Building Wagga: December 2020

Monday, 14 December 2020

Wagga Wagga station - Platform side pictures

Wagga Wagga station construction - pt4

I managed to get over to Wagga station 2 weeks ago - and arrived just as the Melbourne bound XPT was departing. Sorry, I had hoped to capture a picture of the train, alas, it wasn't to be.

A picture from the past. Blue livery Countrylink on the platform, with the Melbourne bound steel train on the main. The original heritage colours of deep maroon, and cream is probably the scheme I will be adopting for my station

However, the main reason for the visit was to photograph details of the station on the platform side

A selection of pictures at the start of December 2020. Note the platform seats have social distancing due to Covid19 restrictions. Also note the extensive metal lacework.

As my only plan of the platform side, is in the end-papers of the book "The Greatest Public Work", by Robert Lee, I was quite chuffed to discover that most of the windows, and doors were virtual clones of the ones on the roadside. Of course, there are some differences, and I measured those.

1879 Plan of Wagga Wagga station. This would be a great plan to frame.

And there were some differences from the 1879 plan - noteably two doors on the eastern end (RHS on the plan above), had been converted to windows. I will build what is there now

Initial cutouts for the 5 main wall assemblies for the platform side. I have not yet made the distinctive triangle parts for the roof (like I did on the roadside view). I subsequently discovered a warp in the styrene backing for the roadside triangle area. Whilst this is fixable, I would rather avoid creating the same problem on the platform side.

I have made a start assembling the walls into a proper structure. Blending the "stone work" on the corners is something that I found impossible to do when the walls were flat. Both the roadside ends are now ready to join into the platform walls, once they have been detailed. Keen viewers will note that there is another "room" to be added onto the end walls. An assembly task that can wait for now

A triangle gusset assists in strengthening the join. I have left a 0.040 gap at the bottom for the future "floor".

I wish everyone a happy xmas, and a more productive new year.

Until next time.

My Interests

I don't know when I was first interested in Trains. But, I do recall asking my mother what happened to the trams in Sydney, as we were riding on a smelly bus along Anzac Parade. I also recall watching a cyclops eye black loco pulling the 2 toned carriages into Wagga station (38 class with Tuscan and Russet RUB cars). My parents bought me a hornby clockwork train around 1961, and I upgraded to Triang in 1963, at age 4. The Triang lasted until 1978, when I headed to UNSW. The 6x4 layout was dismantled, and the track sold. I bought my first NSW HO in 1978, after discovering AMRM in Hobbyco.

After moving to Canberra in 1982, I joined the ACT Model Railway society, and began a long process of learning, and experimenting, running Malkara exhibition, but nothing remarkable layoutwise until after 1997. Noteable layouts were constructed after this date, "Twelfth Street Yard" in 2000, "Little Austria" in 2003, and "Yendys" in 2010.

Besides layout building, I like to travel (Train bias), collect, photograph, and read. My personal library of train books takes up one of my bedrooms, and is well stocked I also like to build models from kits, repair, and paint brass trains.

Since I have retired from the Public Service, I bought a place in Junee, which has a view of the main south railway line, and has the space for a train layout.