One of the absolute highlights so far in my journey as an Author, was accepting the keynote speaker position for the 2023 British Railway Modellers Convention of Australia, which just so happened to be held in my home city of Brisbane, Australia.
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| The combination of my books and modelling skills were on display for all to see. |
Held at the Pacific Hotel in Spring Hill, Brisbane over the weekend of 22nd to 24th September 2023, the annual convention was a coming together of
British Railway Modellers from across Australia. The weekend of presentations, demonstrations, layout tours and a visit to the Brisbane Tramway Museum kicked off with a Mini Expo held in the convention room overlooking the Roma Street Parklands and Railway Station.
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| I was kept busy signing copies of my railway and model train books over the weekend... |
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| ...and was stationed beside UK model producer John Wiffen (right) from Scalescenes. |
Preparing my 40 minute keynote address took the best part of a week to prepare. It wasn't an easy task to condense my 40 year journey from being a young lad with a OO scale Flying Scotsman train set, to becoming the Author of 22 books into just 40 minutes. However, I did manage to contain myself to running only a few minutes over, including sharing the story of how I was almost hit by the Flying Scotsman on its' 1988-89 visit to Australia, back when I had hair like MacGyver as seen in the image below...
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| Yes, that's me in 1989, avoiding the throngs of people to pose for a photo infront of a slow-moving Flying Scotsman during its Australian Tour. |
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| There has been a lot to ponder in my lifelong journey as a writer. |
Along with meeting some extraordinary modellers from around the country and enjoying a full programme of interesting presentations, it was rewarding to be recognised for my contribution to the hobby in the form of my Philden Model Railway presents range of books. I received plenty of encouraging words from the many eager readers who waited patiently for me to sign copies of my books, including more than one person who has started building a layout based solely on my Build a Bookshelf Layout book.
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| I paused long enough to record this image from Saturday night's Gala Awards Dinner. |
Apparently it is a convention tradition for the Keynote Speaker to present the trophies for the National model building and photography awards. As the role came with a seat at the five star Gala Dinner attended by a crowd of over 80 people on the Saturday night, how could I refuse? I must thank the BRMA Queensland Representative, John Rostron for the extraordinary lengths he went to in assisting me with setting up on the day, running a fantastic 3 day convention and offering the Keynote Speaker position to me in the first place. Next year the BRMA will meet to do it all again, only this time in Melbourne, and John... you can now have a well-earned rest and simply attend next year's event for the fun of it.
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| And my parting view looking over Brisbane, Australia, as I left on the Saturday night. |
Having now had a year where I released 3 books, exhibited my own model railway at 2 different exhibitions and delivered a succesful presentation at a model railway convention, I topped-off September by becoming a Poppy for the first-time to a lovely little Grandaughter named Zailee... 2023 has been a big year. Now as the dust settles on the BRMA Convention and I prepare to sit down to write the 6th and final instalment of my Philden Model Railway Presents series, I can look forward to a much-needed holiday in a little over a month's time.
Next year is looking like it will deliver a new creative project for me to head into. So until then, I'm going to take the high from last month's convention, and harness that energy into writing the next Philden book. Until next time...
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