The
Volunteers
That
Could
By Albert Josef Lapid
Penong, Nullarbor Plain, outback South Australia.
1614 Kilometres from Lithgow.
Where mobile reception is at its best in the middle of the road.
That’s according to Garth Schwartz, a volunteer at the Zig Zag Railway.
He started volunteering with the Zig-Zag Railway when he was 11 years old when his family moved to the Blue Mountains.
“We went down to check the place out and we spoke to the engine crew. It was the last run of the day. They had already finished for the day. They said come next weekend we've got a working bee and that's what started the, the addictions forever. So, we rock up the next weekend and helped out and yeah stayed involved ever since”.
The Lithgow Zig Zag was devised as a solution to the challenging descent down the western side of the Blue Mountains. Engineer John Whitton created a zig-zag track arrangement that connected the coastal folk with their inland counterparts.
“Although it was a bit slow to get down that side of the of the valley, it certainly was a really important connection of the city with the with the growing inland area where the rich farming was and, and other population obviously”.
James Dalton is a degree-qualified Mechanical Engineer and Business Consultant, and Director of the Australian Railway Historical Society.
According to James, the Zig Zag would’ve been recognised as the engineering marvel it was back when it was built.
And it still is.
But by as the economy began to grow “they really couldn't get trains through there fast enough for the capacity and they started looking at an alternative route that was more direct”.
“Being able to descend into the valley at that time with this engineering marvel, when you, when you consider that you’re faced with sheer cliffs and that they were able to survey and then design a route that descended into the valley, it's pretty amazing. Then there's the beauty of it, not just the natural beauty of the of the valley but the lovely sandstone viaduct that is still there you know”.
And it’s the setting that makes the place special. The Blue Mountains is a place of natural beauty and by adding a steam train into the mix, James thinks it’s a pretty unique experience.
“You never get tired looking at the scenery and every time” Garth says. “It’s a unique operation with some steam locomotives, that’s very addictive and everybody loves a ride”.
It’s also a place where friendships with other train enthusiasts’ flourish. “I love the people. I’ve known some way back since the early 90s who are still around and involved in some way. It's very closely, close-knit community”.
As young volunteer, some of Garth’s best memories involved weekends cleaning up the reserves around the railway with other junior members, away from the eye of the parents.
“Pretty good, pretty good weekends” he remembers, “then you know I guess as we got older, after the engine crew got to know us better, they would often say come and clean my engine at 5 in the morning. What is this 5 in the morning? But you go out and start cleaning the engine. Then after a while they say come for a trip, come for a ride”.
Didn’t take long for Garth to become a qualified fireman at the age of 16.
“Funny, because I mean as a kid I was never interested in railways. I think Zig-Zag got me interested in railways. But you know these days I do have an interest in it”.
And if there’s a place to get yourself interested in trains, the Zig-Zag is the place to do it.
For Garth, it’s the history.
“You can still see the marks in the rock where they had an auger with the person standing on either side and turning it and somebody in the middle hitting it with a hammer and it would it, would eventually, you know buckle. They made a hole in the rock and then made stuff all these holes with gunpowder, like the fuse like Wile E Coyote and run. It really is a very special place and I think it's, I mean I'm lucky in that I get to see it at times other people don't get to see it. I've been out working on the tracks and just stand there and marvel. It really is a very special part of the world”.
For others, it’s the opportunities.
Geoff Moran started volunteering when he was around 35 years old, in 1989.
“Well, my wife and I moved to the mountains with our kids, and I was a primary school teacher and one of the staff members at the new school, I found out that she volunteered at the Zig Zag Railway and invited me to come up and check it out. And I went up and checked it out and realised that there were opportunities for non-railway people. So, you didn't have to have a railway background to volunteer and to work towards operational roles on the railway so that was appealing and that's what happened”.
As a teacher for 22 years, he found an escape in the diverse array of volunteering roles at the Zig Zag railway.
“You can just go along and, yeah, paint things or restore things or you know be a gardener or something, but I found actually being on the train and operating it was the appealing part. So, at that stage I started as a train guard and then eventually became a steam arm and now I'm a driver, steam locomotive driver”.
It’s the challenges that come from the physically demanding jobs and the drive to perfect various skills overtime that make it rewarding.
“Being a steam fireman is physically demanding you've got to be fit, you've got to be fairly resilient; you're shovelling several tons of coal through the day and you're also coupling and uncoupling the train as it shunts around” Geoff says, “you've got to be able to last the day”.
Satisfying an interest in steam trains is also a plus.
Growing up on the 1950’s, he remembers steam locomotives being a common sight on the rail network, a rare sight these days. Volunteering at the Zig Zag “reminds me of what I experienced as a child”.
Geoff holds a different appreciation for steam trains now “because I recognize that what we have at Zig Zag, and various other heritage railways have, is something that now very few people have experienced”.
At the Zig Zag, Geoff is able to help bring that experience to the visitors. There’s a sort of interactivity to the heritage railway that doesn’t happen on the regular suburban network.
“At Zig Zag, people can come up onto the loco and see the fire and shovel coal in and they can ask questions and they can experience the heat of the locomotive”.
But what makes steam locomotives special?
James thinks it’s a remnant of industrial revolution.
“Initially they were seen as a as a sign of progress in progress, of new technology, and a lift in living standards for people through industrialisation and I think these days they retain their charm as a sort of living breathing machine that seems to be alive”.
“It's a very sensory experience, the smell and the sound and the site of this of this machine and its ability to take heavy loads up hills and so forth I think that's a very appealing, in some ways romantic, but I think that's the appeal”.
And it’s an appeal that’s lived on well beyond the steam locomotives own expiration date.
Once considered a main stay of the rail network “people still will still come out to see a steam train” Geoff says.
“So, it's a much more, visceral I suppose would be the word I'd use, engagement with the noise it's, it can be quite noisy. The smell, it's got a distinctive smell, coal smoke burning, it's like it moves, like the movement the steam engine is not a very smooth, it's not a smooth trip”.
Because of this, Geoff feels a sense of responsibility towards the preservation of the Zig Zag.
“We're the custodians of not only the trains but the infrastructure, the historical infrastructure, the tunnels and the viaducts”.
“You know volunteers are a very important part of Heritage railways and of preserving history” James says.
Volunteers.
People who do this for free.
Out of the goodness of their heart.
And it’s not like it’s easy going either.
“I guess it's just important to say that you know running railway not a simple undertaking and it's a lot of work that has to be done to get it off the ground to get it this stage but also just to keep it running really something to be appreciated and to be congratulated on getting to this point”.
The fact that the Zig Zag railway still exists is a “testament to the resilience of all the people that are involved”. It’s hard not to agree with Garth on that.
In 2019, the Zig-Zag railway was hit by bushfires which Garth summed up as “pretty heartbreaking”.
“We had vandals strike on the number of occasions too, they damaged a lot of rolling stock beyond repair and infrastructure”.
As difficult as it was, they’ve been through it before.
“In the 2013 fires we lost a lot. We lost all our accommodation for members on site, we lost rolling stock and a number of critical assets were damaged or destroyed”.
“We decided that we would move forward with a with a group of members that were really keen to drive it. It's very rewarding to see the outcome of all of this work”.
They’re driven by safety too Geoff says.
“The regulator closed us down 12 years ago based on the fact that we couldn't demonstrate that we were operating sufficiently safely and looking back the, regulator was right”.
In 2012, the Zig Zag Railway was forced to close after losing its accreditation.
“We started to accept practices that to us seem normal at the time”.
Geoff believes it was cultural thing that allowed a slow build-up of unsafe practices to become the norm. “We weren't being reckless, but we could have done things a lot better, but we got used to that because it was accepted it was a culture”.
He feels a little embarrassed that it took the forced closure of the railway to make them realize that changes were needed.
“The big change is a new culture at zigzag where we have a much a much better culture, I suppose a more respectful culture of each other. But certainly, safety is front and centre and that governs everything we do now”.
As the Zig Zag began to get back on track, new volunteers joined at the same time old ones came back. “But not everybody's come back some people have moved on to other things or just aren't interested anymore”.
Geoff’s a teacher at heart.
After leaving school teaching, he worked in developing online learning systems. Part of running a safe railway making sure staff were given proper training and that was his calling.
“To demonstrate to the regulator that we were running a safe operation we also needed to be able to demonstrate that our people were properly trained and to do that I realized that something like I was already doing in my day job, developing online learning would be the ideal solution”.
It was a contribution he felt he needed to make, a chance to use his skills for the good of the organization. And with volunteers geographically dispersed, online training made sense.
Garth’s current role is as the training manager and has helped develop the in-house training system making sure it “aligns with the national standard, which is very exciting”.
“Unfortunately, we can always use more people we would love to have more people work with us and sharing the reward”.
“I think a lot of people don't think they can do it or never considered that is an option”.
“Everyone's welcome, everyone's got a fit somewhere”.
As for Garths perfect fit, some people may assume it’s driving the locomotives.
Which is partly true.
“I'm just as happy to go and work in a signal box or even, you know, on the railway doing different jobs, but I guess my favourite roll, part of what I do is teaching other people because the knowledge will disappear overtime and it's really important that we continue that knowledge and experience and to be honest, the most important part of what I do is I guess the training”.
All this commitment and perseverance is all for one thing.
“We want to see trains running again”.
And on May 27, 2023, the first passenger service left Clarence Station.
And what train does Geoff want to see running again?
It’s a BB18 ¼ , originally from Queensland, it’s quite the performer along the 7 km stretch.
“It's rather fast, so not that we're allowed to drive it fast but it can feel it just wants to go you know, yeah you know like getting in a fast car and you've got to be careful you don't break the speed limit. I've got to be careful when I drive it”.
If he was driving, however, Garth’s favourite locomotive would be the “little tank engine's, the DD17. So, most kids, including my own, know Thomas the Tank Engine and it’s the closest one we’ve got”.
That won’t come as a shock to anyone, apparently.
Talking of shocks, 47 Kilometres east of Lithgow, nestled in an old roundhouse by a curve of track is the Valley Heights Rail Museum.
A place that saw the end of the steam era and the rise of electric trains.
The sight is occupied by two organisations: the Valley Heights Railway Museum and the Steam Tram And Railway Preservation Society (STARPS). Both survive on the dedication of volunteers, sticking by through thick and thin.
Bruce Spencer Irwin is an author and a volunteer with STARPS, one of the co-occupiers of the Valley Heights Roundhouse.
He’s the director of the organisation, he also does conducting, and cleaning, and painting. “That sort of thing” he says. He joined the organisation “a long time ago”.
“I went with I went down to Parramatta Park one day, which was about 1968, and I took my young son down there to have a look at the steam train. You know, I hadn't seen it before, and I just vaguely heard about that it was operating. So, I went down there and I saw it and I was hooked on it”.
It reminded him of his father’s early experiences with the trams in north-western areas of Sydney, around the modern-day suburb of Baulkham Hills.
“Oh, this is what he was talking about”.
STARPS was originally located in Parramatta. Close to home, he was able to help out a few days a month with minimal fuss.
In his early days, it took time to work into it.
But it was the friendships that developed over time that helped him along. He had a go at a bit of everything “we were building, we were laying track, we were building additions to the shed. We're painting, we were conducting over days”.
Bruce and the other volunteers worked hard to keep STARPS going and growing.
“The people that were involved in it were considered a bit eccentric. And some of them still are”.
Overtime, public recognition has shifted, in his view, towards acknowledging the local stories these places can tell.
“It gradually progressed, you know, and until the whole lot was destroyed by fire in 93. So that was a bit sad”.
“It was just unbelievable. The chairman rang me up, and this would have been about 11 or 12:00 at night. He rang me up and it was Frank.
He said, Bruce.
Yeah.
He said, it's gone.
What's the. What's gone?
It's. It's all gone.
I say, What, Frank?
He said the park, the depot, the whole thing is going up in flames”.
“And it was just devastating”.
Everything they were building, all their restoration efforts, went up in flames. Bruce felt that they could never get the organisation back to the point before the fire.
He remembers some blessings, “we had one steam locomotive that was down at Thirlmere at the time being rebuilt, restored. So that was good”. A steam tram motor also survived.
They then had to find a new home for what was left of the collection. After months of searching, they got an invitation to come up to Valley Heights and provide rail operations.
It took a while to get over the initial devastation. Bruce credits their late chairman as a driving force for restoration. “he said, what did he say? We'll bring them back”.
That summed up the challenge ahead. It was a long, slow process.
The collection was slowly rebuilt. Pointing to the roundhouse, Bruce says “The one that's over there now that's been restored, rebuilt back to what it was, had been a house for 30 odd years or part of a house”.
They’ve rebuilt it, and another one in a separate shed.
“But it's all been a long, long, hard slog, hard slog”.
One of his most memorable moments was when they finally got a rebuilt steam tram running again. “It was only a short run up to the gates and back. But it was back on the track, which succeeded in getting the tram motor rebuilt, refurbished the carriage, redone”.
His role in that feat was painting the carriage. The stories that carriage could tell could now be told once again.
“There's that social story that we try to get out that, that here's something. This is the only one that's left out of over 100 that operated in Sydney. So, and, and it's got a story to tell”.
STARPS was able to gain funding after the fire, and many of the major items in their collection have now been placed on the state heritage list.
“We've been up here since about 1997”.
The Valley Heights roundhouse is 109 years old, built to do service and maintenance on steam locomotives that would assist trains heading up the Blue Mountains. It was a place for the locomotives to be stored, cleaned, refuelled. It was an integral part of the railway in Australia.
“It was back at a time when the railways with were the fastest, cleanest, most convenient way to get anywhere because the roads, the Great Western highway was just a dirt road, not even as wide as this room, right, without lanes or anything”.
Keith Ward is the current chairman of the Valley Heights Museum.
He’s also “a conductor on our rides, our steam trams and other trains”.
He started volunteering ten years ago, when he was 62 years old.
Living close by and having family connections to the railways, he decided that volunteering at Valley Heights was the perfect way to spend time after retiring from full time employment working in sales and marketing. He was the publicity manager for about 6 years before becoming chairman.
He acknowledges that there is very much history present at Valley Heights. The friendly gang of people he’s surrounded by have been there for a long time, associating themselves with the railway movement in Australia for decades.
Originally from the United Kingdom, he “had no real involvement with railways other than as what used to be called in the days of train spotter”.
“Okay, so in the UK it was very much a thing, to a lesser extent in Australia, but certainly in the UK in the sixties it was a very popular form of activity for young men. And you would travel the length and breadth of Britain recording train numbers. There were special books that were published with pictures and numerical listings of all the locomotives in each different class of locomotive. And as you spotted them driving by or on the tracks, you'd mark them off in this book. Okay. And that was quite common, quite a common thing. They were published by a company called Ian Allan and he published a whole range of books and they were updated each year. So as new locomotives were introduced, or indeed more likely at that time, old ones were being retired and scrapped”.
He was one of the “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of boys, mainly boys right around the UK at that time doing that as a hobby”. He did it because he liked travelling, and catching a train just happen to be a part of it.
His interest diminished when he came to Australia, and it wasn’t until he retired that it picked up again.
He points to the plethora of railway locomotive paintings in the room. “They don't resonate with me in the same way. I don't have the same feeling for Australian railways that I ever did for the UK”.
He’s definitely still a train enthusiast. “I did a tour back to the UK in fact a few years ago and I did probably 16 railway museums or railway rides in a month. And equally here I've been on things like the Indian Pacific, you know, across to the Perth and, and again up to Darwin and other, other spots, the XPT up to Brisbane and you know, down to Melbourne and so on”.
Looking back on his time volunteering, it’s his handiwork that he’s most proud of. “I think it was fairly early on. The big timber posts that hold up the 109-year-old Roundhouse. I painted those. They're red and white. Quite distinctive. Right. But it took probably the best part of two months”.
It’s the opportunity to connect with the past that keeps Keith here. Walking through the museum, is walking the footsteps that others have taken before out time he says. “You reach a certain stage in life where you perhaps look backwards more than you look forwards”.
Why does he think preservation of the old roundhouse is important? “Much in the same way as we look after our own bodies, you know, we go to the doctor or occasionally at times in life, we need surgery or whatever, whatever it might be. If you don't maintain what you've got, then it will fall into disrepair”.
At the heart of it all is the volunteers. People are needed to get these things done he says. “Doesn't matter how much money you've got, if you haven't got people to do it right, whether they're skilled or unskilled, it doesn't really matter. But you've got to have feet on the ground to actually do those tasks, the restoration tasks”.
David Huntsmead started volunteering at Valley Heights in the early 1990’s.
At community meeting in Springwood, he was part of group who decided to keep the Valley Heights roundhouse from being demolished. He put his hand up to be treasurer.
“The interesting part most of the guys were not railway people, me included. There's no railway physical heritage if you like. In other words, they weren't drivers or firemen or whatever. Most of us knew each other from the local bushfire brigades”.
The roundhouse was being eyed out by some developers; it was in state of disrepair at that point.
“That would have been in the nineties. And then because the place was being destroyed. Can we stand by for one? Can we put this on hold for a second?”
At this point, he swiftly moves towards the door and out the room. Outside, a D-set interurban passenger train is being diesel hauled to Lithgow. It’s something he wanted needed to see.
We walk back in, he stands in position again. Now where were we?
“We've had two aims in this place ever since. Number one is to get as many people through the gate as we can. And the other, which was more critical, is to keep as many termites out as we can, because the termites really get heaps of damage in this place”.
His extensive knowledge of the structural issues of the buildings surrounding us is a testament to his long service to Valley Heights.
Seven segments of the roof blew off in a windstorm many years ago, a blessing in disguise he says.
When the volunteers put in the effort to repair the damage “it's believed that the authorities knew we were serious. It's really that and here we are”.
The unique partnership that exists at Valley Heights works well. Originally, they never thought of running operational trains. Then along came the Steam Tram And Railway Preservation Society. “They got the trams up and running here and operational. We could then run trains down to the station and back and that gave us the operational arm”.
The roundhouse is still connected to the rail network, so according to David “from out there, that turntable, we could end up in Perth or Darwin or anywhere”.
Accounting has gotten a little bit more sophisticated, so he’s no longer treasurer. Someone else is doing that. He’s their Fire Protection Officer now.
“That's the only role I've got now, responsible for making sure all the fire protection is alright and get these, the fire extinguishers have to be inspected all the time”.
He may not have much railway experience, but his grandfather did. “My grandfather retired out of here when it went from steam to electric”.
The use of steam locomotives at Valley Heights ended in the 1960s.
He pauses, looks at his watch, then once again we head out. This time to see a steam locomotive operated by the Lachlan Valley Railway chug by on its way west.
So why did he put his hand up in the first place?
“That's a good question. I think I’ve always been in the volunteer spirit and that's brought about by various organisations that I suppose, all of us are the same, the bush bushfire brigades, the RFS. That of course was all volunteer and that was a catalyst here, that was very important to volunteering. I guess here it was a job that needed to be done”.
Economically, restoring it as a commercial business venture was out of the question. “So, it required volunteer effort to get the thing done”.
He had a little personal interest in the place because of his family.
He believes that volunteering is dying. And there are two reasons for it. “One is people aren't interested. But number two, a lot of the organisations have got too large for volunteer administration, and I've been involved in least three or four of those organisations which no longer want volunteers”.
It’s shame, he thinks, that there aren’t that many young volunteers too.
They’re missing out.
While not entirely interested in trains, he does have an interest in the railway. Makes the museum the perfect place for him. “So that's one of the reasons you volunteer because you like the atmosphere where you're at”.
Despite being surrounded by steam train paraphernalia, his favourite is a Class 46 electric locomotive. He likes electric. His model railway houses “two electric operational trains, toy trains, at home that have functional overhead wiring”.
But he wouldn’t call himself a train enthusiast.
“No, I would say I'd have to say interested. Very interested in railways. Now, I don't go around chasing trains as a general rule, something unusual.
Like what we just had.
Yeah. And I like to see things get preserved and operated and I drive the trains here, the steam trams on the operational days. I'm one of the drivers and firemen for that and I like doing that now ”.
Bruce has a different way to describe himself.
“I'd say sentimentalist, yeah. You see railway enthusiast, railway buffs, I sort of cringe, oh gee, that's the people who count numbers and tick boxes when trains go through”.
That’s not him. His interests have mainly been the history of the steam trams. As a published author, he’s written books on the forgotten tram lines that once existed in Sydney and its surroundings.
“There's been a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but nothing really comprehensive has ever been written on the lines that I've chosen to write about, and there's still a lot more that can be done”.
He describes researching for, and writing, the books as a “lovely exercise, particularly during COVID and the downtime when we weren't operating”. He hopes somebody can get a bit of enjoyment out of them.
He volunteers elsewhere too. He is an altar server in Sydney and once a fortnight he helps feed the homeless giving tea, coffee, and sandwiches. “That's quite rewarding too. That's all very good. So that's, that's another thing that one does with one with one spare time”.
“But you know, in between writing books and being a treasurer of the company and that, you know, I feel there is no such thing as being bored. No such thing at all? No, just. Yeah. I never wake up one morning think. Oh, jeez, I wish, I wish I had something to do, another day in front of the television”.
Grant Robinson would call himself an enthusiast, but he started out as a sleeper member of the Valley Heights Museum meaning all he would do is pay the membership fee to support the local organisation.
“The idea is I paid my money and did nothing else. That's what I did. I really, I was not active. Right. So, I was I just joined because I liked the idea of having a local museum up here in my suburb or my town and wanted to just to express support while I was too busy being a dad and a husband with little children”.
His interest in trains started out with model trains before the real thing. “But when I was in fifth year I started catching a train one stop in Sydney and talking to the station master every morning and then learning how the signalling system worked and just gradually learning. Then I got involved in railway club at high school which that, many high schools had railway clubs in those days and we would go on trips and ride around on steam and ride around everywhere”.
His interest fizzed out as he got older but picked up again in the last 20 years. Grant especially likes the operational side of things and monitoring new developments, such as the Inland Rail.
He eventually ended up deciding to help out one day with the website, something he still does 20 years later.
“I'm now 70, but some of the people have been older than me. That's what these places rely on, people who are going to go the extra mile and do it. I help out on the publicity and also help out on certain open days. So I don't do a lot on site. Most of the stuff done on my desk”.
He’s part of both the Valley Heights Museum and STARPS, where he started 4 years ago. He’s been doing the website for both long before then.
“When we needed a new, when you look at their logo, which is yellow and red, they didn't have it. They had a line drawing, what am I going to do for colour? So, I went to Steve. I got a little steam engine just standing by here and photographed it with a colour camera and picked the yellow and the red out of that.
And that's the logo.
So, just trying to use my limited skills in the communication area, I mean, I'm a science graduate and a statistics graduate, so I'm on, I nearly failed art in year seven, right?”.
He started doing websites through his daytime job when they ran a course on Microsoft Front Page. So, when the volunteer who originally did the website passed away, “I got the keys to the site from his sister and started updating it, then rebuilt it entirely and again trying to implement web standards”.
Grant moved to the Blue Mountains 30 years ago. He was working at Parramatta Station and found the commute from easier.
His greatest memory is from the Valley Heights centenary, back in 2014.
“So, for the centenary of that we actually had, that is the official opening of the museum. And it was a year or so after the devastating wildfires and the Premier of, the Premier at the time was Barry O'Farrell and Gladys Berejiklian was only the Minister for Transport.
So, she was going to do the official speech. But Barry O'Farrell thought I'd like to come. And so he came, and we also had the state governor, and they chartered a special train and brought it up and pulled it into the museum.
And so, we had about 2 or 300 people here for the event. It was a really exciting day, a hot day in January.
It was a very special day.
And that coverage on ABC and Channel 7 live. So, it was good those journalists got to chat and and I'm talking to the federal member when the train come in, it had the, the same locomotive that hauled the 1954 royal tour train, with the same locomotive, in the same colour scheme with two flags and I’m talking to the federal member, watching the train coming and said, well, that's the same train because it had the governor on it. She was unaware of that sort of history.
So, it was sort of nice being part of that”.
The evolution of what has been, both in terms of rolling stock and infrastructure has kept his interests alive.
He points out a painting of a fake train that never existed but would be cool if it did.
“And then you go into the other rooms, you see a bicycle, a display of a bicycle. Why have we got a basket at a railway museum? And the reason is that someone would go and wake up the crews before mobile phones existed and cycle round and knock on the window of the bed where the bloke was sleeping saying you got to come to work and just sort of that, sort of local history things which get forgotten”.
“There's an element of nostalgia to it for my generation. We're going on a trip down memory lane”.
At Valley Heights, he enjoys the opportunity to work with a range of people. “I'm a double graduate and so we've got a mixture of people from low skilled to trades to graduates, the whole lot, all working together”.
“I see a real valuing of the different skills that each bring. I see the trade in the manual skills and think without those guys, this place wouldn't exist. The fellowship and friendship and, and what we're able to deliver to the community, wouldn't exist without them”.
Growing up, he rarely had the money to satisfy his interest in model railways. “And now and I'll tell you, I’ve ended up thousands of dollars’ worth. So as the children started to leave home, I started to save up”.
“And now that retired, I've got what's legally a garage and half of it is set up with a railway and even to the point of being planned for an old fart so that you don't have to duck to get around it. So, it's done with fingers, with bulbous ends so the trains can run around the ends and then go round another bay”.
Gesturing, he explains that he’s got the basic track layout done, and he has a plan for a branch line. But it’s the scenery he’ll work on next.
Back at the museum and it’s the steam tram that of particular interest. The locomotive being restored was photographed in 1926 going along Wollongong Street in the Sydney suburb of Arncliffe, one year before his mother was born.
Out of all that’s been restored at Valley Heights, Keith’s favourite is the Cave’s Express carriage. “It's a big blue and yellow carriage up there that was used on the it was used on the Blue Mountains line in the 1930s and forties. And it was a how can I put it a package holiday train”.
The Caves Express was a passenger service that would take holidaymakers to the Jenolan Caves. “That carriage there encapsulates an era. Again, you talk about memories from the past, but that is right in the category of Agatha Christie, you know, Murder on the Orient Express”.
“But also translate forward to the modern generation because the carriage is also very similar internally to what you would see in Harry Potter, for instance. So, it covers those generational divides. But that brings it all together sort of seamlessly into one exhibit”.
All aboard, it’s time to witness just what these volunteers can do.