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Wombat Creek Tramways

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.

A mouthwatering success

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Tue, April 30, 2024 14:32:08

In 1962 ten Mr. Whippy ice cream vans were imported to Sydney from England. They were an instant success, and rumours of the vans soon reached Wombat Creek and Mr Di Mascio. With a talent for business and a love of Italian Gelati Mr Di Mascio went to Melbourne and bought an Oxford ice cream van. Back home in Wombat Creek Mr Di Mascio took the vehicle apart, cut out the middle window on one side and installed posters of various ice creams behind the other windows.* Realising a middle-age balding man probably wouldn’t attract a lot of customers he place himself in the driver’s seat and engaged his better looking daughter as the ice cream seller. Judging by the length of the queue the business concept seems to be right – or the ice creams simply too good!

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* Of course Mr Di Mascio didn’t take the van apart. He is a fictional figure in fictional Wombat Creek. I did the altering myself!



Tram shelter ver. 2.0

Text & photos from Wombat Creek Tramways Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Thu, April 25, 2024 13:22:03
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After a couple of months working at the mine railway I got time to do some work at the Tramways. A new shelter (stop) has been erected opposite the terraced houses in the Golden Mile. The shelter is inspired by a heritage listed shelter in Kew, Melbourne. The original cast iron tram shelter was designed by the Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust and erected in 1916/17.

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Tram shelter ver. 1.0 was scrapped being too tall and too narrow, but I think this one has the right proportions/dimensions. I even got the ‘wonky’ benches in place.



So far – so good

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Thu, April 11, 2024 18:13:25

After a few days with the focus on the narrow gauge railway it is time to relax and enjoy the progress.

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A watermill used to pump water into the water tank but it looks like, it has seen better days. It is built from scratch, A bit fiddly but it came out all right. Of course it is an example of the ‘Southern Cross’ windmill.

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The water tank is now filled by a diesel pump housed in the little shed. The water comes straight from the creek through the cast iron pipe. The shed worker is having a little time off trying his luck with his fishing rod. The pole with its little cabinet is clearly inspired from the photo in a previous post.

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The fourth photo shows the new pavers along the big shed. The steps from the platform are still in the making. The oil drums on the NQR wagon are branded ‘Golden Fleece’. The colours are right but not sure, if the oil company ever had drums this size.

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Scratch building

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Thu, April 04, 2024 16:21:29
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The steam locomotives at the narrow gauge mining railway need coal and water.

The water tank is made from a piece of corrugated styrene shaped around the cork from a bottle of mead. The base is balsa wood and the legs a four length of rails. The ladder is made from a thin slice of corflute. The inlet is a short length of wire. The water is 1 mm clear table protector and the outlet is a bit of cord from a Venetian blind.

The coal stage is 1.5 mm balsa wood, a piece of ladder from Plastruct and real coal from the State Coal Mine in Wonthaggi.



Room for one more locomotive

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Mon, April 01, 2024 17:06:45
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The new shed is almost finished. Only the ‘concrete’ floor is missing. The little shed is big enough for the locomotive parked just outside, but the main ‘tenant’ will be the small shunter.

The design of the shed is inspired by the narrow gauge shed in Colac, Victoria. The Victorian Railways opened a narrow gauge railway between Colac and Beech Forest in 1902 (later extended to Crowes in 1911). The railway was closed in stages between 1954 and 1962. I like the unusual curved roof and decided it was worth a model. Finding appropriate drawings and photos was difficult with the shed long gone. All I had was photos like this from https://www.westonlangford.com/ .

104520: Colac Narrow Gauge Yard

The model is far from exact but probably close enough to be recognised by people who have seen the real thing.



What’s going on?

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Fri, March 22, 2024 17:45:42
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Labor Day

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Mon, March 11, 2024 17:21:39
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Living up to the name of the day and staying out of the heat (high 30’s) I have be labouring on a new shed for the narrow gauge railway. The photos show the result of today’s effort.



Tracks down

Text and photos from Wombat Creek Consolidated Mines Pty Ltd Posted by Claus EllefPosted on Mon, March 04, 2024 18:13:34
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The tracks surrounding the turntable are down with a few adjustment still to come. The longer turntable allows for two extra lengths of track with can be used to store one wagon each. The old turntable are stored for future scrapping, which of course will not really take place.



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