Wombat Creek Tramways

In 1899 the Victorian Railways began constructing rolling stock for their narrow gauge railways. It was decided all carriages and wagons should have the exact same dimensions. All are 27′ 3 ¾” long and 6′ 3” wide with 17′ between the bogies.

With this in mind I designed the track plan for the mining railway in Wombat Creek. The area with the Big Nugget Mine is rather constrained but calculations showed the loop should just be long enough for three wagons. Unfortunately the couplers are longer than expected. Only two wagons will allow the locomotive to run around. The ‘standard’ train will consist of one or two wagons plus a brake/guards van. A shunting puzzle has been created.

Shunting to and from the siding can be done, if the siding can take three wagons. Again, the couplers are just too long! Somehow the siding has to be extended, which can only happen by moving the points into the siding closer to the entry points.

After I have pulled up the tracks involved, I did some ‘line drawing’ and I have a new track plan for the mine. Exchanging two wagons already in the siding with two other wagons will be a challenge but can be done.

The inaugural four NQR wagon train passing the Explosives Factory bound for the Big Nugget Mine.

Hang on! The loop can only take three wagons!

Time to fire up the small 6-wheeler for the rescue.

The 6-wheeler has arrived and will take the wagons back to the depot area.

The train has arrived. Later the big locomotive will come back as a light engine.

The first open NQR wagon is ready to run. It still needs to be painted and and have a few details added. The body is made from 0.5 mm polystyrene sheets and 1.5 mm polystyrene angles. With another three wagons the fleet of NQRs should be big enough to serve the sawmill and mines

The narrow gauge railway serving Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd is now operational. The missing link between the Explosives Factory and the Big Nugget Mine has been constructed under the Main Street. The engineers used the ‘cut-and-cover’ method for the tunnel.

As a train may stall or derail in the tunnel access to the tunnel will remain from the top by moving a building or two.

The gold panner is still trying his luck; now in the shade of some gum trees and under the watchful eyes of a couple of koalas.

This part of the layout is almost finished. The backdrop needs to be replaced with a proper one. Unfortunately this will involve disconnecting wires, disassembling sections and moving the whole layout two inches to the right.

The Big Nugget Mine is not up and running yet, but you may find gold in Wombat Creek. A gold panner is trying his luck near the end of the tram line.

May you all strike gold this Christmas.

Well, not really. Despite the ground cover is made of tea leaves from used teabags it doesn’t smell at all. The logs obscure the creek coming straight out of the background.

Given the urban setting of Wombat Creek the layout will not have many opportunities for ‘landscaping’. The small embankment along the railway is made with scrap pieces of foam-board painted a base brown. A ground cover of tea leaves will form the topsoil before some Australian native will be planted.