I have been watching the progress of your Carlingford project with interest. I too am interested in the Carlingford branch line as a subject for modelling, perhaps in O scale. I am particularly interested in the possibilities of Rydalmere station as a modelling subject, the station had a goods yard and an industrial siding (the Rheem siding) so there is the possibility of some diverse goods traffic and hence some operating potential.
Thank you for your screen shot of the “6 Maps” aerial photo of Carlingford, I immediately had a look at Rydalmere and was disappointed to see that the goods yard was very basic at that time. It looks like the Rydalmere goods yard was only a single goods loop in 1942/3 and no Rheem factory at that time.
So modelling Rydalmere in the period prior to the 1940s would seem to have only limited opportunities for goods traffic and hence operation of a layout.
In your research of the Carlingford line did you come across a NSWR track and signal diagram of Rydalmere station? I have downloaded your shot of the 1918 Carlingford T&S diagram (from the time of Cyril Byles), thank you for posting that.
I have a copy of a 1960’s track plan for Rydalmere, from a large scale plan (so no real detail) of the Sydney metropolitan network at that time but it has no details of the signalling and control arrangements.
I recently found (online) an ARHS photo of Rydalmere which was captioned as taken in the 1940’s,
but upon seeing the 6 Maps aerial photo from 1942/3 it seems to me that this photo probably dates from a somewhat later time, perhaps the 1950’s. The photo shows the Victoria Road level crossing gates, so predates the high level bridge road crossing.
Also, in the same series are early photos of Telopea and Dundas stations, just click along to the left.
So it seems that to get a version of Rydalmere with the Rheem siding and interesting goods operations I would be looking to model the station in the 1950’s at the earliest (in the transition era)? Like you I prefer the Thow era but if modeled then the operational aspects of the model seem a bit limited.
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject or perhaps if you have come across any interesting information in your research of the Carlingford line. I have all the easily available photos, docs etc. from Google searches of the web.
Best regards,
Pierre