Re: Gembrook Reopening; WA lines; HVR

["David & Jan Winter" <winterd@nospam-icenet.com.au>]

It is good that Australia has several world-class scenic railways, many run
by preservation groups with a high percentage of volunteers.

Of course, as you may know from the NG, a few of us have a hope and a vision
for a scenic railway on the Jarrahdale route in WA. It is at present laid to
50kg/m rail on 1067mm gauge for bauxite. Alcoa is closing the mine in
December, and Westrail is understood to want to recover the track for
redeployment. HVR ran a special to the log-chop at Jarrahdale the last 2
years.

I've made some contact with Serpentine-Jarrahdale Council people who are
working on a heritage precinct vision for Jarrahdale and want to keep
"their" railway. BTW, Bunnings closed Jarrahdale timber mill earlier this
year - a double blow to the town - their only 2 industries lost in 98. They
are pinning their hopes on tourism.

So, hope you PBPS guys don't mind if we ask for some advice from
time-to-time so the west can have a good set of scenic routes as well. As
you know, we already have HVR - and IMHO they rate alongside PBPS for
professionalism, and are running about twice weekly.

They had a fire on an empty stock up run recently - dealt with at Mundijong
(the junction for Jarrahdale). Are any of the HVR guys online to give our
friends over east a report on this?

DW