Notice of Special General Meeting called by the Board of Glenreagh Mountain Railway

11am, 13^th June 2010, Glenreagh West Depot

Agenda

Motion:

The members of Glenreagh Mountain Railway give approval for the Board of Glenreagh Mountain Railway to proceed with the sale of the Red Rattler and two of the unrestored U boats for the best price possible.

30 min Question and Answer:

Members are invited to ask questions of the Board on any issues. 5 minutes per question, one question per member.

This will be followed by a BBQ lunch.

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PROXY VOTING FORM

Proxies must be in the GMR PO Box 5104 Glenreagh 2450, 24 hours before the meeting.

I……………………………………………………………………………………………. being a financial member of Glenreagh Mountain Railway Inc hereby give my voting proxy to (Name)………………………………………………………………………………………who is a financial member of Glenreagh Mountain Railway Inc to vote on the motion in the notice of meeting.

Signed……………………………………………………………….  Date…………………………………………

 Notes from the March 2010 Board Meeting:

Meeting with CVC on DA: On Thursday the 4^th of March, Kevin and David Page met with Clarence Valley Council in relation to the DA at Glenreagh West. These are the points and there is some good news:

• We can get out of the lease on the rec ground without any direct impacts on GMR. However, once Peter hands back the lease for that land we will, on a Thursday, park in behind the house and construct a gravel path for workers to access the shed. That is not a huge cost to GMR and will mean all workers can park on GMR land.
• Despite the first tram shed not being approved in the DA Council will allow it to stand and be used. Stage two of the shed has no approval and will not be built.
• GMR will have to submit a modified Development Application to change all the conditions we are unable to meet and allow the general public to legally enter the workshop to look around.
• The modifications made to Moorland Station that are different to the Council approved plans and doesn’t comply with DA conditions therefore we will have to be resubmitted to Council for approval as well as new inspections. Council had been lead to believe that an engineer was supervising all stages of the restoration and construction onsite but this was not the case so Council wants to review this part of the project in more detail.  
• The Red Rattler DA for the use if this carriage as an office is dead. We just ignored it altogether.

Motion: Glenreagh Mountain Railway gets out of the lease on the Recreation Ground, apply for DA modification as a workshop and restoration site with public access. All work on Moorland Station stops until engineering and structural problems are resolved by Council via the new DA. The use of the Red Rattler as an office is dropped and the DA allowed to lapse.   

Peter Dickson-Smith’s Lease:

Meeting suspended at 6:50pm:

Valmai Thomson personally paid Peter Dickson-Smith and purchased his improvements on GMR land.

Meeting recommenced at 7:05pm

PDS House: Valmai Thomson donated the improvements she had purchased at 1 Railway Street to Glenreagh Mountain Railway. Peter Dickson-Smith has handed back his lease at 1 Railway Street and now it is back with Glenreagh Mountain Railway. 

Rolling Stock at tip road: We have formal approval to undertake a hazard reduction burn from Tip Road to the Orara Way. The Board approved to undertake hazard reduction with Glenreagh RFS.

DSRM/GMR Rolling Stock at Lowanna: Letter sent to DSRM no reply as yet. ITSRR has been contacted about the issue of the interface agreement and how long it is dragging out and ongoing problems of removal of rolling stock.

Office of Rail Heritage: The managers of Office of Rail Heritage are coming up to visit GMR.

Sydney Tramway Lease: Phil Mackenzie, President of Tweed Rail Society Inc rang the secretary. As people know the trams and all parts are the property of the STM not GMR. Tweed Rail Society and STM have been holding talks about the future of their collection at Glenreagh. The STM have transferred the trams to Tweed Rail Society and they are waiting to sign new lease agreement with Tweed Rail Society. Phil wants the entire tram collection to operate at Byron Bay and he has Council support for the project and he is talking with ITSRR about accreditation and their removal from Glenreagh. Phil spent Thursday looking at the trams.  

Rail Safety Manager’s report

We asked the question in an email as to what stage ITSRR would seek an exemption to inspect rolling stock to determine what work is needed for their restoration. ITSRR has advised GMR we can undertake “desk top” review and prepare documents but no inspections of any rolling stock are allowed and ITSRR will not be granting GMR any further exemption until our accreditation for Railway Infrastructure Manager Accreditation is approved. ITSRR wants to see an update of the documents we are working on so they can review these and provide feed back. Once GMR has its Railway Infrastructure Manager Accreditation then ITSRR will allow further exemptions for rolling stock. So in other words the answer was NO to inspecting rolling stock but it would be considered once we have our Railway Infrastructure Manager Accreditation.

We finished the review of some accreditation documents and these have been sent to ITSRR for comment. The track standards have been sent to their internal technical section for comment and ITSRR will not review the Risk Register until we have provided the Risk Management Plan and shown how the risk assessments where developed and reviewed.

The drug and alcohol documents as well as health and fitness have been sent to ITSRR for comment. It is expected these will come back with a number of comments which is what we are seeking.   

IMPORTANT NOTE: ITSRR has confirmed that all workers will have to have COC that meet the National Standard and NTIS Guidelines. This means all old COC from the main railway can’t be accepted. As mainline companies and other heritage groups have a transition period under the Act they will have to comply in a few years.

            Action: Board raised concerns that the size of the documents is such that 
            most members will not read them. The Board suggested that an
            accreditation induction course is developed and held for all members once 
            GMR has its accreditation, with handouts that members can understand. 
            This accreditation induction course to be included as part of our 
            accreditation documents.

Notes from the February 2010 Board Meeting:

Re-classification of Workshop Building and DA for Glenreagh West:
Clarence Valley Council Planning Manager would like to review all  
 our files before any further action is taken. GMR has a number of 
 outstanding problems that need addressing and some hard decisions  
 will need to be taken.

Peter Dickson-Smith’s Lease: 
Board still felt that funding such a purchase could be difficult and the GMR Finance Committee is to review all GMR accounts and budgets to see if any spare funds can be found. The following motion was passed:

          1) The Glenreagh Mountain Railway’s Finance Committee is to
          examine the accounts and see what free funds can be found, if any, 
          to purchase the improvements.

 2) The tenants are to pay December’s rent as that was the last month they were in the house and the following month’s rent will be waved because GMR is having problems raising the funds.

 3) The tenant cannot sub-lease, as per the lease.

 4) The tenants have to maintain the land as per the lease.

DSRM/GMR Rolling Stock at Lowanna: 
The Board received a five page letter from DSRM despite originally agreeing to attend the meeting in February; DSRM now will not be attending. The meeting therefore has been cancelled. The letter contains a number of issues relating to the Deed of Settlement. The letter has been forwarded to members who have been involved with this issue for a number of years to draft a reply for the Board to approve.

Office of Rail Heritage: 
The Board reviewed the report prepared by Heritage Committee member regarding meetings with Office of Rail Heritage. The Board discussed the option of Glenreagh Station becoming the proposed depot for tourist operations and Glenreagh West becoming what it was originally planned for back in 2003, as our depot for loco and rolling stock restoration.  The Board has agreed that the Heritage Sub-Committee write a Heritage Policy for Glenreagh Mountain Railway that will direct how all our restoration and projects are developed.

Sydney Tramway Lease: 
There has been a misunderstanding between GMR and STM as to what was planned originally for these trams. The issue will be reviewed to determine what GMR is legally liable for. If agreement can’t be reached, the Board will ask for their removal.

President’s report:

The President addressed the following issues as part of his report:

            Threats by members: 
            GMR Board will not be bullied or threatened.

            ITSRR visit: 
            Positive inspection; awaiting their report. Inspection was
            detailed  and covered all aspects of the approved exemptions at
            Glenreagh West and Lowanna. ITSRR inspectors viewed and took 
            photos of Moorland Station’s welds and ramp area. This was
            followed by a detailed review of all signed risk assessments and
            induction sheets for Glenreagh West and Lowanna. 

 Rail Safety Manager’s report

The Rail Safety Manager addressed the following issues as part of his report at the, first meeting of Rail Safety Committee on the 6^th of February. The Board approved the following:

               1.0         Review of Exemption and the need for an internal audit.

            -        Approve non member will undertake internal audit of the
            exemption
            -        Approve the undertaking of an internal OHS audit of both
            Glenreagh West and Lowanna
            -        ITSRR inspection only found a few minor issues with safety  
            vests and hard hats not being worn when working on-site. ITSRR
            will be writing to GMR on the findings of their inspection. 

             2.0    Up-date on Railway Infrastructure Manager Accreditation.

              -          Review process of documents still ongoing
              -          Health and fitness documents been prepared
              -          Interface Agreements need to be arranged between GMR
             and  Councils, State Forest, Telstra, Country Energy and Private  
             Landowners. 

             3.0    Reviewing of the letter from the Boiler Inspector in 2008 only  
              just come to light.

              -          Start the process in developing the documents and costing for  
              the removal of 1919’s boiler.
              -          Develop the necessary paperwork for an exemption to use
              external professional advice to guide GMR in the best method to
              repair 1919.
             -          Obtain a copy of the new boiler code for heritage groups
             -          Approach other rail heritage groups and ask for assistance.
             -          Develop documentation to track the repairs, restoration and
             maintenance of 1919 to show the unit is fit for use once we have 
             rolling stock accreditation.

            4.0    Review of any safety issues and risks within Glenreagh     
            Mountain Railway.

            -          Develop a budget and costing for bushfire risks reduction and  
            weed control.
           -          Infrastructure Manager sees the repair of Lowanna Station roof
           as the main priority for GMR at Lowanna. 
            -          Building and construction standards and design. Infrastructure 
           Manager and Assistant Infrastructure Manager to develop a budget
           for the Moorlands Station ramp to see if the grant funds are enough
           to complete the project.
           -          Develop a plan to fence the areas at Glenreagh West and 
           Lowanna to meet the requirements of the DA and RSA. 
           -          Develop a budget and schedule of works program to undertake
           weed control at all road crossings.

Meeting with the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations and GMR:
 
Secretary was emailed and requested to meet with Coffs Harbour City Council and DEEWR at set time and date. The Federal Department called the meeting to address a number of issues of the past and direction that GMR was heading. They want to see consultants hired to prepare a business plan to a standard that satisfies their requirements. Both CVC and CHCC are to jointly manage the contract. GMR has set funds aside for the project.