The house is just about finished with a bit more landscaping around the place needed with an outside earth closet and a chicken coop. I had thought of a garage for a car but after talking to Peter Street and checking his photographs from the 50’s and 60’s the railways probably would not have built garages for the S M particularly on a pioneer branchline such as this. The only way I think such a building would exist is if the S M built it himself. The other reason is that S M’s were transferred on a regular basis. If anyone out there knows anything to the contrary I would appreciate a comment or two.
Burrowa is an HO scale model railway set in the NSW southern tablelands 
absolutlely superb job on the house. Very nice.
Cheers
Great work. I lived in a house built to this plan (originally near Bourke but then moved to Lidcombe). I don’t know if ours was unique, or if it was a common thing but our driveway was made of clinker and ash from steam locomotives rather than dirt. You learnt very quickly as a kid not to walk on the driveway without shoes.
Now that does nice, especially the first shot. You do get the feeling of heat oozing out of it (he says from a cold and slightly damp UK!).
Really excellent work work Peter & something to be proud of.
From memory the moves for the ASM or SM’s occured fairly frequently & it was usually owing to promotions being available elsewhere. As they started out in the lowest grade, they had to chase the promotions that sprung up in the many locations which for many & especially those married with Children was quite hard on them, but they could end up staying at the bottom rung if they stayed in the more sort after locations..
At best any of those homes would have lean to type carports, usually built by the officer with help from other railway staff, as they were considered temporary structurs mostly councils did not object to them & turned a blind eye. The sides were usually covered in part only with some having old corrogated iron from around mid point, & level with the lowest end. The height also meant the car’s interior seating was kept sun free.
Those locations without that meagre structure usually found the cars were covered with tarps or a proper car cover if available for protection.
Colin.
Thank you for your comment and invaluable information.I’ll have a go at building a lean to down the track.Regards Peter
Peter,
I concur with Peter Street’s comments in your post, given the branch’s pioneer status that a garage would not have been provided with the J3, however falling back to the old NSWGR rule about there is always an exception to every standard / detail, there were documented and known exceptions regarding motor vehicle garages being provided by the railways at SM Houses.
Thirlmere’s SM House has a railway provided garage (that is heritage listed and still in-situ – willing to stand corrected) There was a recent (last 5 years or so) article in “Roundhouse” on it, which focused mostly on the SM House (brick) and noted the garage as being part of the whole within the SM House precinct of the yard.
Hope this is of interest.
Regards,
Tom. R.
Hi Tom.
Yes there is always an exception to the rule on the NSWGR and food for thought. thank you kindly for the information. Regards Peter
Tom
Yes there were a lot of exceptions, but the thing is that such items would very much often depend on the location & the grade of the SM’s position.
The aspect relating to Thirlmere have a brick house may indicate that it held a fairly high position, although I could very well be wrong. The loop being the old main line & owing to the grades on it could well mean that it was a primary station with the SM’s position warranting that, but much of the reasoning would be found in that article I would assume.
Again, what I have just said also has exceptions as some relatively low graded stations had brick residences, but the other aspect in this was that the SM himself would have been day shift with juniour officers on the other shifts & being ASM positions, often working broken shifts with the station unmanned for several hours, & they were outside the times of when passenger trains ran.
I have a couple in mind but, as the stations & all the associated buildings around them including the officers houses are no longer there.
Building material types (Brick / timber / concrete) for associated railway and station infrastructure on lines relates more to the time / date of construction of the whole line rather than any level of importance of a particular location. The importance of a location is usually reflected in the size of station buildings provided.
Further in regards to the garage at Thirlmere, the article lists that all of the items used to construct the garage are second-hand, including the roller door. The accompanying image shows that is was a single skillion, low pitch roof sloping across its width and house a single car. The roller door is offset in the front elevation for some reason not explained int he article, perhaps to allow for a workbench / storage along the wall of the wider side.
For those interested the article is in RTM Roundhouse December 2010.
Regards,
Tom R.
Congratulations Peter. It looks great. A fitting result for all of the work that has gone into the model.
cheers Phil
G’day Phil. Thank you for kind comment and all the best. Peter
Hi Peter,
The SM residence looks fantastic, congratulations. Really enjoying the detail around the placement into the scene great inspiration
Cheers.
Adam
Hi Adam.
Good to hear from you and thanks for the comment,all the best Peter
That really is a great result Peter. I have really enjoyed watching the progress of the build and am grateful for the experience and knowledge shared with all your readers.
Hi David.
Thank you for being interested with the progress of this project. With all the main structures built there is not much left to do. Regards Peter
Very nice work Peter, inspirational.
Cheers Alex.
Hi Pete, nice to see the 30T running past the SM’s residence. Thank you for that. Love the effect of the corrugated roof. In actual fact, the whole scene. Congratulations on the great work, keep it going. I’ll speak with you soon.
regards, Oscar.