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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.

Job done

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Tue, January 02, 2024 17:38:11
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The joiners from Ray Knott’s Joinery are packing up their VW after a job well done. 40 windows and 8 doors installed in one day!



Hat off for the new houses

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Fri, December 29, 2023 13:06:42
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A passer-by lifts his hat in awe of the new houses in the Golden Mile. The walls are up and we are waiting for the joiner to produce 40 windows and 8 doors. The New Year’s Eve approaching this will have to wait until next year.

Happy New Year!



Terraced houses at the Golden Mile

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Sun, December 24, 2023 13:28:48
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This is the upcoming project. Four houses along the Golden Mile. If your are familiar with houses at Fishley Street in South Melbourne, you will see the resemblance. The actual build will wait until after Christmas.



Safe exit from the Regal

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Fri, December 22, 2023 12:30:05
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The Regal theatre has been operating for some time. Among the staff has been a very nervous fire warden. Though the fire exit has been at the roof top for a while, it was leading to a very big drop to the ground below. Fortunately no fire occurred and yesterday the workmen finished the fire escape.

The stairs with their railings are from Plastruct. The platforms and their railings are hand cut from Evergreen styrene sheets.



Finally finished

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Thu, December 21, 2023 10:46:35
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The out-buildings at the Big Nugget Mine are all ready to be used. From left to right you will find the door into the dirty change room. After a shift underground the miners will go here and strip off their dirty clothes and hand them over to the caretaker, who resides behind the second door from the left. The caretakers job is to examine the miners’ clothes for any hidden gold nugget in the pockets or seams. Hence the nickname ‘nit-picker’. After a shower the miners will step over a foot high doorstep into the clean change room behind the third door. Here the miners will put on their clean clothes and get ready to board the train back home.

The building in the middle houses the first aid room and the carbide light room. In the light room the miners’ headlamps are refuelled and maintained.

The blacksmith’s shop is situated in the building to the right. The blacksmith plays a crucial role by repairing drill steel tips, picks and shovels. The interior of the blacksmith’s shop hasn’t been done yet, but will consist of a forge, an anvil, trough, tools and of course the blacksmith himself.

How did I come up with this ‘story’ about the buildings? Well, it is not pure fantasy. The photo below shows similar buildings at the Central Deborah Gold Mine in Bendigo.

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The first tram at the new shelter

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Tue, December 19, 2023 17:33:43
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The first tram has arrived at the new tram shelter. Mr and Mrs Patterson are too busy talking and will probably miss the tram.



New tram shelter

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Fri, December 15, 2023 18:18:48
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At work I recently had an introduction to 3D printing. I thought it would be a good idea to print something useful for Wombat Creek Tramways. At thingiverse.com I came across a small shelter for a tram stop, so why not give it a go. Its architecture would fit in nicely with other shelters in Wombat Creek. Little did I know the model is a copy of a shelter from Fruens Bøge, Odense, not far from where I grow up in Denmark. The tramways closed before I was born, but the little shelter still exists at the tramway museum at Skjoldenæsholm.

The slightly out of focus photo shows the shelter before being painted. As seen it will take some of the future garden space at the terraced houses above the mine.



Getting there

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Mon, December 04, 2023 17:47:36
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With the walls painted, the doors hung and the roof up, the out-bildings at the Big Nugget Mine are almost ready to use. Still to come are barge boards, gutter and downpipes. The blacksmith also needs doors and a window shutter before I can focus on the interior.



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