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Wombat Creek Tramways

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.

Something has to be done

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Mon, July 07, 2025 19:48:41
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Either the lampposts weren’t designed for double-decker trams or double-decker trams should not be allowed into Victoria Street. A solution has to be found!



Station for Gumnut Gully

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Thu, July 03, 2025 05:10:09
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The narrow gauge railway was established to serve the mines with explosives, timber, coal and the occasional miners train. It was not intended to have regular passenger traffic, but after the line was extended to Gumnut Gully the purpose has changed. Because of the remoteness of Gumnut Gully and the poor road conditions the ‘Gumnuts’ saw the opportunity to travel by train to Wombat Creek. The railway has agreed to implement a regular passenger service and to build a station in Gumnut Gully. As always, the manager goes for second-hand options. In this case, a station building from Kappendrup. Unfortunately this is about 10,000 miles from Gumnut Gully. The building is old but he can have it for free. The next challenge will be finding cheap transportation.



Not so glamorous work

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Tue, June 17, 2025 19:13:18

We all tend to show photos of the trains, trams, track work buildings and landscape, but we must not forget the work going on beneath the surface.

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A small cabinet has been installed at Wombat Creek. The cabinet houses batteries for traffic lights (12 V), street lights (9 V) and interior lights (4.5 V).



Into service

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Wed, June 04, 2025 11:51:08
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The brake has been finished and put into service. The photo shows the brake van assisting a rake of empty skips bound for the mine in Gumnut Gully.

The van has been classed 3NBC. ‘3’ because it is the third composite brake van in the fleet ‘NBC’ for Narrow gauge Second class Brake van. The original was classed P1 at… Well, I am not sure if the van came from Mount Lyell Railway or North Mount Lyell Railway. Also notice, the van is fitted with vacuum brakes, which may be useful if the skips are fitted with vacuum pipes.



Getting there

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Sat, May 31, 2025 17:29:43
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Almost finished. I just need to attach a step beneath the door and some brakes. After all, it is a brake van!



The ex-Sorrento Tram Taking Passengers

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Thu, May 29, 2025 10:52:15
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The trailers for the Baldwin tram are almost finished. Judging from old black and white photos (the tramway at Sorrento closed after Easter 1921) the bulkheads appear to be filled in with thin sheets of metal. They are difficult to do in 3D printing. Instead of trying to fill them in with thin plastic sheets I have decided the trailers will get some rolled-up blinds.

The original trailers were painted in different colours like bright red,dark red, green yellow, brown and black/dark green. I have opted for just one colour (green). I think different colours would have made the tram into an toy train from an amusement park. Instead of the colours telling the trailers apart I have numbered them 1-3.

Looking at the old photos it appears the gold lining disappeared over time. It is also unknown if the stanchions were brass (probably not, but it looks good!)

More information about the Sorrento tramways from Melbourne Tram Museum.



Happy Days

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Tue, May 20, 2025 11:07:20
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The chief engineer at Wombat Creek Tramways received 7 ‘new’ trams today. They are imported from Britain (read ‘from Canberra’) for a very good price ($160 including freight!). They are all in working order, but they will probably be used as spare parts for more appropriate Australian trams. The double-decker to the front right could be turned into an ex-Hobart double-decker with enclosed ends. The motors from the two identical double-deckers at the back could be used under W classes from Melbourne.



Finally a rainy day

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Wed, May 07, 2025 16:52:47

After weeks without rain we got showers today. Good for the garden and spare time for me.

The goldmine in Gumnut Gully doesn’t have the capacity to crush the ore. Instead it has to be shipped to the Big Nugget Mine in Wombat Creek. The ore skis are without brakes and a brake van is needed.

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The result of a few hours of measuring and cutting resulted in the body of a small brake van. A similar van was used at the Mt. L yell railway in Tasmania. The body is on a temporary chassis which explains the lean.



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