Friday, 28 July 2000, Garran

As winter turns the bend into the third month and straightens up for the Olympics home run, Canberra turns into a virtual city of railway aficionados for the first weekend of August.

Heading the list of patronage for this time of year, the 28th annual Malkara Model Railway and Scale Model Exhibition is being held on the August 5-6.

The venue is the Malkara Special School, Wisdom Street, in Garran. It will open from 10am each day and finish between 4-5pm.

Society volunteers with the ARHS will be manning a stall near the entrance, so they'll be hard to miss! (They'll be the ones with brochures aplenty).

There's sure to be a seminal collection of watchable videos, books to hoard and raves a la railways.

Admission prices are $5 adults; seniors and children $2.

Feedback should be interesting from this year's exhibition, as the ARHS will be rubbing 'stall space' with the likes of CSMEE and Miniature Railway (turf neighbours at Geijera Place, Kingston), Canberra Battle Group, Brindabella Model Railways and over 30 exhibitors of trains, planes and scenic gains. Model cars also get a guernsey.

Friday, 28 July 2000, Canberra

It is worth noting that the yachting fraternity pine for this month, as the August winds blow hard as they assemble plans for embarkation to exotic faraway destinations.

What has this to do with railways and Canberra?

Quite simple, in that the same invisible but 'steely' push may be behind the first weekend of August as the ARHS sallies forth with a program of long and local distance trips on the same weekend of August 5-6.

It may be billed as the escape from wintrified Canberra to the sandy shores of Newcastle, but there is more in the offering than gritty stuff between one's toes for at least 41 passengers who are Novocastria-bound.

They are musicians with the Canberra Wind Symphony (how apt), who will be experiencing the delights of overnight travel in sleeping carriages, via the society's Newcastle Weekender three-day trip.

The society wishes them all the very best as they perform at the NSW Band Championships in the northern city.

What a delight it would be for them to carry off the accolade yet performing at your best and being a good ambassador bodes equally.

The public is also travelling to soak up the experience - and rays - to explore the Hunter Region and the cosmopolitan delights this fair city exudes these days.

On the 'up trip', the society will be taking several TAMs eventually bound for Dorrigo, and on the 'down' we will be acquiring a breakdown crane at Enfield for passage back to the Canberra Railway Museum's yard.

Travel in both directions will be via the Illawarra escarpment, with Sunday morning's return earmarked for a sleeping stop to see the sunrise over yonder Pacific blue, before the ascent to breathtaking Summit Tank and return to Canberra on Sunday afternoon.

Bookings are now being finalised, but with the readies and spare time you're still odds-on to make the platform!

Friday, 28 July 2000, Canberra

If the Canberra ARHS hasn't whetted your appetite for all things railways in early August, perhaps the final act akin to the rabbit out of the hat resides with the mixed metaphors - the ace up their sleeve.

The first and third Sundays of each month 'till early December/Christmas this year sees 1210 steam engine and the consist of end-platform carriages travelling to Royalla for a morning (9.15am) and afternoon (1.45pm) service, departing from Kingston Railway Station in Canberra.

Please note that steam fans can join at Queanbeyan Station for these services (arrival times 9.30am and 2pm) and purchase tickets aboard the Royalla-bound train.

The newly-scheduled 'On Any Sunday' program (details are onlined) also offers rail motor services with vintage Tin Hare CPH 37 travelling to Royalla on the same times for the second, fourth and fifth (when required) Sundays.

Like many motorists who pause - and dream/wax lyrical/why didn't I book? - alongside the snowfields-bound Monaro Highway, they revere the track-side pageantry with joyful waving and the oft obligatory trip back to the film developer the next day.

Note: Waving back to the spectators is optional for our passengers and has been known to gain guest spots on televised national lifestyles programs.

Rail fans can even reverse the trip of their choice and join the train at Royalla Station, where the journey finishes/kick-starts from Canberra.

Bookings are essential for this passage. If you take the morning service back to Canberra, with time permitting, you could also visit the Canberra Railway Museum in Geijera Place, off Cunningham Street, in Kingston.

Otherwise, when you purchase a ticket on any Sunday steam or rail motor service, this entitles admission to the museum and is valid for 8 days from the date of travel.

Canberra Railway Museum is one street over from the Canberra Railway Station, and you can inspect the rolling stock and restoration work of carriages and locos now taking place.

Bring a picnic hamper and marvel at the golden era of steam still unfolding! See bookings details on our site.

Thursday, 18 June 2000, Newcastle

What have a group of musicians, three hired carriages, a breakdown crane, Newcastle and you have in common?

They can all be involved in the one trip. Details are yet to be finalised so watch this space, FCE and the Society's gossip, as things are coming together fast.

OK, the plot. We have a charter to take a group of Canberra youth musicians to Newcastle and back in early August, hence the timing and destination.

We also have three of Dorrigo's carriages, which we have hired, to be returned to them.

We also own a breakdown crane which we have to move out of Enfield to Canberra.

Why not do all in the one trip?

Dorrigo is happy to have the carriages delivered to Newcastle - they have siding accommodation there.

Why not offer our trip, with things to do in Newcastle, to the public?

We can offer our sleeping car accommodation and our usual high standard of on-board meals as a no-worry, take-it-easy, get-out-of-Canberra, escape winter time, see some interesting bits of Newcastle, to anyone.

As I said, all details will be revealed soon when we have added all the nuts and washers to the bolts of arrangements. Keep watching.

Thursday, 8 June 2000, Royalla

Royalla Station now has two meanings. The first is our current operational terminus, used by all trains excpt for the dinner-dance trains which still go to Tarago.

The second is the rural sub-division being carved out of the recently-sold Royalla sheep station which was owned by the Macdonald family.

Entry for construction equipment (roads, bridges, electricity) is currently over the level crossing in the station yard. This is soon to change.

The sub-division has almost finished a road bridge over the line some 50 metres south of the loop.

Gunzels please note, it offers great views of Royalla yard and, when we get it open, trains coming up the grade from Williamsdale.

Land sales on the sub-division have commenced and on Sunday, June 4, we had Toorak Tractors mixing it with 1210 and the end-platform set.

No casualties, due to good lineside protection / supervision and, for once, 1210 being bigger, scarier and definitely louder. (I wonder how many blocks we caused to be sold.)

1210 became the first rail vehicle to pass under the new bridge and was duely photographed for the occasion. When the bridge is opened for road traffic, the access to the sub-division through the station yard will be closed.

A dedicated group of 'gardeners' has been busily removing accumulated grass, thistles and the odd noxious weed from the platform and track surrounds. No traffic meant no weed spraying, and it showed.

Our own weed sprayer is ready, so the yard will soon be sprayed (much to the relief of the gardeners).

The work done looks marvellous. Lindsay Richmond has built two picnic tables for the area behind the platform (three actually, but someone unknown 'liberated' one).

Royalla now looks like an operational siding rather than the overgrown mess of two months ago.

It isn't all finished at Royalla by a long shot.

We are seeking Heritage Unit funding for wood to renew the platform face. A substantial length of the face fell down about a year or so ago and the remainder is almost at the condemning point.

The fallen area has been cleared, ready to work on, including the removal of the stumps of the platform from below ground level.

Temporary lights are to be installed on the former railway phone line poles to light the platform during RailRoad Restaurant stop-overs. The power will be drawn from the on-train 240v supply. At present some portable lights are set up after the train arrives but these do not provide light on enough of the area.

The sub-division developer and the Society each want to cooperate further at Royalla, for mutual benefit.

Ideas include a market to co-incide with our running days that will draw interest to the railway and develop community interest in the sub-division. The railway already features in ads for the sub-division, to our benefit.

Royalla is on the way to becoming somewhere instead of a nowhere in the midst of not much. Our agenda must be to provide a building with facilities to match, so watch this space.