Category Archives: Rail Heritage

RailFest this weekend

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It was full steam ahead last night down at the club trying to get ready for RailFest this Sunday. With the N‑Scalers only just back from the Albany Hobby Expo, and the Arid Australia boys still making their way back from Sydney, we are not as prepared as we normally are.

All members are requested to come along on Sunday for as long as they can — not just the one or two hours you have put your name down for on the public layout roster. It appears likely we could be short of people!

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The picture above is from the N‑Scale layout whilst on display at Albany. It shows the brilliant effect that can be achieved by using “Glass Coat” 2‑part epoxy resin for simulating water. The picture is of a cow drinking from the river (complete with reflection) viewed under the bridge on the new terminus station module constructed specially for this exhibition. On the rails above, a German beer train is being shunted by a steam engine.

I’ll post some more pictures from the exhibition soon.

Railfest 2008 — Sunday October 12th

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ARG’s 3107 (ex-L258)

The date for RailFest 2008 has been announced — Sunday 12th October. Mark it in your diaries. The image above was taken at RailFest 2004 and shows ARG’s loco number 3107 (ex-L258) — one of a number of locos visiting the museum on that day for RailFest. More pictures from past RailFests can be found in the gallery.

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In sad news, our condolences are passed on to long time past member Ray Cooper on the death of his wife Margaret after an extended illness.

Image: ARG’s 3107 (ex-L258) with another Alco at RailFest 2004 (Brian Seaton)

Hard Work — Soft Light

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3km bridge at Hotham Valley Railway following heavy rains at the end of May.

The Railway Museum will be exhibiting selected photographic prints by WA photographer Kevin Scott taken for the new book 48 months, 48 minutes — building the Perth to Mandurah railway. The exhibition will be on display Sunday afternoons from 29th June 2008 for a limited time only. This book, and others about the new line, is on sale at the museum. [Hard Work — Soft Light Photographic Exhibition Flyer]

The official opening of the photographic exhibition will be on Sunday 29th June at 3pm. Kevin Scott will be at the museum to open the exhibition and speak about this project — get your copy of the book signed by the photographer!

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AMRA have started sending the Branchline newsletter electronically to us, instead of by post, so I’ll upload them to this website from now on rather than printing them out: AMRA Branchline — June 2008. One advantage of getting it electronically is that all the pictures are in colour!

This edition contains the wrap up from the Model Railway Show as well as an interesting snippet about sound equipped DCC locos. The issue of excessive noise levels in the club rooms as a result of the constant throbbing of sound equipped diesel locos, or the chuffing of steamers, has come up on a couple of occasions in our club. AMRA have obviously had the same issue as their committee has decided that sound equipped locos may only be run (with the sound on) in their clubrooms for a 10 minute period following each hour (i.e. from ‘o’clock’ to ‘ten past’, one sixth of the time).

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Remember the devastating bushfires around Dwellingup at the beginning of 2007? Thousands of hectares of bush were burnt out, and the Hotham Valley Tourist Railway was severely affected as every one of their timber trestle bridges was destroyed — as well as many drainage culverts and thousands of wooden sleepers. Restoration and rebuilding of the railway is proceeding well, and I was delighted to discover progress is being documented and photographed on-line on the news pages on their web site.

A link to the Hotham Valley Tourist Railway has been added to the links page.

Image: The rebuilt 3km bridge on the Hotham Valley Tourist Railway after heavy rains at the beginning of June 2008 (from the HVTR web site).

“Spirit of the West” halts

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Spirit of the West

I learnt some sad news yesterday — the “Spirit of the West” restaurant train has ceased running. I was told that yesterday was the final day, although their web site says the final run is next Saturday 31st May. This is disappointing news as it was a great experience. I have been on the train twice myself (once for lunch, and once for dinner) and thoroughly enjoyed it both times.

Speaking to Ian Studham at the Rail Museum, I got a little more information about what has happened. Last year South Spur Rail (the originators of the “Spirit of the West”), was sold to Coote Industrial Group, a publicly listed company. Coote announced at the time they would continue to run the restaurant train for a year to see how well it fitted in to their business profile. Now a year later it appears it doesn’t fit well enough for them to continue with it.

I understand the train did make a small profit, but speculation is that it wasn’t enough of a profit to make it worthwhile the hassle of having to maintain the extra rail safety case for carriage of passengers, and all the associated extra public liability insurance it entails. Not to mention all the extra staff and services that need to be maintained that are not used anywhere else in their business.

At this stage the carriages and infrastructure are being held on to by Coote. I suppose there is a possibility they could sell it as a self contained business, but if that doesn’t eventuate then RHWA is going to have to find some more space at the rail museum to store the Federation coaches that belong to them. The tentative plan at this stage is that the two sidings immediately to the north of the Goninans access line will be converted to dual gauge and made part of the museum by creating a gated pedestrian level crossing over the Goninans access line. Obviously a lot of work, and it will entail a fair amount of knock on effects — for example dual gauge points are bigger so the access road will need to be relocated as it is already nearly too narrow where it passes near the narrow gauge point leading to the back sidings.

So all in all, the end of an era, but then again the only thing that is constant is change itself. Especially in the rail industry in Perth!

Image: The interior of the Spirit of the West restaurant train

Rail Heritage April Newsletter

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Rail Heritage logo

The April edition of the Rail Heritage newsletter is now available. Note the “pre-read” railway books and magazines sale at the museum on Sunday 20th April. Sales start at 10am for members (of both RHWA and WAMRC), and the museum is open to the public from 11am — hence we are opening 2 hours early that day too.

We have received a note from our sister club in Canada (the Edmonton Model Railroad Association) thanking us for our donation of a copy of Rails Through the Bush to their club. Thanks to Peter Osment for organising the inscription and posting it to them.

Rails Through the Bush — Book Launch Friday 29th February

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Rails through the Bush

Rail Heritage WA are launching the long awaited second edition of “Rails Through The Bush” by Adrian Gunzberg & Jeff Austin at the “WA On Show” exhibition (main stage), Perth Convention Centre, 11:30am Friday 29th February. Entry to the exhibition is free over the entire four days it is running and Rail Heritage WA will have a stand there where you can buy a copy of this book, and many others — so why not pop along and check it out?