Wombat Creek Tramways

I spotted a nice photo of Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, on the internet. After a make-over in Photoshop it came out like this:

It will be positioned towards the very back of the layout, so was it really necessary to improve the front. The shadows give it depth already. Anyway I made a few extra copies, cut out the columns, glued them to 1.5 mm cardboard and finally glue them in place on the front. Spot the difference.

I think it was worth the effort.

The sidewalls will be extended and a proper roof added. It has to wait until the hard lock-down in Melbourne is over and I can purchase a board for the the background. The market is in front of a curved ‘corner’ making the back part of the roof some of a challenge to get right.

An unexpected day off from work gave me the time to do the signs for the shopfronts in Church Street. By temporary removing St. Ursinus Church it is possible to do a photo of the entire row of shops.

From left to right you find:
An antiques store – it is in real shopfront somewhere in Melbourne
LJ Hooker Real Estate – perhaps not the only ‘hooker’ in the street!
TAB betting – Church Street is probably not as innocent as you may think
Church Street Spirits – well, it is after all Church Street
Town and Country Vet – an existing veterinarian clinic somewhere in Australia
Burke and Wills Surveyors – an unfortunate name for such a business (if you are not familiar with Australian history, they got lost whilst exploring the Outback)
Pet Shop – making sure the vet will stay in business
The Black Cat – perhaps another name could be ‘Gentlemen Club’. Definitely not related to the Pet Shop!
‘Shop to Let’ – honestly ran out of shop names. Anyway it appears pretty run down
The Toy Shop – you should be able to buy to model trains and trams somewhere
The Rug Shop – again a real shopfront from Melbourne
Sputnik – selling clothes for the young adults. The year is 1963 and the owner got inspired by the latest Space craze

I am still working on Queen Victoria Market located adjacent to the shops and of course the long-time project with the Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange.

During the weekend a team of bricklayers went to work at the Bank.

In fact the bricks are printed on a photocopier and later glued on. Looks very ‘substantial’ for the time being, but I hope some ‘trimmings’ will enhance the look of the building.

Until recently my main focus has been on the buildings in Church Street and the Market. The next task is putting up signs for the different shops and businesses. The signs are ready to be printed on 300 gr. paper, which I can’t do at home. Unfortunately the printer at my local Officeworks doesn’t work, so I have to wait finishing the buildings.

Instead I have put forward the construction of the Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange (for now on just called the bank!). It will be the most challenging construction so far and I don’t plan to see the finished building in the near future.

The walls are constructed out of 2 mm mount board. The first photo shows the parts making up the front of the building. Everything will be cut by hand, which has been time consuming, but the current lockdown here in Melbourne gives a lot of time at home!

The second photo illustrates the assembled front and end walls in its future position at the intersection between the Main Street and the Golden Mile. The proportion between the bank and the building to the right of the photo isn’t quite right, so the latter of the two may need to be repositions further back on the lay-out. Fortunately it is not a major challenge to move a 4 storey building in scale HO!

It has been quite a while since I have posted an update from Wombat Creek, but here is some news.

Even with two weeks of holidays the progress has been rather slow. Not due to lack of time, but because the tram room also serves as an office for my wife, how has to work from home due to COVID-19.

During the last few weeks the main focus has been on the shops along Church Street and the church itself. The shop-fronts are made from photos of real fronts from Melbourne streets. They have been through Photoshop to remove unwanted features like parked cars, tree branches and people. The depth of the houses varies from less than a centimetre to 5 cm. I still have to do awnings and signs.

The church is a second-hand Hornby model, which I purchased a while ago. I plan to change the colour of the walls and of course install the stained-glass windows. The railings are made from thin plastic card and green stem wire. I think they came out quite well.

Hopefully I will get more work done in the weeks to come. Who knows – we may unfortunately soon be under stricter lock-down here in Melbourne.

Below is a short summerary of buidings and features, which are already present or on their way to Wombat Creek.

Saturday 30 May 2020 is a day to remember in Wombat Creek. The tracks on the new extension have been laid (and re-laid due to a curve being too tight) and wired. The circle line is now fully operational with up to three trams running at the same time.

The photo shows the single line along Lt. Church Street. The line was planned to run in front of the church, but resulted in a curve in Church Street being too tight. The curve was eased but one of my three identical (?) still derails negotiating the curve. A problem to solve at a later state.

The shop fronts are mock-ups of real shops from the streets of Melbourne. They have just been printed and glued to cardboard to give me an idea, how they fit in. Before a final print each shop front has to go through Photoshop to get rid of electric wires and poles in front of the shops.

The control panel for the extension is a temporary fixture made from a take-away container! The tracks are still the original lay-out. The two unused holes are for the now re-positioned points into Little Church Street.

The work on the extension of Wombat Creek Tramways is on its way. A couple of engineers are inspecting the latest track work at the intersection of Main Street and The Golden Mile. The four right angle crossings are working quite well, but the crossing just to the left and outside the view has caused some issues with older locomotives. The engineers also have some concerns with the curvature right before the points. The track geometry isn’t great.

The reason for this is partly how Wombat Creek Tramways is constructed. The mayor of Wombat Creek, Alfred Campbell, decided with the help of his son David, editor of the W.C. Chronicle, the town needed a tramway. (The rest of the good people of Wombat Creek are too busy with their own businesses to care). To keep the costs down AC/DC decided to purchase tracks, points and rolling stock second-hand, if possible. So they bought a pair of points for a very good price, and as a result of this the Tramways got an unnecessary curve!