, and self-fund, self-publish and self-distribute a series of books that proved to be profitable, is a great legacy to leave behind.

The most important project for me to work on at the moment however, is myself. That starts with a return to full-time study of visual arts and photography in the coming weeks. For me, it's a chance to recharge, reinvent and rebrand myself away from writing, and is equal parts exciting, and a little scary, to see where my creative side will next lead me outside of the world of model trains.

News of the new book's official launch date will follow soon, with early pre-order copies available for purchase now through Blurb. Expect copies to make their way into your favourite hobby stores from February onwards.

Now, do I dare say it? Maybe I'll power up the layout just for fun...

Sticking with my plan

Finally the track for my small OO9 Christmas layout has been laid. The day after Christmas! Still, I was thankful for the few spare hours on Boxing Day to glue the final sections of track in place that had been teasing me over the course of the past two weeks. I was supposed to have this layout ready for Christmas. But in sticking with my plan, I now have a 12 month head start on completing this layout in ready in time for Christmas 2024.

The track was glued into position using some extra strength Tarzan's Grip wood glue, I simply ran two thin beads along the outline of my track plan I had drawn onto the plywood layout top.

The set track curve and two small turnouts were clicked together to form one piece, and the the glue was spread evenly with an old flat artists paint brush, not left as you can see in the accompanying picture.

Over the Christmas holiday period I worked on one section at a time. The first curved section to be glued into place included the two turnouts, and I pressed these down firmly to ensure they were embedded in the glue and sitting flush and level on the layout surface.

While waiting for it to dry, I tore a sheet of baking paper to lay across the section...

...and weighed it down using my trusty Michael Portillo Great British Railway Journeys hardcover books. [Insert free, not-paid-for Michael Portillo plug here. You're welcome and I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!]

The books kept the section in place while the glue dried overnight, and once the section was dry and firm, I could repeat the process with the opposite end curve.

Once both of the end curves were anchored firmly in place, I could then join the two curves using some PECO OO-9 flextrack, and follow the wiggly outline of my track plan to create a gentle, winding transition from one end of the layout to the other.

The gently winding flextrack section between each curve will add a lot of visual interest.

The outer passing loop curve shows the difference between the PECO flextrack (outside) and set track.

So with another Christmas in Australia now come and gone, my thoughts now turn to having this layout ready for next year. With a few busy weekends infront of me, I'm not sure exactly when I will be able to wire up the layout and get a train trundling around Bryn Nadolig. Especially given that I am frantically trying to complete the final Philden Model Railway book before I commence full-time study in January. Whether I do or not will determine whether the book's release will be in February, or August 2024.

Too late for Christmas 2023... but I now have a 12 month head start on having this layout ready for next year!

So, if you like what you read, please leave a comment below, or better still... show your support for this blog through any of the suggestions to the right. Come 2024, this blog (and my writer's life), is going to powered solely by your generosity. So, shout me a cup of coffee...

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Till next time...

Christmas Spectacular 1st Anniversary

Can you believe it is almost Christmas again? What a year 2023 has been. I'm pleased to say that I haven't let personal challenges get in the way of releasing 3 new books over the course of this year, and revamping my model railway in the process of working on a 4th title. That means that my above Philden Street Christmas Spectacular YouTube video this week also celebrates it's 1st Anniversary. So I thought it timely to haul it out for everyone's attention once more, and wish you a truly wonderful Christmas Holiday. See you all next year...

Merry Christmas, and the Happiest of New Years!

Phill O

G... 2023 went fast!

It only seems like a few weeks ago that I turned my inner-Melbourne HO scale shelf layout into a slice of the NSW North Coast. Now here we are at the beginning of another hot Australian summer, and while looking through some of the photos I had snapped at Philden Beach during the course of this year, I had to stop and calculate exactly how long ago it was that a G Class locomotive paid a visit to the shores of Philden Beach?

Two of 2023's new release models from Auscision, an SCT livered G Class and my Cootes Industrial C.

It was way back in early January that I transformed my Philden Street Yard layout into my NSW North Coast Philden Beach affair. That's now close to 12 months ago. During that time, there has been a steady stream of newly released and re-released models over the course of 2023, many of which have made their way onto my layout's roster.

It started with the re-release of Auscision Models NR Class locos, (late 2022), of which I added NR22 in the 4 star Pacific National livery around this time last year. Then continued with March's release of Auscision's long anticipated BL Class locomotive, my choice being BL28 in the intermodal Pacific National livery. Moving onto some rollingstock, I added Auscision's re-released NGGF sugar hoppers, and their NQJX container wagons and NDMX spoil wagons. And then in July, an Auscision Models C Class locomotive turned up by the seashore in the form of C509 in the Cootes Industrial leased green and gold livery. Things were beginning to look settled until... the above Auscision Models SCT G Class locomotive suddenly popped its head up in one of the back sidings of Philden Beach. Like, what was that all about?

The only SCT PBGY multi-freighter wagon to ever appear at Brandon Industries.

Well, sometimes you just try out different things on your layout, just because you can, like the Trainworld/Rail Motor Models SCT PBGY van above. As you can see, a single van was long enough to completely fill the back dock of my Brandon Industries warehouse. At 27 cm long over the couplers, the PBGY van remains the longest thing to ever run over my layout's rails. Coupled to the G Class, umm, perhaps a little too long! It didn't stop me however from jumping right in and weathering the pair to turn that pristine red and white livery into a dirty slice of diesel delight!

By the time it was collected from the back sidings of Philden Beach, it was looking pretty grubby!

The G Class loco copped even more of the same treatment. Perhaps if I hadn't already released my book Model Railway Weathered Wonders, the G might have made its way onto the cover! It turned up a filthy treat! I think I took these photos around August. The loco sold quickly afterwards and the PBGY van is available now on my eBay page.

G513 was in a filthy state by the time it left Philden Beach!

Amongst all of my incompleted projects for 2023, I discovered some video footage I'd shot of a heavily weathered G513 working the yard around Philden Beach.

G513 no. 1 end showing...

...and a nice side-on shot as the loco idles away.

I think I vaguely recall my plans for 2023 were to purchase a new model, weather it and then film it operating on the layout for a short YouTube video. Then when the fun was over, list it for sale on my eBay page and repeat. Time never permitted me being able to do this more than once, and while the above loco has since found a new home, I haven't even found the time to produce a single YouTube video during the course of 2023.

After a very brief spell in the Harbour Yard, G513 has now long departed. That's 2023 in a nutshell.

Before I can say, "gee the year has gone quick," it is now almost over. I suppose that's been the case for many folks. For myself, I've forged ahead with writing and releasing 3 books over the course of 2023, yet still find myself disappointed that I won't get the 4th book finished before the year is out. The plan was to finish on 23 books in the year 2023 before seeing where next year would take me. As of the 18th December that target is looking rather unattainable.

So, with this little reminiscing post now posted, perhaps I am better off talking about what I'd like to achieve layout-wise in 2024. There are some small ideas such as;

• Re-lettering the layout front with some stick-on vinyl names that reflect it's North Coast New South Wales location.
• Completing the street market scene atop the Philden Street overpass, (yes, the name seems to have stuck from the layout's previous incarnation).
• Adding a quality bluetooth speaker beneath the Jetty Hotel to stream music from my iPhone.
• Starting work on building/modelling some drop-in scenes on either side of the track as it transitions to staging.
• Scenicking the staging yard tracks without the need to add a backdrop or structures that would be protrude above the staging shelf's raised outer lip.
• Anticipate the arrival of my pre-ordered Auscision Models NPHH cement wagons?
• Expect a further announcement regarding the Auscision NSW 49 Class announcement?
• Expect the unexpected?

Perhaps that last point is all I can be certain of.

Let's wait and see what new arrivals 2024 will deliver on Philden Beach.

With the G now a distant memory in 2023, I need to wait until the heat of summer is over before I can get busy weathering my Pacific National pairing of BL28 and NR22. I plan on making the pair my workhorses of the layout, along with the mighty C Class. The NGGF sugar hoppers will follow, with an extensive spell in my airbrushing booth planned to get them looking authentic, and my spoil wagons and container flat wagons will also get treated to a light dusting before I jump into restocking my eBay store with a few more weathered models as time permits in 2024.

Meanwhile, so long as this hot weather continues Down Under, the AC shall stay on and I will remain perched behind my laptop writing, in the off-chance that I may get the final Philden book completed before New Years Eve...

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The Violalakenslip layout frame

In keeping with my IKEA themed model railway layout that occupies one wall of our loungeroom, I colour matched the small layout frame that I built for Bryn Nadolig with the IKEA Eket display cases that this little OO9 layout will sit upon. When I sent a pic of my finished 1150 mm x 550 mm white and clear pine effort by phone to my friend AV with the single word viola beneath it, Anthony's reply came back that it looks like a Violalakenslip. Aisle 25, section B12 at IKEA....

I love it! But the truth is, this is one of the easiest little layout projects I've done to date. It started with a 596 mm x 1200 mm x 7 mm single sheet of plywood that I first cut down to a size of 550 mm x 1150 mm as outlined in my previous post sacrificing length for functionality.

To build the frame, I bought 2 lengths of 30 mm x 18 mm x 2.7 metre long FJ primed pine from my local Bunnings Warehouse, and cut the sections to fit.

There are no fancy corner joins, simply 2 sections cut to a length of 1150 mm for the long sides of the layout, and 4 lengths cut to 514 mm (550 mm minus 2 times the 18 mm width of the timber), to use as the short side ends and additional supports.

I glued one section at a time to the underside of my plywood board using extra strength Tarzan's Grip wood glue.

As this glue grabs hold very quickly, just make sure you have test fitted each section before stringing a line of glue along the plywood. A clamp placed at each end will hold it in place as you work, and to ensure there wasn't going to be any warping or risk of a stray section of timber slipping out of alignment, I drilled and countersunk some holes through the plywood to anchor the framework in place with some 25 mm wood screws.

The plywood sheet was glued then anchored down with a few countersunk 25 mm long wood screws.

The screw holes and any gaps between each join were then puttied and left to dry overnight before sanding.

Any good finish is only as good as the preparation you put into it. So I sanded the entire frame edge using an orbital sander until it was nice and smooth. Although I could have just painted the frame edge and underside in the one colour, I thought 'why not make the edge strip of the plywood stand out by finishing it with some clear wood varnish?' The only extra work it involved was a 2 step process using some masking tape as outlined below...

I clear varnished the edge strip of the plywood by masking off the primed white timber beneath it.

The masking tape could then peel off easily leaving a sharp line of clear varnished plywood.

Once dry, the reverse was done. The plywood edge was masked off and the timber painted gloss white.

The masking tape pulls away leaving a sharp line between the gloss white and clear varnish.

I applied a total of 2 coats of clear varnish to the plywood edge and underside of the layout board. While for the primed FJ pine I applied 4 coats of water based gloss white, the same colour that I used when building my Philden Beach layout frame. The finished result is a uniform appearance once the OO9 layout is sat atop my IKEA furniture as can be seen below...

Viola! Bryn Nadolig's finished framework is finally ready to have some track laid.

As this layout is a small table top affair, there is going to be no backdrop added to it. I know, I know, you're probably thinking why given that I wrote a book on Model Railway Backdrop Basics. However, given that the layout will come out from its display position beneath Philden Beach at Christmas time, I want the layout to be able to be viewed from all sides whenever the family is gathered around the table. Including a backdrop will make that impossible. My next task is to build the hill in the centre of the layout using some insulation foam board. It will slope up gently from behind the slate station building, ending in a rock cutting against the railway line at the far left side of the layout. Rather than incorporating a backdrop, the hill is going to act as a visual divider.

A layout is meant to be fun, and this one will be no exception. Given that this is both a small table sized layout, and a Christmas themed model railway, I'm unsure if there will be enough material, or interest for that matter, to start planning another book around it. So, instead I'll use these blog posts to gauge people's interest and preserve the step-by-step process just in case I ever change my mind. Modelling in another scale compared to my decade long HO Australian efforts, is proving to be a welcome escape as I write my next Philden Model Railway book. Now that my Violalakenslip layout frame is complete, over this Australian summer I'm planning to flit between working on my next book and this little layout. Depending on how I feel each day.

My time writing model railway books is drawing to an end. So please, if you like what you've read, then feel free to leave a comment below. Or better still, show your support by buying me a coffee. Simply click on the blue coffee cup to the right and send a struggling writer a small tip... https://www.buymeacoffee.com/phildenmodelrailway

December AMRM Book Review

The December issue of Australian Model Railway Magazine features two of my books in the reviews section.

My latest title Model Railway Weathered Wonders and this year's Model Railway Backdrop Basics are still recieving a lot of exposure, thanks to readers of this blog and the continued exposure by way of a book giveaway over on Will James' YouTube channel. However, it was a good friend of mine who contacted me while I was on holidays to break the news of my books being featured in this month's issue of Australian Model Railway Magazine. At the time, my wife and I were heading south to Victoria, so we pulled in at Goulburn in New South Wales to see if we could find a copy.

I always buy my copies of AMRM at my local newsagency in Brisbane, as I still believe it is important to keep the hobby present on a magazine rack for casual passers-by to discover. Turns out, First Inland City Newsagency in Goulburn had a pile of almost 20 on display. Thanks go to the AMRM team for the kind mention and outline of what each of the two books cover.

 

As part of my holiday plans, I disconnected from the internet, social media, emails and paused my eBay shop for a little over 3 weeks. Sometimes you just have to do that, even if it means completely ignoring any Black Friday sales, new model announcements and the such. While the break did me a world of good, I still did manage to take a few railway related photographs of some stations and trains that I'd never seen before in my travels, including the Blues Train on the Bellarine Penninsula and the Ballarat Tramway Museum. Until floods and a landslide cancelled our plans for the Walhalla Goldfields Railway in Gippsland. (More on them as time permits...).

So fresh back this week from my trip down south, I've been busy posting out hobby shop orders that were waiting for me, and individual copies that started selling like crazy over the weekend once my eBay shop resumed as normal. To the point where I've almost sold out! I'll now need to wait until late January before I can place another volume order with the publisher to replenish my stock.

With only 6 weeks before I commence full-time study in the New Year, it seems I have a long list of projects that I know I simply won't finish before my free time disappears completely. One of which unfortunately includes completing my 6th Philden Model Railway book by the end of the year. It may now have to wait until a late 2024 release. So, if you're after any of my 5 titles in the the lead-up to Christmas, then try stores such as Trainworld in Melbourne or Australian Modeller in Sydney. There are links for each title on my Bookshop Page.

Until next time...

Removing the tram tracks

One of the trickier tasks I faced with transforming the setting of my inner-Melbourne HO Scale shelf layout to the NSW North Coast, was removing the tram tracks that once ran down the middle of the Philden Street overpass. They were anchored down to the bare MDF board good and well using Super Glue, meaning they were always going to call for the road to be completely resurfaced. So long as I didn't damage the MDF board base of my road bridge in the process.

I removed one track at a time to first assess what the damage was going to be.

Using a pair of small long nosed pliers, I was able to wiggle the strips of rail using a little bit of force until they came free from the base of the road structure. Lifting them directly upwards as they pulled free limited the damage, but they did leave a deep indent in the surface of the road that needed to be filled with some wood putty and then sanded.

With the footpaths and bridge structure built in place, I needed to be super careful not to damage the bridge sides. Fortunately the Jetty Hotel and Haunted Bookstore structures were not yet anchored into place, so I could remove the buildings and see to all the messy work while the layout was still resting downstairs on the garage floor following its last exhibition outing at the Sunshine Coast in early September.

Once the patched-up tram track cavities were dry, I could sand them smooth using a small square of sandpaper and wipe the surface clean with a damp disposable cloth before trying to match the paint colour of the road surface.

I next painted some darker grey highlights over the patched-up strips of now removed rails using acrylics. As the road surface was originally brush painted using a stippling effect rather than long continual brush strokes, it was a whole lot easier to match the paint to the original colours I used on the overpass. A hodge-podge array of grey colours was achieved simply by mixing some black and white acrylics onto an artists palette, and then stippled over the top of the darker highlights I'd just used to paint over the now removed tram tracks.

I highlighted the old tram tracks using some darker paint before repainting the road surface.

The finished effect was made by stippling, (using a dab-dab dot painting method), rather than applying brush strokes.

Stippling a road surface is an easy way to blend worn tyre track highlights and achieve a patchy road surface, as opposed to painting an all-over single colour of grey. As you can see in the photo above, I was able to curve the worn tyre lines towards the bottom right of the scene. This is where the Haunted Bookstore will stand and will help the road appear to curve down and behind the structure when viewed from the front of the layout rather than just ending hard against a blue ocean backdrop.

This is just another example of what has been involved behind the scenes of revamping this layout over the course of 2023. Consider it a preview of what you can expect to find in my final Australian Philden Model Railway book, which will be available sometime next year.

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Sacrificing length for functionality

For a small and simple layout such as this, it wasn't really necessary to draw a track plan on paper before I started constructing the layout. All I needed to do was draw the track plan directly onto the sheet of 596 mm x 1200 mm x 7 mm plywood, and mark where I was going to cut the board down to size.

As you can see above, the board will now be cut down to a size of 550 mm x 1150 mm.

After already writing about the reasons for my needing to keep this layout within the confines of 1st Radius curves, (see previous post here), I still had to decide how much of my twin IKEA Eket cabinets' length could be taken up by my small model railway. Although I had a total length of 1400 mm to play with, as it is going to sit beneath the staging shelf of my Philden Beach layout, there were a few key issues which led me to sacrifice the layout's length for some added functionality.

1. I'd already promised my wife there would be room for a Grandbuby photo to go on display beside the layout.
2. As you can see in the above photo, the throttle cable from the layout above it dangles down at around the 1150 mm mark, and I didn't want it getting in the way or damaging the corner scenery.
3. Without leaving 250 mm of space clear, there would be nowhere to put anything down when operating either layouts without placing it directly across the staging tracks above it. Think of the 2nd DCC throttle whenever a friend calls around to run some trains, that cup of coffee or glass of wine your wife hands you when you've got the control throttle in your hand, or a set of operating cards.
4. See point one again, because life's just so much better when you keep your spouse happy.

Once again, I marked a 40 mm buffer from the edge of the layout board to the outside sleepers of the track, and as promised, I traced around each sleeper profile so that you could see the track outline better in the photos.

As I'm using flextrack for the long straights at the front and back of the layout, I incorporated a slight wiggle over the 500 mm length before the line met with the next 1st Radius curve. It will provide some interesting modelling opportunities with things such as slate retaining walls and lineside fences, compared to simply leaving it as a straight line.

The compact layout leaves me with a final size of 550 mm x 1150 mm. It's the layout's width rather than length that is going to limit what I can do scenery wise, but it does leave me enough space to model a few village buildings to create my Christmas scene, which is the sole purpose of this layout build. I'll just work within the space I have available and be confident in the knowledge that the extra 250 mm of length I had just sacrificed wasn't going to make that much of a difference anyway.

The layout board will now get 50 mm trimmed from both the front and end closest to the decor plant.

As you can see, this isn't a layout for those dreaming of a room size empire! Also, this Christmas layout definitely won't be ready in time for Christmas this year! However, if time does permit between now and the end of the year, I can get to building the framework for the layout board now that I have the dimensions locked in place.

If you like what you read, leave me a comment below. Or better still, click on the blue coffee cup to the right and buy me a coffee... https://www.buymeacoffee.com/phildenmodelrailway