Friday Facts & Fotos. FFF 53 Friday 28th July 2023
Models to the rescue!
Imagine getting a memo from your boss via the workshops manager giving you barely six weeks to produce a 1/3 scale model of a B-class diesel. That is what happened to the foreman patternmaker at Newport on 8th January 1954. The date of the annual Moomba had been moved forward to enable the Queen & Duke to attend during their visit to Victoria. The VR had already booked their place in the Moomba parade so now it was up to the patternmakers at Newport to come up with the goods.
Six pattern makers and one apprentice, carriage painters and sign writers finished the job just the day before the parade and I hope they received suitable words of thanks from the commissioners!
Six months after the Moomba parade, the 1/3 scale model of B60 was on display in the middle of the concourse of the old Spencer St station to draw attention to the centenary of the Victorian Railways.
That 1500kg, 20-foot long model has been on constant display at many railway events over the years. It is now under a small roof at the rear of a car park on the Downer lease at Newport Workshops. It is just beyond the rail museum fence. It is now over 70 years old and being made of wood, it is showing it needs a lot of attention.
The VR has a strong history of building scale models at Newport. This model numbered H1 was produced by the pattern makers in east block at Newport during the first world war. It was built before the decision was made to change the classification of the new heavy class of 2-8-0s locomotives to C-class. All decked out with flags and a sign to encourage you to enlist in the war effort, it was a fine sight in its Canadian red paint scheme. The full-size C1 emerged from the workshops in March 1918, but by the time C2 was completed two years later, commissioner Harold Clapp was in charge and it emerged all over black. Does anyone know the history of what happened to this model?
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