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 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.
The corrugated walls are all up. The task took longer than expected, but now the painter can get on with his job.
I could make a list of ‘jobs-to-do’ at the layout. The list would be very long and probably overwhelming. Instead of the said list I embark on projects I find enjoyable. Isn’t our hobby all about joy!
Following the above ‘rule’ I have started on three small buildings at the Big Nugget Mine. Working full time five days a week doesn’t give me much time modelling, but the fact the buildings are small even half an hour at any time is enough for some progress.
The doors look somewhat wonky, but should be pretty straight once excess frames are cut off. The walls and roofs will be clad in corrugated sheets. The building to the right is for the blacksmith and will have a bricked forge and chimney.
With Melbourne Cup Day being a public holiday in Victoria and having no interests in horse racing I spent a day working in the Big Nugget Gold Mine.
A while ago I purchased Auhagen Mine Accessories with wagons, tracks, turntables, bike racks and a corrugated iron shed. Each piece of track is 80 mm long and straight. By cutting 1 mm sections of the rail I was able to curve a couple of tracks. The (dummy) wagons come as tipper trucks. I kept one and converted four into wagons for firewood. The yellow wagon with a roof and canvas sides is for explosives.
The bridge across the creek is scratch built from 1.5 mm thick ‘timber’.
During a recent visit to Melbourne I spotted a building adorned by spheres, so why not in Wombat Creek?
With the grass in place the erosion of the bank next to the tracks at the Big Nugget Gold Mine is avoided. The afternoon workers’ train is ready to depart.
