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.
With the entire staff of Wombat Creek Tramways down with a terrible cold and later off on holidays not much work was down around trams. Some progress was made on the electric U class and the ‘Baldwin’ steam tram. The only finished project is the ‘new’ sign for WCsT, Wombat Creek Steam Trams. As seen on the photo, new is in ‘ ‘ as the sign has already coped with a lot of smoke.
Like so many of his Greek compatriots Spiro Papadopoulos wants to run a milk bar. With a short supply of vacant shops Spiro decided to purchase and convert an old tram into a state of art milk bar. To save money Spiro wants to do up the tram himself. So far the tram is place opposite the fire station and and Spiro has begun painting the outside. The date for the grand opening is so far unknown.
Current and former employees of Wombat Creek Tramways have formed a group called Wombat Creek steam Trams, WCsT. The purpose is to re-introduce steam trams to Victoria and Wombat Creek. Unlike New South Wales steam trams were rare in Victoria. Only Bendigo and Sorrento operated steam trams. Unfortunate no original steam trams have be preserved. Instead the group will convert foreign trams into Victorian ‘look-alikes’. The board of Wombat Creek Tramways supports the efforts and generously allowed WCsT access to the small shed, which will served as a workshop.
In reality the workshop looks like this:
From left to right is an electric tram (belongs to the Tramways) of unknown brand. The tram will be rebuilt as a Melbourne U class. The yellow chassis belongs to WCsT and will be used for transport of coal. The boiler and green body are from an Atlas model of steam tram from Bern, Switzerland. After a thorough reconstruction the model will re-appear as an example of a steam tram from Bendigo. The 3D printed model to the right is based on a narrow gauge Baldwin 0-4-0 locomotive used by the Sorrento Tramways. However, this version has been re-gauged to standard gauge.
1 NPH was built and issued to traffic June 1910. Its purpose was to carry explosives and general goods. There were two compartments: a 10ft 8¾ inch (3,270 mm) section for explosives and a 13 ft 7 in (4,140 mm) section for general goods.
The sides, ends and doors were covered in sheet metal. The van was stationed on the Moe – Walhalla line. Walhalla was a gold mining town and the rail line had been built from Moe to provide a faster means of transportation than bullock teams from the sailing boats from Melbourne to Port Albert/Sale via Heyfield.
In 1911 the van was converted to all goods transport and recoded to NH. With the closing of the mines at Walhalla the need to carry explosives ended and both compartments were used for general goods. The doors were replaced with NU type louvre doors for ventilation.
At Wombat Creek the wagon is classed 11 NH (will be changed to NPH) instead of 1 NH. The reason for the extra ‘1’ is the classification system at the gold mines. Passenger carrying vehicles have one digit. Freight wagons have two digits. First digit ‘1’ for covered wagons and first digit ‘2’ for open wagons.
The guards van for the narrow gauge railway in Wombat Creek is finished (OK, almost finished. The body hasn’t been glued to the chassis). The 3D printed body and chassis has been painted and extra features added like the ‘brass’ doorhandles. They are a striking feature on the original wagons.
Van no. 2 was built in 1899 and lettered N2BDBD . A very impressive lettering painted on the body. I liked it very much, but it was changed to 2 NBC in 1910, so quite a few years before the van turned up in Wombat Creek. At the same time the lettering was moved down to the chassis. Also, my version has a step all the way across the doors. Then built a shorter step only reached halfway across the doors.
At a Model Railway Exhibition in the beginning of August I came across a stand selling 3D printed locomotives, carriage and buildings. The items were mainly in HO and N scales, but a few were Hoe (OO9) scale. The mining railway in Wombat Creek needs a couple of guards van. My intention has always been a self-build, but I got tempted. The price was right, so why not buy and save time. I wanted two but unfortunately only one NBC guards van with passenger compartment was left. On the upside the body came with two chassis. The bogies were not including but came from Peco. The couples are rather long, but could probably be shortened a a later stage. Now it is time for painting.
A ‘new’ tram has entered the fleet of Wombat Creek Tramways. The tram is ex-Hobart no. 47, which after re-gauging is ready for service.
The tramways in Hobart were quite unique in Australia. They did not start with horse trams, cable trams or steam trams but went straight into electric trams. Other unique features were bow collectors and double-decker trams. The latter caused some problems. Like the railways in Tasmania the trams ran on narrow gauge, 3ft 8”. With a relative high centre of gravity corners had to be rounded with caution. After a few roll-overs had happened, it was decided to cut down the double-decker trams to single-decker trams. Tram no. 47 is one of the cut-down trams. The advertising is for an Australian tea brand (yes, they did spell flavor without ‘u’) and of course Cadbury Chocolate. The factory is still in Hobart.
The workshop at the Tramways is far too busy and blocks all the roads at the depot.
In road no.1 a Hobart tram is rebuilt and re-gauged to standard gauge.
The yellow chassis in road no. 2 will be a trailer for ballast and coal.
The ex-Vienna tram in road no. 3 will loose a few doors and emerge as a Melbourian U class.
In front of the steam shed a major reconstruction will take place before a Bendigo steam tram enters the heritage fleet.
It is difficult to predict a time frame for the various projects, but the Hobart tram appears to be the first to enter traffic.
