Re: Dorrigo 19th Century Treasures

[James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au>]

John Kerley wrote:
> 
> James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
> 3A13C1CE.B7D4C75F@ozemail.com.au">news:3A13C1CE.B7D4C75F@ozemail.com.au...
>
> James, my irritation is with those who try tell preservationists who have
> put in the hard yakka and money how to run their railway, museum etc.and in
> particular, the manner in which they express this opinion.  As you correctly
> say I am a Puff volunteer (score 10 out of 10 on my test on Australian
> Preserved Railways!).  Indeed I spent today guarding up there having been
> disturbed from my slumbers at 8am with an SOS phone call saying the guard of
> the 10.30 pass had phoned in sick (actually it was his wife), can you help
> out? (no clever clog comments about slumbering at 8am please!)
> 

The 41 years gave it away. No other preserved railway has been around
that long! :-)

>
> The point of this is that when you put in the hard yards, you are entitled
> to decide how your assetts are deployed.
>

Although I don't agree with Dorrigo's policy of collecting everything, I
agree with you that they are entitled to do what they like with their
collection. However, I do think it is short sighted to say "probably no"
to selling rolling stock to other societies or railway companies,
especially when they have more than one of that type. I think all
preservation groups should work together, not compete with each other.
If Dorrigo have two AD60's and another group wanted one of them, I don't
see why Dorrigo should keep both if the other group is willing to make a
reasonable offer for it. Of course, this is all hypothetical unless
another group actually makes an offer for one of the 60's.

> 
> Your comment about PB only collecting narrow gauge stuff is not strictly
> correct.  The museum at Menzies Creek was established as a "Steam Museum"
> i.e. the operative word being steam and hence a variety of steam objects
> were collected in the early days, at the same time as every conceivable bit
> of narrow gaugeanna.  Later on there was an intense debate about whether
> this general steam theme should be continued with most of the museum workers
> who had put in the hard yakka wanting to keep  the exhibits while the
> railway's leadership wanting to divest some of them.  This resulted in the W
> class being sent to Pichi Richi on the understanding, if I recall correctly,
> that restoration be started in 5 years  It would be interesting to know what
> in fact has happened.  The point here is that the democratically elected
> leadership's view prevailed, even if some of us did not like it. But they
> also have put in the hard yards, they are not outsiders.
> 

I may be wrong, but I think the museum at Menzies Creek has always been
a much smaller size than Dorrigo. They never collected anything other
than "steam objects". Dorrigo has collected steam locomotives, diesel
locomotives, carriages, goods vehicles and probably some other items.
The fact that the PB museum stuck to collecting just steam meant that
they didn't have such a large collection that it was unmangable.

>
> Your comment about Britain having more resourses that Australia, misses my
> point altogether.  I am simply saying Britain today has a magnificient
> collection of steam engines  today because one particular scrap merchant
> decided to keep the locos in the sixties instead of scrapping them for an
> immediate return as the others did.  Furthermore he still resisted scrapping
> them later on even though some so called preservationists called for him to
> do so.  No doubt he gained a very good return because of his forsight.
> Because there was this reservoir of locos, as groups through the seventies
> and eighties raised the resources, they had a place where they could obtain
> them.  If they had not been saved in the first place, no amount of resources
> would have resurrected them.
> 
> Ironically, if those who believe Dorrigo is unviable are proved correct, and
> it does go belly up, it will then become NSW's Barry. All those other groups
> who allegedly have their envious eyes on the collection will be able to put
> their money where their mouths are and be able to then thank the Dorrigo
> pioneers for their forsight in saving the collection in the first place.
> Somehow, given what they have been through already, I think this is an
> unlikely scenario.
> 

They may not go belly up, but they are risking losing some of their
collection if they don't put a stop to their continuing aquisition of
items before they put what they've got undercover. Everyone here has
concentrated on the condition of the locomotives. I haven't visited
Dorrigo, but I would be interested to know what the condition of their
other items are. Carriages are much harder to weatherproof than
locomotives, especially the old wooden cars with the canvas roofs. Even
if they are in reasonable condition at the moment, the task of
maintaining such a large collection out in the open would be enormous. I
think everything is important, including carriages and freight rolling
stock.

-- 
- James Brook -

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