Wallace Creek

INTRODUCTION
Wallace Creek is a fictional Australian railway based on an East Coast line from Nowra (the current southern terminus of the Illawarra line) and Orbost, a now closed station located north-east of Bairnsdale the current eastern terminus of the line from Melbourne. The two stations modelled are Wallace Creek which is the unlikely home of a small specialist steel works, and
Mowarra Junction which is close to a small un-modelled dock complex and freight line from Timbillica Railhead.

After many years of underuse the line has undergone something of a resurgence and often acts as a diversion for the main freight route through Goulbourn. Three passenger trains operate per day from Wollongong (where they connect with the Illawarra line electrics) calling at Nowra, Jervis Bay and a host of minor stations before terminating at Wallace Creek. Rumour
is that the Victorian government may well extend the current Bairnsdale service to Wallace Creek (which is on the border of the two states) followings its recent (for fictional purposes) conversion to standard gauge. However the state treasurer (or Mrs Class48NSWfan as you should call her) has yet to sign off permission for some suitable vehicles.

Predominantly the line is freight with steel, container, cement, aggregates, oil, grain and vans (general) regularly seen. Motive Power is split between NSW and Victorian diesels with a couple of newer locomotives in evidence. The period modelled in 1970s to 1990s but as stock increases I hope to operate a 70s, an 80s and a 90s scenario. But as it's a model railway and its
mine, absolute adherence to the protoype frequently goes out of the window!

The layout is located in a garage (which in fact doesn't have a window) in York and measures 14 feet by 9 feet. It is an oval around the wall of the garage and a bridge section across the door. Luckily it is high enough of the ground so that we can get bikes (and junk) in and out of the garage easily. I have a very crude sketch which I will post sometime (when I find it).

The line starts on the right-hand of the garage in a 2-track fiddle yard which is the line northwards and to Mowarra Docks. Mowarra incidentally is the Aboriginal word for grass snake and named in honour of the two family corn snakes. The fiddle
yard comes out halfway along the Mowarra Junction side of the layout and as well as single platform station there are extensive sidings, an MPD, container terminal and oil siding located here. Beyond Mowarra Junction along the back wall of the garage is the single track “gorge” section which is a national park.

The Wallace Creek station (left-hand side of garage) has facilities for cement traffic, a grain silo, steel sidings and a general goods siding. Passenger services terminate here with the line running south to Victoria being freight only. Indeed to this day no passenger train has ever worked this line.The line curves round onto the bridge section (across the garage door) and in
the middle of this is a short bridge where the loop line miraculously transforms itself (by the suspension of rational belief) into the Timbillica Railheadbranch as it comes back into Mowarra Junction yards.

I will post something about operation of the layout, rolling stock and other aspects, of Wallace Creek at a later date but one thing I discovered is that just watching a train working its way around the layout whilst holding an appropriate beverage (so not Aussie beer!) is a very enjoyable way of passing the time.

Pictured below are 44 class and 48 class hauled freight trains passing in Wallace Creek station.



Dave





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Thanks very much for the kind comments - there are a few pictures in my gallery as well.
Occasionally a loco comes up for sale in the UK (via E-bay) although new locos are usually direct from the manufacturers - Auscision, Austrains, SDS , Powerline. With postage it does get expensive though! One exception was the ROCO Victorian F Class which I purchased through Scograil of Ipswich.
I'll do a section on the locomotives next but I'd better get back to work.
Dave

 

The picture below is of a V-line N class loco heading a ballast train through Mowarra Junction during the evening. On the left hand side a NSW 48 Class loco can be seen whilst on the right a Victorian Railways T Class is coming off depot (the building on the left) for its next turn. This is one of my favourite pictures of my layout (though I say it myself).

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DESIGN PART 1
When I started Wallace Creek I did not have any real model railway building experience although I have been doodling layouts for 40 years (or more). Initially I thought end to end around the garage but after some input from a website called free track plans (the site still exists but there is no active interaction with the site possible anymore) I decided that some form of circuit should be incorporated into the layout. I'm glad I did as watching a train go round the layout is a good way of passing time.
Another piece of advice was try to avoid long straight pieces of track and of you do have them, try and break them up (with a bridge for instance).
So once the base boards were up (about 1.2m off the floor of the garage) so I can stoop slightly and watch everything at "ground level" I had to consider what I actually was going to build.
Firstly I decided the line would be a single line railway as I thought that had potential for more interesting operation. It meant that the stations would require loops for passing and that the trains could be regulated there for opposite and same direction passes. Even though it was constructed as a loop, I decided that the passenger service would actually only run as a terminating service from the fiddle yard (two sidings where stock is lifted off/placed on) and Wallace Creek.
To this day a passenger service has not run the whole circuit despite many requests from the Gunzel community!
So a carriage siding to stable the stock as required as the idea was WC would have two passenger trains a day and one of these would stable overnight.
Initially Wallace Creek was also a place where freight trains swapped engines and a couple of engine sidings were supplied.
One of the first buildings was a Walthers Grain Silo so a grain sidings was required and a small goods yard laid out in such a way that the freight stock I then had could be accommodated in it.
As freight stock grew and operations changed the two loco sidings were replaced by a single siding serving a loading bay. This is known as "Gallant's Siding" (named after my Sydney based nephews and niece) and generally van traffic can be seen there. The yard was extended from two to three sidings plus a short brake van siding recently and now deals with cement and aggregates. There is one long siding along the front of the baseboard which I use as a general siding and one has to imagine a large tarmac area in front of this where steel products can be unloaded.
The trick with operating the station is not to overstuff it with stock as really it’s only a small town station. It’s an interesting station to operate (I'll paste a sketch soon!) with many trains requiring locomotives to run round and shunting.
The headshunt can only take about half a train length and the invention of some operating restrictions mean only three long vans can be shunted via the shunt signals at either end.
Like Mowarra Junction (which I'll write about soon) I did design a bit of "operational difficulty" into the layout which is in part forced by space restrictions. Several years on I am glad I did as the station gives me a lot of pleasure both as a place to watch trains pass by and to operate.
The attached photo is of an NSW 422 Class (a Lima model) in the goods yard with some cement wagons visible.

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GaryBetter photos than I can manage - I'll do a class by class look at my rolling stock soonish. And i'll post some colour photos.D

 

and here is a sketch of Wallace Creek

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A trip round Wallace Creek
The following photos show the progress of 4205 heading an interstate van train, It is first pictured at Mowarra Junction – note the Golden Fleece Oil Tanks behind in the oil sidings.

 

4205 has negotiated the curve and is about to approach the bridge on the bridge end of the layout.