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.
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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 proffessional 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 Indiginous 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, the hobby can again return to being a welcome escape for me. I’ll 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…