Wombat Creek Tramways

Close-up photos of some of the buildings in Wombat Creek.

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The first buildings are finished or under construction.

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The main building comlex in the foreground is ‘Wombat Creek Brewery’ which is famous for the ‘Wombat Bitter’. The brewery is a kit from the Danish manufacturer Heljan. The small building to the right of the brewery is Kookaburra Stock and Land Agents.

The trams mark the future depot area.

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The low-relief buildings along Victoria Lane and East Street are all from Rakem Emporium with a few alterations. From left to right:

Hillman Cycles & Radio (Inspried from a real shop in Melbourne) selling among lots of items Beatles Australian edition of the album ‘With the Beatles’ from 1963
Fish ‘n’ Chips Shop
Coles Stores
John McCoff – Chemist
Palace Cinema showing ‘Lawrence of Arabia’
Milk Bar (ex candy shop)
Book Shop
A.J. Roberts Butcher (inspired from a real butcher’s shop)
Pears’ Greengrocery
Ravens Emporium
Barber Shop

Wombat Creek Bakery (with a chimney added)
Bell Brothers Funeral Directors – ‘Best in the Ground’ (They have changed their slogan from ‘Heaven or Hell? Ring Bell!’)
Button’s Haberdashery

Tram stop shelter under construction (inspired from a VR tram shelter in Brighton)

Bert. Edwards’ Tea Rooms (inspired from a real shop)
Wombat Creek Post Office
Allan W. Taylor & Co. Hardware

As seen in the photos no street surface has yet been modelled.

There is some progress on “Wombat Creek Tramways”, but it is very slow. The tracks are wired and it is possible to run run a limited service with just one tramcar. A few buildings have been erected but they still miss the final details.

The period of the whole set-up has been changed from the 1950s to mid 1950s to mid 1960s. The reason for this is partly because of closure of tramways elsewhere in Australia, which will make purchase of second-hand trams more likely. 1950s were also chosen, because a lot of model railways are modelled over this decade, so the beginning of 1960s will make Wombat Creek a little different.

Every tramway starts with a very basic network. Wombat Creek Tramways is no different. This is the layout as of the 4th June 2017
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Tracks are finally laid in the streets of Wombat Creek.

Click on the link to read W.C. Chronicle No. 2

Since August 2015 I have been drawing
several track plans for Wombat Creek Tramways. During the many months
the track plans have changed quite a bit. The name of the tramways
has also changed from “Toodoors Downs Tramways” (the tramways were originally designed to fit two internal doors left over from house
renovations) to Emu Creek Tramways and finally Wombat Creek Tramways
– wombats being my favourite Australian animal.

The final (?) layout below is not an
exact drawing of the layout but gives a good idea of the track plan.
By close examination it is clear, that the tramways consist of
several ring routes and one with a terminus in Victoria Street (the
inspiration is Elisabeth Street, Melbourne). The double crossing near
the Bank and Pub is modelled with the intersection near Flinders
Street Station, Melbourne in mind. The track plan for the Tram Depot
depends on the actual space inside the loop.

Melbourne Tram Museum

Your Model Railway Club

Victoria
Street

Orient
Express Model Railway Shop

Hobbies
Plus

Rakem
Emporium

The Hobbyman

Brunel Hobbies

Train World


AJM Railways

Trams are coming to Wombat Creek!

Click on the link to read W.C. Chronicle No. 1