Kyogle Stairs and Drain - a Small Modelling Project

Over the long weekend, I decided that I would spend some time trying to reproduce a scene from a photo that I saw on one of the NSW facebook pages – actually NSWR Diesel Era Modelling.  It was a great little photo of a container wagon in the loop at Kyogle posted by Steve McElroy on Dec 16 2019.  It shows a WFX wagon in Jan 1994, but what I was interested in was a set of stairs down from the track level to a walkway near Kyogle Station and there was a water drain pipe coming out just next to it.  This location was next the track near the station and the water flows downhill to a bit of swamp and then makes its way to the Upper Richmond River not far away.

I wanted to try and replicate this little scene on the layout.  The viewer will be a judge to how well I did it.  It was just a coincidence that I had a container train sitting on the main when I undertook the work.

I present Steve McElroy’s photo.

A photo of a container wagon in the loop at Kyogle posted by Steve McElroy on Dec 16 2019 in NSWR Diesel Era Modelling Facebook group.  It shows a WFX wagon in Jan 1994 at Kyogle.

So I cut away some of the existing plaster near the front fascia, and then got the plaster out and mixed up a small batch and then re-sculptured the area.  I installed an already prepared water pipe and cut off a bit of plastic stairs that I had in a kit and installed them. I painted the area a brown colour and then added dirt, and various scatters.  I added a few trees - different from the original photo, a couple of bushes and a few flowering weeds.  I made a walkway out of some sleepers that I had previously made and ran these sleepers next to the loop road in the crossing loop.   This allowed staff to get to the stairs more safely than just walking on the ballast.  Lastly some rocks were added to the creek and a bit of water was added.  So today,  to complete the scene, I decided to add the chain wire fence into the scene that was evident in the original photo as you can’t have people falling into the drain, can you.  I then bent up and glued together some pipe handrails from styrene.  To top the scene off, I thought I would add a sleeper that some enterprising lad might have used to create a bridge across the drain to the other side.  I’m quite impressed with the results.  Pitty my photography is not up to capturing the scene.

My Kyogle Loop before I started work.

The Drain is in, after the scenery was cut away and plaster added to form the new shape.

Scenery completed and everything in.  Just waiting for the glue to dry around the rocks in the drain.

Same shot from further out.

The shot after the handrails were added along with the chain wire fence panel.  Water is in the drain, and a sleeper added so someone can walk to the other side of the drain.

Same scene from the other angle.

Shot from further away.

Again taken from the other side and slightly further away.

Thanks to the original poster of the photo.