A brief photo record of the Perway sheds at Wagga.
Early in September 2024, a fire broke out, and severely damaged the remaining perway shed at Wagga.
Photo by Pete Neve, taken from the LVR 620/720 railcar Sunday 22nd September 2024. Used with permission |
Cause of the fire is unknown, although it may have been an accident, as the perway shed was being illegally accessed by homeless persons. I understand the Wagga Rail Heritage museum had some items stored in the burnt end, and Peter M reported to me there was a loss of a luggage trolley, 2 country link hand luggage barrows, a Villiers trike frame, a TIC trike frame, and around $5,000 worth of steel shelving.
The group of perway sheds are a group of models that I have to make, and I was holding back on the description, until I had a chance to make it. However, the fire has changed things.
Where were the sheds located?
The sheds were located on the northern side of the main line, between the Best St/Edmonstone St road bridge and the western end of the Wagga station platform. A small reverse siding attached to the siding that serviced the Wagga station platform south dock.
The shed that burnt was identified as the "Motor Mech" in the above railway site diagram. I have orientated the plan this way, to correspond to the aerial pictures later. |
The group of shed comprised The Signal Engineers, a fuel storage shed (that included a bowser), the Motor Mechanics, and lastly a storage compound shed for LP gas storage.
An image from the ARHS archives, shows the 3 main sheds - the motor mechanic shed being the one that recently burnt. The distant LP storage shed was removed sometime between 1990 and 1995. |
Wagga council aerial image from 1990. One of the railway street cottages has been demolished. and some changes have been made to the fuel storage/bowser shed. But most of the infrastructure remains. |
In 1995, I took a few pictures of the sheds. This being the Motor Mechanic shed. Note the siding has been removed, along with the entire LP storage shed. These images scanned from my prints. |
Signal Engineer shed |
Western side shows a lot of detail |
A year or two ago, armed with a digital camera, I took a lot more pictures. Changes from 1995 are generally that the sheds have been boarded up. Whilst now over 50 years after my nominal layout period, the pictures are still potentially useful for the finer details.
Too true Robert, an informative post and interesting visuals. I have a video of the approach into Wagga taken on the same LVR trip should you want it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. I may take you up on that offer.
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