PASSIONATE local historian Bob Newton is keen to establish the whereabouts of the large clock that once served at Korumburra Railway Station before being shifted to Coal Creek’s Woodleigh Station, with the latter a site for which its size was excessive.
Perry Neil who continues to volunteer at Coal Creek, having been associated with the attraction since before it opened, would also love for the clock to be found.
“It was a rather big clock; the face was nearly four-foot in diameter,” he said, explaining the mechanism was operated by weights rather than a spring.
The clock had a cast iron bezel into which the glass fitted.
That may have been plate glass Perry believes.
“The case itself was made out of oak and it had paint on it, and I stripped the paint off and had it varnished so it was in the original timber colours,” he said, adding he doesn’t know if that is how it initially looked, but considers that likely.
Although the brand of the clock is unknown, Bob believes it may have been an Ansonia, saying a number of railway station clocks were.
However, while Perry considers that is possible, he said Ansonia usually made smaller clocks.
Perry thinks the clock was given to Coal Creek not long after the attraction opened, possibly still during the 1970s.
He believes it went to someone involved in the South Gippsland Tourist Railway and that it returned to Korumburra Railway Station.
However, he is unsure if it was restored to working condition.
During its time at Coal Creek, the clock’s mechanism was dismantled, with someone intending to restore it.
Perry explained that whoever took the mechanism apart left it in pieces and that while he had restored some smaller clocks, he was unable to establish what to do with the old railway station timepiece and its many components.
“If I had taken it apart myself, I probably could have fixed it,” he said, adding that in its dismantled state it needed a clockmaker to do so.
When the clock was collected from Coal Creek, its workings were taken in a box.
Anyone knowing what has become of the clock or any of its history is encouraged to contact Bob Newton at inverburra@yahoo.com.au or on 0408 515 923.