Community

Cooma Monaro Railway is really excited to be part of the Monopoly Snowy Mountains Edition game that was launched last Friday in Jindabyne and be presented with our property tile. Not only do we have our own transport square, we also have a chance card in the game. Produced by Service One Mutual, Monopoly Snowy Mountains is a community edition with proceeds from the game supporting 3 great community organisations in the Snowy Mountains, Community Chest, LAOKO and Ski Patrol. If you haven't seen the game yet, do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy. It's Snowy Mountains [...]

Thanks to the support from Snowy Hydro and their Community Grants Program, we've been able to fit out our newly restored Railway Institute Building with some much needed equipment.The facility is now equiped with a 75-inch touch screen display and a high definition video conferencing system which is perfect for hosting meetings and training sessions.Once the restoration of the building is complete, the facility will provide a much needed meeting and training venue for our local community. We look forward to sharing it with everyone soon!

This week is Tracksafe National Rail Safety Week where we raise awareness of our railways to help keep everyone safe, especially in regional areas like Cooma. Unlike many other railways, the railway corridor at Cooma has only recently become active again after a period of inactivity which can result in people assuming that trains won't be operating and potentially putting themselves into a situation where they might be in danger. This includes cars at road level crossings and pedestrians crossing the tracks. We would like to remind everyone to take care around the railway corridor and Expect the Unexpected. [...]

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of presenting to our peers at the Transport Heritage NSW Sector Development Day about our museum and the lessons we've learnt over the first 12 months of operation. It was great to reflect on our success since opening in December 2022 and look back at all the amazing work that our volunteers have completed over many years to make the museum a reality. It was also great to hear so much positive feedback from our peers. At the conclusion of the day, we had the opportunity to tour the new Heritage Hub storage facility [...]

Thanks to the generous support of the Cooma Ex-Services Club through the ClubGRANTS program, CMR were able purchase a new UNIMIG multi-process welder. The welder will become an important part of our toolkit and will assist our team of volunteers with a variety of projects, including restoration work on our heritage rolling stock, repair and maintenance work on our rolling stock as well as other projects around the railway precinct as we look to expand the visitor experience. It also provides an opportunity for our youth volunteers to further develop their skills. As we work to expand our miniature [...]

Thanks to a generous donation from Snowy Monaro Regional Council, we were recently able to install an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) at Cooma Railway Station. These devices can be the difference between life and death, and we are grateful to have been given this opportunity for our volunteers, visitors and residents of Cooma. While we hope it doesn't need to be used, it's reassuring to know that it is available. Thank you to Snowy Monaro Regional Council for your support.

This week we celebrate Tracksafe Rail Safety Week, which is timely with the announcement that trains will be returning to the Monaro. The theme for this year is Expect the Unexpected, which is extremely important to remember for people who live, work or travel along the section of railway line between Chakola and Cooma. When a railway line has been inactive for a period of time, it's easy to become complacent and not approach the railway the caution that we should. 🙋‍♀️It is important to remember: 🔸 Access to an active railway corridor is restricted to authorised personnel only [...]

Over recent months, we've been asked quite regularly about our current position on the proposed Monaro Rail Trail. Our position hasn't changed and we fully support the development of a walking and cycling trail within the railway corridor that is built to the side of the existing track formation, allowing for tourist trains and trail users to share the corridor. There has been a lot of talk about this concept, but unfortunately, there are some suggestions that a shared concept is not possible, and the only way to construct a rail trail is to completely remove the railway infrastructure [...]

Over the last weekend, a delegation from CMR had the pleasure of attending the 2023 Australasian Tourist and Heritage Railway Conference in Victoria. Hosted in the stunning new Visitors Centre at Lakeside on the Puffing Billy Railway, we had the opportunity to hear from many of our colleagues from across the country, and discuss some of the challenges that we're all facing in the industry at the moment. We were also very proud to see our very own Safety Manager, Stuart Thyer, presenting a great piece on the lessons learnt from the development of our new Safety Management System. [...]