The Derwent Valley line is probably, in my opinion anyway,
the most scenic one in Tasmania.
it climbs up through farmland, it goes through a forest. It's a
perfect journey and it compares to any other railway in the
The scenery on that line is incredible. I can't think of
world.
anywhere else that I've ever been in my travels that would
match the scenery of a traveling by train up the Derwent Valley
The locomotive. That's where everybody wants to be.
Driving a train is a really great experience because you're
working a big machine and pulling a lot of people on
behind you. And you know, your aim is to give the smoothest and
most comfortable ride.
A lot of younger people just wouldn't know what a train is,
but it's just it's got a lovely chinka chink, chinka chink you
know.
people get up and move around on the train. It's not like when
you're sitting on a bus and and you can't get up and move so it
was just a great atmosphere.
They used to put the table up in the middle of the thing and we
muck around there, play in there, with our couple of toys
and that sort of thing and look at the window and everything.
Just taking the scenery and everything. But train travel is
good I always liked it.
And I think that's what we really want to create here is,
is that leaving museum that people can experience that and,
and feel part of what's been a really important part of the
history of Tasmania and the railways that have served the
state so well for so long.
As trains moved through the 1900s, they just became less and
less staffed. But in the early part of the century, there were
heaps of people running the stations, all the produce
collection, all the hops, all the apples.
My love of trains and all things railway started very early on.
it was a lovely little mixed goods train so you'd have all
the groceries for the local shop the beer for the pub. You know
the whole town sort of set its day around the train you'd hear
the train whistle in the morning and knew that it was coming up
and whistle in the afternoon and then go back through and and it
was just almost like a little storybook railway really.
My first ever trip on a train was when else 2 was pretty scary
at first.
The first time I ever went on a train would have been about
1957, 1958 the freedom as a, as a 10 year old was, was great.
My interest in trains has always been with me as I grew up in New
Norfolk in this actual railway yard. It was my playground. So
passion for trains has been in my blood all my life. It's,
it's in me and it's always gonna be in me.
I'm not that passionate about trains I'm more passionate about
what we're trying to do here this I've always been interested
in fixing things.
No outfit's complete without a small shunting locomotive and
nobody bought one. Everybody thought I was nuts.
My favorite train is the one behind me, H5. It's an old steam
loco, and yeah, that's my favorite train.
You know, there's a lot to know with trains, but then most
things that are there for a reason.
You don't get little pieces. All the pieces on trains are big and
the machining of them you know we need big machines and that's
what I've been used to.
I started out sorting all our hardware in the nuts and bolts
van which hadn't really been looked at for a while. And then
while I was doing that, I'd find lots of little pieces that would
I would go oh I wonder what this does. What's this sort of dome
shaped thing. Then I started looking at the gardens around
the station and stuff because they haven't had much attention
for a while. And I found that very rewarding.
I think what keeps people going is the fact that we've done it
before.
My main interest or passion was the operations when we were
moving trains around the passion of, you know, being able to
shunt in which is basically marshalling trains, putting
trains together, etc. But now it's more with what a lot of us
are doing. It's just keeping things going, it's fixing
things. It's just getting things back to so that we know for, for
the positivity of we what we do.
Traditionally, these sorts of organizations in the past have
survived on government grants, handouts. That's way too erratic
and unpredictable to found a viable business on. So for us to
survive and to be able to do the things we want to do to restore
these vehicles, we have to have a business to create the cash
flow to enable us to restore these old heritage vehicles.
We need the carriages. They're all like a part of history and
there's something that If we don't keep them, you know
operating and in a good in a serviceable condition, they'll
just deteriorate, we won't have anything.
What we would do here would just enhance the whole come to
Tasmania and travel around but train experience and we haven't
been able to keep the maintenance up on the line. So
there would certainly need to be sleeper replacement and, you
know, fixing up of culverts and drains and that type of thing,
but that's all doable. We did it before we can do it again.
The line is in reasonable condition. It doesn't need a lot
of work doing on it. It's Just going to be time.
All the bits of the jigsaw puzzle are here. We've got the
locomotives, we've got the rolling stock. We've got the
railway line, most importantly, and of course, such a group of
dedicated people that just spend their weekends here, working on
equipment and getting it ready for for the day that we can open
the railway again.
The people here are a really eclectic mix.
I'm an artist as well as an architect so I really like
history but I really like texture. I've been involved in a
lot of conservation and building conservation.
We all get on well, you know we can joke.
One of the attractions at the railway is not knowing what
you're going to be doing when you get here. The variety I
suppose.
I think everyone finds their own thing that they're passionate
about when when they arrive. It's not so much a delegated
duty.
Initially, I started here at the railway sanding down carriages
and painting. But since then have become a truck driver, I
have learned to weld I've done all sorts of wonderful things.
A do a lot of sanding on most of the carriages, and some train
doors and stuff like that. I also go around and pick up
stuff, put it in the bin to make it more tidy for the visitors
and stuff.
Basically I wasn't interested in trains at all. I'm fitter and
Turner by trade. And I camy me over here to see if my services
were required. I had to start work the first day I was here
and I don't think I've stopped since.
One of the things that I really like about coming here is is
things being made like the sound of things being made. It's not a
building sight sound. It's, you know, real metal work real
forging things, hot metals, welding, lots of sort of magical
things that you don't see so much these days.
There's a wonderful learning opportunity here too. And I
think that's, it's not just running trains, we've got a
training program. We've got opportunities for all sorts of
things. It's not just purely people playing trains.
We've got quite a few younger members and the skill base just
would disappear unless we passed it on to people because things
aren't done this way anymore.
Um I like it because it's like old, old stuff and you get to
maintain it all, and yeah it's really fun.
Yes I consider a lot of skills that are required here are
skills that are going to be lost in the very near future. And
they need to be passed on.
From our previous experience when we were operating here
before the majority of our customers were locals.
When we used to run before it was it was good. It gave
everybody, everybody work it put the money in the local hotel
shops, other places and you got people up here that wouldn't
have come normally.
I really liked the way the train goes doot-de-doot-de-doot along.
I have no doubt that people will be looking for tourism
experiences closer to home. So I think if we can start offering
more tourism experiences here I think I'm pretty confident that
Tasmanians will support that.
I hope that in the next six months we can put a train on the
line outside this yard.
I would love to see this railway up and running on a regular
basis, I would love to see it employing people full time. I'd
love to see it training people in restoration. I would also
like to retire one day and drive trains and you know, from a
purely selfish point of view,
Trains sort of are a release, sort of getting away from any
problems, any, anything that just doesn't make you feel good.
It's very rewarding because there's, there's always more and
more to learn.
I remain optimistic that this railway will run again and And
it will be a great thing for this state.
No, I wouldn't give this up for the world.
I'm happy to be a gaurd at the back of the train. I'm happy to
be at the front as a fireman or eventually possibly a driver,
being on the train and having it running, would be what I look
forward to.