Crookwell station comes to life | Gallery, Video

Once his son’s bedroom the work space is characterised with low ceilings and limited natural lighting.

In the middle sits a single chair surrounded by his tools: different coloured paint, brochures and cut out frames, and like a halo the Crookwell and McAlister Station surrounds it. 

He started constructing toy model stations about 10 years ago. A banal conversation with a friend churned the wheels of his childhood passion. Crookwell will mark his fifth station, the rest he admits were fictional.

“I pull them down and build them when I’m not satisfied,” the modest creator said. 

For the Crookwell station there is the old yard, the water tower, now non-existent, and the gantry, most of which he has built himself.

Frozen in their track is the 38 class diesel, 32 class and 50 class train models. 

“My father used to be a stockman on the stock trains and he visited Crookwell a lot,” he said. “I only realised this when I was given his old papers and books.”

He was in Crookwell in 1945 after the war ended, but that is the only connection he holds to the town.

The station opened in 1902 and closed in 1985. 

He’s today waiting on a model house to be shipped from the United States but is worried about the specificity of the door. He also has to build a few more trees, add different backgrounds and rebuild the station master’s house. This is expected to be completed within a few months.

Vice president of the Crookwell Heritage Railway (CHR) Albert Melchert said the station is currently preserved by 15 active members. There are 50 members in the group.

“There’s a lot of people that have interest in it. There was quite a few visitors at the Potato Festival,” he said.

The CHR applied for a heritage operators license in 2013 and hopes full size trolley and trains will run as a tourist attraction in Crookwell.

Mr Melchert said visitors are welcome to visit the station located on Colyer Street.