Cowra - Construction, May 2026
For those of you that have not already guessed it, we can confirm the location that is being modelled - Cowra. Located in the Central West region of NSW, Cowra is the largest and most important station on the cross country rail line from Blayney on the Main Western railway line to Demondrille on the Main Southern railway line. The branchline to Eugowra connects just south of Cowra Station. The branchline to Grenfell connects a little further south at Koorawatha. Trains to both of these branchlines usually started from Cowra. More information about Cowra and environs and its importance to the NSW Railways will be forthcoming in future updates.
Construction started on building Cowra Station and the Signal Box located on the platform. Plans of the buildings were sourced from NSW railways, and numerous reference photos were taken by GMRG members and obtained from books and relevant websites. The station plans were scaled to HO scale and overlaid on the layout where the platform was being constructed. A styrene shell is being constructed over which will be laid embossed plastic brick sheet. It is being built in several smaller sub-assemblies for ease of handling during construction. As the station building is a fairly major build more on this will follow in future updates.
Cowra Station building plan printed at HO scale and overlaid onto the platform area on the layout. Basic structural formers for the building have been commenced.
Cowra Station building plan with part of the building commenced as basic structural formers.
The Signal Box construction uses Evergreen clapboard styrene to represent the weatherboard structure. Appropriate windows were impossible to find so three Tichy three-pane windows were spliced together to represent each of the prototype signal box windows.
The Signal Box walls, door and windows, all cut and ready for assembly. The three windows show the various stages used in the construction of each window. To the left of the door is a window shown in its three parts, next left these have been glued together, and far left thin styrene strip has been added for architraves and sill.
The Signal Box partly assembled. These parts will be individually painted before final assembly.
The Gang Shed is a corrugated iron clad and roofed structure located near the Dock Road. It was scratchbuilt using a styrene shell clad with Northeastern corrugated iron, based on pictures and photographs. This shed has also been this referred to as the Old Perway Shed on a NSW Railway drawing.
The Gang Shed placed in position on the layout but not yet fixed down so that the scenery around and behind it can be accessed and completed.
The Brake Examiners building is a prominent and well-recognised brick building located in the yard opposite the station. The model was constructed using a scratchbuilt styrene shell clad with embossed brick styrene sheet and roofed with corrugated iron, based on pictures and photographs.
The Brake Examiners building temporarily positioned on the layout. It still needs windows and doors added, then final assembly, detailing, painting and weathering.
Looking at the prototype trackwork in the general yard. The areas between the tracks in the station yard is almost a seamless continuation of the track ballast. To represent this in model form, we firstly filled in the areas between the tracks with strips of cork to raise the level up. These were then painted a mid grey colour, then topped with fine ballast, N scale Martins Creek from Matts Ballast.
A section of the yard tracks in front of the station area. All tracks and sleepers have been painted and ballasted. Looking at the areas between the tracks from the top of the pic down - cork strip infill added, cork painted, fine N scale ballast applied.
Work also continued on the storage yard area of the layout, with construction started on new end piece modules shaped like the letter J, that connect the track from the storage roads to the front scenicked modules. The modules are made from sheet 12mm plywood, with some 12mm ply and all the 4mm bendy ply ordered cut into strips. Before the sheet was cut, the module dimensions, track centres and locations for the cross members were all marked out using a length of timber as a trammel. Once the dimensions were verified by testing with track, points, and a long passenger coach, the tops of the J pieces were cut from the sheet. Firstly the ends were cut with a circular saw and guide to ensure a neat and straight cut. Next the sides were cut with a jigsaw and a fine-toothed blade, starting with the curves closest to the edge of the ply sheet, before cutting the inside curves. The next step was to glue and screw in place the cross members.
Top side of one of the J piece modules with the end cross members glued and screwed in place.
Bottom side of one of the J piece modules with all the cross members glued and screwed in place. The internal cross members had 20mm and 50mm holes drilled on a drill press before assembly to allow for wiring to pass through.
After the cross members, on one of the modules, the first layer of 4mm bendy ply pieces were glued and nailed to the sides. The bendy ply is a very flexible sheet which allows the strip to form a smooth curve along the module sides with no pressure required to make it bend.
Bottom view of the first layer of 4mm bendy ply glued and nailed to the sides.
Top view of one of the J pieces with the first layer of 4mm bendy ply.