Wombat Creek Tramways

The chief engineer has purchased a new turntable for the mining railway. The previous home-build turntable was the right size for the railway but never worked as intended. It couldn’t do a full turn, the rails were not centred and the drive was unreliable. After 18 months of trial and error the time has come to scrap the little turntable. Instead a larger turntable of the brand ‘Peco’ has been installed. The new turntable appears too big for such a small mining railway, but the size is also an improvement. As seen, the small shunter and a wagon fit the turntable, which gives more opportunities for sidings and shunting. The tracks to and from the turntable still have to be fixed. The old turntable will still be a feature. With the high number of hours spent on it, I can’t throw it in the bin.

From this:

To this:

in 30 minutes!

I hope the chief engineer has a plan!

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.

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’.

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.