Progress Updates

After being entirely stripped down, sand blasted, repaired and painted, our volunteers have now started to re-assemble the vehicle. Fresh decking boards have been installed while the wheels and brake system have also been put back together. It's taken a while to get to this stage but the result is looking amazing. 🙌 With a few more body pieces to attach, the restoration of the body and running gear will be complete, and our volunteers can turn their attention to the motor. Unfortunately, the motor isn't looking as good as the rest of the vehicle and requires a complete [...]

The restoration of the Cooma Railway Institute Tennis Courts is starting to take shape. The transformation has been exciting to watch and the surface is starting to look amazing. 🤩 Originally constructed in 1928 from Ant Hills or Termite Mounts, the courts are almost 100 years old and were built for the railway workers at Cooma and their families. As part of the Cooma Railway Institute restoration, a new retaining wall has been constructed between the oil siding above, new fencing has been installed around the courts, services have been reconnected to the toilet block, and a completely new [...]

With school out for a couple of weeks, some of our Cadets took the opportunity to join our weekday team and continue work on the restoration of one of our VM Ganger Trolleys. This trolley has been completely disassembled and repaired both structurally and cosmetically. The team has been busy priming and painting all the components while learning about how the vehicle is constructed, with reassembly planned for next week. Once the mechanical work has been completed on drivetrain, this vehicle will go in to service with our track crew to assist with inspection and repairs on the track [...]

It was back to the classroom for our volunteers yesterday as we ramp up our training program to increase the number of people that are qualified in various areas of our operation. One of the exciting aspects of our recent training activities is that we've been able to use the recently restored Cooma Railway Institute building to facilitate our training. For decades, railway workers in Cooma would have used this space for their training and education, so it's great to see this occurring one again. We are still putting the finishing touches on the building restoration, but this space [...]

Thanks to the dedication of our brush cutting maestro Caelan, the Snowy Junction railway precinct is slowly coming back to life. With the majority of the vegetation now cleared, we've been able to expose the various remains of the original Snowy Junction yard, as well as a decades worth of wire and rubbish.The waste and remains of the Polo Flat level crossing that was removed a few years ago have also been dumped throughout the grounds which is disappointing, as we will now have to pay for it's disposal. We are currently working on the re-instatement of this level crossing.We [...]

As the word had passed around...well, around our volunteers anyway. Yesterday was a huge day of rolling stock movements in the Cooma yard. The first time in almost a decade that trains have moved along the rails at Cooma. Not only were we able to move Locomotive 3203 into it's new temporary shelter beside the Goods Shed, we were able to re-arrange our heritage wagons so that our current restoration projects, MBC22959 and L759 have been moved into more optimal locations for restoration work. Thank you to all of our volunteers for ensuring that we had such a successful [...]

How time flies! Next week will be 6 months since our museum opened last December, and what an exciting 6 months it has been, with the arrival of Steam Locomotive 3203 and winning the award for Outstanding Visitor Experience at the recent Snowy Monaro Business Awards. Over the past few months, our volunteers have been working on a number of projects that will expand the current museum experience and allow visitors to get up close to some of our heritage rolling stock. One of these projects is the installation of access pathways, linking the Station Platform with other sections [...]

As work continues in preparation for the museum opening, our volunteers have been transforming the areas around the station to ensure our visitors enjoy their visit. Over recent weeks, our team have been working on the southern end of the station, creating an outdoor refreshment area to allow visitors to sit and enjoy some light refreshments while visiting the museum. While there is still gardens to be planted in the coming weeks, we've been able to move the first tables in to place just in time for the September CMR Fresh Produce Markets tomorrow! [...]

It’s not pretty work but it’s important work and another important step toward bringing the precinct back to life. This week we’ve had two teams working on clean-up projects within the precinct. As we’ve been clearing the yard and railway corridor, we’ve accumulated a large collection of scrap steal and rubbish which we’ve now been able to collate and send out for recycling. Across on the northern side of the loco shed, another team have been painstakingly removing years worth of rubbish and debris that have been dumped in the ash pit on the second road. The rubbish has now [...]

It’s been a long journey and almost a decade since trains last graced the rails in the Monaro but we’re definitely on the home stretch. While we are still working through our re-accreditation, our volunteers are starting to prepare for the day that trains will roll once more. Track from the loco shed is being inspected in preparation for some much-needed sleeper replacement between the shed and the yard. Inspections have also begun on our fleet of Railmotors which are still in operational condition but, like any vehicle that sits idle for a decade, they’ll need a little TLC before [...]