Wombat Creek Tramways

Work has commenced over the plate girder bridge carrying the tramways across the Wombat Creek. The original Peco plater girder bridge is 220 mm long, so a middle section of 75 mm has been cut out. The remaining pieces will later former a second bridge across the creek and the narrow gauge railway. The bridge will be painted obscuring the new and at the moment white ends.

The supporting retaining walls will be clad in blue stones (basalt), and a gravel road (in a very bad condition due to its proximity to the creek) will form the only road access to the Big Nugget Mine behind the bridge.

The outside plumbing of the fire station is complete. So are the signs at the front. Of course this includes the letters CFA (Country Fire Authority). Wombat Creek is after all a small rural city somewhere in Victoria.

The second fire engine has arrived to the station after being unstuck from its display base. An old screw driver had to be filed down to fit into the triangular screws under the base.

So far, so good. But a closer inspection shows the engine cannot enter the fire station. The ladder is hitting the top of the door frame. Just by a mm or so. The building will need to be raised onto a plinth.

For a while the Scalescenes Fire Station has been printed and primed ready to be assembled. With time in Covid isolation the time has come. This is my first Scalescenes product and I am very impressed with the outcome. It is full of details, well thought solutions for e.g. gutters and down pipes and all parts which have to line up, just do so. Only downside is the length. It is just too short for one of the fire engines!

After 25+ hours of work only some plumbing on the side and signs on the front to do.

The fire station has room for two engines. At the moment the second engine is stuck to its display base by two pesky tiny and triangular screws! Why….

With my job I knew it was a matter of time before I would get Covid-19. Now my time is up and I will spend 7 days isolating at home. Fortunately my symptoms are quite mild. Mild enough to do a little modelling.

Margaret finally decided the lawn was too long and needed a mow. She didn’t get far, though, before she realised mowing was too hard and retired to the hammock. Meanwhile her son Tom did a bit of cricket practice and scored a perfect six. Unfortunately the ball went through one of the windows in the tram shed. Tom is quickly hiding in the cubby house. His sister Sarah wants to follow him, but she is unsure if she can climb the ladder.

Three days work and the control panel for the tramways is almost finished. Only the loop around the Big Nugget Mine is missing. The final position of the tracks has to be determined depending on the design of the bridge over the narrow gauge railway.

Obviously the black lines are the tracks. The red push buttons control the points. Some points are still not connected. The black push buttons control the power to the tram-stops. The tracks are under constant power and the trams will come to a stop, unless the black buttons are activated. The slide switches are normally on, but they make it possible to stop a tram between stops.