C by the Seashore

There's something new to see by the seashore on Philden Coast. And that is the new Auscision Models C Class in the Cootes Industrial Greentrains inspired green and gold livery. And crikey! Isn't she a gorgeous sight to see?

The Auscision C Class model locomotive becomes the 7th and final acquisition for my Philden Coast Railway bookshelf layout. After years of chopping and changing as I progressed from my original Philden layout, to briefly modelling a Victorian prototype, upgrading to DCC sound and finally migrating back to the NSW North Coast, it seems that change has finally ceased.

My Coast layout's locomotive roster now consists solely of sound equipped DCC Auscision Models locomotives circa 2000 to 2010. Once again, Auscision's quality is hard to fault, and their model of C509 is superb. Taking it straight out of the box, I programmed it's short address to 9 and put it through its paces without any hesitation. Here's some pictures of it arriving in Philden Harbour Yard, starting with Rusty popping his head out of the goods shed to lean on his broom and take in the sight of the first C to appear by the seashore.

Rusty taking in the sight of C509 in Philden Harbour Yard.

Does anyone else have a locomotive driver with a mullet in their cab?

The no. 2 end of C509 featuring the extended hood as rebuilt in the mid 2000's.

The reasons for my choice of C509 in the Cootes green are simple; 1), I like the colour! 2), I photographed C509 on an SSR grain train in Moree back in 2018, and 3), it fits my everything old is new again approach to modelling, in that it is another diesel dinosaur surviving into the new Millenium dressed in some pretty cool colours.

Newly arrived C509 in the service tracks, while a newly aquired Breeze container can be seen in the no. 4 siding alongside the Brandon Industries warehouse.

The C is a big locomotive, measuring just under 24 cm over the couplers.

Up until the great layout revamp of January 2023, I had originally planned to get the National Rail C Class to fit into my previous inner-Melbourne yard. However, the Cootes' C slots in right alongside my Pacific National NR and BL Class pairing, as it ran like this within NSW, hired out to both Pacific National, SSR and other private operators of the time, making it perfectly plausible to say that it was a regular on Philden Coast traffic alongside a leased CFCLA ex-NSW 422 Class.

C509 became the final model locomotive for my new layout's hitlist. For a small 3.3 metre long bookshelf layout, I now feel that I don't need to add anything else. Even as my wife stood beside me to admire it, she commented on how nice my collection looked, and perhaps reminded me a little that all my days of 'selling this to afford that' were now behind me. The C is that good, that I don't think buying anything else is going to top the feeling of saying that my roster is now complete.

The C Class arrival actually feels like the beginning of the end to my Australian model railway journey. During the course of building 3 Australian HO scale layouts over the past 9 years, I've seen my share of models that I've liked and some that I haven't, but I can honestly say that every model I have on this layout I love. From this point on, I only have the staging yard to convert into a scenic addition to my Harbour Yard, not a list of pre-orders or hard-to-find models to track down. It's actually a real nice feeling!

The face on the ex-Victorian C Class dwarfs that of the ex-NSW 422 Class loco. It's now hard to know which locomotive is my favourite. My wife claims that I say every locomotive is my favourite!

With my latest book Model Railway Backdrop Basics now being promoted and available in stores, this week I will complete the next book that I have been busy working on for the past year, Model Railway Weathered Wonders. Beyond that, in the coming month I will sit down to start writing my final Philden Model Railway Presents book, the title of which is still to be decided. It will likely be an extended book to cover indepth everything that I've shared about changing this layout into its current setting, and likely cover subjects that I haven't brushed on in any of my other books such as; track planning, assembling a roster, operations, starting over and even a bit of model railway psychology. I know that once I start writing this book that my Australian model railway journey will come to an end, and I'll have a layout that I can be proud of. I now want to simply stand back and enjoy operating Philden Coast for years to come.

And heading north out of Harbour Yard beneath the Philden Street overpass.

So... finally, the C Class trots off into staging to get to work shunting some newly arrived van traffic ex-Sydney. These will be positioned in the no. 1 and no. 4 sidings at Brandon Industries, and the loaded refrigerated containers of fresh seafood will be swapped back into place in staging waiting to be added to a Sydney-bound overnight freight. It's all in a day's work, (or in this case a 45 minute mid-week operating session in my lounge room), on the Philden Coast Railway. It's the kind of modelling that I set out to enjoy... and am finally able to do.

Until next time...

My Pacific National pairing

It's been 3 months since I unvieled 'The Coast'. In that time I've been able to complete a few medium length operating sessions to fine tune what works best, and determine what I need to do operations-wise to integrate Philden Harbour into an expanded Philden Coast layout when I rebuild my staging shelf later in the year. One big thing I am pleased about, was my decision to broaden my layout's time period to include a pair of Pacific National locos to operate on my North Coast Line. It is refreshing to have some relatively modern models in one of my favourite paint schemes.

NR22 was the first of my Pacific National locomotives to arrive on Philden Coast back in February 2023.

BL28 followed in March 2023. These louvre vans are destined for Brandon Industries No. 4 track.

BL28 joined NR22 to become the first new locomotives purchased to run on The Coast. The Pacific National pair joined my 4 surviving incumbents from Philden Street Yard in the form of my CFCLA pairing of JL406 + FL220, and my Indigenous NR's of NR30 + NR52 to give me an initial 6 locos for a mid-sized shelf layout. Not a bad start, and a mix of locos that are visually interesting.

For an up-and-back layout, the BL was a great choice given that it has a cab at both ends. Since getting down to the nitty-gritty of shunting the yard, having the flexibility of a bi-directional loco, (even an NR that can operate long end leading), is something that becomes more noticeable the more you operate.

BL28 runs around the vans and shoves them back alongside the Brandon Industries warehouse doors.

The loco uncouples and will now go to the diesel service tracks to shut down for the day.

BL28 joins NR22 in the diesel service tracks, (No. 2 & 3) to await their next call of duty.

I tend to like that early to mid 2000's era, right through to the early 2010's. Given that my layout can simultaneously have 3 to 4 locos in play at most, I've discovered I simply like pairing my models together on a running 'sesh', and let the combinations on the day define which particular year I'm operating within. One of the funny terms I refer to with my models are 'dance partners', and if I add an 8th loco to my fleet... I keep everything even. The pairings go something like this;

NR22 + BL28 Pacific National.

NR30 + NR52 National Rail (Indigenous locomotives).

JL406 + FL220 CFCLA, (Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia).

C509 Cootes Industrial (leased locomotive) + ???

So I've been doing a bit of research lately to decide if there's a suitable dance partner for my green C Class loco which I have on pre-order. With a few operating sessions already under my belt, I've ruled out any single direction locos such as the CLP and CLF, or any further large NR sized locomotives such as the GT46C-ACe, C44ACI's or 90 Class. Aside from waiting for any future pre-order announcements or re-runs, there are a couple of interesting possibilities available at the moment that would look great alongside C509.

Whether or not that happens, I'm very much looking forward to my C Class arriving. Having some green and gold on my North Coast layout is going to look great!

Until next time...

Adding extra VLCX vans

Recently Auscision Models re-released some long sold-out models of their VLCX louvered vans. Funnily enough I once had some V/Line VLCX vans on my original Philden layout, only to sell them off when funding my new layout build. Well one thing led to another, and suddenly I was back to modelling the same time period, only with the layout's location now moved to Melbourne. In hindsight I probably could have kept them.

There are now 5 x VLCX/VLVX louvered vans in Philden Street Yard while I decide upon tying them in with my final locomotive acquisition in early 2023.

My B65 Smurf is still one of my favourite locos, so adding a pair of West Coast Railway VLCX vans to my roster was a no-brainer!

Anyway, a twin pack of VLCX's in West Coast Railway blue have now joined my fleet, along with the single Pacific National VLVX in the chance that I decide to acquire a Pacific National BL Class loco early in the new year. The G/BL Class dilemna is a polarising one for my layout, as technically I could fit a V/Line, Freight Victoria or Freight Australia G Class loco into my time period, and also a National Rail, Steel Link or Pacific National BL Class. That's six options when I really only want to decide upon one locomotive as potentially my last motive power addition! My mind has regularly changed by the week for the past 12 months which is why I refrained from ordering one in the first place. For once its a real nice problem to have.

Sounds A bit fanciful

Well, I've finally had the last relic from my DC days converted to DCC sound, thanks to some help from the good folk at Trainworld in Melbourne. My A Class Freight Victoria locomotive has finally seen some use on the layout as evident in the short YouTube clip above. A81 was gifted my way after parting with my former Philden Road layout in 2021, and for the good part of the past year has sat in my display cabinet waiting for availability of a sound equipped decoder. Meanwhile, I culled and sold my other DC locos in favour of what was readily available with factory-fitted sound. That pretty much sounds like 2022 doesn't it?

A81 becomes my 3rd Bulldog locomotive to join the roster on my sound eqipped fleet.

It would be a bit harsh to compare the differences between my A Class and the other DCC locos on my layout, as my model of A81 is from the original 2009 version that had the 8-pin decoder technology for its time. Next year this model will be pushing 14 years old. As a 2nd hand model, this locomotive has already travelled from it's previous owner in Perth via the Sunshine Coast before journeying from Brisbane to Melbourne and back! Thankfully her scale miles have been kinder than her postal miles!

The only downside to operating an 8-pin DCC decoder seems to be the lack of lighting function and individual control of the numberboards and marker lights etc., meaning it's a case of headlights on, all lights on. The cab figures are also of the basic variety, simply two blue dudes in both ends of the loco cab. It is nice however to reflect on how the quality of models being produced are still improving. Here I am embracing second generation DCC technology, and it's probably only a matter of another decade before there'll be something entirely different tempting modellers to upgrade to the latest features.

Given that this model has already been re-run once in the past 10 years, waiting for a third production run of the A Class with DCC sound I thought sounded a bit fanciful. Even if a re-run were suddenly announced, who knows how long it would take to arrive? So thankfully I could get this loco sound converted, and put it to work earning it's keep in 'The Yard'. And thankfully it sounds pretty good!

NGPF grain hoppers arrive

2022 has seen the re-release of a swag of popular Australian grain hoppers, notably the South Australian AHGX's and New South Wales' NGTY/NGKF plus NGTY/NGPF, models that each would fit my early 2000's era layout but have been out of stock for a number of years. With Philden Street Yard's fleet becoming equally divided between my fictitious HO broad gauge and standard gauge, (yep, they're essentially both 16.5 mm gauge standard HO scale track anyway), I thought I'd better add a short standard gauge grain rake to even up the score against my Victorian broad gauge rake of VHGY/VHGF's.

This is my early 2000's era Freightcorp/Pacific National set of four NGPF grain hoppers.

I opted to grab two packs of the Auscision Models NGPF grain hoppers with ground operated lids and roof walks removed purely because I've seen plenty of photos of these hoppers on domestic grain services in and around Melbourne. Plus it helps that I really like the look of these cylindrical hoppers with their straight sloped ends. I bought one pack with the blue Freightcorp logos, and the other with the white Freight Rail Grain logos with the sole intention of creating a mixed set for myself to haul from Southern New South Wales to Philden Street Yard behind my motley collection of standard gauge leased power in the form of JL406, FL220 and B80. I'm ultimately still a NSW boy at heart, and this lets me model some surviving NSW models in Melbourne in the early 2000's.

The standard gauge B Class and grain hoppers now need to be weathered up over the summer!

I'm quite happy with how they look, although in my latest clip on YouTube, both B80 and the string of NGPF's look way too clean. I'm planning to fix that this summer and weather both the B Class and all 8 NGPF's, even though I'm only keeping one box of 4 for myself. I might really do a job on my grain fleet and try and match some photos from the time period in question as a last minute inclusion in the new book I want to start early in the new year.

I also have a pack of Trainworld V/Line VHGY/VHGF's to feature soon in another post, and some recently re-released VLCX vans arriving this week to add alongside my existing Freight Australia ones, so I'm already lining myself up with even more weathering projects for the New Year. Shopping wise, I think I'm now done. My rollingstock roster is now at capacity, being that I now have enough wagons to fill my staging shelf and sidings twice over.

That leaves only the National Rail C Class I have pre-ordered to arrive sometime next year, and maybe, just maybe, either a G Class or a BL Class to add as my layout's final purchase. I locked my C Class order in early, but procrastinated, then ultimately talked myself out of ordering a G or BL before pre-orders closed. I'm hoping that they won't all be sold out when they are finally released in 2023, and I'll just let fate narrow it down to which liveries are left for me to choose from. Likely it will either be a National Rail BL Class or Freight Australia G. My preference has changed week by week for the past year!

SSR in 'The Yard'

There's nothing like seeing something new running on your layout. But with no model railway Black Friday Sales to be tempted by Down Under this year, (or get in trouble with the Ministry of Finance!), this week I put together a short film featuring a friend's small fleet of SSR locomotives that came by Philden Street Yard for a visit. (Click above image to play).

That's the Auscision Models ex-NSW 44204 loco, named 'Paul Fitzgerald'.

Once again, the size of the 442 Class loco is well suited to 'The Yard'.

Side-on, the 442 Class didn't suit every paint scheme it wore, but the yellow gets a pass mark.

Who knows when this loco may find its way back to the refuelling tracks in Philden Street Yard again?

I like the yellow & black paint scheme on the Southern Shorthaul Railroad, or SSR locomotives, so when my mate Anthony Veness dropped around recently to run some trains it was an opportunity to photograph and film something different running on Philden Street Yard. It was also interesting to compare our 442 Class and B Class locos from different time periods side by side. My roster leans towards the early 2000's while his roster dates from the 2015 period onward. Still, once the rollingstock from the correct era is placed on the track, 'The Yard' does a convincing job of changing time periods, through the art of looking like the small inner Melbourne yard has been there all along just watching the years roll by.

So enjoy this last look at Philden Street Yard with its incomplete overpass scene. The next update will reveal the layout looking finished. Well... apart from the two buildings I want to finely detail over the summer while watching the cricket that is.

Until next time...

A 48 Down South?

What's a Pac Nat 48 doing that far south I hear you say? Relax, I'm not changing eras or relocating Philden Street Yard away from it's inner Melbourne location. I just happened to have fellow modeller and good friend Anthony Veness bring his 48 Class down for a run in 'The Yard', and thought I'd shoot a short video of it in action on my layout.

Sometimes it's nice to just see something different running on your layout. The little 48 Class lent it's size quite well to the confines of Philden Street Yard. With a roster full of big locos like the ex-Victorian Railways A's, B's and soon to arrive C Class, not to mention the monster NR Classes, I think I have enough big locos on my switching layout. The 48 only highlighted that I don't need another biggie in my fleet. So sorry G Class fans. I don't think I'll be adding one to my layout now. Perhaps I'll just wait until a new release of sound equipped T or Y Class locos to become available in the future.

48162 is nicely turned out in its new Pacific National colours.

Like the 48 Class I once had, the windows are heavily tinted, which is something I don't really like.

Beside the NR Class locos, the 48 Class looks tiny by comparrison!

So there you have it. That's what a Pacific National livered locomotive would look like in Philden Street Yard. Having had a turn shunting some container wagons into place at the brewery, 48162 can now return to Southern New South Wales on the next northbound freight out of Dynon, and get back to work hauling grain trains west of Cootamundra.

I hope you enjoyed the video on my YouTube channel. I have a few more I'd like to make before the year is out as my layout is now nearing completion. Then next year it will be onto some other project. Until next time, take care. Cheers!

'Cheeseburger' in 'The Yard'

It's time for a Friday afternoon knock-off fix of fun, in the form of the fantastic A66 in 'Cheeseburger' livery making a guest appearance in Philden Street Yard. So grab yourself a beverage, and prepare to roll out the red carpet for the next premiere of Bill The Puppet today at 5:00 pm AEST, or 6:00 pm AEDST (daylight savings time). The timed premiere includes a dramatic one-time only 2 minute countdown timer that's bigger than Ben Hur, just to build up the occassion before I let the unitiated down with another model train video!

V/Line A60 (left) in the Mk 1 passenger livery, and A66 (right) in the Mk 3 passenger livery which earned it the nickname 'Cheeseburger'.

The model of A66 belongs to friend Anthony Veness, and I filmed this on an Apple iPhone 13 Pro some weeks back. The sound installation was done by Anthony using speakers, decoder and sound files bought from DCC Sounds. I loved the difference in the sound of the A Class compared to my pair of B Class locomotives so much, that I recently sent my A Class Freight Victoria locomotive off to the good folk at Trainworld in Brighton, Melbourne to convert the loco to DCC sound. So I'll have a YouTube clip of it at work in 'The Yard' hopefully in the coming month. The other A Class loco shown below, A60 in the red & blue V/line livery, had a custom DCC sound conversion done using a much older decoder, and by comparison the Zen decoder didn't match the sound quality of the DCC Sounds one. But look for it to make a passing cameo run-by in a future video just the same.

A pair of A Class Bulldogs in 'The Yard'.

So enjoy the short video on YouTube, and give it a thumbs-up like if you enjoyed it. I'm going to crown my best video of 2022 in December using the formula of the total number of views multiplied by the number of likes for each video. So I'm very interested to gauge what people like best ahead of a few new ideas I have in mind for 2023.

Cheers!

NR30's long awaited arrival

It's a weird feeling when a model locomotive that you pre-ordered years ago finally arrives. I found it was a mix of excitement and worry, that the model I ordered back in 2019 and was now sold-out, wasn't going to be the one model in the entire production run to have something broken or missing and find its way into my hands. As it turned out, the locomotive arrived in perfect condition. exceptional in every sense of the word. Only now, the years of anticipation from waiting for this model to arrive was finally over. It didn't take me long to film a short sequence of these sound equipped models at work in Philden Street Yard, (the above video will premiere this afternoon on YouTube at 4:00 pm AEST). But after a week of running my new NR's a little more than I should have, given the writing projects I have queued and waiting, this weekend now feels like the week after Christmas. The garbage man has come during the week and the wrapping paper that the locomotives came is long gone, (or a padded jiffy mailer that is, without wanting to ruin a good story).

NR30 Warmi and NR52 Kungara Mankurpa in their Indigenous livery. The pair are Auscision Models.

NR30, and NR52 which I'd ordered a year or so later, would be the two locomotives I would design and build Philden Street Yard around. The locomotive headshunt was measured to enable back-to-back running of a pair of these large modern locomotives on a 3.3 metre long shelf style switching layout. While the two locomotive service tracks were designed and spaced so as to be able to park the pair side by side in the centre of The Yard, and just admire them being on display. To that extent the choice of models and design of layout are a success. When you build a layout for a particular era, theme and size, the Indigenous pairing look as though they have been there all along.

I photographed NR30 crossing Coffs creek bridge in Coffs Harbour back in March 2005.

So why the big deal about NR30? Well, back when I had the layout Philden, I built the small Beach Extension to replace the original staging shelf that was a feature of my book Build a Bookshelf Layout. The NR Class loco was a model I really wanted to add to my layout as I'd photographed them on a few occassions while holidaying on the New South Wales North Coast, including the photo above taken at Coffs Harbour. I'd first purchased an AustrainsNEO NR Class loco to operate on the Beach Extension, but the problem with the NR Class was the length on such a small layout. The HO scale model is a staggering 25.5 cm over the couplers, and as such couldn't fit into the headshunt on Philden. So the length of the NR Class became a factor when designing the new layout.

In designing a new layout back in 2019, I thought why not order the Indigenous loco I'd photographed passing over Coffs Creek railway bridge while my kids were making sandcastles? It's a nice memory that I look back on now, of family holidays and moments like above when the family agreed to stop at a nice location while I waited for a train that was due through any moment now. For those who railfan on the NSW North Coast Line, you'll know exactly what is meant by the words any moment now. And of course from there, the plans for a new layout evolved around the era that NR30 would have worn its Indigenous livery.

I guess the thing for me about adding the pair of Indigenous locos to my roster is the era they represent. Not my own childhood, but my era of parenthood. Both my children are now grown, married and living in places of their own. With my Daughter-in-law proudly identifying as Indigenous, there's a certain synergy from adding the pair of these locos to my layout, although my Son would have had no idea at the time of making sandcastles with his sister, that the train passing above him might have any ties with his future. Looking at the snake dot painting on the side of Warmi reminds me of those holidays we all shared as a family, and the excitement I felt of visiting new places for the first time and being able to take just a quick peek at the local railway station or nearby bridge in the hope I may see a train.

NR30 and it's sister Indigenous unit NR52 may well be at home in the industrial sidings of my Melbourne themed Philden Street Yard, but the beach extension I've quietly kept from my days of Philden is going to be refashioned into a stand alone micro shelf layout that will one day stand above Philden Street's staging. I've an idea to model a pop-up steel unloading shed on the NSW North Coast Line, using the premise that the former banana loading shed at Coffs Harbour was temporarily leased for a few years longer prior to being pulled down and the land rezoned, to receive steel reinforcing products for the Pacific Highway upgrade. It would let me run some steel wagons into the shed using my former Phills Harbour Countrylink station as the headshunt for the micro layout concept. My NR's would bring the steel products from Philden Street Yard in Melbourne, allowing for wagons to be moved from Philden Street's staging to the above North Coast steel siding, as a sort of expanded operation between the layout, staging shelf and upper micro layout.

As usual however, I'll let those projects be stories for another day. Stay tuned for a big announcement after this weekend's AFL Grand Final.

NR52 makes its debut

Here's the first look at my long awaited Indigenous NR Class locomotive number NR52, officially named Kungara Mankurpa.

This model, along with NR 30 Warmi, was one of the reasons I decided to build a new layout back in 2019, after discovering that the NR Class SDS Models version I had at the time was too long for my old layout Philden. So after starting work on a new, bigger layout, I ultimately revisited my idea and decided upon building an inner Melbourne railway yard based solely around being able to operate a pair of NR Class locos on the layout. Philden Street Yard was born, and whatever locomotives or rollingstock I would go on to acquire for the layout, had to be selected with the knowledge that they would need to fit the time frame that these two locomotives would have worn this paint scheme, which is approximately late 1997 to the mid-2000's. So from that point of view, although the twin Indigenous locomotives have been a long time coming... once they had set wheel in Philden Street, they looked like they had been there the entire time.

Auscision have done a tremendous job with these two models, and I'm so glad I changed my initial order from just one to two. But more importantly, to upgrade the pair to sound equipped versions the instant I converted my layout to DCC. That was one expensive month back in 2021. But enough about me talking about them. Here is the first of two YouTube videos I will post this week, starting with this evening's 7:00 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time premiere of NR52 Kungara Mankurpa in Philden Street Yard. Then join me Friday arvo at 4:00 pm AEST to catch the first look at NR30 Warmi.

Visitor at 'The Yard'

Recently I had my good friend Anthony Veness visit for a running session on Philden Street Yard. Anthony you may remember, is the modeller who took my old Philden Road layout off my hands and is busy re-fashioning it into a larger layout of his own. Bringing his own modern equipment down for a run on my layout quickly got me thinking what it would be like to shoot a couple of YouTube videos of his models at work in Philden Street Yard. So with all the recording tripods and lights set up in the loungeroom, I managed to put a few videos together that I will upload over the coming months, first-up which is B75. I like this locomotive in the CRL Consolidated Rail Leasing livery, although we both agree it looks like the BWS Train!

Having a second set of hands at the ready to film a short sequence lets you add a few more elements to the shoot. Having Anthony on the throttle left me free to film. Now I know he doesn't see eye-to-eye with the puppet... but readers have no idea how much my nieces and nephews love that little guy! (Sorry bro! You'll just have to pretend you can't see him like I have to pretend the Brisbane Lions' finals loss never happened.)

So with a big week ahead in the lead up to a book launch, the AFL Grand Final, and the arrival of my Indigenous NR Class locomotives, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss out on seeing the first runs of NR30 and NR52 on Philden Street Yard. Hopefully I have them scheduled for a double Premiere Party this coming Friday afternoon, 23rd September at 4 pm.

Now to get back to writing this next book....

Cheers!

Bringing back the Alco

Keeping the reminiscing theme going this month, this week I hit the Big Half Century, and went and replaced an old favourite locomotive of mine that I had back in the days of my original Philden layout.

I now have an Alco back in my fleet in the form of JL406, who long time readers may remember arrived only 3 months before Philden made its final stand before a house move back in 2019,(as seen here in detailing the steel train). The timing seems ironic, given that here I am 3 years later, and we're almost all packed up ahead of another house move. I now have the ex-442 favourite back again, only this time in a DCC sound equipped version. Just what is it doing down south at Philden Street Yard in Melbourne? Who knows? Philden Street Yard is after all fictional, so fictionally I'll just say that it ran that far south on the standard guage. I think my ex-422 and an ex-442 make a pretty good pairing.

I uploaded the above short clip to my YouTube Channel over past weekend, and thought I'd just leave this here for readers to view while I dismantle the layout and prepare to head south myself. Hopefully I'll have some more photos to share next month after we've moved and settled into a new place. So for now I'll take a short break from the blog, say my farewells to the Sunshine Coast, and then off we go for a new start!

Ciao!

Philden Street Yard Episode 2

It's Episode 2 of Philden Street Yard. Time to see what's happening 20 years ago down south in Melbourne in 1:87 scale. This time, it's.... DOUBLE TROUBLE!

Wonder what that's all about?

STEAMRAIL's D3 639 Arrives

Hooley Dooley! Would you take a look at this? One of the final additions to my Philden Street Yard layout may very well be the jewel in the crown of my small bookshelf layout. It is a Phoenix Reproductions Victorian Railways D3 class steam locomotive complete with DCC sound that had quickly sold out when first released early in 2022. But... after already adding some Steamrail heritage passenger cars to my roster in March, as luck would have it Metro Hobbies in Melbourne just so happened to list 6 for sale on their eBay store on a weekend when there was also a 20% off selected Toys & Hobbies promo happening. I've always stopped short of considering a HO scale Australian steam locomotive on account of the price, but 20% off? This was my chance. After making my purchase, I also shared the link to a Facebook group that I am a member of, and by next morning they were all gone.

I love the working red and white marker lights on the D3, not to mention that big, beaming headlight!

What makes the D3 No. 639 special, is that it's the STEAMRAIL preserved Vintage Train locomotive. It allows me to run a 100 year old steam locomotive on my early 2000's era Melbourne layout with my 3 x STEAMRAIL Victorian Railways E cars, and still be prototypically correct. Well, so long as you ignore the few years that 639 was renumbered back to its original no. 658. It's a long, and often confusing history on what is a popular restored steam locomotive that is still in service today after almost 120 years that you can read all about on Steamrail's website here. For me? Well, as I've said previously I never built this layout for passenger operations, so its pretty cool to be able to incorporate a heritage tour train being stabled overnight in the back sidings of my inner Melbourne layout.

There's not much to simulate in the way of operations other than to have the 639 arrive with a short rake of passenger cars after a tour train has terminated at Melbourne's Spencer Street Station (as it was known in the early 2000's). The loco then runs around the carriages, and shunts its' train into the number 1 road behind the view of the soon to be named Distribution Centre. I can fit all 3 Steamrail cars in the number 1 road, just not the locomotive. The steam locomotive ironically then needs to move to either of the diesel refueling tracks to stable for the night. Next morning the train is reassembled and returns to Steamrail's Newport Workshops for storage until the next Vintage Train Tour.

Strangely I forgot to turn the rear marker lights on when taking this picture... oh well, next time!

As I'm not going to be able to jet off to Melbourne for a weekend steam train tour anytime soon, adding this gorgeous little steam loco to my small roster may be just the ticket I need for an imaginative railfan weekend at home! The detail on the model is phenomenal, and the sound is superb! SDS Models and Phoenix Reproductions together have done a fantastic job in producing this model. For all who missed out, I believe there is a small second run being released soon in some different variations, although admittedly Australian HO scale steam locomotives do happen to sit on the expensive side of the hobby. In my case however, with a likely downsize to a small apartment happening in the very near future, I had just finished selling anything that didn't belong on this layout that would likely end up in storage for who knows how long. Perhaps this was a case of better directing my hobby money towards something I will get a lot of use and enjoyment from? I don't know. I just know I like the D3 very much.

For anyone who follows my YouTube channel, you would have already seen the short video I filmed of D3 639 wandering about my layout in the first week that it arrived. But in case you missed it here it is again...

The addition of the D3 brings my sound equipped locomotive fleet to 4, with 2 x Auscision Indigenous NR Class locos still to come. I'm still wrestling with the merits of converting my Freight Australia P Class to DCC against simply pre-ordering a Freight Australia G Class loco that will already come DCC sound equipped. A pair of Bulldog B Class locos, a pair of NR's and a pair of box cab locos in the form of an ex-NSW 422 Class and a Victorian G Class... and a steam train for good measure. That's a different loco for every day of the week. For a small bookshelf layout it's hard to justify anymore than that.

But for now, the sounds of steam have been a pleasant addition to Philden Street Yard.

Working The Yard D3-639

Well, this may go down as the best addition I could possibly have made to Philden Street Yard's small roster! The Phoenix Reproductions and SDS Models D3 Victorian Railways preserved steam locomotive No. 639 has hit the rails for the first time this week, and it looks and sounds gorgeous! After being tempted with the Auscision STEAMRAIL preserved Victorian passenger cars as I explained in a previous post, I chanced upon a now sold-out model of the STEAMRAIL as-preserved No. 639 listed on Metro Hobbies' on eBay shop. They must have just received the last remaining models available and listed them on a day that eBay happened to have a 20% off deal on selected Toys & Hobbies. There were six of the DCC sound equipped 639's available, and by next morning they were all gone!

Somehow over the course of deciding what locos in my collection I would convert to DCC sound, and which ones I would just move on, I've ended up with a sound equipped steam locomotive hauled 3 car STEAMRAIL tour train that will require the occasional overnight stabling in Philden Street Yard. As you can tell by the speed of which I produced a short video clip on my YouTube Channel, I'm absolutely blown away by this model!

Adding some STEAMRAIL rollingstock

There's a lot to like about my latest unexpected addition to Philden Street Yard. For a layout that wasn't designed to handle passenger services, it would seem that I finally have a passenger train!

The runaround loop in the yard is too long for the 3 car tour, so it has to be split up.

What started out as an idea to add a single Powerline Models West Coast Railway ACZ passenger car to simulate a empty car transfer between Melbourne Yard and Ballarat, ended up becoming a 3 car Steamrail tour train instead. After watching Will James's STEAMRAIL Otway Explorer video on YouTube, I found myself counting how many years it had been since I last took the train from Melbourne to Warrnambool and back just for the fun of it. Those red passenger carriages with the yellow strip down the side just seem to beckon you to jump on board for an adventure. When you're living in Queensland and a visit to Victoria has become as impossible to organise as a trip to the moon, buying a pair of ex-Victorian Railways model heritage passenger cars becomes the next best thing.

As the Steamrail cars were available as individually boxed carriages rather than having to resort to buying a set of 4, and given that Will had an exclusive 10% off at Australian Modeller offer through his channel, I bought the SECOND CLASS car 46BE that was shown in his Otway Explorer video, and the blue and gold BAGGAGE/GUARDS VAN 18CE. The day they arrived, I was so taken with the quality of these passenger cars that I bought another! This time the combined FIRST/SECOND CLASS 3ABE with the white toilet window in the middle.

I only bought 3 individually boxed STEAMRAIL Passenger Cars rather than a full set.

I quite like the sprung diaphragms and the protruding handrails on the Auscision E cars.

I don't know if West Coast Railway's B65 shunting the Steamrail passenger cars was ever prototypical, but it has had to do for now until a more accurate locomotive for the occassion arrives. As is often the case, going down the path of adding something new to the layout usually generates more spending, and adding some Steamrail rollingstock was no exception! In a stroke of good luck, I just so happened to find the perfect locomotive to haul this short tour train from its place of storage in Philden Street Yard to the passengers waiting on the platform at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station, or the former Spencer Street Station as it was back in the day. It is in the mail on its way north as I type this, so I'll keep it a secret for now.

46BE is the SECOND CLASS car.

18CE is the passenger BAGGAGE/GUARDS VAN.

While 3ABE is a composite FIRST & SECOND CLASS car.

Adding the 3 Steamrail passenger cars to my roster, (and the soon to be revealed locomotive that will haul them), was made a little easier by my earlier decision to move on my DC model of the Steve Irwin NR75 Ghan locomotive rather than afford the extra cost of converting it to DCC sound. I'll have two NR Class locos anyway once my long awaited Indigenous pair arrive shortly, but this next locomotive will easily become one of my small layout's highlights. You'll just have to wait and see.

The locomotive can run around its train in staging via the loco escape track beneath the overpass.

The Number 1 Siding can hold all 3 cars in the secure laneway down the back of the distribution centre.

So, it's back to work on my next book and another small layout project that I announced earlier this week. With the exception of purchasing one of Auscision Models' upcoming G Class locos, Philden Street's roster is now effectively done! There's a few buildings and fine details to complete, and then its ready to be exhibited. When that will be, who knows? Plans keep changing by the week. I hope to have some more news on our circumstances soon.

'Till next time...

Philden Street Yard Episode 1

Welcome to Episode 1 of Philden Street Yard, the video vlog. The latest additions are hard to miss in this episode. After watching countless uploads from the VR Newport Workshops Open Day this month, and the video wrap of Will James's Otway Explorer excursion, it seems the bug has bitten, and I'm in the process of puting together a new train. I say train, because something new to haul them is on its way. Just what exactly may that be? Well, you'll have to tune in to a future episode. For now, sit back and enjoy the sound-on experience from Philden Street, shot entirely on the new iPhone 13 Pro.

I'll have a more in-depth look at these cars in an upcoming blog post. There's a lot happening behind the scenes right now. More to follow.

Working The Yard B80

Here's my 3rd video operating session, this time with my latest sound equipped locomotive B80 The Murraylander doing the do in The Yard. I love the subtle differences between B80 and my B65 West Coast Railway 'Smurf'. Don't know if anyone else has picked up on the difference in the sound file between the two? I swear that B80 has a slightly different low idle sound compared to the B65. Unless it is me imagining things, Auscision Models have done an amazing job recording the sound files from actual B Class locos. Sound on to enjoy!

P.S. Puffin' Bill the Puppet is back! Think I have to keep him opening and closing all my videos from this point on or it just won't be the same. This one's for you Anthony!

Working The Yard B65

Here's my second fully edited operating session on Philden Street Yard. For the sake of the story, West Coast Railway's B65 is on lease to Freight Australia and has been based as the yard shunter in Philden Street while Freight Australia's P19 and A81 are in the workshop waiting fitment with decoders. B65 is 'working the yard' with wagons from Shepparton that have just been taken off the Tocumwal Goods. Sound equipped loco highlights, so sound on. Enjoy!

P.S. No puppets were harmed in the making of this film.... yet. But I now have to keep Puffin' Phill under lock and key, as a friend wants to 'get rid of him' next time he's over for a visit.

P.S.S. I also sourced a Lokpilot 8 pin decoder for my A Class to get one of my DC locos converted over to DCC. I'll keep my Freight Victoria A81 as the quiet loco on my layout for when I have the TV on. I still have my Freight Australia P19 and Steve Irwin NR75 Ghan locos in limbo, waiting for me to decide on whether to convert them to DCC or DCC sound equipped. I can't afford to fix either of them just right now, and there's no 21 pin decoders to be found anyway, so it's a problem for another time. I just need my sound equipped Indigenous NR's to arrive!

Working The Yard FL220

Here's a look at Philden Street Yard's first fully edited operating session. For the sake of the story, FL220 is 'working the yard' with a couple of container flat wagons that had just arrived off the Wodonga Superfreighter. Sound equipped loco highlights, so sound on. Enjoy!