Bowen Creek (Epping 2009)

I am a perennial visitor to model railway exhibitions – sometimes I am there for only a few minutes and leave depressed by the overall amateurish modelling or the evident lack of interest the exhibitors have towards the public. But every so often comes a model that is so impressing that it just blows me away. From my past I remember Woodend, Crafton, Boliva, Sunset Siding, Time and Patience …

At Epping was another, possibly the greatest - Bowen Creek .

Bowen Creek represents a unattended crossing loop on an imaginary line in Central West NSW. The layout is built to Proto:87 standards but with skill and subtlety that is rarely seen in modelling.

The strength is two areas – the landscape and in the display. The landscape is constructed so that the railway sits in the landscape as in real life.

Look at this section for example the track is almost invisible.

yet there is incredible detail in the track and with the shunter’s shed. There is a point rod to the lever and wire to the signal. The inside of the shed has internal bracing

visible. Look at the landscaping around the short siding and the S truck.

Then look at the wider shot I took (above) and you can see how it all works together.

The other matter is the display. The model is constructed from steel tube with a high density polystyrene foam as the base. The module encloses the scenes and lights them with lights from the front. This allows the modeller to control the light and the view of the scene. It is also raised fairly high again to control viewing. Unfortunately at Epping, Bowen Creek caught the afternoon sun and this made photography a bit tricky.

The other layouts on show such as Palden Hill and Brunswick Park probably had similar quality modelling but because of their standard design they had no control of the light and they looked fairly gloomy.

Being P-87 all the rolling stock had to be converted but some old RTR favourites were there such as a 620/720 rail car, the C30 and this 47. They tended to be a few derailments which I put down to this being the layouts first show, others might reflect unkindly on those finescale flanges.

Bowen Creek is a credit to all involved in particular its owners Ian Millard and Andrew Campbell.