Building Wagga: July 2022

Monday, 11 July 2022

Docker Street - Gatekeeper Cottage

Gatekeeper Cottage for Docker Street - 1

It has been a number of years since I wrote an blogpost on the gatekeeper cottages around Wagga.

https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/2019/03/gatekeeper-cottages.html

My picture of the cottage is from 1997, the former headshunt for the sidings beyond Docker Street has been removed - the original alignment was between the rail, and the paling fence

In the subsequent time since that original blog, I have been accumulating additional pictures. The Docker Street cottage was one I don't have plans for, and as the cottage is privately owned, these pictures will be used to create a simple diagram for a future model build.

An earlier b&w picture showing the headshunt

A set of pictures taken from the Lost Wagga Wagga facebook site. These pictures have a wealth of detail, from the lineside poles, gates, and trains. It however, does give a minor contradiction - that is the date the boom gates were installed. My earlier 1959 newspaper article on the Edward Street crossing said that boom gates were in place on Docker street - but the 1960s cars and manual gates show a different story

Another image from the Lost Wagga Wagga facebook site - this shows the installation of timber flangeways on the headshunt - dated 1965. I suspect that this was work involved with widenening the roadway, as part of the work for the boom gates. Absolute classic showing the attire of the workers, and the foreman

Another angle of the cottage from 1997

2002 is the date - southbound train on the crossing. The cottage is not visible, on the left hand side of this image. My picture

A further pair of images pinched off the Lost Wagga Wagga facebook site. The gatekeeper cottage from this angle looks unchanged in the intervening 80-90 years

A set of pictures taken last month, with my poor phone camera, in poor lighting conditions.

A 1971 aerial view of the cottage.

A more recent aerial shot - this one from sixmaps

Making the plan.

The aerial shots both are dimensioned, but I was able to get a more accurate measurement by counting the corrugations on the roof. Each corrugation is 3" apart - and thus I was able to determine the full width of the cottage roof is 40 feet. A little more guesswork for the wall heights, and roof pitch. I took these from a plan I did have of the old Best Street cottage, which has some similar features. What I don't have is any pictures of the door and window placement from the north eastern side of the cottage, so I have made a guess. I suspect too that the structure is rendered double brick construction, apart from the rear "lean-to".

Anyway, that's as far as I have got for now. Cutting out the styrene will be the next stage.

Stay warm

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.