30 July 2004

General News

Formation of an Australia Wide Association of Heritage Railways - Association of Tourist and Heritage Rail, Australia

Following on from earlier meetings held in Melbourne, a further meeting of representatives from all Heritage Railway Associations took place in Adelaide on the 19th and 20th June 2004 to further the setting up of an Australian wide  heritage association. A new association was formed called the Association of Tourist and Heritage Rail, Australia (ATHRA).  The Chairman is Paul Rollason from Queensland and the membership of the committee is made up of representatives of all the States except N.S.W. which has declined to join the Association.

Seminar on Heritage Rail in the 21^st Century

A seminar was  held on the last weekend in May at Belgrave hosted by Puffing Billy. The seminar was a great success and all people who attended the seminar thought that there was a good balance of talks and events to fill the entire weekend. Speakers were present from the NTC, ARA, the Department of Infrastructure, industry, heritage tramways and Puffing Billy. Information on the talks given at the seminar can be accessed from the welcome page of our web site.

150th Celebration of Railways in Australia

The first part of this years celebrations started off in South Australia where our colleagues there ran a  most imaginative service on the line between Goolwa and Port Elliott. This line was the pioneer railway line in Australia and started off with horse traction towing the wagons.

The first mechanically powered railway was in Victoria  and the first train ran at 12.20pm from the site of Flinders Street Station to Sandridge,  Port Melbourne on the 12 September 1854. Most Heritage Railways in Victoria are planning on running a commemorative train at that time of the day to celebrate the event. More details of special events are shown elsewhere on this website.

News from Members

Adelaide River

Our colleagues at Adelaide River report that "Sandfly" has returned to the Northern Territory and is on display at Darwin.

The railway has leased three South Australian carriages from the Bellarine Railway for a twenty year period.

 Alexandra Timber Tramway and Museum

The railway is continuing with the restoration of the Hudswell Clarke engine. The Kelly and Lewis engine No 5957 will be housed in an extension to the present locomotive shed.

Australian Railway Historical Society

The diorama at the Museum at Newport has been changed and features the Overland as it was in 1887. The Museum is also seeking badges to include in the collection and these are being suitably housed and protected. They are also making a concerted effort to ensure that all items of clothing in the collection are catalogued and stored.. They are seeking items of women's clothing, ties. and a station master's hat of the 1950/60 amongst other items.  In addition to these, they are seeking examples of items of clothing of the last two decades of the 20th century. If you have any suitable items please contact the Museum.

Exhibits are continuing to receive attention and engines C10 and N432 have been repainted.

To celebrate the 150th the Society is holding  a banquet, details elsewhere in this web site.

A new book" What a Journey" is in preparation. The Society plans to run a tour by train to Colac in November.

Ballarat Tramway Museum

The second annual "tram pull" was held in May and two trams were provided for the event. The trams were located at the loop and the aim was for the first team to pull their tram to the top of the loop.

Patronage over Easter 2004 was the best for ten years and the overall patronage was up to that of 1977/78.

A strategic  planning day was held at the Lodge Moorabool Reservoir and came up with many ides and projects for the future. 

Road resurfacing in Wendouree Parade has been done by the Council and has improved the appearance of the tracks and removed a potential hazard caused by the rough surface.

Bellarine Tourist Railway

This year is the 125th anniversary of the line to Queenscliff and a new book has been published commemorating this event. 

Sleeper replacement has continued with 128 sleepers being put in the track near Laker's Straight.

No 4 Engine has been the main service engine and Klondyke and V1209 available for service. An appeal has been launched to return T251 back into service. The engine has been stripped and parts cleaned.

Railmotor DP29 has had work done on it at Queenscliff and the roof straps and sliding windows received attention.

Bendigo Trust

VR 41

Work has progressed on VR 41 with the completion of the flooring, including the installation of the floor slats.  Significant work was then carried out scraping down, repairing, and refinishing the saloon seats, and manufacturing the drop centre seats from other surplus saloon seats.

The roof-mounted destination boxes and other roof hardware have now been installed.  The capping pieces for the lighting wires, and the wooden blocks for the light fittings were also installed after adjustment to suit the refurbished roof structure.

New motorman's cabin and drop centre steps have also been made, using the remains of originals as patterns for the new steps.  Most of the interior brass work such as light fittings, conductors bells, and strap rail hangers have now been polished and lacquered, along with the seemingly thousands of wood screws.

Work is now progressing on priming, stopping and undercoating the exterior, and continuing with the varnishing of the interior.

MTPA members, including Tony Smith, John Withers, Arthur Ireland and Craig Tooke, and assisted by a workmate of Craig's, Ron Darlison, have continued with the wiring of the tram, and the refurbishment of some of the components prior to delivery and installation.

ESCo No 8

 After completing a motor-less truck for a private customer for Geelong 28 (ex PMTT 66), work continued on assembling the 21E truck for ESCo No8.

Once the armatures for the Westinghouse 225 motors were returned from our contractor, they were installed in the overhauled cases, and installed in the truck.  The truck was then re-united with the body (a trial fit was carried out previously for display at our centenary celebrations), and the car moved from the body shop to road 3, for final electrical, pneumatic and brake rigging work to be carried out.

 Two of the original style of 'flip over' type pole bases were overhauled, from the remains of at least four remnants of bases - one for use on ESCo No 8, and one for display on our other ESCo car No 7.  

Track Repairs

The long awaited repairs to the track network were carried out over the weekend of the 15^th and 16^th May 2004.  Three sites were taken on by the contractors, Coleman Rail - the set of points at the Fountain Tram Stop, the curve into North Bendigo Terminus, and the biggest site, the passing loop and triangle junction in McCrae St.  In conjunction with this work, Bendigo Tramways volunteers and staff undertook the replacement of all of the span network over the passing loop and triangle junction, and the installation of a new span network over the points at the Fountain Stop, working each night until completion in the early hours of Friday morning 21^st May.

The triangle junction now has automatic points, installed by Yarra Trams and the supplier, Elektroline, on the southern and eastern legs, which necessitated the fitting of transponders to all of our operating fleet, together with extensive training for our maintenance and operations volunteers and staff.

 Trams resumed running over the track on 21^st May, with the automatic points being commissioned for full operation on the 1^st July 2004, after all of the training and material change documentation had been completed.

Track under repair McCrae Street.        Photo Bendigo Trust

Shop Upgrade

While the trams were off the road for the track and overhead works, the remainder of our team who weren't on the overhead gang carried out a much needed upgrade of our souvenir shop at the Tram Depot. 

Given the fairly descriptive brief of 'Make it look like a friendly and inviting retail area, and less like an outback dunny!', our volunteers and staff set about removing some of the tired looking displays, constructing a storage area at the rear of the shop, dry-walling the previously painted rough brickwork, replacing industrial-style fluros with decorative brass pendant lighting and low voltage halogen spotlighting, installing cornices, architraves, skirting, and carpet, and repainting the area in a heritage style.

The end result is a much improved retail area for our customers.  The next stage will involve constructing display panels in the public area of the Tram Depot to better interpret the history of the Bendigo Tramways to our passengers.

 Lake Extension

After being approved by Council in March, the Lake Extension was appealed against by a number of residents to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).  Hearings were subsequently held in Bendigo on the 22^nd and 23^rd June 2004, with VCAT subsequently dismissing the appeal and approving the planning permit. Unfortunately, there still seems to be a group who are determined to stop the extension, however, the Council has stated that the works will be completed within 9 to 12 months.

Accreditation Re-write

A revised version of our Rail Safety Management System came into effect on 1^st July 2004, picking up the changes brought about by the implementation of the new medical standards, the addition of the automatic points procedures, and a number of other changes.

Conductors

Conductors have now been put back on all tour tram services, in order to provide better customer relations, as well as improving safety.  After initially returning as Ticket Sellers during March, a training program was 'conducted' (no pun intended) during May to accredit the Ticket Sellers, and re-accredit a number of Drivers, as Conductors.  It has proven to be a successful step - not only is there less fare evasion, but our customer service has improved, and a number of our Drivers now enjoy swapping duties each trip to have a break from the traffic!

 School Holiday Special

With trams now able to enter the North Bendigo Terminus again after the repairs to the track, the opportunity was taken over the July school holiday period to run a joint promotion with the Chinese Joss House.  Tram passengers were encouraged to visit the Joss House, receiving a special discount on the admission price on presentation of their tram ticket.  Our Conductors assisted by promoting the Joss House, and collecting questionnaires from passengers on their return to the tram.

It is hoped that this sort of promotion will continue in the future, and that the data obtained will be able to be used to promote better networking between the Tramways and other attractions along the tram line.

Daylesford Spa  Country Railway (Central Highlands Tourist Railway)

The Goods Shed at Daylesford has been receiving attention  and new stumps and decking have been inserted to make the building look like new. 91RM has been doing the lions share of train running while 63RM  is repaired. 63RM's roof has had new structural timbers inserted and work done on the engine front end. As well internal body work is being done and the complete rewiring of the lighting circuits. Once this work is completed an overhaul of the engine to generator gearbox will be done and a full external re-paint.

GreenTrail.

The railway has been given a five year access licence by Victrack for the portion of the corridor between Wahgunyah and Withers Road Lilliput. This now gives the railway the opportunity to develop the line in stages as the premier tourist attraction in the North West. A special programme will take place to help celebrate the 150 years of railways in Australia.

Puffing Billy

With the launch of G 42 into service the railway has been able to commence a seven day a week luncheon train service. The advent of the train at weekends and holidays makes the marketing of the train more practicable and the response from customers has been successful.

A memorial service for the late Chris Bell was held on the platform at Belgrave in June.

The extension to the workshop at Belgrave has been completed and an overhead travelling crane has been installed. It has already made work in the shops more effective. Work is continuing on the overhaul of 8A.

Track work has taken place between Selby Station and the Monbulk Road bridge.

Steamrail

Steamrail had suspended the running of trains on the mainline when it found that the charges made by West Coast Rail was more than they could afford. They were unable to make sufficient money to allow Steamrail to continue using them as the operating company. In the meantime the other operating companies had advised that operating Heritage trains was not part of their core business and they declined to become the operating company. The State Government has assisted and has reached an agreement with V/Line to provide a restricted service on the mainline pending the creation of a permanent solution.

The necessary work on maintaining the rolling stock has continued in the interim and the T class engines have been on hire to Freight Australia.

Electrail has been working on 12 BT and the roof is being re-canvassed. Tait 470M is being repainted and electric locomotive E1109  is in the midst of a full overhaul.

Tramway Museum Society of Victoria

 The T.M.S.V has rejoined COTMA and attended the conference in Auckland, New Zealand. The tip truck has been sold.  A section of track just north of the depot junction has been regauged and has had tie bars inserted. Also the final fixing of the rails to the pit was completed and rubbish on the site burned.

Painting of Ballarat No17 and tank car No 7W has continued and other work done to the unit. Once this work is finished the tram will again be operational. Lifeguards for a Z class tram were found and it was decided to replace these under Z5 which had them removed many years ago. As all the holes existed in the car's body the lifeguards were easily refitted.

Yarra Valley Tourist Railway

Track work at Healesville ahs continued and the track into No 4 road in the new shed has been ballasted lifted and lined. On the mainline 40 new sleepers have been inserted. Further sleeper replacement is taking place between Healesville station and the Watts River bridge.

Trolleys have been the recipient of major rebuilding work and PM16 is being totally rebuilt

Work is also going on T341 and a generator and gearbox for 62RM has been given on a permanent loan arrangement with Victrack

At Healesville Station a public address system has been installed and at Yarra Glen Station work has started in rebuilding the station roof which was badly damaged in a fire several years ago.

Yarra Glen Station under repair.        Photo Brett Morton