Re: DSRM is an absolute joke

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

Steve Zvillis wrote:
> 
> Well, your obviously not interested in contributing towards the saving from
> scrap of unique and notable items of railway rolling stock. Maybe your
> "contributions" to saving "infrastructure" should entitle you to membership
> of the National Trust and you should consider joining the aus.building or
> aus.bridge newsgroups and forget about Dorrigo?
> 
> Regards,
> S.Z.
> 
 
If the item of rolling stock is never restored properly and it is not
exhibited in such a way that is educational to the general public, does
it really make any difference if it is scrapped or not? The whole point
of "preserving" something is so future generations can see what the past
was like. One properly preserved item of rolling stock has much more
educational value than 50 half rotten and patched up rusting hulks.
Museums should be attempting to preserve a collection that is
representative of what occured in the past because they will never be
able to properly preserve everything.
  
Here is an example of what could be done. Just take a look at DSRM's
carriage collection. (http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dsrm/page3.gif) Wooden
cars are very hard to maintain, especially in the sort of cliamate that
Dorrigo experiences. Does the DSRM really need such a large number of
end platform stock? Why not sell or scrap the worst and least
significant items and retain enough carriages to have one or two
operational sets that represents a typical train of these cars plus
several for static display and/or spare parts. By reducing the number of
items of rolling stock you reduce the labour and storage demands. This
means more effort can be put into maintaining the remaning items that
are deemed of greater relevance to creating the overall representation
of what the NSWGR were. The DSRM will never need 33 end platform cars
for their operations + static display, no matter how successful they
might become.
  
Face reality, while reading the latest issue of Britain's "Steam
Railway" I noticed a comment about the NRM in York having some
government funding. If a world famous museum located in one of the most
railway orientated countries in the world recieves some government
funding, what hope does a huge privately run museum have when it is
located in a country where railfans are considered wierd by the general
public? If the DSRM haven't progressed with the number of volunteers
they have now, then I don't know what they hope for in the future.
Unfortunately the number of younger railfans are getting less and less.
With this, the number of active volunteers are gradually getting less
and less. Where does Dorrigo even hope to get their workforce from?
   
The only way the DSRM will ever have a chance of becoming successful is
if they make the tough decisions and rationalise their collection to the
point where it is a manageable size. (By manageable, I mean to the point
that they can actually get some of it undercover and start restoration.)
Even though it would be a pity to lose some types of rolling stock, I
think it is better to sacrifice some to save some rather than have the
whole lot deteriorate to the point where it is of little use to anyone.
   
As for your comments regarding infrastructure preservation. Whether you
like it or not, infrastructure is an extremely important part of railway
preservation and some items are just as important as locomotives such as
3801. While a timber bridge, station building or semaphore signal may
not have the glamour associated with a steam locomotive, it does show
how the railways used to operate in the past. The idea of preservation
is not just to play trains, it is to show what the railways used to be
like. The National Trust are doing an important job identifying items of
historical significance and trying to make sure that they aren't ruined
by people who don't care or don't appreciate the significance behind
them.
    
-- 
- James Brook -

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