A narrow gauge railway between the mines, the sawmill and the explosives factory

Love it.  Typical hacked and repurposed bit of equipment.

Marty said

Love it.  Typical hacked and repurposed bit of equipment.

From “Post #288,302”, 28th July 2023, 3:53 AM

Hi Marty,

The mine manager will try anything to keep the costs down and the profits up!

Cheers,
Claus

Ready for the roof
 With the trusses up and the winding gear in the engine house is ready for the roof.

Nice stack of firewood. One of your trains could supply firewood and pit props to the mine.

Marty said

Nice stack of firewood. One of your trains could supply firewood and pit props to the mine.

From “Post #288,391”, 10th August 2023, 10:52 AM

Spot on, Marty. The purpose of the narrow gauge railway is serving the gold mine. Because of the very bad dirt road all the supplies (firewood, props and explosives) and most of the miners travel by train to the mine. On their way back from the mine the trains will sometimes carry the extracted gold.

Cheers,
Claus

Engine house ready to run



With the roof up and the chimney in the engine house can be put into service.

I like that Claus - it really looks the business.

What's the chimney - it looks great.

A bit of heavy dirt and grime on the engine and away you go.

Petermac said

I like that Claus - it really looks the business.

What's the chimney - it looks great.

A bit of heavy dirt and grime on the engine and away you go.

From “Post #288,403”, 14th August 2023, 11:30 AM

Thank you.

The chimney is a stick from a lollipop covered in narrow slides of paper.

I may give the engine some dirt and grime, but at the moment the fireman keeps it immaculate. On his day off I could get around with a dirty rag.

Cheers,
Claus

More rocks at the mine



At the moment, the focus is on the final track work at the tramways. I had the 'liquid nails' out and decided to 'nail' a few rocks along the tracks at the Big Nugget Mine. A few terraced houses will appear on top of the rocks.
 

Better get the grass seeds in before the erosion takes over!

We have the erosion under control


With the grass in place the erosion of the bank next to the tracks at the Big Nugget Gold Mine is avoided. The afternoon workers' train is ready to depart.

Melbourne Cup Day in the mine

With Melbourne Cup Day being a public holiday in Victoria and having no interests in horse racing I spent a day working in the Big Nugget Gold Mine.


A while ago I purchased Auhagen Mine Accessories with wagons, tracks, turntables, bike racks and a corrugated iron shed. Each piece of track is 80 mm long and straight. By cutting 1 mm sections of the rail I was able to curve a couple of tracks. The (dummy) wagons come as tipper trucks. I kept one and converted four into wagons for firewood. The yellow wagon with a roof and canvas sides is for explosives.



The bridge across the creek is scratch built from 1.5 mm thick 'timber'.

Looking good Claus 👍


Ed

"Liquid nails" for sticking rock down - that's a handy tip Claus and one that hadn't occurred to me…………………

I like the idea of the explosives wagon having canvas sides - that will offer plenty of protection ……………………….

It's all looking rather good from France.

Petermac said

"Liquid nails" for sticking rock down - that's a handy tip Claus and one that hadn't occurred to me…………………

I like the idea of the explosives wagon having canvas sides - that will offer plenty of protection ……………………….

It's all looking rather good from France.

From “Post #288,977”, 15th November 2023, 10:46 PM

Hi Petermac,

I got the idea of a canvas clad explovsives wagon at the Wombat Gully Tramway, which have a similar wagon in their collection.

 

Make it joyful


I could make a list of 'jobs-to-do' at the layout. The list would be very long and probably overwhelming. Instead of the said list I embark on projects I find enjoyable. Isn't our hobby all about joy!

Following the above 'rule' I have started on three small buildings at the Big Nugget Mine. Working full time five days a week doesn't give me much time for modelling, but the fact the buildings are small even half an hour at any time is enough for some progress.


The doors look somewhat wonky, but should be pretty straight once excess frames are cut off. The walls and roofs will be clad in corrugated sheets. The building to the right is for the blacksmith and will have a bricked forge and chimney.

Are they card or styrene Claus ?


Ed

Ed said

Are they card or styrene Claus ?


Ed

From “Post #288,981”, 16th November 2023, 8:53 AM

1.5mm card. The cladding will be 0.5mm corrugated plastic sidings.

Cheers,
Claus

 


Ed

Thats nice clean white card Claus - I thought it was styrene when I first saw it.  Is it mount-board ?  I use greyboard for my carcasses but someone gave me a piece of mount board recently and it's a much better product than the grey.

What glue do you use to stick styrene to the card ?