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.
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.
With 35+ degrees outside and Test Cricket on the television inside you know, where you want to be. I managed a few shrubs for the embankment whilst Australia managed South Africa!
PS: The wombat is still there.
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.
‘Grass’ (fake fur) and a few wombat holes have been added to the embankment. A small platform along the railway makes the interchange between the tram and train somewhat easier. Up the top part of the street has be sealed and a footpath put down.
Still to come are shrubs and bushes on the slopes, a tram shelter for waiting passengers up the top and perhaps a Mr. Whippy ice-cream van!
Watching the latest video it is clear the area around the Big Nugget Mine and the Explosives Factory lacks landscaping. With pieces of scrap cardboard and A4 prints the embankment along the tram track towards the terminus at the Explosives Factory has been enclosed.
Next step is ‘planting’ strips of fake fur (used for teddy bears). The fur has been trimmed down and sprayed with green paint.
The the completion of part of the loop around the future gold mine it is possible to get an idea of running multiple trams simultaneously. Only one of the tracks as been finished and traffic will only run clockwise.
The video also shows what a difference landscaping (cityscaping) make. The view from the Explosives factory is rather bare. A lot of work has to be done!
Enjoy the video!
As mentioned in a previous post the second bridge over the Creek and railway is too narrow for two trams passing at the same time. To regulate the traffic flow traffic lights are needed. Fortunately I came across a website for ‘Talking Electronics’. Among lot of electronic devices (several related to model railways) was a controller for up to four traffic lights. I got in contact with the gentleman behind the electronics and yesterday I picked up a set of lights for a reasonable price. Everything was already put together and ready to go. I still have some work to do before the lights can be installed at the layout, but the short video shows their working. They are Australian and the sequence is red-gren-yellow-red.
During the week I made some progress with the landscaping around the creek. 21 tree ferns and a couple of stumps went down. The ferns started their life as palm trees but with the trunks cut shorter and added sisal as dead fronds (need a bit of brown colouring), they can be taken for tree ferns. The reeds along the bank of the creek are coloured fibres from a sisal rope.
