Ballarat Cattleyards

Large livestock sale yards built to the south west of the Ballarat in 1886 and were serviced by a branch off the Western line at Linton Junction. The cattleyards were a major generator of business on the branch serviced by pilots operating out of Ballarat.

 The cattleyards have been the only remaining area on the layout with bare baseboards, mainly due to the lack of suitable photos and plans of the prototype.

Cropped photo showing the sheep yards and portable ramp that was on rails.

 I have built the cattleyards on a lift out board as I need to use this area as a handrest when I need to access the hidden sidings which are situated directly behind the sidings. For the yards I used plans supplied by Richard Austin and VR infrastructure plans from Mark Bau's Victorian Railways website. Although not same as the yards that existed at Ballarat they appear to use the same timber and post dimensions for the fences and gates as VR standard plan's. 

The the yards are built out of strips of 20thou styrene sheet for the planks and scribed sheet for the deck of the race. The posts are either old rail or match sticks. I have also used styrene sheet with rivets for the bracing on the gates.

Sheepyards under construction out of styrene strips, match sticks and rail.

The space for the yards was limited so I was only able to include one cattle race and a double sheep race. I have left a space towards the Gillies Street gates to potentially include the ramp that was on rails which was moved to load the livestock wagons. 

I still need to add a few details such as gates to the ramps, sheep for the yards, power and telegraph poles. 

Cattle ramp with M vans waiting to be loaded.

The sheep and cattle ramps after closure being overtaken by blackberries and other weeds.