When I was approached to do this picture I had no idea just how many hours of work the whole concept would create. The customer had a rough idea of what he wanted and needed it done ..."yesterday".
The first and most obvious aspect of the picture was getting the details of actual event correct. I realised I had to research the event thoroughly and this was probably the hardest part of the whole job. As the event occurred in 1915, I knew that there would be a scarce amount of photographs of it. I went first to the Wauchope Historical Society and asked for any information they may have on the arrival of the train. They were very helpful and they supplied me with an great deal of printed information, (newspaper articles etc), but they had only three poor quality photographs of the event.
The photographs did not really show the actual locomotive in enough detail to base my picture on. The one photograph that showed the loco in reasonable close up, was also crowded out by the thousands of sightseers that attended the event.
Only the top third of the engine was visible, but it was enough for me to recognized it as a 32 class Baldwin (I have a passion for steam trains).
The other photographs were helpful in the details I needed for the station buildings and the way the people were dressed on the day.

I then contacted the New South Wales State Rail Archives in an effort to get more information on the 32 class locomotive and the types of carriages she was pulling on the day.
The archive people were very helpful and supplied, not only number of photographs of the actual loco, but a full history of her service life, including the names of the driver, fireman and conductor that crewed her to Wauchope that day.

After studying the photographs, I then composed my picture. This was then shown to my client in sketch form for his approval. That done, I had to then work out how I could transfer an A4 sketch to a 6' X 3' sheet of plywood. This was remidied by the purchase of an overhead image projector. This required me to re-draw the art work as a line drawing and then photo copy that onto overhead projection film. I originally potocopied it as A4, but, as I was soon to discover, this was way to big to project onto the plywood. I had to reduce the picture by 75% on the photocopy to get it to "fit" onto the plywood as a projected image....... every day is a learning day!
I used a 3B pencil to trace the image and then used my original drawing as reference when I began the pyrography. I had afew days to have it finished and delivered. It was interesting doing this project at my *Timbertown shop, as I was working in full view of the visitors to the park and the people really got a buzz out of seeing the project being done. I received a huge number of other commissions from doing this picture.

Interesting Historical facts :
In 1915, the population of Wauchope was around 700 or so, but on the day of the first train arrival, over well 4000 people gathered at the station.

The Balwin locomotive used on that day was built in America in 1912 and went into service for the N.S.W Railways in 1913. These locos were referred to as the "P" class and were used right up to the demise of steam traction in Australia in the 1960's. The particular loco used in the opening of the railway line to Wauchope was P Class 3287. This engine continued it's service with the railways until she was scrapped in 1968 after travelling over well 6,000,000 kilometers.

Although the train is shown arriving from the south in my picture, which is basically correct, the official arrival on the day was not actually recognized until the locomotive had passed through the station, turned around on a turntable and returned to the station. As a result, the official press photo showed her arriving from the north. I have no idea why they did this. I did a couple of sketches of her in the "official" arrival, but as the train now obscured the station building, I decided on using the southern arrival scene instead.

Interesting Picture facts :
The characters I used for the crowd scene were based on actual people that worked at Timbertown, this included a rendition myself. I did not let on to the people concerned until the work was finished. It gave the picture a surprisingly friendly appeal.

I actually burnt out the Nichome Wire in the burner's tip during the work on the picture. As I did not have a spare and it would taken a week to get replacements sent to me from the supplier, I resorted the using burning tips made from jumbo paper clips. These clips are made from mild wire and the only lasted a short time. I made up and used over 20 of these tips. I do not recommend this method of burning, as the clip wire softened rapidly when heated and was quite difficult to control.
Because of the size of the plywood sheet. I had to Pyrograph the picture with the sheet standing vertically. This gave me a few problems as I could not comfortably rest my hand on the plywood when drawing. The resultant RSI was very painfull and took a further week to right itself.

Closing comment:
The most pleasing outcome from doing this picture was the accolades and regognition of my efforts that came from the Wauchope townsfolk. Wauchope is my home town and, up until that time, most of the folk there were oblivious of the work I did at Timbertown.

---

Timbertown is a faithful reconstruction of a timber getters village circa 1880-1910 and is located on the outskirts of Wauchope NSW.
At the time of doing this picture I operated a Leather Shop there.
The complex boasted a Blacksmith, Woodturner, Printer, Shingle Cutter, Steam Operated sawmill, Bullock Team, Narrow Gauge Steam Railway, horse drawn Cobb & Co Mail Coach and myself, along a huge array of other attractions. We all dressed in colonial garb and carried out our work as residents of this historical village. I was there for over two and a half years and it was a truly wonderful experience.