Researching the past

Researching an area 200km from my home is probably difficult enough, but add in the fact I'm trying to model an era (1976-77) when I was only 6 makes it harder still.

I've received a fair amount of material and assistance to help make Maffra as authentic as my meager model skills allow, much of it has been track diagrams, drainage diagrams, signalling arrangements and amendments to the track layout.  These are fantastic for working out the track layout for my modules, as well as the grades and cutting sizes in the station and surrounding areas.

Photographs help convey the feel of the place that obviously isn't there today, between the internet and the modeling fraternity I've been able to source some material that has assisted me no end.
An example of this is Rob from Aust-N-Rail, during the course of his research into Nowa Nowa, had a CD of photos from the area taken by Steve Cullen, in among those, were a few pictures of Maffra.

With permission, I've including these below,  and thanks to those pics, I now know what the river bank behind the Milk Co-Op looks like, as well as the fence lines on the floodplain.

If anyone has any photos of Maffra station and it's surrounds that they would be willing to share, I would really like to see them, I had received a photo last year that was taken on a steam special to Maffra before the line closed, sadly I lost it and the contact after a computer crash :(, I'm sure there are many more out there.

Close but no cigar

I've finished painting and assembling my basic station building structure, then I stumble across some more research material and realise that although I got all the colours right for my building, I did paint the doors the wrong colour, they were green, not red, should've realised.   Here is a 1987 picture of the station.  The most important thing is the toilet block, I was about to make something completely wrong, as a few years later on from this picture below, it was replaced with a more substantial version with a roof. (pic by Frank Jones)

Here is a shot I took a few months ago showing the guise I was going to build.

Maffra station with some detailing

Some more pics of the station building, still requires a fair bit of detailing, but the windows and signage helps paint a better picture, once the downpipes, guttering and the weatherboard toilet block are fixed on, it should look more like the real thing.  Please click on the photos to expand the size to give you a better look at the signage, these and many others to suit all eras are available from Spirit Design.

Starting on the station buildings

I've started work on the station building, still needs more work, and a toilet facility added but I'm happy with how it looks so far, I'll post up some better photos later.