The Winter Creek as originally conceived as a point to loop 7.25" gauge line.
This had always been a compromise. While the terminal style station was fine for
diesel operation, steamers do not like it. Getting in a second return loop seemed
impossible without buying the neighbours property or moving our house though and
I brooded unhappily on this for a couple of years.
Steve Day came by one evening in August to ask "How do you feel about putting a
5" gauge line down part of the track"?
I was open to the idea. It seemed a step toward my dream of a private club - but
to do that I became determined to rectify
the shortcommings of the point-to-loop track.
Not long after I came up with a possible configuration - but it would be an enormous
job involving earthworks and a very large bridge
- as well as wiping out 50% of the track already laid. I continued to brood.
About a month later Monique and I were busy rebuilding and expanding the vege garden
and it became aparent that part
of railway had to move by a couple of metres to accomodate her plans:- "Well
if I have to move that track, I want to do the
5 inch and rebuild to get the top loop". And within 24hrs 200 metres of track had
been lifted and I began moving dirt with the digger, determined to rebuild to a
higher standard that incorporated all that I had learnt so far.
A bonus is the chance to move turntable and steaming bays up beside the shed into
an awkward corner vacated by the reconfigured vege garden.
The graphic below shows the new track plan. A branchline from the Shed travels about
70m before joining the mainline. You continue on over a 20m long 2m high bridge,
before rejoining the original line down toward the tunnel and horseshoe curve. A
deep cutting through the lawn allows the top loop 'cutoff' to drop back down beside
the shed branch before rejoining the mainline below the new vege garden.
The first track lifted confirmed my darkest suspicions - that the preservative in
the pine sleepers was rotting the rail at a phenominal rate (more on this in a seperate
section soon).
