This show has layouts from N scale through to Gauge 1 as well as a large number of trade stalls just waiting to prise away my hard earned money.
I didn't buy any locomotives or rolling stock but I did stock up on back copies of Australian Model Railway Magazine as well as a Victorian Railways goods shed kit from Model Train Buildings (modeltrainbuildings.com.au) and another photo book from Train Hobby Publications. With a growing interest in the Queensland Railways I just barely talked myself out of buying a Wuiske HOn3 1/2 1720 class diesel locomotive in QR's blue and white livery.
While wondering around I came across Phillip Overton's HO scale layout Philden. I'm a huge fan of this layout and closely follow Phil's website to see how the layout is progressing. The pictures of the layout on his site are good but to see it in real life was pretty exciting. The pictures here don't do it justice mainly because I left my camera in NZ and the camera on my smart phone wasn't up to the job.
Philden, an HO scale layout based on the New South Wales railways.
Philden is an HO scale layout depicting a small station somewhere in New South Wales. The layout is set in the early to mid 2000's and plays host to a suburban passenger train made up of an Xplorer diesel multiple unit and a short freight train servicing the goods shed, cement works and steel siding. Unfortunately due to the floor in the marquee not being quite level, shunting was out of the question during the show.
The public side
Overall the layout is nine foot long with the station area at six foot and the staging area at three foot. Its amazing what Phil has been able to fit into this space. Normally the layout sits above a desk at Phil's apartment but every now and again is dragged to model train shows across Queensland. What surprised me the most is that the layout is run on DC. No fancy DCC set ups with command stations and throttles. Just a small DC throttle and some switches. Probably not a bad thing for a layout that travels. I get upset enough when my DCC controllers decide to play up, imagine having a crowd watching you, your DCC system and your locomotive decoders melt down!
I was lucky enough to chat with Phil and he gave me a good run down on the layout, how it was built, how its operated and his future projects including an N scale layout and scenicing the staging area.
Philden's staging area in the early stages of being sceniced.
A big thanks to Phil for his time during a busy show.
For more on Philden's progress and adventures visit Phillips website at phildenmodelrailway.blogspot.co.nz .
With a bag of goodies and the contents of my wallet and bank account largely intact it was time to head away. Still can't help but think of building a small layout like Philden but based on Queensland Rail hmmm.
And that's about it.
