Layout Revamp Video Review

My book review in the March 2024 Australian Model Railway News!

How the year has flown. We're in April already, but it still only feels like the beginning of the year! From the excitement of knowing my book Revamp An Existing Layout was queued for printing with my publisher as I rang in New Year's Eve for 24', to rolling-out the book to hobby shops across Australia, and finally organising some form of promotion on a shoestring budget, you know your book has finally arrived in front of the eyes of potential model railway readers once it is featured on Australian Model Railway News, (link to the YouTube feature above).

A huge shout-out to Will James, who produces the Australian Model Railway News each month on his popular YouTube channel Will James Railways. At last glance his channel had 9.67K subscribers. Will first reached out to me in late 2021, asking if I would consider allowing him to feature my Build A Bookshelf Layout book on his YouTube channel's monthly news feature. Back then he was still growing his YouTube presence and the 1st episode of the now popular Australian Model Railway News had only aired in April of 2021. Throughout my journey of self-producing a set of 6 Australian model railway how-to books I feel as though I have had Will in my corner all of the way.

If you haven't watched the March edition already, be sure to do so for your chance to win a copy of Revamp. For entry details, go to his website at willjamesrailways.com 

The book is now available instore at a number of hobby shops around the country, and online through the links on my Bookshop page.

To look back through my set of books is to time travel through my Australian HO scale modelling journey which began with this blog back in 2015. Selling-off my American N scale collection was something that I look back on now and wish I didn't have to do. However, following the sale of our house and a shift into an apartment back in 2010, the 3 metre long pine cupboard monstrosity just couldn't make the journey up the stairs or elevator into the new complex, so a small Alaskan N scale coffee table layout followed. I find myself wishing I could have kept that layout too. Instead, I sold the lovely piece of furniture to help fund my switch to modelling Australian HO scale in 2015.

Then along came Philden...

My first Australian HO scale bookshelf layout, Philden. Photo taken in 2017.

Philden was a great little bookshelf layout, the smallest HO scale track plan that I could design to run some relatively modern Australian diesels. It featured at 8 model train shows here in southeast Queensland and on the cover of the Australian Modl Railway Magazine in August 2018. But then, like many modellers before me, I found myself wanting something that little bit bigger!

Philden Street Yard, complete with Puff'n Bill the puppet, prior to the layout revamp...

...and the same layout today after a complete budget-savvy revamp!

Now here I am in April 2024. Philden Beach is now complete. It's the layout I dreamt of building as a young lad. Big enough to handle some serious switching, yet small enough that I don't need to spend an entire weekend vacuuming the layout and cleaning track before a friend drops by to run some trains.

Given that my wife and I are now empty-nesters and enjoying the apartment life in Brisbane, a shift back to a larger house to expand on this layout is now firmly out of reach for a number of reasons. An over-inflated real estate market in Brisbane will only buy you a house that will bleed you dry of time and money in renovations. The crime rate and number of break-ins you hear about only leaves us feeling safe living more than 3 stories off the ground. And finally, like many people in our position, everything these days costs more money than it should. Insurance, electricity, rent, food, even a humble cup of coffee when you're out, all leaves you with no change to put into the model train jar, (yes, there was such a thing on top of our fridge that I would take from every time there was a model train buy-and-sell).

That is why I thought my latest book was necessary. I still want to be able to enjoy my hobby for years to come, but I couldn't afford to start over on any new layout project. This book firmly puts the punctuation mark on my Australian HO scale journey, by scaling-back, ironing out any operational flaws on the layout and giving it an impressive make-over that would leave even the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy feeling proud. To that extent I'm damn proud to finish my book series with Revamp An Existing Layout. If you want to take an honest, thought-provoking, self-analytical look at what's not right with your layout, then this is the book for you!

I can honestly admit that I took this series of books as far as was possible, given the time, space and budget that I afforded it. Along the way I've had to battle against self-doubt and the negative noise that comes as a result of putting your name to something. It's the horrible Aussie 'tall-poppy syndrome'.

I just don't get it. If I publicly voice an opinion on something, in my case choosing not to exhibit a layout due to the costs of travel, accommodation, meals and public liability insurance, I get viewed as not giving anything back to the hobby. But when I write and self-fund a book about model railways, then try to promote it and sell some of my own personal models amongst various Facebook groups to finance the project, I get called-out for trying to make money off my fellow hobbyists.

Go figure.

Despite what people might think, I've not become rich at the expense of fellow modellers by producing another book. Instead, I'm still recouping the combined expenses from producing 6 model railway books over these past 2 years. It will be years before there's any money to be found in the proverbial model train jar for me to afford the cost of exhibiting Philden Beach at a model train show.

Through it all, it's been nice to feel supported by those who are championing my books, stocking them on their hobby store shelves and even taking the time to message or email their personal thanks and congratulations. They are the encouragement I need to keep this blog going.

So, with book sales finally starting to come through, I can now take a break from all of the above-mentioned stress, and simply return my layout to being a hobby once more. Philden Beach can go back to being a YouTube layout rather than one you will likely see at an exhibition. After all, it costs nothing for me to produce my own YouTube content in my spare time. I've revamped my layout and have now moved onto revamping me. I'm keen to see where my next creative ideas will lead me.

Links on where to buy my latest book can be found on the Bookshop page.

Happy modelling!

2024 TOP 10 ranking

It's time to ask ourselves that annual question... "where did January go?" (Although to be honest, I'm still asking myself where 2023 disappeared to?) However, after a year which saw more changes in my modelling preferences and circumstances than perhaps ever before, the Philden Model Railway Blog has featured in Feedspot's 50 best model railway blogs worldwide list for the third year running, holding its 8th place ranking from last year.

I find that amazing. Firstly because over the past 3 to 4 months I removed close to 150 old posts that were no longer relevant to the direction that my modelling, and this blog, were headed. That in itself caused a small blip in viewership while I archived posts that I wanted to keep, and performed a rolling refresh that included adding new pages that by their own definition take some time to show up in search algorithms. Secondly, because for the best part of 2023 I was busy writing, self-producing and releasing 4 model railway books. That in itself leaves very little time to put towards writing blog posts.

Despite the great news of another TOP 10 ranking, the costs of self-producing 6 model railway books while writing full-time for the past 18 months have financially piled up on the whole Philden Model Railway enterprise. After ensuring that each book was properly financed and then proven to be profitable before committing to anything more than the next one, the whole cost of living shebang necessitated I finish with a 6th and final book.

Not that I didn't have any ideas for further volumes. More so because producing any further books or expanding upon the whole Philden thing, would involve a dedicated 2 car Titan garage to set up a professional photo quality work studio, and also house a larger layout to provide the neccesary material. Since 2021's release of Build a Bookshelf Layout, the numbers say I'm no closer to affording to move out of the 2 bedroom city apartment that my wife and I share. Not that we'd want to anyway, as that in itself would involve risking everything we have on an idea that is essentially a hobby.

Which brings me to January. I like to take notice of the business success within the hobby, and given 2024 saw UK institute Hatton's Model Railways close their doors after 77 years of serving the hobby, there are definitely financial factors at play behind closed doors that most modellers wouldn't be aware of. Trying to project sales figures in advance for models that can take up to 4 years to produce overseas, global economic factors and worst-case war scenarios that can effect supply are all modern day business considerations.

Yet despite being registered as a business, I am just a one person operation. That means that you have to afford everything personally, and returning to studying photography full-time at TAFE this year has seen me hand over money for course fees, a new laptop and a more advanced camera body. On top of this has been the cost of financing the new book Revamp An Existing Layout. After ordering the first advanced copies at the end of last year, unfortunately the entire shipment of books has arrived damaged and now needs to be scheduled to be reprinted. Hopefully that will happen sometime in March.

It's times like these that dictate where your hobby stands in relation to more pressing issues, such as hitting some wildlife on a highway and now also needing to come up with the insurance excess to commence repairs. Instead of drooling over what new models have just been released or announced, you ask yourself what prized models you can afford to part with, which is what I had to do to get through the first few weeks of study. (Hopefully my Indigenous NR Class loco is now being enjoyed by its new owner).

The timing of my new book seems entirely relevant to the modern day modeller, revamping an existing layout for a budget of zero! Producing the book however has come with a huge financial burden, one which I now must attempt to recoup, (along with seeing to some car repairs) before I can look at replacing the few prized locomotives that I sold recently with hopefully just one newly released model that I'd dearly love to get. Then, and only then, can the hobby finally return to being just a hobby. From this point onwards I'll simply leave any future book ideas to any other modeller brave enough to attempt it!

So thanks to everyone for sticking by this blog through thick and thin! I've been told my open style of writing makes each post more relatable to the average modeller. At the end of the day, all this blog was supposed to be was a little bit of fun alongside my initial small shelf layout. Yet somehow it became so much more.

Until next time...

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...

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

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...

Narrowing my modelling projects

With so many half completed model railway projects either underway or accumulating in boxes in the wardrobe, last month I had one of those honesty sessions with myself where I asked; 'just where are you going to find the time to complete any of them?' As I'm now busy writing my final Philden Model Railway book, and preparing to return to full-time study next year, the solution turned out to be picking one project, and one project only to coexist beneath my Philden Beach HO shelf layout.

For the past 18 months, my tiny Queensland narrow gauge layout I'd dubbed Philden Creek had sat forlornly beneath my HO scale layout's staging yard gathering dust. Built in a rush early in 2022 prior to our relocating back to Brisbane, the 3 track Inglenook layout had contributed to my Model Railway Scenery Secrets book, but I'd just plain lost interest in finishing it.

It is now gone.

My newly cleared space for my next layout project, a OO9 Welsh Highlands layout.

That a small DC shunting layout based around some HO scale narrow gauge Australian rollingstock is gone, should come as no surprise given how much it's larger HO scale counterpart above it has evolved over the past 12 months. With Philden Beach accommodating a full staging yard, DCC sound operations, lighting and an interesting to operate goods yard, the 3 track Inglenook affair just couldn't compete for attention and interest. In fact, it was my wife who finally spoke up after counting a year pass by without any progress or interest from myself, asking if it could finally go downstairs in the garage or under the bed with a sheet put over it. The reason? She'd rather have the space to put some pictures of our Grandbaby on display in our loungeroom.

To her, the layout never made any sense. In her words... 'even when it's finished, it is just going to go up and back without being anywhere near as good as your Coffs Harbour one.' Fair point. Especially given that there was never likely to be an opportunity to expand it.

The compromise will see me construct a small oval shaped OO9 layout, and still leave room for a Grandbaby photo to stand alongside it.

The newly arrived items displayed in the recently cleared space give away what I am going to model, a OO9 scale layout based on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways in Wales. In a happy compromise, the two IKEA Eket cabinets that stand beneath my current HO shelf layout, are long enough to accommodate both a continous run, oval shaped OO9 layout using 1st radius curves, and a framed Grandbaby photo to stand alongside it. But change, like anything else these days, costs money.

Behind the scenes, over the past month I've been busy selling off all of my 12 mm gauge Queensland narrow gauge locomotives and rollingstock, as my little Philden Creek layout was consigned to the Philden Museum. Some of it, (along with the layout), went the way of a good friend who had been hinting at taking it off my hands for the past year. I then rounded up my American N Scale stuff, my Australian N Scale stuff and some British OO rollingstock I had been hoarding in case I would one day build this, that or the other, and listed them all on eBay. I even went as far as halving my HO Scale Australian roster on Philden Beach, knowing that I still had more than enough wagons to fill my staging shelf.

I love this little Harbour Station Gents & Office building based on the station at Porthmadog.

The sell-off was necessary not only to dive into my OO9 project, but also to cover the course outlay for myself to return to TAFE early next year, and still be able to finance and produce my final Philden Model Railway book which can now be expected sometime in 2024.

Not that there won't be a further book or two to follow, but at some point you financially have to direct your time and talent towards the areas that are most profitable. That for myself, now involves some further full-time study to broaden my creative ideas beyond the realm of model trains. Next year's study load will consume a lot of time. So I'm only planning to work on my Welsh Highlands layout at my own leisure as a welcome escape.

The station structure gives me a ready to place guide to model some slate walled scenery around.

As for the name, Bryn Nadolig? It's Welsh for Christmas Hill. In itself another indication of the setting for the layout; gripped in an early wintery dusting of snow. There will be another update to follow as soon as I have finished overhauling The Philden Model Railway Blog. Doing so will ensure it's future is happy and bright beyond the completion of the next book. So enjoy clicking around the blog to see everything that has changed. Until next week...

Celebrating 300,000 Blog Views

Happy Monday the 7th of July, 2023 to you all. This morning, somewhere between the course of finishing my coffee, checking my emails and brushing my teeth, the Philden Model Railway Blog reached the 300K pageview milestone. It seems my recent update announcing the arrival of my C Class locomotive to my Coast layout, was the post responsible for reaching the milestone. So a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this blog, and to those loyal readers who had discovered, and followed my journey since that first post back on the 14th of May 2015.

It's taken just over 8 years to reach 300,000 views! In that time, the blog has grown from a fairly standard model railway layout diary, to spawn a YouTube channel, be rated amongst the World's best model railway websites and release it's own range of books. Which brings me to the next announcement...

This week I send my next Philden Model Railway Presents how-to book off to the printers. Yes, after 12 months of working on this book and weathering more than 180 models specifically as photo subjects in the process, Model Railway Weathered Wonders is finished! I'm planning an August release for this book, and the interest in this one from hobby store retailers both here and abroad is encouraging. If you haven't already discovered my books, be sure to check out the Bookstore page link above to read the description for each one and to click on the links to where they are available and how you can preview each title.

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this journey! There will be few more exciting announcements to follow to close out what has been an exciting past couple of years.

Cheers!

Phill O

8th Birthday Blog Announcement ...

May 2015 to April 2023... what a ride! Now for the big announcement...

But first of all, thank you! Eight years of blogging and processing out loud my every thought, idea and success since I first shared my journey of building a HO scale Australian model railway layout, hasn't been the easiest of all the projects that I've attempted. There have been a lot of false starts, white flags and do-overs on the way to building four, or is that four-and-a-half layouts? On the other side of all this, there are three, soon to be five model railway books that I have written especially for the Australian modeller, to covert all this enthusiasm into an easily navigatable book. But as for the future...

One of my earliest Australian acquisitions, (an Auscision Models 421 Class loco), standing against the backdrop of my 2016 release book 30 Years Chasing Trains.

Being a railway modeller and later becoming a railway author, although intrinsically tied together are two very different crafts. Being a writer has always been my dream, yet becoming a full-time writer has not yet lived up to my own expectations. For a 34 year-old man who set out to become the next Bryce Courtenay back in 2006, time has marched on. I'm now 50 years of age and as for my goal of becoming an award-winning novelist, I was beaten to the post by my award-winning younger sister Tanya Bird, 2022 Ruby Award winning Australian Romance Writer of the Year.

 

 

Instead, I am about to leave behind a volume of my own self-published railway photography, train travel guides, railway poetry and the Philden Model Railway range of how-to books rather than a New York Times Bestselling novel. It's still a fine achievement and one that I hope will be remembered for years to come. However, having lived enough of life to know that nothing last forever, I can anticipate that this is all about to come to an end.

Sparing all that cliche 'it's with a heavy heart' stuff that often gets bandied around whenever someone makes a grand announcement, I'm actually pleased to admit that May 2023 marks a year of being able to say that I am a full-time writer. The catch however, is that after 17 years of chasing after this goal, by the time I actually got there, inflation and cost-of-living expenses have seen the goal posts shift and the financial reward for achieving this milestone diminish right in front of my eyes. It seems that time once more necessitates change. However, not until I finish what I set out to achieve and make a big announcement in the process...

'I've just accepted the keynote speaker position for the 2023 BRMA ~ British Railway Modellers of Australia Convention in Brisbane.'

The timing of this opportunity was terrific. Not only should I have the next one, (or will it be two?), Philden Model Railway books completed in time for the convention on September 22nd to 24th, but it is a great lead-in to one of the small projects that lies waiting for me on the other side of my HO scale Australian modelling. And that is a micro OO9 Welsh Highlands narrow gauge layout. So the remainder of 2023 will need to see me hold-off completing Philden Coast and the Philden Beach extension where the staging shelf currently stands, in order to work non-stop on completing my books and preparing my keynote presentation for the September convention. I plan to give it my all, bringing my past experience from library presentations, book tours and meet the Author events, to delve into the immersive side of a model railway addiction. More information on this to follow so watch this space.

 

I've found that the upside to change is that once you realise it is coming, you can both immerse yourself in the present whilst also preparing for the next move. With a holiday throughout Victoria's West Coast and into South Australia finally scheduled to go ahead this November after being cancelled multiple times throughout the pandemic, I should be able to gather the final missing photos I've been holding out for to produce another Favourite Australian Railway book. One that is likely to be released in early 2024 and will mark a decade since I took a break from writing novels to write a book on train travel instead, (2014's award-nominated Train Tripping Coastal Queensland). Which brings me to the next announcement...

'2024 will be the end for my volumes of railway and model railway books.'

A decade is a long time, and by year's end I should be able to say I accomplished everything I set out to achieve with my railway related books. Announcing this now allows me time to plan ahead for exhibiting Philden Coast throughout 2024/25, once the layout is complete and can simply return to being a hobby instead of a cost-driven exercise in accounting for your every working hour. It also allows me time to plan for the next big thing, and I can begin creating flow charts of where I can take all this experience and craft it towards something that isn't simply reliant on book royalties to keep the lights on. Editing, book production, workshops, book layout and cover design, online tutoring, article writing for magazines... or maybe just a job that provides a more secure form of income. I haven't yet explored each avenue fully.

As for my Australian HO scale modelling endeavours, they started in earnest right here, eight years ago when I created the Philden Model Railway Blog. After a 30 year journey from a OO Scale Flying Scotsman train set, to decades of modelling in N Scale that were interrupted by writing four novels, I just wanted to take a break and model something that I could possibly see in real life. Well, mission accomplished. Only I also happened to produce a further 14 (soon to be 17), books as a result of my railway addiction. Beyond 2024 when Philden Coast should make a few exhibition appearances just as I did with my previous Philden layout, those days are coming to an end. Philden Coast is the layout I'm happy to be content with until I'm... well let's not look that far ahead please!

As the year will end with my wife and I stepping into Nanna and Poppy-hood, future layout projects will likely be small, grandchild-friendly affairs, starting with a OO9 Welsh Highlands micro layout that will serve as a Christmas themed table centrepiece. It's all very different to the Philden Model Railway Blog of today, so will take place quietly in the background rather than on a blog. Philden Model Railway too will soon reach the end of the line, with updates for my Queensland Granite Belt micro layout and the Beach Extension for Philden Coast being the only items of note to follow my upcoming book release announcements. So in acknowledging this blog's 8th Birthday, I wonder if it might celebrate a 10th Birthday in May 2025? By then, both my Creek and Coast layouts will have been finished and exhibited. With only a solitary C Class loco and some NPHH cement hoppers to arrive to complete the journey, I can sense another era coming to an end in the approaching years.

As they say, there's no time like the present, so best get to enjoying it. Keep following for what will perhaps be the biggest 12 months of this blog's history. For now it's all full steam ahead.

Until next time...

The BIG clean out!

I've decided to clear the majority of my railway collection... and there's more in the garage!

This is probably the most embarrassing photo I will ever post on any of my blogs... It is what happens when you make a New Years' resolution to finally clean out the study in the hopes of being able to start work on that new little project layout that will sit atop my IKEA cabinet on the left.

"Sometimes you can just get overwhelmed by something you set out to do."

While waiting to make an announcement on the release of my next Philden Model Railway Presents book, I took it upon myself to finally sort out my study and prepare some space to delve into a new OO-9 micro layout. After already clearing a lot of my surplus Australian model railway rolingstock late last year as Philden Street Yard nears completion, I still had boxes and bags full of N scale models that I didn't quite know what to do with, and box after box of railway memorabilia stored in the garage that needed to find a way upstairs and onto a place on a shelf. Late last year, my cousin in Melbourne contacted me and asked if I was interested in a collection of Victorian Railway 'stuff' from a deceased estate, to which I said yes, and it too also arrived over the Christmas holidays period. Amongst it was a near complete set of VR Newsletters dating right back to WWII.

All I wanted to achieve by the end of this week was to make space for another matching IKEA cabinet to sit alongside my desk. But when I brought everything upstairs and into the study, it was obvious that there is no way on earth that everything was going to fit into another 4 shelf IKEA cabinet. It was one of those moments where I just looked at everything and asked "what have I done?"

Amongst my latest prized acquisitions that my cousin sent up to me, were 3 signs that once hung beneath the clocks at Flinders Street Station. Late last year someone on Facebook had offered the complete set of signs for sale, and after a quick 3 way conversation between myself, my cousin Chris and the seller in Melbourne's west, my cuz collected the Belgrave Line, Sandringham Line and Williamstown Line baked enamel signs in person, held them aside until the goods from the deceased estate sale had cleared, and mailed the lot up to me in Queensland. The signs are in beautiful condition, and along with some other prized pieces such as a NSW shunters' lamp and an ex-QR sign, are going to become the feature of a small display unit in our lounge room opposite my layout. Along with some family photos and some of my wife's decorating skills of course!

These 3 signs once hung beneath Flinders Street Stations' train display boards in the foyer at the top of the staircase. They will now be displayed alongside my Melbourne-themed model railway.

As for my study... If it won't fit nicely into one of the IKEA shelves such as the one above, then I can't justify hanging onto it any longer. As I write this, I've already listed 800 items up on eBay, and still have the entire floor shown in the top photo, a wardrobe full of timetables and tickets, and a pile of railway books, magazines and DVD's that won't fit into the much-needed IKEA cabinet I'm hoping to pick-up this weekend.

I'm hoping to have them all listed on eBay over the next 3 days. I try to photograph about 100 items at a time, and then sit and list them while I have a cup of tea to give my back a break. Usually I give a quick check on eBay to see what prices people are asking for similar items, and where possible try to price mine to be cheaper. It's a fair way of valuing things, but you can't discount history after all, and a lot of the tickets, timetables, books and such I've been collecting since I was a young man.

Rather than field questions or be the subject of nasty conversations on the many Facebook groups that I ultimately left last year, I actually prefer selling on eBay. It's been supporting me as a writer for the past year, and still provides the greatest search results for items as obscure as a 1948 Victorian Railways newsletter.

Click here to see all my listings.

As my Australian model railway days are now drawing to an end, holding onto all this stuff for research (a fancy word for collecting), has already served its purpose. There's one more model railway book I will write this year, and one final railway photo book I hope to produce after our end of year holiday to Victoria and South Australia to close the curtain on a writing career.

Self-producing my own books hasn't been a cheap exercise, and the more I become known in model railway circles the more I'm struggling with that certain element of people you inevitably encounter in any walk of life who only want to bring you down. I'm taking a break from Facebook in 2023, and will most likely give attending exhibitions with the new layout a miss. It can be tiring trying to socially complement other modellers efforts all the time while trying to filter out the negative conversations I seem to encounter in return. I'd rather my legacy be remembered from writing books that will help fast-track the next generation's modelling skills.

Well, I do hope you check out what I am clearing over the coming weekend. Hopefully it will cover the cost of the insurance excess from someone reversing into our Mitsubishi Outlander over Christmas, and not leaving a note. For once I just want my Mitsi fixed rather than wondering how I can afford a new model train!

Click here to see all my listings.

2023 TOP 10 ranking

As we fast approach the 8th Anniversary of this blog, the 2023 Feedspot TOP 50 best model railway blogs list for 2023 is in, and Philden Model Railway has this year been ranked in 8th position!

Number 1 position this year went to Rails of Sheffield in the UK.

Flying the flag for Australia, I jumped up from number 23 (2022) to sit at number 8.

So what does this mean for my blog? Well... firstly I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own horn here, but in a world where literally anyone can be a celebrity, influencer, call-it-what-you-like, for me it was some timely reassurance that this blog is still being read and enjoyed by so many people around the world. Behind a simple post, a lot of work goes into composing photographs, correctly sizing them for blog publication, crafting something worthy of reading and finally adding the right keywords so that it can be found. Blogging as a communicative medium has long been on the downward spiral, and back in January 2018 I wrote a piece on my author blog titled is blogging still relevant? that I felt was worthy of being printed in TIME magazine. If only anyone would have taken me seriously as a writer at the time, (pun intended). The truth is... right now I'm at the top of my game. This blog, my writing and my modelling for that matter are as good now as they've ever been.

I leave the YouTube tutorials to expert modellers such as Luke Towan, and the model railway roundups to the ever-popular Will James, as I'd rather spend my time watching their content than trying to copy them. First and foremost I am a writer. So along with creating this blog back in May 2015, I set out to self-publish my own range of railway books, and more recently my own line of model railway books. Should anything ever happen to my blog, the books will survive. Likewise with the idea of submitting pieces for model train magazines, as each issue ultimately becomes superceeded by the next and is generally lost in time.

Media however changes. So while I have put a lot of effort into indexing pages of this blog to make my past content more searchable, 2022 saw the blog take on a different format, with briefer recaps and more linked YouTube clips from my own Phillip Overton channel to showcase how the layout was progressing. There was some puppet-induced fun and frivolity, and a string of weathering showcases as I weathered a lot of models ahead of my next book project before offering the majority for sale on my phildenmodelrailway eBay store afterwards. All of this attracts more attention, both good and bad. Good for my books, but at times bad for me personally, as you ultimately have to learn to filter out the negative comments.

2023 will likely see another format emerge on this blog. I'm one final building away from completing Philden Street Yard, and am still hopeful that the new layout may get an invite to a model train exhibition here in south east Queensland this year. With my narrow gauge Queensland Granite Belt micro layout a feature of my upcoming book Model Railway Scenery Secrets, the challenge is now to complete this small layout to magazine standard by year's end. So expect some Philden Creek posts to soon overtake my Melbourne themed layout on this blog. As for the posts themselves? I'm aiming for a more raw format for 2023. Perhaps a little more of a behind-the-scenes look at the layouts and where certain angles have contributed to photos within the books. My Philden Street Yard YouTube videos wrapped up with my Christmas Special finale and I'm unlikely to continue further with them in order to make the time to take on a bigger project this year outside of my model railway hobby. And of course the next book is due to be released any week now, so keep an eye out for an announcement soon.

Finally, thank you to the readers who have made this blog special. Not everyone follows the blog publicly in the links on the side, as a lot of of my page views go out through email subscriptions or feedburners such as Feedspot.com while many just click through via the blog lists of the other great model railway blogs that I follow. So cheers to everyone who helped this blog make Feedspot's list for the second year running!

Now, to get back to writing the promotional material for my new book announcement...

Philden Street Christmas Spectacular!

It's time to slip into Christmas and sign off for 2022. And after a hectic year with all life served up... Why do it quietly? That's right. I've made a song and dance about it. If you think you've seen annoyingly catchy Christmas numbers before? You ain't seen nothin' yet! Make sure you watch it on YouTube on your bigscreen TV, or simply press play on the clip above. Have a safe, happy and very Merry Christmas! And a wonderful New Year! I'll see you on the other side of 2023.

Philden Street's New Chapter

Greetings from Brisbane! That's right, I've now moved and Philden Street Yard is about to begin a new chapter.

After 14 years of living on the Sunshine Coast, my wife and I find ourselves back living in Brisbane. The move was sudden and up until early May the idea alone was completely unexpected. However, Philden Street Yard has been carefully transported and is now occupying pride of place in our lounge room of all places.

The advantage of building a portable layout, is being able to take it with you when you move.

Even Bill the Puppet has made the trip to Brisbane!

The big advantage of building a layout to be portable, is that it can always come with you should you move! P.S.Y. was built to take to exhibitions, and as such, it came apart in 7 sections and fitted into the back of our Mitsi as one of the many trips we made south down the Bruce Highway.

Waiting at the other end on the northside of Brisbane was a newly renovated 2 bedroom apartment with partial city views, a new life as empty-nesters, and for the first time in 30 years a spare bedroom that was to become my model train room slash office. However, at 3.3 metres long, my Philden Street Yard layout wouldn't fit along the longest wall without blocking the entry or preventing the wardrobe doors from opening. So the train room idea was soon scuttled. The compromise was to reconfigure my layout as an entertainment unit in the lounge room, with the TV positioned beneath it and my layout's IKEA furniture turned into a lounge room display cabinet with family photos. I also added some display lighting and commandeered two shelves to display my model locomotives on.

The benchwork I built slots together with just 7 bolts and wingnuts...

Once the benchwork is freestanding, the two modules just sit back on top.

I'll add some stick-on wire organisers to stop them drooping below the benchwork.

A quick test of a locomotive on the track revealed all was well, and the layout was effectively settled into its' new environs within the hour of being walked through the front door. It was a great practice run for what it will be like when taking P.S.Y. to some model train exhibitions next year. That was the easy part, and that was also a little over a month ago.

Flashback to May, and after writing my last entry post Brisbane Model Train Show, a lot has changed. A LOT! To the point where I deleted my last blog entry and just needed some time away from the blog. It seems that my sharing concerns about the cost of exhibiting a layout was like poking a stick at a beehive once shared to social media. While some agreed with me, others branded my view as selfish and not supporting of the hobby... go figure what you'd like of that. After spending the morning of my 50th Birthday getting help with dissolving a small business I had run for the past 7 years, not being able to find nor afford any rental accommodation on the Sunshine Coast, not knowing where we were going to live 2 weeks out from our lease expiring and having to cancel my 50th Birthday trip to Uluru, there's always a handful of people who seem to have all the answers. Mentally, I just needed a break, from everything.

So, now I find myself again living in Brisbane, and strangely falling back into the bracket of full-time writer. It's a weird outcome to a year where (back in February) we thought we'd be taking a few months off after our daughter's wedding in August to travel Australia. 2022... like 2021 and 2020, is a year where plans can change in the blink of an eye. So I guess a new chapter is also a new start for my blog, and whatever direction I'd like to steer it in. Once I'm finished fighting with IKEA furniture and unpacking, there's a few little side projects to my books that I need to bring up to speed before I can turn the attention back to my layout/layouts.

Moving day! And the layout assumes its place in our new apartment.

On the other side of our Sunshine Coast exit, Denise and I are enjoying furnishing the apartment with some new furniture, and settling into our new life. The main concern with the layout having to be the feature of our loungeroom however is the staging yard. In a nutshell, although my wife knows what it is and why it's necessary, I have to agree with her in that every visitor to our place is going to ask when I am going to finish the other half of the layout. So the challenge is now on to fashion a small micro layout or just a cameo display case that will stand above the rear staging tracks and align with the top of Philden Street Yard's lid to make the wall look complete. It's another small project for me to look forward to alongside my Queensland themed Philden Creek layout.

But as usual, I'll let that be a story for another day. Tune in next time, when I bring you up to speed with some exciting new aquisitions, and news of what's in store for P.S.Y. for the remainder of this year!