Wombat Creek is a H0 (1:87) scale model of a fictional town situated somewhere in the Victorian Goldfields, Australia.
The time is 1963. Geelong wins the VFL Championship against Hawthorn (109– 60). John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. ValentinaTeresjkova is the first woman in Space. The men behind The Great Train Robbery get £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London.
The town consists of several buildings. The “Wombat Creek Bank and Gold Exchange” is a prominent building in the town centre. You will also find several other commercial buildings; among them the daily newspaper“W.C. Chronicle”(colloquial known as the "Toilet Paper") and “Wombat Creek Brewing Company” (Famous for the “Wombat Bitter”). “The Big Nugget Gold Mine” is situated at the Western outskirts of town near the small Chinatown. The War Memorial is in a small park along East Street.
The town’s mayor Alfred Campbell together with his son David Campbell owns several businesses, including the bank, the pub and the newspaper. AC/DC basically run the town and make most decisions on behalf of the rest of Wombat Creek’s residents, who, on the other hand, are too busy with their own businesses.
The mayor’s latest initiative is Wombat Creek Tramways. Wombat Creek doesn’t really need a tram system, but AC reckons tramways will improve the town’s reputation. Partly because of limited funds the tramways' construction and rolling stock depend heavily on second-hand requirements from other Australian and overseas tramways.
Moving from one place to another often involves living in two places at once. Well, it is the case for Wombat Creek. The layout is sitting comfortably in its new home but with no spare time, no modelling is going on. However, with few days back at our old home I have some time to work on the Comedy Theatre. I brought the building to the layout for a ‘fitting’. Here is the result:
The layout has been set up in the new ‘tram room’. Most of the buildings are still in boxes and a few wires need to bee reconnected. Best of all, there is room for an extension of the narrow gauge railway! Before long trains could be running down to Gumnut Gully!
The surveyors Burke and Wills have been to Gumnut Gully to ascertain a possible route for a railway connecting the remote township to Wombat Creek. Back in the office Burke and Wills put the coordinates into Anyrail and out came this map.
From this:
To this:
and this:
With less than a week before Wombat Creek goes into boxes ready for a big relocation the ground floor of the Comedy Theatre is taking shape. Further construction is still planned during the relocation period.
While the surveyors are out to ascertain a possible extension of the railway into Gumnut Gully, the chief engineer has already bought two more locomotives. The Garrett will probably be used as spare parts for the similar locomotive already based at the railway. The blue Darjeeling locomotive will be an interesting addition. Perhaps for future tourist trains into the Gully. And how much did the two locomotives cost? $15! Bargain, but the both need a major overhaul (read: installing a motor).
With only a few weeks to go before Wombat Creek will be packed up in boxes and put into a van destined for the layout’s new home, work on the Comedy Theatre has commenced. The first photo show a cut-out print of the Rivoli Cinema, which will be turned into the Comedy Theatre in Wombat Creek. A ‘smaller issue’ with the model is condensing the length to 200 mm instead of 400 mm whilst keeping the correct height. Forced perspective in action, I suppose. The second photo shows the walls of the ground floor in place. I think it will work out okay.
