TRAINSPOTTING NEW SOUTH WALES RIVING INTO HISTORIC Thirlmere, a leisurely 95km south-west of Sydney, at the crest of a rise, a A railway museum in the sparkling scene unfolds: gentle hills dotted with cows, a meandering ribbon of road, sunshine glinting on NSW Southern Highlands steel rails. For those parents familiar with a certain blue steam train, Thirlmere bears a resemblance to the fictional island of evokes the golden age of rail Sodor. And on certain weekends of the year, Trainworks museum travel and is a labour of love by an does, in fact, host Thomas the Tank Engine and a few thousand of his screaming toddler friends. The $30m Trainworks venture, enthusiastic band of volunteers. which opened in March last year, is funded by the NSW rail authority, RailCorp, and works in partnership with the Rail Trans- port Museum (RTM), which has long occupied the site. ON “Even with a four-year-old son of my own, I had no idea,” says Trainworks CEO Rob Austin, a former nightclub manager. “It’s easier to get 300 drunk adults out of a nightclub at 3am than it is to get one screaming two-year-old away from Thomas the Tank Engine at the end of the day. The pull is just amazing.” NSW’s government-owned railway began in 1855. Rivalry between colonies resulted in incompatible gauges (track widths) WORDSTHE MICHAEL STAHL that persist to this day, but also pushed the design and construc- PHOTOGRAPHY THOMAS WIELECKI tion of locomotives and rolling stock that were the equal of any in the world. The RTM was founded in 1962 in Sydney and moved to Thirlmere in 1974. The location was ideal, sited on a bypassed loop line between Picton and Buxton – today used for Trainworks’ steam and diesel heritage rides – with mainline access to Sydney. G The RTM was entrusted with half of NSW’s historically signifi- RI HT cant railway stock, more than 100 items in all. It is maintained with the love and labour of volunteers. In 2006, RailCorp opened the Office of Rail Heritage, focusing on the Thirlmere collection. “The railways would never throw anything out,” says Allan Leaver, a telecommunications engineer and 40-year RTM TRACK member. “They had such a history for adaptive re-use, to save from buying new stuff. A lot of what we have in the museum, we have because they followed that philosophy.” The 31-year-old Austin says that he is in no way a trainspotter. “Trainworks is about appealing to a much wider audience, and obviously families are a massive part of that capture. So we’ve taken away a lot of what’s messy and oily and cleaned it up to make it a more enjoyable experience.” The site was developed in three main parts: the Exhibition Engine No.6040: the powerful Garratt Building with interactive displays and selected machinery; the AD60-class steam covered Great Train Hall where mammoth machines enjoy a locomotive AUGUSt 2012 QANTAS 57 Exhibition Building: E18, the oldest steam locomotive in the collection, was built in 1866 “WE’VE TAKEN AWAY A LOT OF WHAT’S MESSY AND OILY AND CLEANED dignified retirement; and the Roundhouse, the IT UP TO MAKE IT A headquarters for the RTM society, which remains responsible for all the hardware. Just inside the MORE ENJOYABLE Exhibition Building entrance (and the Thomas- EXPERIENCE” heavy gift shop), a theatrette projects a multimedia locomotive. Introduced in 1957, it was the last presentation over a 1916 steam locomotive. The steam locomotive to enter service in NSW. emotive story helps convey the railway’s place in Arthur Tubby, 70, nods towards the black the building of Australia. behemoth 6040. “Typical of the railways, they Nearby is Australian rail’s crown jewel, the never ended up using them for what they’d bought Governor-General’s carriage. Commissioned in them for. They were supposed to replace the old 1901 and handcrafted in Sydney’s Eveleigh work- goods locomotives, but they found they were good Volunteer guide Roger Grose (above); shops, this turn-of-the-century business jet carried for hauling heavy coal trains.” the HKL360 mail van, several royal visitors in a career spanning 70 years. Farther along, Tubby stops for a moment next to in use from the 1860s No less interesting is the Mail Van, one of many No.79, a modest little steam engine with brass until the 1950s (below) travelling post offices that was in use until the porthole windows. It’s the reason he’s here. His 1950s. This fully-equipped example offers a twist: father was the driver of this loco on the Port Kembla the mailbag chute is now a spiral slide for children. wharves in the early 1950s. On overtime Saturdays, Interactive displays illustrate the workings of a young Arthur rode with him. steam engine and tell of the growth – and contrac- “I wanted to be a train driver,” Tubby says, “but tion – of the NSW rural rail network. Uniforms and my father said, ‘You will get an education and a rail artefacts recall a time when the stationmaster proper job!’” Tubby spent his career as a chemical was one of the pillars of a community. engineer but, never far from the trains, he became Outside are lined up 13 of the sleek silver general manager of the RTM in 1988. He still is. carriages of the Southern Aurora. The legendary Nearby is steam loco No.1905, acclaimed as the Sydney to Melbourne luxury service will mark its first locomotive to cross the Sydney Harbour 50th anniversary this year with an interstate run. Bridge (if only while pulling a train of construction Thirlmere local Tracey Lawrence knows those materials). Information panels alongside engines stainless-steel flanks well. As an RTM volunteer, and carriages tell of their entertaining stories; stair- she would regularly clean the Aurora of the bane cases invite on-board inspections. of all railways: graffiti. “At least, being metal, it’s Impossible to ignore is the passenger steam fairly easy to clean,” she says. “But the timber locomotive 3820. Designed and built in Sydney in carriages – my heart would just sink.” 1947 under chief mechanical engineer Harold The belly of the Trainworks experience is the Young, its streamlined and grime-strewn flanks – Great Train Hall. Four parallel lines represent preserved under heritage order – silently recall the passenger and freight rail transport history. At the speed and romance of rail travel in the steam era. head of them stands the imposing, 260-tonne Soak up the plush comfort of the beautifully figure of 6040, a Garratt AD60-class steam restored, cedar-panelled 1930s First Class 58 QANTAS AUGUST 2012 AUGUSt 2012 QANTAS 59 Clockwise from above: Roundhouse workshop where members restore the trains; volunteer in Roundhouse; No.5595 (foreground), a fully restored D55 steam locomotive, derelict when it arrived at the museum; display of train manufacturer plaques in the Exhibition Building sleeper carriages, or stand at the wrought-iron rail and wave a handkerchief in mock farewell. Steam inevitably gave way to diesel. This 38-class steam loco, explains volunteer guide Roger Grose, would use 14 tonnes of coal and more than 36,000 litres of water to travel the hilly 120km from here to Goulburn. “But a steam engine always seems alive to me. A diesel is just a big truck.” At the far end of the Great Train Hall sits the train turntable and seven-bay Roundhouse work- shop. Here is 3830, last of the 30 38-class steam speedsters designed and built by NSW Railways between 1943 and 1949. This example actually belongs to the Powerhouse Museum, but is being overhauled at Trainworks. Grose says softly, “Thirty-eight-oh-one” and a sigh goes up from the handful of workers. The bullet-nosed 3801, which led the Bicentennial Train around Australia in 1988, is currently under major overhaul – with components at Thirlmere, Chullora (Sydney) and even Germany – as it undergoes a four-year restoration. Grose and Tubby clearly can’t wait to see it come back. And others now can’t wait to see it for the first time. c 60 QANTAS AUGUST 2012.