Re: Fate of other 38 class locos

["Roy Wilke" <roywilke@notabitlikeanisp.net.au>]

<dsrm@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message 98vp6n$vr7$1@news.netmar.com">news:98vp6n$vr7$1@news.netmar.com...
> In article <yHas6.61743$lj4.1529301@news6.giganews.com>, Dave Proctor
> <daproc@spambait.ozemail.com.au> writes:
> >"Trevor Edmonds" <trevor_edmonds@dingoblue.net.au> wrote in message
> >3ab13463$0$25486$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:3ab13463$0$25486$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
> >
> >> 3813 - Under overhaul when ordered to be scrapped. Parts scattered to
> >> several locations. There is now an agreement that all parts will go to
> >> Dorrigo for re-assembly.
> >
> >This is a joke, right?
> >
> >Dave
> >
> >
> If you think it's a joke , you're a fool .

Then could you let us know when anything is going to actually be opened at
Dorrigo? I happen to have a tour guide printed in the mid-1980s for people
contemplating a bicycle trip between Brisbane and Sydney, and it informs
readers that they could put their pushbike on one of DSRM's trains at
Glenreagh and travel up the range to Dorrigo, from where they could continue
on their cycle trip to Sydney.

Now, the publication date of this book, which I assume used information
provided to the authors by the DSRM (probably along the lines of "it isn't
running now, but we'll have it running by the time you get the book
finished"), is 1986. That's 15 years ago - ample time for the DSRM to have
at least provided some form of facility for the general public at either
Glenreagh or at Dorrigo.

I seem to recall seeing a short film on the ABC about 10 or 15 years ago,
too, about how the DSRM were "about to re-open" the Dorrigo branch railway
even though it went through some of the most difficult railway terrain in
NSW. Why, then, isn't it already open?

I haven't been to Dorrigo or Glenreagh to see the DSRM's collection. Why?
Well, from the information I've received over the past decade, I've been led
to believe that the DSRM is closed to the general public. In short, it is a
"private" museum, only open to museum members and the public are *not*
wanted. Indeed, a look at DSRM's web site gives no information about when
the museum is open to the general public, or what facilities are available
for visitors to the museum.
(a quick look on the web for information on railway museums in NSW reveals
that the State Mine Heritage Park (which includes an industrial railway) is
open to the public ($5.00 for adults),  as is the Yass Railway Museum ($3.00
for adults), the Sydney Tramway Museum, and the Rail Transport Museum.

>From what I can see, only the RTM lays any claim to be a comprehensive
railway museum. The others work within their limitations and within the
context of their location (the Yass museum, for example, has exhibits which
are relevant to a NSW country branchline terminus, as well as to the
specifics of the Yass Tramway. For the Yass museum to acquire as an exhibit
a C-38, a Silver-City Comet set, an AD-60 or a 46-class would be utterly
ridiculous considering the facilities at Yass, the resources available to
the Yass museum and the context of the town's location and railway
infrastructure. One could also say with some justification that for DSRM to
have acquired a C-38, a 46-class, an AD-60, an interurban set and a Silver
City Comet set is similarly ridiculous as Dorrigo's location and climate is
less suitable for the the preservation of such equipment than is Yass.

And to go just out of NSW, there are the preserved lines of the Mary Valley
as well as the ARHS museum line on a portion of the old Rosewood-Marburg
branch railway. On both of these lines (and the Mary Valley line is one of
similar length and goes through similar terrain to Dorrigo's), there is not
only public access but also steam operations in progress. But then, both of
these organisations haven't sought to preserve everything in sight, but have
set about recreating an operation that is in context for the location (and
in the case of Rosewood) preserving examples of significant rollingstock
types without overstretching the capacity or capabilities of the volunteer
staff or the facilities available.

And - in both cases - the relevant organisations have the public relations
benefit of being accessible to the general public (most of whom couldn't
really care less that that timber waggon over there is the last KKH in
existence, or that rusty looking lump of metal is the last remaining part of
an ASG Standard Garrett in Queensland - they only came to ride the steam
train and have a picnic) as well as the benefit of the invariably dirt-cheap
entrance fee which the visitors pay to get in.

Unlike Dorrigo, which appears to only have an increasing number of
dilapidated locomotives and rolling-stock (many of which could never run on
Dorrigo's tracks anyway, even if restored to operating condition),
surrounded by barbed-wire fences and "Keep Out" signs.

So, instead of saying that anyone who dares to criticise the wisdom of the
Dorrigo Steam Railway Museum is "a fool", how about letting us know when we
(members of the general public that we are) will be able to visit Dorrigo's
museum and see for ourselves how wonderful the museum is?

And how about letting us know when we will be able to get off the XPT or the
long-distance bus in Glenreagh and board a lovingly-and-impressively
restored BIB set to be towed up the range and through the sub-tropical
rainforests by a pristine, century-old 3045?

After all, isn't that what the Dorrigo Steam Railway Museum have been
telling the world that such an activity is "just around the corner" for the
past 15 or 20 years?

Well, many of us have grown tired of waiting. And many of us have grown very
cynical when it comes to the DSRM.

Telling us that we're "fools" doesn't help, either. This "fool" will just go
to Rosewood, or Gympie, or Yass, or Peterborough, or Victor Harbor. At least
the organisations there have managed to achieve something more than
self-publicity.