Wombat Creek Tramways

Can you do too many details? I don’t think so. As long as you have the time and have fun, you can add as many details to your layout as you want.

Because of the rather large windows parts of the interior of the hotel is quite visible. So I have started to model the ground floor bar. The photo shows the counter with its beer pumps, bartender and a thirsty couple. A waiter is serving coffee for a couple of seated ladies. Everything and everybody will be transferred to the hotel itself. I am just waiting for around 200 guests to arrive from overseas. With the current COVID-19 restrictions and closed borders it will take a while. Meantime I will install hotel’s doors and signs.

As I wrote in a previous post I have decided to do a pitched roof on the hotel. It is now finished except for a wash of diluted black paint to take the shine off.

The proprietor has taken advantage of one of three access points on the roof. He seems to be in a very precarious situation with quite a free fall in front of him. Don’t worry – I will install a secure walkway along the roof.

In Melbourne we are in a lock-down again. Certainly not an ideal situation but since you can only leave home two hours a day, I have more time to work on Wombat Creek. The last couple of days the focus has been on the roof of the hotel.

Nowadays the original hotel has a flat rood with a rooftop bar. It could be interesting to copy, but I have decided to go further back in time. An old aerial photo (probably from 1927/28) shows the hotel with a pitched roof an chimneys. For the time being the proprietor enjoys the view of the intersection.

The work on the hotel has been partly put on hold due to time spent on the awning along the Myer department store.

Since the last ‘hotel entry’ most of the windows are now in place. Doors are still missing. Some of them have do be redrawn and printed.

The windows are rather big and give you a good look inside the building. The interior of the front bar will need to be modelled. So far the walls have been covered in wall paper and the back of the bar is in place. An internal staircase (not visible in the photo) is ready to be installed but will have to wait until a doorway is in place. Working on the interior is quite ‘fiddly’ due to the limited width of the building.

The proprietor and the sign painter have moved into Victoria Street, They are still arguing over signs. This time wording of the sign is too long for the facade. Unfortunately the proprietor can’t sack the sign painter. He is the only one in town!

A glass roof would look very good but far too hot during summer in Wombat Creek. Instead the roof has been made of corrugated iron sheets, which will still make it a quite warm wait for Mrs. Peterson. She has spending a few dollars in Myer and finally flagged down a taxi. She has been waiting for a while, whilst the taxi picked up a lucrative tour to Gum Nut Gully.

I have finally finished the framework – posts and beams – for the covered footpath along the department store. I am not an engineer so it may not be up to engineering standards anno 1963. It doesn’t matter. I have had good fun doing it, and hardly anything except the posts will be visible once the roof is on!

The painters have finished painting the outside of the hotel. The tilers from ‘Marley’ are putting the last tiles up. The company has just required four new vans for a bargain – $20 in total.

The proprietor to the left has a bit of an argument with the sign painter, who has left out a significant feature of the one of the signs. He will have to take it back to the workshop and draw up a new one.