Locals Resurrect An Abandoned Railway Line In Tasmania

how you travel has evolved with the rise of advanced technology new innovation replaces old inventions effectively a lot of that Old Railway history has been erased oh yeah there was a station there but some people are fighting to bring the past back to life at the moment primary role currently is to keep the steam alive and pass on the knowledge that we've got to the younger generation we're doing a lot of work currently in the workshop upgrading some of our carriages so they're suitable for use I think we've really achieved what we wanted to we saw this opportunity to actually have our own Railway running we just went for it we did and we got there most of us didn't want to see these beautiful pieces of Machinery destroyed we felt if we preserved them and maintain them in working order we could make something out of it we got going I'd say go R get off the road go [Music] [Music] riyle at this location an important society was established on July 12th 1971 its founding members were inspired to reignite Unforgettable Railway history what I'm talking about is the van demon light Railway society and in 1973 they did something [Music] extraordinary where I am walking was once an abandoned Railway line until it was fully restored by a group of volunteers this one's derel site has been fully transformed that was just 50 years ago seeing some of the train sitting around here I enjoyed the idea of being part of that group that brought them back to life [Music] again the volunteers working here continue to tirelessly restore what should never be forgotten but it hasn't all been a smooth train ride this is the dawn River Railway what inspired you both to become volunteers here oh look at go that goes back a long long time with Dad been an engine driver if I asked Dad to do a drawing for me he'd always draw a train I spent all my holidays from about 8 years on on steam engines and in the workshops back in the early' 70s van R Society had kind of started collecting stuff so I got to know the early members of the society from then on there was no turning back I did join in 1971 that's one thing I do remember I tend to forget a lot of things but I don't forget that where I lived in Bristol was a natural thing to follow trains and engines and it seemed to be the center of the Great Western Railway I just got interested in trains here and it followed me out here I think once it get under your skin it'll always be there steam is what we really enjoy we want to keep that alive as long as we can there's a lot of skills have disappeared over the many many years keeping that going is important for the future the dawn River Railway commenced in 1976 do you know what the main inspiration behind it was they were looking for somewhere to start a preserve Railway looked all around leston and up in the Northeast one option was here the old um milrose line we would be all over the state getting different things for this Railway whether it was track or sleepers the goal was to preserve early Railway equipment open up a museum how was the da railway station constructed at its current location the da station at the moment is the ex olon railway station that was going to go for scrap so we put our hand up as a society and it was donated to the society steam was going out a whole modernization program going on equipment was either going to be scrapped or sold off there was a chance for Tasmania to retain some of its history there was enough members to recognize that and to get in and get it before it was too late we spent many hours at weekends picking up sleepers from the e Bay Railway this site was all bare it had all been pulled up and demolished the track used to come from the dawn Junction and just run through up to milrose to the limestone quaries so we started from be bones didn't we how have volunteers kept Don River Railway alive today volunteers to me they were the true enthusiasts they were there because they wanted to [Music] be for many years a primary goal of the Don River Railway has been to reconnect back onto this Main Line however it quickly became evident to me that volunteers are attempting to recover from another overwhelming setback just last year on the 4th of April 2023 fire services from across the coast were called to the railway after three warehouses were ignited in Flames This Disaster came just as the railway was planning to extend it its line while many organizations would shut down after such Devastation the dawn River Railway refused to give in can you tell me what caused the fire in 2023 we believe that one of the carriages which they were using heat guns on to burn paint off a spark may have got inside between the inner and outer wall and that smoldered all day which no one noticed or knew was going on and during the night that's when it burst into flames not only when we lost the ship we lost two carriages one was the last North Mount La carriage in existence Irreplaceable the other one the body burnt but we can reuse the underframe the old nor North Mount loyal Carriage the frame the steel frame underneath actually sagged in the middle that's how hot the fire was it was very sad when we heard on the news Destruction for that fire was horrendous because we we we lost one of our beautiful carriages bbl2 one of our members was sleeping on site that night and was able to raise the alarm quite early had he not been there it would have been far worse I'm sure we'll get there in the end we got there before and they said we wouldn't last year in 2023 there was a major fire here how did that actually happen basically we got a scheme that was working here at the railway and they were using a heat gun to scrape paint off one of the carriages unfortunately some of that hot paint got between two layers of Timber and because the carriage had a 100 Years of dust and detritus in the bottom of it it smoldered a whale in the early hours of the morning combusted and started what was a major fire at the short term it's affected us significantly because we've lost the workshop space we're probably looking at about $3.5 million to actually put into place our plans in the spaces that were permanently damaged by the fire I understand there were plans to extend the railway line here are they still going ahead absolutely it's our long-term business strategy negotiating through with tazra so that we can eventually make the reconnection to tazra and look at operating potentially initially between devonport and penguin I used to live quite near a Mainline and such names as Flying Scotsman Mala famous engines used to tear up and down this line past the village where I lived what was your primary role at Don River Railway we had to develop this site there was three or four of us and we were known as the black handang and the black hand gang used to get involved with all sorts of Mucky stuff when we got going even more we ran Mainline trips which were always well supported we'd even raced the ships I think it was the a Tasman we raced it along the coast G to burning and back how did it make you feel when you heard about the fires in 2023 I got a phone call quite early about it in the in the morning and I came down to have a look you know I couldn't get in or couldn't come on site until later in the day and when I saw it I just thought oh hell you know what a mess and when I look now and walk on site and I look across and I think you know it it um wasn't good it was not good um and yeah I'm a bit lost for words there really it's it was a disaster an absolute [Music] disaster what was actually destroyed in the fire specifically I knew what was in the Big Shed next door I knew that's where the carriages were being restored I knew what was in there an awful lot of Timber you know was all the Machinery that was lost you know some of it quite old John Bon was a carpenter woodworker an incredible man he he built three or four things and uh even this one machine of big press he made the Frameworks that could do curved roofs that's gone gone how do you think it will affect Don River Railway moving forward into the future I'm not sure you know I mean I don't know how much longer I've got living on this Earth but I I don't know if I'll ever see us hit the main line I know we're always pushing for it there are people fighting for us what's your view on all of the railway lines being removed from Tasmania today fical it's a fast I mean when you look at the trains and the loads they can carry it's brilliant [Music] we lost a couple of quite old and rare coaches but we're really lucky that we didn't lose more and we could have easily lost the entire workshop at the moment we've got the 3 km Branch line but I think should be doing better there's talk about going Mainline but I think we have a lot of work to do before we're in that position unfortunately the fires had a massive flow one effect because our spare parts area was completely wiped out by fire all our spare parts went back 70 80 years and I can tell you now we're struggling at the moment to find spare parts it's made the battle very much harder all we can do now is to try to resurrect what's left in the [Music] flames in the early days I decided to buy a train set for me son from there on we got involved with the D River Railway in 1974 before I come down here and yeah we work from the ground up it takes a lot of work to do it I like painting I do a lot of painting I painted most of the vehicles you definitely got to make sure the boilers 100% it's a explosion waiting to happen if you don't do it right every 12 months you got to have a medical to be able to drive all the locomotives every now and again they test you on your earring and all that sort of thing at my age at 83 so it's very important do you do push-ups to keep fit no I I Lift Every sleepers occasionally every lifting here I can still lift yeah no problem at all how long have you been volunteering for uh a couple of years now and what's your favorite part about volunteering uh probably just um the smile on the people's faces and especially the kids like yeah just makes their day after a train ride along the dawn River railway's 3 km return journey I visited their second locomotive restoration building in the city of Lon ceston I also located their Founding Father Ian Hall I was born and brought up in a house in England which was right next door to a railway line and there were same trains going by every hour or so but not only that across the railway line was a chocolate factory so I so I have the passion for chocolate and steam trains and there's no cure for it you were part of the van demon light Railway Society could you tell me a bit about that oh yes it goes back a long time um to the 1970s my wife and myself had recently arrived from the UK and I was missing my trains Tasmanian government Railway seem to have an attitude that you don't throw anything away and there were still steam like us that were being used in 1971 which was really unusual I was talking about my doctor one day and um it turned out my doctor was also a steam Enthusiast and he says okay let's why not why not build our own Railway so he and I were the founder members it originally started off as a less Society nobody in less including the lesson city council weren't interested we actually looked at 66 different places to offer right our trains de Port Council had this Old Railway that was deric there that closed 10 years previously and as I said they don't throw things away and we approached the de bort C and they were absolutely amazed at the idea when I was member number one I was active on the committee for 28 years anything to do with Railways we found out very quickly is very heavy very dirty and hard work we had no mechanical means to do and it was all done by hand in short no volunteers no D Railway what's your view on the railways that are being removed around Tasmania it's very difficult question to answer because it's happening all over the world in Tasmania a lot of the lines are being pulled up is because there is not a lot of traffic coming from there yes it would be very nice to have steam trains running up and down there or even diesel trains running up and down there people will come over for them what was it like the first weekend that Don River Railway commenced oh one word could describe it is absolute magic you can see see the future erolling around us from that [Music] day now points how you can change direction from one R to another and we wanted to go back down that way so we had to move the coach up and down the station was down there this has all been put in by by the da Railway group effectively lot of that Old Railway history has been erased oh yeah with the building of Utah there was a station there there's a lot of it is still here I mean there's tremendous amount of History growing up in England I'd always always wanted to be a an engine driver of course having come out to Tasmania and for good I uh joined the Dawn and work my way up through the ranks of engine crew and finished up as as a steam engine driver which I think of my great achievements we worked very hard you know in those days laying track and then keeping it in good order that was the next problem and it's all voluntary work yeah that's what I find incredible this shed was built and it's sort of you know been established as an outpost of the Dawn Railway most people you know don't realize it we we're very much Dawn and we work handling glove with them why is it here in Ines well this is the basis of the railways on this particular bit where the rails all are we've got a a 99 year lease on this to maintain the presence tasmania's Railway history is really quite amazing it's full of all sorts of funny littleit Railways and different engines and whatever we had the first be Garett here which is a particular type of steam engine what type of people would have traveled in this Carriage rich people I would think first class was always quite a bit more expensive the officials of the ra itself might well have used it I think you know the privileged passes and all that sort of thing that's but you you'd have had to been fairly wealthy I think what route would this Carriage have taken this would have been the main Bernie list Hobart and perhaps to Fingal Valley the Duke traveled around Tasmania 1924 in the Royal Train it was H by an a engine there were three or four royal trips around the state we were lucky enough to get the original car and our members in Lon restored it back to the condition it is which is terrific we want it to keep going for generations to come this is the biggest preserved Railway in Tasmania I think you just look around you and you can actually see everything is priceless to us do you think it would be beneficial for Tasmania to have an official passenger Railway oh I don't think that's a fair question to ask us because we we're biased it would never happen because all the infrastructure throughout the whole system has been ripped down and knocked down taken away and there is absolutely nothing in the system there we should have confronted that ARA in 1978 when the when the tasian government decided to close it it's a very twisty turny line I mean the tracks far upgraded now to what it was in those days I mean they've done a huge amount of work train days he walked to the station waited for the train train came at at its time you got on it you got to your destination probably about 6 78 hours later the railways are too slow I think there is a potential for extending those preserved Railway Heritage experiences forther reveal on the mainline but not necessarily on a daily basis what do you hope for Tasmania to achieve in the future of Railway travel you'd have to be a super Optimist to say that there would be a commercial tourist ra that there has to be a lot of changes we're a long way behind the eight ball I'm hoping that one day we'll get there but I think it's a long road yes it's the biggest handicap is getting connected to the main line again one of our members that we remember fondly is was Ray how Ray was a boiler maker uh welder with the pulp in Bernie one of our first Mainline trips was that let's give it a go and it was a can do at ude and he ended up becoming our president uh for a period and Ray was fully involved when we were doing all the sheds from a society very very well respected and that's what I think is the heart of the society is the people willing to chip in and and do work and that's why I think we're still surviving and all goes well for the future do you feel proud of how this Railway has developed over the many years oh yes oh yeah the train trips were always well done I mean we've had our trials and tribulations everywhere does despite any obstacles the da River Railway has persevered for more than 50 years the only stumbling block it now faces is a buffer at the end of its [Music] line will they ever connect to the main line volunteers have answered this question as they continue breathing new life into their vision [Music]

Channel: REEL RANDOM

Views: 36,384

Keywords: Tasmania railways, Australian Railways, North west railways, Train Enthusiast, Train records, Locomotives, Steam in the veins, Australia, Tasmania, Rob Parsons, Building, Construction, Historical, Breaking News, Australian News, Railways UK, United Kingdom, India

Id: nQca6XOPY7Y

Length: 21min 18sec (1278 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2024