Wombat Creek Tramways

The turntable is now ready for use – I thought!

To paint the sides of the well and add sand to the bottom I had to take the drive and the bridge apart. The green railings at the bridge look a bit ‘flimsy’ with the handles just stuck to the top. Have a look at this video from the West Coast Wilderness Railway and the turntable in Dubbil Barril and you will see, I am not far off!

Assemble it all again should have been easy, but it wasn’t to be. The cogwheel in the drive just slid around the axle without turning the bridge. The friction between the pick-ups and the curved rail was too much. Since I probably wouldn’t need to turn a locomotive, I hard wired the bridge. It sort of solved the problem, but now the tracks don’t line up! Everything has to be taken apart again.

When life serves you lemons, you make lemonade. When life serves you polypropylene plastic, you … don’t make a turntable!

Nothing seems to stick to this sort of plastic (except the label), so I had to start from scratch with the turntable. His time I used styrene plastic and the outcome is far better. The turntable still has to be painted and railings fitted along the top.

The turntable is turned with a worm drive. The axle is a knitting pin kindly donated by my wife. The turntable can be turn fully 360 degrees, but this will rarely happens. Because of a steep (and invisible) incline near the Little Nugget Mine all locomotives will run chimney first towards the mines to avoid the top of the firebox being exposed.

The tracks are down and powered. Unfortunately my first attempt got a couple of wires mixed up. As a result a steam locomotive ended up in the creek twice! All is now sorted. The locomotive shed houses the two large steam engines. The smaller one will require a second shed at the track to the left of the bigger shed. This track will also be used for a coal stand and a water tank.

Construction of the turntable got under way today. I planned to take a few photos of the process, but I got carried away with the work itself, so I have only a few photos to show. The project is progressing as expected but not as fast as I had hoped for.

The first image is of the container lid,, which will form the pit for the turntable. The ‘bridge’ is cut from the bottom of the container. A slim 50 mm bolt has been put through the centre of the ‘bridge’.

The second image shows the pit in place.

Quite a few stages were done before the third image. A section of standard gauge track was cut into two and forms the guide rail at the bottom of the pit. Probably slightly over-size, but I expected it would be too difficult to keep a smaller rail in place. Two length of narrow gauge rails have been super glued to the ‘bridge’. Wires have been soldered to the rails on the bridge and in the pit. The ‘pit rails’ will be powered. The ‘bridge wires’ will somehow glide on top of lower rails and thereby supply power to the ‘bridge’. A slim sheet of plastic has been slit in place along the wall of the pit to conceal the threads of the lid. The third image shows the turntable and the tracks leading towards it installed. Also the track into the shed is in place.

The final image is similar to the third, but with the shed in place.

Tomorrow’s work will include laying the remaining track and power the tracks and the turntable. Finally the turntable has to be detailed .

An empty vitamin D container, a top from a milk carton, a worm drive and a 50 mm bolt with nuts. Could this – with a few more bits and pieces – become the long needed turntable for the mining railway? I hope the next few days will show.

The bluestone retaining wall along the creek has been erected. Only the capping stones at the top are missing. The photo shows the purpose of a relative long wall. It sits along and hides the control panels.

Next step would be the second wall/pier supporting the bridge, but..

To get easy access to the dirt road along the creek, it better wait, but…

The dirt road will cross the railway on the other side, but…

The tracks will have to be put down before the road, but…

The tracks will cross the creek, so a small bridge has do be built first!

Complicated? Not really if you get the order right.

The access road to the Big Nugget Mine is almost completed with sand from Phillip Island, cloured ‘teddy bear fur’ and potting mix from – well a bag. The potholes are topped with clear PVA. As seen on the photo the road is in a poor condition. On his way back from the mine Mr. Howard had a minor accident with his ute slipping into the creek. The railway to and from the mine is definitely needed when the mine is fully operational.

The bluestone retaining wall along the creek has been erected. Only the capping stones at the top are missing. The photo shows the purpose of a relative long wall. It sits along and hides the control panels.

Next step would be the second wall/pier supporting the bridge, but..

To get easy access to the dirt road along the creek, it better wait, but…

The dirt road will cross the railway on the other side, but…

The tracks will have to be put down before the road, but…

The tracks will cross the creek, so a small bridge has do be built first!

Complicated? Not really if you get the order right.

Making progress! Some tracks have been put down in the Big Nugget Mine. The original track plan has just a loop without a siding. This will give the locomotive a lot of waiting time whilst wagons are emptied or, as an alternative, a lot of light engines going to and from the mine. To avoid this the chief engineer has decided to purchase more points. This is the reason for not completing the loop at the moment, but with the ‘outer’ track already in place, work on the dirt road can progress.

How the locomotive got onto the track is a mystery with no rail connection past the points!

The chief engineer of the mining railway was advised a steam locomotive was up for auction. The description said ‘used, but in running condition’. Until now the fleet of locomotives has consisted of a small 0-6-0T and a larger 0-6-2T. The smaller locomotive is fine for shunting around the main rail yard, but it will struggle with larger trains up to the mines. Therefore the chief engineer put a small offer in for a second 0-6-2T and to his surprise he won the auction.
The locomotive has arrived. Put on the tracks it would not move an inch! An electrical connection had to be re-adjusted. Further work has to be done. The locomotive has a bad habit of stalling at the points. The photo shows the recent arrival between the two older locomotives.

The bluestone retaining wall along the creek has been erected. Only the capping stones at the top are missing. The photo shows the purpose of a relative long wall. It sits along and hides the control panels.

Next step would be the second wall/pier supporting the bridge, but..

To get easy access to the dirt road along the creek, it better wait, but…

The dirt road will cross the railway on the other side, but…

The tracks will have to be put down before the road, but…

The tracks will cross the creek, so a small bridge has do be built first!

Complicated? Not really if you get the order right.

The above text is from a previous post. The bridge has been adapted from a drawing of Victorian Railways’ ‘Superstructure for Plated “I” Beam Bridge’. Not a huge project.