Re: Dorrigo

[Eddie Oliver <eddie.oliver@efs.mq.edu.au>]

In all this discussion (if that's the polite word) about Dorrigo, Keith
Jones etc., one vital point seems not to have been mentioned yet:

How is it proposed to restore the line to trafficable condition?
Even if there are locomotives and items of rolling stock in fit
condition to run (and I don't want to enter that debate), they need
something to run on.

Running over 20-foot-high trees, over rails not effectively spiked to
whatever rotten wood still remains as a relic of sleepers, and over
washaways, subsidences etc., is a difficult challenge for any
locomotives and rolling stock, even if they've been magnificently
maintained and restored.

Is it proposed to bring out the whole of the Australian Army to fix the
line? Or is there a collection of retired fettlers from all over
Australia just ready and waiting to get back into practice? Or what?

Of course I wish them the best of luck. I have always said that the
Dorrigo line was the most beautiful in the whole of NSW.

Eddie Oliver