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.
Watching the latest video it is clear the area around the Big Nugget Mine and the Explosives Factory lacks landscaping. With pieces of scrap cardboard and A4 prints the embankment along the tram track towards the terminus at the Explosives Factory has been enclosed.
Next step is ‘planting’ strips of fake fur (used for teddy bears). The fur has been trimmed down and sprayed with green paint.
The the completion of part of the loop around the future gold mine it is possible to get an idea of running multiple trams simultaneously. Only one of the tracks as been finished and traffic will only run clockwise.
The video also shows what a difference landscaping (cityscaping) make. The view from the Explosives factory is rather bare. A lot of work has to be done!
Enjoy the video!
As mentioned in a previous post the second bridge over the Creek and railway is too narrow for two trams passing at the same time. To regulate the traffic flow traffic lights are needed. Fortunately I came across a website for ‘Talking Electronics’. Among lot of electronic devices (several related to model railways) was a controller for up to four traffic lights. I got in contact with the gentleman behind the electronics and yesterday I picked up a set of lights for a reasonable price. Everything was already put together and ready to go. I still have some work to do before the lights can be installed at the layout, but the short video shows their working. They are Australian and the sequence is red-gren-yellow-red.
During the week I made some progress with the landscaping around the creek. 21 tree ferns and a couple of stumps went down. The ferns started their life as palm trees but with the trunks cut shorter and added sisal as dead fronds (need a bit of brown colouring), they can be taken for tree ferns. The reeds along the bank of the creek are coloured fibres from a sisal rope.
Well, not really. Despite the ground cover is made of tea leaves from used teabags it doesn’t smell at all. The logs obscure the creek coming straight out of the background.
Today is a public holiday in Victoria enabling me to spend a few hours with the tramways. The bridge is almost finished. The first train has past under the bridge which soon will have soot marks above the track.
Given the urban setting of Wombat Creek the layout will not have many opportunities for ‘landscaping’. The small embankment along the railway is made with scrap pieces of foam-board painted a base brown. A ground cover of tea leaves will form the topsoil before some Australian native will be planted.
Following up from the previous post, the double-decker bus faces the same problem in Wombat Creek as in Melbourne with hitting the awning along the Myer department store. Hopefully the driver pays attention. The photo also shows how well the bus and tram match the colour scheme.
