Wallace Creek

Dear Echidna
Thanks very much for a couple of interesting posts. I had no idea that the Austrains G was inaccurate - news to many Australian modellers I suspect. I have been attempting to weather mine based loosely on the G class pictured on the Auscision page here. https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=tIsKPfPE&id=A95D23C0C8F60955396D473E3BCEEE887ED3035F&thid=OIP.tIsKPfPEntHJ8eEdv2NKXwEsCF&q=g+class+lcomotives&simid=607993162654023807&selectedIndex=17&ajaxhist=0

I'll post a photo (when I'm feeling brave enough).

My Lima engines are operating better now that when I bought them. I am now far more thorough and regular in cleaning them than when I started and my confidence in basic maintenance is increasing. generally a few circuits seems to warm them up and whilst not as good as some of the more modern locos, they perform well enough (for may low standards LOL).

I generally prefer black and white photos - something to do with being colour blind I suspect - but generally they can reflect atmosphere better. However colour is useful when I have such a variety of different liveries and combinations. Be interested in what you and other readers think of this.

I am not sure my T -Class (T360) has the bars you mention but your comments intrigued me and I assume its these on this fine picture of T413. https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=lduMBWG7&id=B11D285F8CA7B7492EA0A15BD2CD7BB8A5AE3439&thid=OIP.lduMBWG7Kcr5jzvJoshbdwEsCv&q=vr+t+class+t347&simid=608002697488041185&selectedIndex=6&ajaxhist=0

Do you model yourself?

regards, Dave

 

BRIDGE END POSSESSION
Generally when not running a TT I set what I call an operational scenario. This basically means certain trains have to run to meet a goal or a certain piece of infrastructure is unavailable.
Yesterday, in advance of an overnight possession (outage) south of Wallace Creek, various locomotives and engineering stock gather on Saturday night including the Tamper, B68, 48121, 4825 and 8175. The last up trains (4205+Vans) dropped off a number of drivers who would be working the trains during the overnight possession. With the passage of this train, the engineers department became responsible for the operation of the line until the possession is relinquished on Monday morning..
Luckily there are no passenger services over this stretch so there is no bus replacement service. Through East Coast freight services are cancelled or diverted via Goulburn.

 

UPDATE
Depending on how things run weatherwise over the next 6 weeks, Wallace Creek will be closed for the winter as the season of season of mists and mellow fruitfulness (and colder weather) descends on York. Having so far failed to persuade the kids to move out, a move inside and all year running is a few years away. A few weeks ago I reworked part of my layout at Mowarra Junction to improve performance. Unfortunately, today nothing would stay on the tracks – the likely scenario was an unreported bridge strike by the aforementioned young people.
The other reason for wanting to get this right was the arrival of some second-hand container wagons via the Australian Modellers Facebook group. The RQIW are Auscision models and the “eccentric” track of Wallace Creek needed some tweaking (No 1 hammer) to get them to work. Truth is the track has been out there 8 years and some of it was second-hand at the time. Some proper bonding and new track may be required before operations commence next year.
Finally, the RQIWs supplemented by a couple of the ever reliable Auscision GMEs sallied forth round the circuit and everything was good. A brief but enjoyable session followed until the real world intervened.

 

TotoNot looking good over the next few days - usually operate with garage door open but will be in closed "night" mode as long as its not too cold. I wonder whether it's possible to provide me (and any other outdoor operators) with a shivering emoji?
Dave

 

By request - a splash of colour at Wallace Creek. NSw Candy livery and PN blue and yellow at Wallace Creek.In the middle photo is a V-line N class loco N459 and 442S5 a the bottom with a historically unlikely trains of red Victorian Railways coil wagons....looks like someone is sleeping on the job!

 

Thanks Chris. This weekend saw my new container set get a work out on the layout. The old container wagons were a cheap e-bay purchase (LIma and Hornby 4 wheelers) and well past their sell by date. Some other containers are carried in VOBX (gondolier) wagons which I believe was the norm for a while when flat-cars were not available. I actually ran the old and the new together having two passing at Wallace Creek and Mowarra Junction. It was nice to see the sidings at Mowarra full of containers and the short brake van siding found use as an overflow. I also decided to do a bit of maintenance to improve reliability - with a limited running season I sometimes neglect this if close to the end of the season but with a month to go (more or less) this seemed to be a sensible way forward. Photos to follow.

 

Here are some pictures of the new and old container trains in action. First of all 8175 is ready with the old train to depart Mowarra Junction. This is the recently remodelled area with a new curved siding (which had to be relaid after the NR was involved in a side swipe with a wagon). The PW Manager has been suitably dealt with! The fuel tank (actually an o gauge model but I like it!) hides the new loco fuel siding. The first three wagons are VOBX gondoliers with some old 4 wheel UK Hornby or Lima container wagons on the back.



The next picture is of NR29 running through the gorge section with the new container rake in tow (although not particularly clear in this picture I grant.

The two trains cross at Mowarra Junction.

Couldn't resist another run round the circuit though.

 

And finally NR29 has run round its train at Mowarra Junction Yard and propelled the set into the container siding (noting two flats in the siding behind).

 

Hmm - may be a trick of the light - my NR29 has a blue body. A black one would look rather good though!

Dave.

 

Thanks Toto - the NR is a 4000 HP brute whilst the 81 a mere 3000.
regards

Dave

 

Well the session yesterday was a tad parky heralding the imminent end of the Wallace Creek operating season, With being away for the first two weekends in November. it is possible that next weekend will be the last of the year.
The reliability issues of a few weeks back have been solved and a good session was held yesterday. Here are a few photographs. I keep a log of how many session trains get used for so those pictured are generally the lesser used engines. There is no particular reason for this - just works out that way.
This is a lightly weathered Victorian G Class no G513. A powerline model its grey sides were a bit to slab like so I have darkened the grills, applied the lightest of touch grime all over, blackened the step inserts and applied bogie grime. Not my strong suit and I will probably do a little more over the winter.

NSW 48 class numbers 4836 and 4825 work through Wallace Creek with a steelie.
Here we see 4205 B69 and 4469 on Mowarra Junction shed awaiting their next duties.

 

WALLACE CREEK – a cultural history
It's too cold to operate the model railway at the moment so I have extensively researched the social and cultural history of the Wallace Creek area. If you've nothing better to do (you should treat this as a warning – go and do something constructive instead, don't say I didn't warn you), then read on.
Surprisingly there is little mention of the area in Aboriginal culture and to date no evidence of the indigenous peoples have been found in the area. However, recent research by the University of Lief in Norway uncovered the general Aboriginal name for the area was “izzasheetoleman” which translates as “it's not a particularly nice area – why would you bother going there at all”.
Once European settlers started occupying Australia c 1797 Wallace Creek became home to two prison colonies – one from Croatia and the other from Holland. Times for these early convicts were hard and the two colonies eventually merged and the small town of Sranjegat was established. One curious by product of these early years was a locally spoken language known as Crotch which was a curious mixture of Croatian and Dutch which is still spoken by some of the less sober of Wallace Creek's townsfolk today.
As the young nation developed, Sranjegat found itself on the border of New South Wales in an inexplicable loop of the otherwise straight state border with Victoria. Local legend has it that when the border was being drawn a prominent Victorian landowner accidentally jostled the draughtsman who sadly had no way of erasing the mistake. Life carried on but it was the rise to prominence of the Wallace dynasty that saw the towns fortunes change.
Twin brothers Alastair and Alasdair Wallace were born simultaneously twenty minutes after their mother claimed she had “a bit of a tummy ache” sometime in the 1840s. Unusually for inmates of Sranjegat they actually left the town and Alastair visited Sydney whilst Alasdair visited Melbourne, Both returned with a burning desire to put Sranjegat on the map and bring that new fangled invention, the railway, to the area. Alastair was elected as a local MP for the area covering Wallace Creek in 1876 and his brother for the adjacent area in Victoria the following year. Both were instrumental in persuading the state governments to build railways that would eventually connect the then remote region to the two state capitals. Thanks to the discovery of some iron ore deposits some reasonably productive agricultural land and some compromising negatives of certain prominent politicians the railways were built with the Victorian line reaching Sranjegat in 1882 and the NSW line three years later.
Close examination of photographs of the official events showed that only one brother was at each event and local folklore maintained they had fallen out over a woman and a rather unsavoury incident involving some badly sung Crotch drinking songs. Historically there is no proof that there are any well sung Crotch drinking songs which casts this theory in a particularly poor light. However, a recent study by the Department of Australian Folklore Tales has revealed that there may not have been twins at all, and Alasdair and Alastair were in fact the same person. Indeed, only one of them turned up at a meeting of other local MPs in 1888 claiming his brother was indisposed and no reliable evidence exists that they were two separate people.
After their (his?) death in 1893 the grateful townsfolk were persuaded to rename the town Wallace Creek after the annual drinking contest. In many ways this was seen as representing the sad decline of the local Crotch dialect but the truth is few could pronounce Sranjegat even when sober (and assuming they still had teeth).
In the early 1900s the state government built a prison here and in an unfortunate mistake, the town's population were incarcerated for three months before anyone (including them) noticed. The prison, home to some of Australia's finest politicians, is still a major employer in the town and produces high quality mailbags that are taken away by rail once a month.
Wallace Creek contributed to the war effort and paid a price with a number of locally reared donkeys not returning from Lance's local pie factory. Local poet and folk musician Derek Boogle recorded their fate in the famous but not widely known (thank goodness) song “The green doors of Lance” . The special Crotch language remix is something to be savoured assuming the listener can get to the end of the track alive.
Between the two wars, the Wallace Creek Surfing and Mud Wrestling festivals were established and continue to bring rail passengers to the town today. In fact the Surf Festival is one of the rare times when more than two passenger trains are in the station area at once.
A decline in rail use in the 1950s and 1960s saw passenger services withdrawn although some steel and freight traffic lingered on, mainly thanks to the poor local road network. In the 1970s the NSW government, having tried unsuccessfully (again) to persuade Victoria to straighten the border out and take Wallace Creek out of NSW. came up with the idea of offering the area of offering Wallace Creek back to the Aboriginal people. In a great summoning of tribal elders, the proposal was discussed for a full three minutes before the meeting issued a statement that read “Er thanks but this is probably the only bit of Australia we don't want back”.
In the 1980s thanks to the work of local MPS Andrea and Anthea Wallace (apparently not related but I doubt it) and some compromising videos (which you don't want to know any more about….trust me ) a twice daily passenger service was re-introduced. Derek Boogle promised to be at the station to welcome the train with his brand new Crotch language song “Trains a coming back to WC” but was the victim of a tragic lynching accident some thirty minutes before it's arrival.
The 1980s also saw the Victorian and NSW government's outlaw the local spirt Itmeh distilled from blue cheese (so I am led to believe) and a waste product for Lance's Pie factory (inexplicably still in business even today). Known side effects of insanity, blindness, cancer and outbreaks of sunshine later in the day were becoming a concern for local health professionals many of whom were Itmeh drinkers. That said, it was still better than Victoria Bitter.
Today Wallace Creek is a thriving town and tourist destination famous not only for its fabulous beaches but its splendid museums covering local history and culture. Unfortunately, the museum celebrating the life and music of Derek Boogle is closed following an arson attack by the curator. Still, for the study of stomach, there is always a fascinating guided tour of Lance's Pie Factory with a free pie at the end of it. Or perhaps not.