Re: WCR leasing R766?

["Stuart Thyer" <s.thyer@anatomy.unimelb.edu.au>]

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In article <381C0544.4B085F2B@ozemail.com.au>, James Brook
<ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au> wrote:


>David Bromage wrote:
>
>> The WCR engineering staff are are not SteamRail or 707 Operations
>> volunteers. So again, commercial operations don't count.
>
>    I'm sure if WCR wasn't around then some of them would be volunteers for 
>Steamrail, 707,
>VGR, Mornington, Puffing Billy, Bellarine Peninsula or Mornington. I would 
>find it suprising
>if every WCR employee had absolutely no interest in railways.
>
True, the people involved in Ballarat at WCR are gunzels, Gary McDonald used
those exact words to describe himself the other day.  One great bonus of the
commercial use of engines is that it employs people who would otherwise
remained volunteers for ever and a day and gives them the opportunity to
learn much much more about the locos than they ever would otherwise.  The
passing on of knowledge is a real issue nowdays, there was so much with
steam locos that was never written down, but just acquired knowledge.
The more people employed to maintain steam the better for the knowledge
base, which both commercial & preservation groups can, and do, share in.

Stuart Thyer
Photographer
University of Melbourne