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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.

Fire station complete – almost

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted on Wed, August 03, 2022 18:44:40
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Wombat Creek Fire Station

The outside plumbing of the fire station is complete. So are the signs at the front. Of course this includes the letters CFA (Country Fire Authority). Wombat Creek is after all a small rural city somewhere in Victoria.

The second fire engine has arrived to the station after being unstuck from its display base. An old screw driver had to be filed down to fit into the triangular screws under the base.

So far, so good. But a closer inspection shows the engine cannot enter the fire station. The ladder is hitting the top of the door frame. Just by a mm or so. The building will need to be raised onto a plinth.



My first Scalescenes kit

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted on Sun, July 24, 2022 15:47:40

For a while the Scalescenes Fire Station has been printed and primed ready to be assembled. With time in Covid isolation the time has come. This is my first Scalescenes product and I am very impressed with the outcome. It is full of details, well thought solutions for e.g. gutters and down pipes and all parts which have to line up, just do so. Only downside is the length. It is just too short for one of the fire engines!

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Wombat Creek Fire Station

After 25+ hours of work only some plumbing on the side and signs on the front to do.

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The fire station has room for two engines. At the moment the second engine is stuck to its display base by two pesky tiny and triangular screws! Why….

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Staying positive – too positive

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted on Wed, July 20, 2022 18:27:12

With my job I knew it was a matter of time before I would get Covid-19. Now my time is up and I will spend 7 days isolating at home. Fortunately my symptoms are quite mild. Mild enough to do a little modelling.

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Margaret finally decided the lawn was too long and needed a mow. She didn’t get far, though, before she realised mowing was too hard and retired to the hammock. Meanwhile her son Tom did a bit of cricket practice and scored a perfect six. Unfortunately the ball went through one of the windows in the tram shed. Tom is quickly hiding in the cubby house. His sister Sarah wants to follow him, but she is unsure if she can climb the ladder.



A day to remember in Wombat Creek

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted on Sun, July 10, 2022 12:01:36

Part of The Mining Railway is up and running! The control panel (version 2. Version 1 was relocated to the bin) is in place and wired to the tracks around the explosives factory, sawmill and goods shed.

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Control panel for the Mining Railway

The entire fleet of locomotives, carriages and wagons has tested the tracks without issues apart from some bad connections in a couple of the points. The turntable is still missing making shunting quite difficult.

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Goods shed
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The temporay buffer stop is to prevent the trains from doing a major drop to the floor!



Updated track plan – again

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted on Tue, July 05, 2022 13:06:47
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The mining railway is slowly coming along but not without changes to the latest track plan The white circle represents a small turntable. The pit for the turntable is currently sitting on the shelf under the baseboard. It is a cap for a 90 mm storm-water drain. Also on the bench a trusted transformer given to me as a Christmas present in 1973. Plenty of power to run the railway. The yellow tramcar in the background is a sentimental anachronism being a typical Copenhagen tram.



A bridge over Wombat Creek

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted on Fri, July 01, 2022 20:47:45

The narrow gauge railway will cross the Creek twice. The first bridge is a short skeleton bridge inspireed by drawings from Victorian Railways – Way and Works Branch. Thr bridge is situated close to the backdrop, which is a challenge. How to hide the fact the creek is coming straight out of the sky? Hopefully some well-placed treeferns will do the trick!

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How to control the tramways

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted on Fri, July 01, 2022 20:35:39
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Three days work and the control panel for the tramways is almost finished. Only the loop around the Big Nugget Mine is missing. The final position of the tracks has to be determined depending on the design of the bridge over the narrow gauge railway.

Obviously the black lines are the tracks. The red push buttons control the points. Some points are still not connected. The black push buttons control the power to the tram-stops. The tracks are under constant power and the trams will come to a stop, unless the black buttons are activated. The slide switches are normally on, but they make it possible to stop a tram between stops.



A too close fit

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted on Mon, June 27, 2022 10:47:50
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A close fit

The narrow gauge railway and the creek both run under the tramway loop. No problem with the creek but the clearance for the steam locomotive is very tight with 1 mm between the the top of the funnel and the underside of the loop. This is too tight so something has to be done. Lowering the railway is not an option because of the risk of the creek flooding the line. Instead I will go for a thinner board under the tramway. Probably not quite right from an engineering perspective but it will not be visible once the sides of the future bridge are in place.



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