|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
RAINFOREST RAILWAY NEWS
Rainforest News is the information bulletin of Glenreagh Mountain railway Incorporated.
Print Post Approved PP244662/00010
Address all correspondence to:
The Secretary, GMR Inc. P.O. Box 5104 Glenreagh NSW 2450
Phone: (02) 6649 2234
Webb address: E-mail Address: gmr@gmr.org.au
Board of Management:
President: Kevin Anderson Colin Sambrook Secretary: David Page Treasurer: Helen Bamford Directors: Colin Campbell Dawn Gillson Trevor Kelly Ron Paul Barry Spinks Valmai Thomson
Web Site Administrator: Eric Shaw On behalf of the board of management of Glenreagh Mountain Railway I would like to express to you, the members, our deepest appreciation for your continued support in these hard and difficult times. The board, like yourselves want to see the train running again at Glenreagh West , and are working very hard to achieve this. This will not happen over night but it WILL happen. Remember members this is your railway and your views and thoughts are welcomed by the board, the more input from members the better understanding the board will have of what the members want to see achieved. At the board meeting in December a decision was made to purchase ,on be-half of the members of GMR the old fettlers cottage owned by Peter Dickson Smith. Due to a most generous donation from Valmai Thomson this has now been achieved. It is our aim to convert the cottage into a museum and office, to achieve this, a lot of work will have to be done, so an appeal has gone out for donations. If you the members can help in any way with money, materials or labour it would be most appreciated. We have been granted an exemption to do some work on certain projects at both our Lowanna and Glenreagh West depots, these exemptions come with conditions and must be followed to the letter, no exceptions. Thursdays are work days, but due to the fact that we are restricted in what we can and can’t do, we only have a small but dedicated crew Now the purchase of the Fettlers cottage has gone through there will be enough work to keep every body busy. For those who want to help but can’t get out on Thursdays, please don’t hesitate to phone me on 66490951 so a day can be organised to suit Valmai Thomson has organised an old time dance which is held each month at the hall at Glenreagh. This has proven to be a very successful fund raising exercise. Thanks Valmai for all your hard work and for giving up your time to play the key board at the dance. Also thank you to everyone else who has assisted in other ways whether small or large. Once again thank you for your continued support KEVIN ANDERSON
Glenreagh Mountain Railway Progress Report Accreditation: The development of the accreditation is moving forward and should be ready for submitting to the NSW Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator (ITSRR) and the Board for review in June 2010 with the plan to formally submit it in August 2010. On the advice of the ITSRR we are preparing our accreditation stages under the new Rail Safety Act. Stage one is the Rail Infrastructure Manager Accreditation; this will allow Glenreagh Mountain Railway to maintain the track and structures we have within our rail corridor. In a sense it will allow basic maintenance and replacing rotten timber sleepers with new timber sleepers. This accreditation is the first step and once we have this accreditation approved and working the advice is to then apply for a Rolling Stock Managers Accreditation. The advice from ITSRR is that no inspections or work can be carried out on 1919 or any other rolling stock until we have the Rolling Stock Managers Accreditation. 1919 needs some major repairs as faults with the boiler rivets that were found at the last boiler inspection in 2008 has been a real set back. This means the whole boiler needs to be removed and professionally repaired at some huge cost to Glenreagh Mountain Railway. The other problem is that there have never been any records kept regarding the restoration or repairs to 1919, a fact that the ITSRR has pointed out over a number of years. The other news on the accreditation front is Glenreagh Mountain Railway is developing this accreditation under the new Act so we don’t have a transition period like other heritage groups. ITSRR have 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 but we have to comply now. This means all perway workers will have to obtain the new Cert II Railway Infrastructure. The new Rail Infrastructure Manager Accreditation is being developed to steer away from titles such as Station Master etc as if these positions are created the person undertaking those duties will require to have COC that meet the National Standard. On a final note, Glenreagh Mountain Railway is fortunate to have on its accreditation team, Bill Harrison Mechanical Engineer and Andrew Simpson OHS consultant . These two have brought to a depth of professional skills to the process. Kingston Plant Hire: The Board of Glenreagh Mountain Railway has been stunned by the amazing offer by Kingston Plant Hire. The company has offered the use of all its plant and equipment free of hire charge when not in use by other customers. This donation comes when GMR’s own excavator is showing signs of age. The offer extends to all their excavators, trucks and hi-rail excavators. We are grateful to Kingston Plant Hire for this major donation to Glenreagh Mountain Railway. Lowanna Railway Station: The appeal to repair the station roof has been a huge success and sufficient funds are now available for the complete replacement of the roof. Rex Goodenough offered to look after the project. Materials were purchased and work commenced on Thursday 29 April and continued on Friday 30 April.
Showing the old and the new roof
All but finished The Federal Government Volunteers Grant enabled us to purchase a new larger walk-behind slasher mower to control some of the thicker sections of grass. There has been a steady stream of tourists coming to see the station, many from interstate or Sydney who come to take photos and see the displays in the station. Glenreagh West: Thanks to a generous donation from a life member we have been able to purchase the building off Peter Dickson-Smith on our land and the lease between GMR and Peter has been cancelled. This means we finally have full access to all the land at Glenreagh West. Work to restore it as our office and meeting room has already commenced with a major working bee on good Friday to clean up the yard of vegetation to meet insurance requirements.
Before
After This building will become the member’s main meal and rest area. There has been a donation of $500 for paint and we need workers to help make the urgent repairs to the building and bring it back to a reasonable condition and, clean up the yards. Members of the Executive met with Clarence Valley Council to talk about the major problems with the development approval for Glenreagh West. Glenreagh Mountain Railway had failed to meet many of the conditions of the approval and had built the tram shed despite it being rejected in the Council development approval. The tram shed that has been built will be allowed to stand but the second shed cannot be built. The development application had over-extended Glenreagh Mountain Railway resources and the advice which the Board is following is to keep the site as a carriage workshop and apply to allow general public to access the building to inspect the rolling stock. A development application modification is being submitted to Council but there is still doubt within Council if Moorland Station will receive a final approval to be used. Because of the modification made to the design of the ramp Council wants this section of the development to go back through their approval process. It could be that the grant for this ramp may have to be handed back as we will run out of time and the new design will have to be re-costed. Glenreagh Station: The Board has looked closely at the best option for Glenreagh Mountain Railway’s running operations. There are clear positive outcomes to restore the old Glenreagh Station and yards with the aim of linking the yards back into the mainline. The proposal is to establish Glenreagh as a heritage railway hub to allow visiting groups to stable their trains on north coast runs. Glenreagh Mountain Railway is involved with talks with the Office of Rail Heritage to look at this concept. It is at a very early stage with managers of the Office of Rail Heritage coming up to inspect the location and Glenreagh Mountain Railway operations at Glenreagh West and Lowanna Depot. Glenreagh Mountain Railway Business Plan: There is an urgent need to update our old 2003 plan. The Federal Government has asked both Clarence Valley Council and Coffs Harbour City Council to assist Glenreagh Mountain Railway with this. Councils and Government are contributing towards a suitably qualified consultant to undertake the work and Glenreagh Mountain Railway will be putting $4000 towards the project. David Page Secretary FROM THE EDITOR In the interests of economy and to return to our roots we have decided to return to the original format of our newsletter.
As was promised at the AGM a members meeting has been scheduled for 13 June 2010 at 11am at the Glenreagh West workshop. It will take the form of a Special General Meeting to allow the Board to gain approval from the members to dispose of some surplus items. The meeting will be followed by a Sausage Sizzle lunch. An agenda for the meeting is attached.
I am pleased to advise that the New Board has developed a good working relationship with ITSRR which is resulting in the task of preparing the Accreditation documentation being made easier.
Our new Web Site Administrator has done a fantastic job. Please take the time to check out our new Website. Included in the site are the dates for events and working bees.
GMR is always in need of donations to assist us in running the organisation. All donations over $2 are tax deductible. Our finance committee is doing a fantastic job in keeping us going. However once our accreditation is approved we will urgently need funds to get our rolling stock and infrastructure ready to operate. Your help would be greatly appreciated. To save on postage, we have included your membership renewal notice with this newsletter. You are encouraged to renew your membership as once our accreditation is approved we will have plenty of work to do towards becoming an operational railway again.
Colin Sambrook |
 |
 |
|
Donations of $2 or more to Glenreagh Mountain Railway Inc. are tax deductible
| Site Map |