Fern is the fourth station we have built on our Gippsland based Leafy Bay branch of the Victorian Railways (VR). What began as a single layout concept has now significantly expanded.
The other three stations we have developed to form a part of this fictitious branch line have appeared in this magazine. In order from the start of the branch they are:
• Twigg – AMRM Issue No.182 October 1993, and Rebuilt – Issue No.341 April 2020
• Leafy Bay – AMRM Issue No.214 February 1999.
• Little Chipping – AMRM Issue No.332 October 2018.
Leafy Bay had a similar rebuild to that of Twigg. All four layouts were built with exhibiting in mind, each using the same train table as our off-stage area. This has enabled us to easily rotate locomotives and rolling stock across each layout at exhibitions.
In the article about Little Chipping, we briefly explained the creative history developed to provide a back story and some context of the area as follows:
“In August 1827, Lt Charles Twigg, sailing along the Victorian coast, chanced upon a small bay. He named this Leafy Bay after his good friend George Leaf, recently elected to the House of Commons in Britain as the member for Little Chipping.
The VR branch line was eventually built to Leafy Bay, which ran through several towns whose names were associated with this event. These include Little Chipping, Twigg, Fern and Leafy Bay. Fern was, of course, the family home of the Leafs.”
Our intention was to construct Fern many years ago, after we had completed Twigg and Leafy Bay, with construction of some of the buildings commenced in 2003. However, things do not always go to plan. Further model railway projects had to be put on hold whilst I focused on the new business I had started.
I took early retirement in 2016 and was able to devote more time to model railways. First, we built Little Chipping, then rebuilt Twigg and finally rebuilt Leafy Bay. We also built the train table to replace the cassette system as a fiddle yard. Attention could now be turned to Fern.
We resumed construction of the buildings for Fern in late 2020. We kept one of the buildings constructed back in 2003, the Shire offices. When the other buildings
