One of the things I remember as a child are Australian brands that are no longer seen one of these is Golden Fleece. Golden Fleece was a brand of petrol with service station dotted along the major highways and small country towns. I always yearned to stop there to get food: a hamburger, fish and chips or a pie before the spread of the American Fast Food giants.
I wanted to model this brand on my layout by including a Golden Fleece Oil siding.
Starting point
Many of the oil sidings have now been decommissioned and demolished. However, whilst at the Canberra Railway Museum in Fyshwick a couple of years I noticed the old Shell Oil terminal whilst riding on the Diesel railcar. After the visit to the museum, I was able to locate the address where it was an took additional photos through the closed gates.
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| Above: Photo of the Shell terminal rail siding at Fyshwick (Taken 27 July 2014) |
Modelling Options
I had a corner area of my layout that was going to be the site of the oil siding. I searched the internet for a number of options for a depot that would be suitable and found the Walthers Interstate Fuel and Oil Depot.
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| Above: Kit opened and ready to build |
Measuring the site
I made a number of changes to not only ensure that the kit could fit in the space but to Australianise it. I made the depot building as a low relief and removed the roof to not look like a quonset hut. Various tries were made to determine how it could fit in the space.
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| Above: Oil depot area to be modelled |
The tanks were also painted and weathered to give it a used look and coloured white as in the prototype.
Adding Scenery
The final touches to give it some realism was to make Golden Fleece decals for the tanks, adding a concrete slab, appropriate warning signage, adding trees and then used the LJ model factory fencing which are no longer produced.
For the first time I purchased one of the Haskell Australian backdrops to give the area more depth. Although I did feel it gave a too much a rural feeling.
Another view of the oil siding with the low relief shed and appropriate Golden Fleece livery vehicles which were built separately.
