As this blog and my Australian HO scale modelling journey heads into its 10th year, I've found myself writing blog posts less often. Yet if I'm honest, firing up the layout's throttle more frequently for a short half hour time-out from the stress of study, life, and the modern world, than perhaps at any other point of my model railway life.

As to why, it is that I finally have a layout that works wonderfully well while meeting all of the important elements that made me want to model trains in the first place. Perhaps it was last year's self-analytic psychological layout revamp. Perhaps it was this year's need to sell-off what was no longer necessary to afford some new camera equipment in a return to full-time study. Or perhaps it was just the newfound confidence to only model the things that meant something to me. I guess following the release of my final Philden Model Railway book, there has been no pressure to 'get it right', photograph it 'correctly' or model it 'prototypically' for the sake of anyone other than myself.

With my roster rolled-back to the bare minimum of what is required to enjoy it, I started thinking about rolling back the years on the layout. My shelf layout was constructed as a model stage to enjoy some shunting operations and be able to film short YouTube videos on it. So why not write an opening act to precede my modern layout's setting?

Part of my Visual Arts certificate has involved studying mixed media artworks and different ways of presenting photographs. So along with concentrating on my study, I also started pulling apart my former Philden beach extension to repurpose as a drop-in interpretive piece of art that could be display at the entrance to my staging yard. This will help open-up the video angle for filming trains as they pass beneath the Philden Street overpass from the staging yard to the layout proper, without seeing the stark white staging shelf that ruins the illusion of watching trains disappear from the scene. The scene, complete with the backdrop you can see from my old layout section above, drops into a recessed area beside the tracks on my staging shelf and essentially becomes a continuation of the scene from my book shop beside the Philden Street overpass.

I found there is also room on the front side of the staging shelf approach to model a station platform, one that can continue beneath the overpass alongside the front track to add another element to the layout's feel. Once again utilising a drop-in building, (in this case my former NSW A4 timber station from my original Philden layout), it will enable the layout to transition from Act One to Act Two. With the station building removed, it stands as an abandoned platform in my current modern-ish era of 2013+. However, drop the station building in place and the layout quickly transforms back to the year... I'll leave that to readers to guess.

By definition of what is considered railway modelling, these two drop-in scenes are not going to be to everybody's cup of tea. After dealing with a bit of anxiety from some social media backlash related to failed attempts at promoting my recent book amongst the many Facebook groups I once belonged to, I'm reluctant to share the concept here. It has done very little to make me feel appreciated or want to openly share or promote the hobby. Which is pretty disappointing after chewing through so much of my life savings to produce the 6 model railway books that I have. After wiping my Facebook account I'm happy just to roll-back the blogging and once more enjoy my hobby in my own company. Maybe in time I will feel differently.

In preparation of rolling back the years however, I realised I had to let a few things go to afford to do so. Those who follow my eBay listings were probably a little surprised at what they found me listing for sale over this past month. But with the price of real estate now beyond most Australians, the dream of one day having my own train shed or spare bedroom to set up my hobby in is now firmly over. So why hang onto a closet full of memorabilia and a large collection of model trains in the hope of one day winning the lottery to afford it? It sounds depressing, but it's actually not. And with my modern-era roster now cut back to just 3 locomotives to share the working of 4 different short goods trains, I am now ready to enjoy modelling another era guilt-free, on an apartment sized-layout that I know will always come with me.

Once I wrap up my full-time study mid-year, I'm looking forward to completing my drop-in staging transition scenes and hopefully posting some images here of something I know will be a little different. Then again, life too may be a little different on the other side of all this.

Until next time, enjoy your modelling and continue to treat your fellow modellers kindly.

Cheers!