Category: Philden Beach

Rainbow over Philden Beach

There’s a rainbow over Philden Beach as my part in its story prepares to come to an end.Plans. We can make them. We can break them. And we can change our mind along the way. Just like the concrete plant from my original Philden layout that I had been p…

The full circle moment

Coffs Harbour Railway Station. September 2024.Sometimes a modeler’s hobby and personal life come together in a full circle moment. For myself, another holiday in Coffs Harbour has come and gone, and while I never meant to grow old, age has quietly crep…

Lazing by the Sea

A C Class has returned to the seaside!Nearing the end of a difficult to navigate 2024, my beach layout has had a happy face return to the roster in the form of the Auscision Models C Class locomotive. My original C Class model C509 in the Cootes Indust…

The Bus Depot closes

Late on a hot August night, the small bus depot that had stood alongside the tracks at Philden Beach saw the drivers sign-off for one last time and the two luxury motor coaches quietly disappear in the dead of night.With the busses gone, the witches’ h…

Re-detailing the Cement Plant

This past week I returned to some old-fashioned model building projects. My task was to reconfigure the cement plant building from my old Philden layout so that it could be easily transplanted onto my Philden Beach HO scale shelf layout. As the model h…

Resurrecting the Cement Plant

Cement trains could begin calling at Philden Beach later in 2024.It’s been over 5 years since I dismantled my original Philden layout, (see the Philden Museum page for its complete history), during which my former cement plant had been carefully stored…