Wombat Creek Tramways

Living up to the name of the day and staying out of the heat (high 30’s) I have be labouring on a new shed for the narrow gauge railway. The photos show the result of today’s effort.

The tracks surrounding the turntable are down with a few adjustment still to come. The longer turntable allows for two extra lengths of track with can be used to store one wagon each. The old turntable are stored for future scrapping, which of course will not really take place.

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.