Re: Central West Rail Preservation Society 50 class

[Bob <alco@acay.com.au>]

I am assuming that the 'opposing side' you refer to is the same group that
have had the locomotive dismantled for around 13 years and have done nothing
to it for the last 8 years. It was near to being returned to working order
in 1992 but all the people that were working on it walked out on the group
for whatever reason and those left did nothing. The group had made a
commitment to Bathurst Council which allowed them to remove the loco but
unfortunately they were not able to live up to their promises and the
Council after many deadlines finally acted to collect their locomotive. The
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences has not been around for many years
however the Powerhouse Museum was contracted by Bathurst Council to oversee
the removal from Orange and consult on the reassembly of the locomotive. The
Powerhouse have considerable knowledge about steam and locomotive
restoration and they have several employees that were involved with the
restoration of 3830 and now 3265. Apart from this the museum has several
other steam items presently operable and have a boiler inspector as an
employee. Given the RTM's present state of one operable steam locomotive I
could not agree that the RTM would be better set up for steam locomotive
maintenance. Hope this answers some of your questions.
Cheers
Bob

"chris@enet21.com.au" wrote:

> Hi
>
> In one of today's Sundays paper there is a article about the 50 class
> being repossessed by Bathurst City Council. According to the article the
> council may return it to static condition (I rekon that will be be
> case), but the opposing side rekons it is near to being returned to
> operating condition. Who's telling the truth?
> Why are the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences getting involved with
> it? do they any expertise in overhauling steam locos to operational
> condition? I would have thought the NSWRTM would have been involved as
> they are better set up for steam loco maintainence? (or was the quote
> from them to expensive?)
> Also, the article said the loco was given a overhaul before going to
> Bathurst, so I would assume the loco boiler and mechancial parts would
> be in good condition.
>
> Chris