No 121 March 2019 ‘Trainosaurus Wrecks’ at our 2018 Halloween event In this edition 1. The Chairman’s lineside chat 6. Little trains 2. News desk 7. Infrastructure and equipment update 3. Buildings and Infrastructure 8. Membership 4. Big trains 9. Our coming events 5. Talking ‘shop’ 2019 Membership 2019 Membership fees are now overdue. See page 14 for more information. © 2019 Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum, Blue Mountains Division of Transport Heritage NSW Ltd Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence Page 1 No 121 March 2019 The first word A warm start to the year and time to turn the heat of this country deal with very hot and dry up on our expectations for 2019…with some big conditions blended with some torrential rain and ticket items now under the belt and visitor hail, we have fortunately escaped the curse of numbers levelling out, is it time to re-think some fire bans and high fire risk, thus far. Likewise, the of our priorities and strategies? VHLDHM typical pattern of thunderstorms has spared us chairman Henk, already has wheels in motion for from torment on Open Days. As you will see a team to review and define our longer term elsewhere, Museum volunteers have used the goals, as you will see in his forward looking opportunities to push forward on many fronts. address. With progress on the fettlers shed, departure road crossover and safety improvements, as well There's plenty going on in the heritage railway as 'undercover' action like intensive research into world at the moment. Despite the wintry weather the story behind electric loco 4601 and the six- in Europe, many operators run Santa specials week process of preparing this diary! and of course they are often gifted with the added bonus (or setback?) of snow! While parts Keith Ward, Publicity Manager VHLDHM 1. The Chairman’s lineside chat Welcome to 2019 and I hope that all our our Museum to progress and to look in 5-10 and members are having a great start to the New 20 years’ time. Remember that nothing is off the Year. Our volunteers have certainly already been table thus enabling everyone to be as creative as very active despite the heat, working on the new they like. Once we have members input there will fettlers shed and track changes, as well as be a planning day during which all ideas will go carrying out vital maintenance on our rolling into the ring. stock and other display items and equipment. As usual, we will have all our normal open and This year will also be busy in terms of our short, special days this year so don’t forget that there is medium and long term planning and also room for new and fresh-faced volunteers. In development processes that are aimed to short, ‘go on, have some fun this year and enjoy progress and safeguard our Museum into the the company of others’. years to come. In order to achieve the best results, I invite all members to put on their Henk Luf, Chairman VHLDHM thinking-caps and let us know how you would like 2. News desk HEARTSafe Valley Heights Valley Heights Rail Museum has now become a HEARTSafe venue, with a defibrillator acquired HEARTSafe Communities is a program designed in late 2018. to promote survival from sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: heartsafe-community.org We give thanks to Sydney Water for a contribution of $1000 under its Community Communities such as Kangaroo Island in South Grants – Safety 2018 program. The full cost was Australia have become HEARTSafe $1695, the balance came from Museum funds. communities, setting up a network of AEDs (automated external defibrillators), especially St John Ambulance provided training in use of critical with the thousands of tourists visiting the the AED on Saturday 15 December. This training island each year. was a requirement of the Sydney Water grant. © 2019 Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum, Blue Mountains Division of Transport Heritage NSW Ltd Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence Page 2 No 121 March 2019 St Johns Ambulance trainer teaching use of the AED at Valley Heights on 15 December. Seniors Week Recognition Awards On February 26, Blue Mountains City Council Two VHLDHM members received awards for celebrated our community’s older people at the their service to the museum and the community. annual Seniors Week Recognition Awards. Steve Corrigan (centre) with Deputy Mayor Chris Van der Deputy Mayor Chris Van der Kley presented the award to Kley (left) and Cr Mick Fell (right) Keith Ward, with Cr Mick Fell Museum happenings On Wednesday 17 October we hosted UK Our Halloween weekend was held on 27–28 railway author Anthony Heale-Barton and partner October. This was our first attempt at two day Pam, for a pre-planned guided tour of the Halloween action, and I believe it is the first time Museum. Anthony took many photos and, with we have opened to the general public after his copious notes, they will form a promised 16:00. Although not many arrived after 18:00 on article in a railway magazine. We were pleased the Saturday, there were still some families to receive a donation on their departure, and look around at 19:30, with closing time set for 20:00. forward to reading his article in due course. The ‘Spooky Express’ performed perfectly over both days (normal hours on Sunday) and excited passengers enjoyed the ambience with webs, © 2019 Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum, Blue Mountains Division of Transport Heritage NSW Ltd Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence Page 3 No 121 March 2019 spiders and bats to enhance the ride. The ‘Tram to be won. The successful entrants were notified of Terrors’ provided some extreme experiences and results published on our website. for ‘victims’ young and old, with new volunteers, The display items and costumes on loan from Ros and David Austin performing superbly in Thirlmere were returned and our thanks go to their roles. Many visitors took a detour via the Ann Frederick, THNSW Creative Services and ‘Silver Scares’ (aka ‘U-Boat’ interurban carriage Public Programs Manager for arranging that. ETB6039) and were startled by the eerie Special thanks also to Winmalee Rural Fire presence of member Peter Banks in wizard Service, for the loan of their smoke machine, mode, or Jakob Sweeney in his amazing outfit as which was used for dramatic effect and to Terry a Dr Who ‘Cyberman’. Entry to the shop took Matchett and Alan Holley for assisting with it. patrons past the ‘graveyard’—the last resting place of ‘Trainosaurus Wrecks’. Steve Dive had The Warrimoo Senior Girl Guides (including Mike done a great job chalking up steam loco 5711 as Pensini’s daughter, Liz) performed wonderfully, the ‘Ghost Train’ while the ‘Wacky Witch Hunt’ creatively painting faces of volunteers and the provided a competition for children to spot 10 public (by gold coin donation) over both days, hidden model witches around the site, with prizes and the Museum made a contribution to the Guides’ fundraising efforts. © 2019 Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum, Blue Mountains Division of Transport Heritage NSW Ltd Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence Page 4 No 121 March 2019 The Coffin Cart that had been kindly lent by NSW the offer of free admission to the Museum, but Rail Museum at Thirlmere, was also on display some visitors were aware of it and commented and created much interest. The exhibit was later favourably. returned with help from STARPS director, Wayne The Museum’s AGM was held on Saturday 17 Flicker. First used at our ‘Life & Death’ event in November and was attended by 47 members September, the Cart had been stored in the fire and guests. Of these, 40 voted in the election to equipment shed with the cooperation of Chief appoint Andrew Tester as new Retail Manager, Fire Warden, Dave Hunt. The two-way transfer taking over from Steve Corrigan after his was supervised by THNSW Collections Officer, remarkable 17 years in that role. Steve was Chris Fielder, and was approved by Heritage & presented with some railway books and made a Collections Manager, Jenni Edmonds and our ‘retirement’ speech, but assured us that he would appreciation was conveyed to both of them. still be active, as Andrew’s assistant with back- The final outcome was that over 200 visitors, office duties and also continuing to focus on the many first timers, took part in the proceedings, implementation of the driver simulator in electric thus ensuring a springboard for another similar locomotive 4601. Diesel tractor X206 was on opportunity in 2019. There has been positive show, sporting bold new side panel numbers, feedback from all quarters with volunteers and with thanks to signwriter member, Frank Coy. visitors alike happy to support a repeat. THNSW held its AGM on Saturday 24 November. A large pool of volunteers was on hand to help A group from Valley Heights travelled to with preparation and implementation of the Thirlmere to view P class loco 3265 returning to various activities over the two days and my service after a major overhaul in conjunction with thanks go to them all for their contribution. owners MAAS. Members had the pleasure of the return trip to Buxton behind the loco before Our Open Day on Sunday 11 November convening for the meeting later in the day. This (Remembrance Day) saw normal operations was highlighted by the presentation of THNSW cease at 10:50 for a flag ceremony and minute’s Life Membership to a number of long-term silence followed by David Hunt’s rendering of volunteers, including our own Bruce Coxon and The Ode.