LAMBING FLAT (Beecroft version)
History
The version of Lambing Flat described here had its beginnings in a module, featuring the Wombat Flour Mill, that I built in 1984 and first displayed at the Modelling the Railways of NSW convention in August of that year at the old AMRA (NSW) clubrooms in Rockdale.
There had been other NSWGR-inspired Lambing Flat layouts, most of which never got beyond the bare board and track stage, dating back to 1977. When I moved to Burwood in 1983 my modelling interests had finally ‘gelled’ into a specific interest in NSWGR ‘pioneer’ branch lines and the locomotives and rolling stock that ran on them, rather than the ‘generic’ NSWGR theme that I had been previously pursuing.
This, combined with a major advance in my modelling skills, brought about by the inspiration and mentoring provided by regular attendance at meetings of the Australian Plastic Modeller’s Association over the previous couple of years, caused me to dispose of my previous Lambing Flat layout and the collection of models I had amassed up to that time, and start again from scratch. With the purchase of a Mansfield brass 50 class locomotive (still running on the layout today as 5184), I resolved to create a layout, including rolling stock, that was as accurate and detailed as I could make it.
As I had never been a great lover of huge ‘Plywood Centrals’, I decided to construct the layout as a series of small modules, completing each module to the fully-detailed stage before moving on to the next. The ‘mill’ section was the first, and a new section was completed each year (and shown at the annual MRofNSW conventions) until an almost complete layout (the locomotive siding area was not finished) had its first exhibition appearance at the Cowra Railway Centenary in November 1986.
The engine siding area was completed in early 1987 and the completed layout was exhibited a number of times in that year in Sydney and Newcastle. The layout at this time was a terminus, exiting to a
