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PRESIDENT'S LETTER Ben Greeneklee A minor derailment of a charter train on Saturday 28th August is reported elsewhere on these pages. Ben has circulated a letter to members which in part reads: "Whilst this derailment is disappointing it is not to be seen as a crisis of any sort. We have had our challenges before and we have risen to the occasion every time. Indeed, it is these challenges that test and ultimately strengthen us through what we learn, experience and gain knowledge from. On the day the situation was handled very well. This was commented on the day and on Monday afternoon the couple who were married that day and who chartered the train were interviewed on radio (ABC 891). They were extremely praiseworthy of SteamRanger and how the situation was handled. After I heard their interview and what they said, I could not be more proud of the people who make the SteamRanger Heritage Railway go. Full credit to all involved; the crew and on train staff, train control and others called in at the spur of the moment." The full text of Ben's letter and an associated press release can be downloaded HERE

FORTHCOMING SERVICES SUNDAY and WEDNESDAY COCKLE TRAINS Sundays and Wednesdays year round Three return trains from Goolwa at 10.00am, 12.15pm and 2.45pm, return train from Victor at 11.00am, 1.30pm and a one way trip to Goolwa at 3.45pm. Operated with vintage "Brill" or "RedHen" railcar or diesel loco and vintage carriages. Tickets at stations on the day! IMPORTANT NOTE - Due to trackwork at Middleton there will be no service to and from Victor or Pt Elliot on Wednesday 15th Sept - an alternative train will run to Currency Creek departing from Goolwa at the usual times HOLIDAY COCKLE TRAINS Daily 26th Sept to 10th Oct Three return trains from Goolwa at 10.00am, 12.15pm and 2.45pm, return train from Victor at 11.00am, 1.30pm and a one way trip to Goolwa at 3.45pm. Usually operated with vintage "Brill" or "RedHen" railcar or diesel loco and vintage carriages. Tickets at stations on the day! THE STRATHLINK from Victor and Goolwa to Strathalbyn Monday October 4th From Victor at 11.00am, Goolwa at 11.35am, across the Currency Creek bridge. Featuring our restored "Brill" railcar Tickets should be pre-booked at Victor or Goolwa or by ringing 1300 655 991 THE BUGLE RANGER from Mt Barker to Strathalbyn Monday June 14th, then 4th Sunday each month An excellent family outing by heritage railcar. Departing Mt Barker at 2.00pm we travel southwards over the crest of the Mt Lofty Ranges to the now abandoned country station at Bugle Ranges.Just $13 round trip for adults, $7 for children 5 and over. Tickets at Mt Barker station on the day THE HIGHLANDER from Mt Barker to Strathalbyn Second Sunday each month Train departs Mt Barker at 10.30am, returning by 3.00pm Nearly four hours at Strath for lunch and to explore the antique shops. For bookings and more details call 1300 655 991 THE SOUTHERN ENCOUNTER to Goolwa and Victor First and third Sundays of each month From Mt Barker at 10.00am, with a three hour stopover in Victor for lunch and perhaps a horse tram ride to Granite Island. Back to Mt Barker around 6.15pm. For latest info and bookings call 1300 655 991 THE TWILIGHTER TO STRATHALBYN Saturday October 30th. Fom Mt Barker at 6.30pm, returning by 11.15pm A unique Saturday evening adventure. A heritage Railcar departs Mt. Barker and travels to historic Strathalbyn for a twilight country style dinner at one of the town's "pubs". Ideal for a Social club or group outing. BASIL'S CHRISTMAS DINNER A date for your diary! December 4th and 11th Bookings are now open through our call centre on 1300 655 991 Click HERE for latest details and menu FULL DETAILS ON ALL TRAINS

RAILFEST 2010 VICTOR and GOOLWA In between loco duties volunteer Kevin Marzahn snapped a few photos of station activities Click HERE to visit our PHOTOALBUM page and see these photos at near full screen size

Bookings now available on-line from your computer

SteamRanger is now a partner with the S.A. Tourism Commission in providing an on-line booking facility for most of our trains. The SATC has contracted a specialist IT provider to provide on-line booking services at minimal cost to smaller tourism bodies such as SteamRanger and we hope this facility will greatly increase our visibility across Australia.

A large number of accomodation providers and tourism operators (including Pichi Richi and the NRM) have been using the service for some time. Bookings will still be available by phone, email, by letter and at stations if you do not wish to use the internet facility.

WHAT'S RUNNING? We feature a number of different locos and railcars on our services Here's what we expect to be running for the next month or so Southern Encounter DE958 from Mt Barker with steel cars. Highlander DE958 from Mt Barker with steel cars Cockle Trains Brill 60 railcar or diesel DE507 depending upon expected passenger loads Main line diesel DE958 on days when the Southern Encounter runs. StrathLink Brill 60 railcar No steam at this stage Please note, however, that there may be last minute changes to this schedule due to any number of circumstances. If you really want to know the latest, email us a few days ahead of the service or watch this page for updates.

THE DOLLARS AND CENTS Our financial performance in 2009 Income Operations - $450,000 Donations to Museum - $21,570 Asset Sales - $67,214 Other income - $83,768 Expenditure Cost of Sales                    of Operations - $57,630 Maintenance - $196,030 Infrastructure - $53,710 Track - $181,212 Other Costs - $115,421 Profit for 2009 - $67,263 2008 profit - $167,490 The auditor's report attributes this reduction to a significant reduction in Government grants of $236,000 in 2009, offset to some extent by a consequential reduction in expenditure of $78,000

SOUTHERN FLEURIEU REGION VOLUNTEERS GROUP Alexandrina Council's Mayor, Kym McHugh (below) was the guest speaker at the Group's February meeting. His discussed his Council's pasionate long term intentions towards further development of the Goowa Wharf area. This included ongoing support for SteamRanger, the "Oscar W", the barge "Dart" and the redevelopment of the "Signal Point: building as a function centre, cafe and display area, now that the Information Centre has relocated to the old Post Office building. He indicated Council would actively support installation of a loco turntable at Goolwa if a well argued case was put up by SHR. Attendees acknowledge that this was a welcome and encouraging response. The April meeeting was addressed by Brian Busch, SHR's Operations and Rail Safety Manager who privided a briefing on nthe May "RailFest" weekend and John Benford, newly appointed HR Manager who discussed some initiatives to recuit more active volunteers.. If you live on the coast and would like to become involved in this group just call Ray Green on 8555 0595

Ross Houston - another of SteamRanger's early members passes away

Members and colleagues will be saddened to hear of the passing of another of SHR's very earliest volunteers, Ross Houston, on the 4th September, ironically just as he was leaving Elizabeth Oval after seeing his beloved Bulldogs confirmed as SANFL minor premiers.

Ross, shown here standing proudly in uniform in front of a marketing display at Victor station with his wife Doreen, was one of the team who joined us at our old Dry Creek Depot in the 1980s. Both Ross and Doreen were inaugural recipients of our Gold Certificate of Appreciation for services to SHR in 2003.

Always prepared to speak his mind when needed and with a ready wit, Ross enthusiastically worked in a range of areas, especially after his early retirement as a technical planner with the Department of Defence at Salisbury - with catering, track work, on trains and as a stationmaster and ticket seller. A few more words on Ross's contributions will follow in the next week or so.

Our thoughts are with Doreen and his family. A funeral service will be held at Salisbury on Friday 10th September.

      Trains from Mt Barker cancelled on 5th and 12th September

ABC News on Saturday evening August 28th reported that a SteamRanger charter train incident had stranded wedding guests (look here)

The report continued "A tourist train carrying wedding guests has derailed in the Adelaide Hills, leaving about 100 passengers stranded. Guests say the wedding party hired the SteamRanger train on a round trip from Mount Barker to Strathalbyn for the wedding ceremony. Passenger Jonathon Wright says no-one was injured when the train derailed in a paddock about 60 kilometres from its destination. "The wheels of the carriage have broken the sleepers," he said. "There's been rain and it's made the rails unstable and it's meant that one of the carriages has come off and caused it damage and left us at a standstill."

Arrangements were made to collect the guests by bringing a RedHen railcar from Mt Barker to take them to their intended destination. The "lucky couple" were interviewed on Sonja Feldhoff's drive programme on ABC radio on the following Monday and described how they really appreciated being able to travel in the historic wooden panelled carriages, were well looked after by SHR volunteers and with the amply food and champers on board were able to continue to celebrate on-board until the RedHen arrived. They encouraged listeners to contribute donations to SHR to help get the service back on the track.

The carriages involved have now been removed back to our depot but it will take some time to repair the track. As a consequence the "Southern Encounter" and the "Highlander" trains on the 5th and 12th September have had to be cancelled. Passengers with bookings have been contacted by our booking officers. SteamRanger regrets any passenger inconvenience.

A Press Release and Open Letter to Members, Staff, Volunteers and supporters has been issued by the ARHS President, Ben Greeneklee, and can be read HERE

Mechanical Services

It is with great pleasure that we can now report that negotiations with a private donor have been successful in obtaining the funds for the boiler work required on loco 621 "The Duke of Edinburgh" and orders have been placed to obtain attractively priced new tubes from Europe with delivery in Adelaide in late 2010. More details below

As a replacement for retired Mt Barker depot fitter Ron Williams, Shaun Cassidy, will begin full time employment with SR at MB in July. Shaun is currently employed by BP in Brisbane maintaining their steam turbine plant. We look forward to his arrival.


Rx207     The Rx is our first priority for return to active service. Progress highlights to mid June are:

• Tender     Extensive crack testing of the tender axles revealed a number of longitudinal cracks of which have been ground out and re-tested satisfactory results. All tender bogie springs and links have been returned to us with refurbished spring eye holes, new mounting pins, spring link bushes renewed and new link mounting pins.
  
  
• Engine links and pins     Similar modifications have been implemented to all engine spring mounting links and pins as they are manufactured to provide grease lubrication to components that previously ran dry or relied upon excess oil dripping from axle boxes to provide lubrication. Lubrication modifications should ensure these badly worn components provide a much longer service life than before as most were refurbished or renewed in the 2000 overhaul.
  
  
• Pony Truck     Trial fitting of the pony truck swing centre was carried out with all refurbished links, bushes and pins providing smooth operation of the swing centre throughout its travel. The pony truck frame is currently at contractor HeavyMech for line boring of the centre spring supports and renewal of worn bushes. Trial fitting of the pony truck springs and cradles identified excessive clearances between spring mounting links and pins contributed by excessive wear in all pins, links and spring cradle bushes. All have been shipped to LRD Engineering for rectification.
  
  

• Boiler     It is with great pleasure that we can now report that negotiations with a private donor have been successful in obtaining the funds for the boiler work. This will cover purchase of flues and tubes to order immediately ex Willingale Tube Manipulation and Fabrication U.K. Tubes will be manufactured in Germany and swaging and belling of the ends carried out by Willingale. Further funding by the donor is being provided to outsource the boiler works (boring of tube plate and tube installation) to RCR Energy Services (AKA Tomlinson Boilers). Supply and shipping of all materials for this work will take 6 months and is expected to land in Adelaide sometime in December. You may recall the comparison of cost from a local supply in Australia as opposed to overseas supply was a saving of almost half the cost including shipping.
  
  
• Firebox     Separate work has been performed throughout the firebox with extensive thickness testing being carried out of all surfaces showing up some areas requiring minor repairs to the side plates. A not so good area is the lower radius section of the firebox combustion chamber showing thickness has reached it condemning level. Repairs will require a reasonably large section of the combustion chamber to be cut out and renewed also requiring the replacement of somewhere near 100 flexible ball stays. This task is not beyond the capabilities of our own volunteers and is not expected to delay the project as this repair can be carried out concurrently with other boiler work.

Certificates of Appreciation presented to 25 longserving volunteers

At each Annual General Meeting of the AHRS (SA Division), SteamRanger's parent body certificates are presented to volunteers that have contributed to SHR over a sustained period or have contributed to a major Committee or project.

On the 29th April 2010 President Ben Greeneklee presented gold certificates marking 16 years of service to Peter Barry, Trevor Clift, Wes Johnson, Jim Markey, Peter Wood and Graeme Strudwick (pictured) for their contributions to operations, mechanical services and infrastructure.

Silver certificates signifying 8 years service were awarded to Craig Dunstan, John Gordon, Kate Greeneklee, Ted Mason and Pam Sullivan and four year certificates to Dylan Badenoch, Jarrod Barker, Mike Bruer, Angas Fox, Peter Harvey, Rosemary Kelly, Shirley Keynes, Keith King, Peter Lambert, Ron Norrell, Neville Pauly, Alan Potter, Sue Slade, and Steve Stratford.

We sincerely thank all the recipients and hope to see them around for many more years!

    to see the full list of recipients since the award scheme was initiated in 2004.

SHR obtains two more RedHen railcars

• Car 424 from the Limestone Coast group in the South East will be used as an operational car. It is currently at Mt Gambier and after delivery to Mt Barker it will require a significant effort to ensure its operational reliability and meet rail safety accreditation.
  
  
• Car 435 from Yorke Peninsula Rail will be loaned to the operators of the Station Master's Art Gallery at Strathalbyn station in order to provide them with additional space for display and classes. SHR will salvage usable mechanical parts before the carriage is placed in the siding behind the platform adjacent to the Gallery rooms. The gallery will be responsible for upkeep and insurance costs.

We don't have a recent photo of our new acquisitions, but here's Peter Michalak's photo
of their sister Car 412 at Goolwa on Good Friday with a Cockle Train consist

Autumn Marketing Activities

Three major events were held in the autumn of 2010 to help promote our services and tell the general public that we are still "in business" even though our steam locos are still not available.

• From Thursday 15th April to Sunday 18th we cooperated with other heritage rail operators to again stage the "State of Steam" promotion in Rundle Mall The display featured this "Bagnall" steam loco from Cobgogla and there was a free competition to win top class tickets to Darwin on the "Ghan" and lots of other promotional prizes.
  

  The above photo shows a general view of the displays under the Gawler Place - Rundle Mall canopy, with the SHR stand at the rear to ther left of the loco.

  Staffing the display for three days required a roster of volunteers, neatly dressed in SHR uniforms and we were able to draw on a number of more senior people including Malcolm Thompson (left) and Bruce McLean (right)
  
  
  
  

• Bluestone Jazz Trains - Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd May
  
  

  SteamRanger ran special Jazz Trains during the Mount Barker JAZZfest between the Mt Barker Railway Station and the picturesque Bugle Ranges. The one hour Railcar trip aboard the Bluestone Jazz Train will departed on both days at 1.00pm & 3.00pm with an extra morning trip at 11.00am on the Sunday. The service was operated with a typical suburban three car "RedHen" consist.

  Tickets were just $10 and children under five travelled free. The talented and popular Peter Hooper Trio provided jazz entertainment on the train. The Sunday train replaced the scheduled Bugle Ranger service on that day.

  Even though the weather, particularly on the Sunday, was very cold with drizzly rain the trains were well patronised with up to 150 passengers on some trains.
  
  
  

• Fleurieu RailFest
  
  And on May 29th and 30th SteamRanger worked with various South Coast and other heritage groups to stage a Rail Festival at both our south coast stations during the statewide History Week. The detailed planning of our contribution was handled by south coast volunteers John Benford, Don Snow and Philip Neville, captured here with a sponsor's representative and Tourism Centre operator on Victor station

  There was a history display at Pt Elliot, at Goolwa visitors were able to view heritage vehicles, military vehicles, a traction engine, and a 25-pounder military field gun, and at Victor there were bands, buskers, barbershop quartets and arts and crafts. SHR trains featuring DE958, Brill60 and RedHen railcars operated between Victor, Goolwa, and Currency Creek on both days

  Unfortunately as Peter Michalak's photo of 958 heading across the plains with some impressive rainclouds as a backdrop shows, the weather was very much against us with a total of 23mm of rain falling over the two days and temperatures hovering around 15degsC.

  Only around 300 passengers in total travelled on the 12 scheduled return services between Goolwa and Victor with main line diesel DE958 and Brill railcar 60 and the 8 return trips from Goolwa to Currency Creek and return with a RedHen consist over the two days.

  Buffet car 602 was set up at Victor Harbor and SHR souvenirs were on sale at both stations with fairly minimal trading.
  
  

  Click HERE for more details on this event
         

Goolwa Tourism numbers down in 2010

The May 27th issue of the Victor Harbor "Times" newspaper featured a lengthy analysis of Goolwa tourism. The article coincided with the relocation of the Goolwa Tourist Information Centre (VIC) from Signal Point to a more visible location in the old Post Office building in the main street. Greater visitor numbers are anticipated in this location. Locals feel the new location should also provide better linkage between the main street and the Goolwa Wharf area.

Goolwa visitation statistics reveal that tourist numbers at the VIC were down in March 2010, compared to the previous year. During the 2010 March quarter centre visitors totalled 15,981, 21 per cent lower than the 2009 March quarter. Analysis of the statistics shows 47% of visitors in the March 2010 quarter were from South Australia, 33% were from interstate and 18% were from overseas.

This is a concern for local business associations in the region. President of the Southern Alexandrina Business Association John Clark said the situation with water levels obviously hindered tourists coming to Goolwa and problems such as the drought and the global financial crisis have also had some sort of impact. "We're not seeing the interstate visitors or any Asian or European tourists either" he commented. "State wide, the numbers are down across all regions and that's confirmed by the South Australian Tourism Commission What we're particularly concentrating on is to ensure that we entice visitors to stay longer and spend money."

Welcome to our new Human Resources Manager - John Benford

We announced late last year that Andrew McDonough had called it a day as our Human Resources Manager. Many thanks Andrew for your contributions over many years. Andrew will be replaced by South Coast resident and new SHR volunteer John Benford .

John comes from a longstanding railway family in the UK. His father, grandfather and great grandfather all worked for the Great Western Railway out of Paddington Station. Being born on an estate set up for GWR workers, he comments that steam and railways are very much in his blood!

He recalls that his greatest railway thrill was in the early 70s when he was aiming to travel from Paddington to Reading. His neighbour was the driver so he joined him up-front on a Warship class diesel - "We nearly had strife close to Reading when traction was lost due to autumn leaves on the main line, but we got through".     Recently, visiting the NRM at York he recalls looking outside into the yard and seeing a very "flash" steam loco being fired up. Only next day did he learn that it was the first steam loco built in UK since heaven knows when.

John sounds like exactly the team member we need. In the immediate future, while he "learns the ropes" John will be assisted by Andrew in the areas of Rail Safety medicals and First Aid.

And another new Team Member - Peter Michalak

Over recent years a succession of Marketing Managers have used various resources to manage our "Marketing" internet website, with a number of alternative designs being trialled.

These pages are squarely targetted at the general public who might be our potential train travellers and provide details on services, fares and timetables. They complement the "enthusiast" pages that you are now reading, which are compiled by Bob Green .

We have now been fortunate to be able to recruit IT specialist and enthusiastic railway photographer and railway modeller Peter Michalak to create and maintain an exciting "new look" design for the marketing pages. This should be up and running very soon.

Peter has a range of railway photos on his "flickr" pages on the internet and looks after various other web resources.

Use your browser BACK button to return to this page.

Easter and April School Holiday Running

The Cockle Train was run daily from 1st to 18th April to cover Easter and the immediately following school holiday period. The normal three train service was expanded to add a late afternoon railcar trip with Brill 60 at Easter. The bulk of the work was done with DE507 hauling three or four passenger cars and Brill 60 railcar, due to the unavailability of any of our steam locos at the moment. Main line diesel electric loco 958 was featured at weekends and on some Wednesdays.

A special feature was the presence of our "Easter Bunny" on some trips on Easter Sunday. Although some days were well patronised passenger numbers overall were some 20% down on 2009 which reflected overall visitor numbers in the area to some extent.

A special Cockle Train trip was organised during the holidays for a tourism group of 62 from the Fleurieu for B&B operators and staff and volunteers from the Victor HArbor Tourist INformation Centre. Main Line diesel 958 headed the train which was filmed by a Japanese film crew.

This intensive running programme puts a heavy load on the small band of volunteers available at this time of the year and we sincerely thank them for breaking into their holiday plans to keep SHR running.

This very atmospheric photo of Brill 60 crossing the Alexandra Bridge on the outskirts of Victor Harbor towards the end of the holiday period was sent to us by Michael Stokes. Thanks Michael!

Infrastructure

• Mt Barker based Track Gang     Robert Haebich's team commenced their annual burning off of the accumulated foliage heaps that exist between Mt. Barker & Strathalbyn. They have made good progress so far and have passed Philcox Hill heading for Strathalbyn. They also made their first run to Strathalbyn in a long time to prune back some trees that were bypassed by an earlier tree pruning train. As a side entertainment they counted a mob of 21 kangarooos just past Philcox Hill and on the same day saw their first Koala near Bugle Ranges
  
  
• Middleton Bridge     Restoration work was performed at the Middleton Bridge during the April school holidays. One outstanding task has been the re-pointing of the stone abutments. The original pointing had been scoured away over many years.
  
  
• Culvert rebuilding at Mt Barker     With a major development next to the railway line near Hurling Drive in Mt Barker there has been a need to install a new enlarged culvert under the line to take the storm water run-off from this housing development. Contractors were engaged to perform the track demolition and reconstruction.
  
  
• Major Resleepering     Renewal of 700 sleepers and has seen our volunteers working four days a week in the Goolwa to MIdleton section. In the first week of June, ballast was dropped and our ballast regulator was put to good use pulling in the shoulders along the track to allow subsequent tamping.
  
  
• Crossings     A new pedestrian crossing has been built at Dutton Rd in Mt Barker. In this instance the opportunity was found to replace all sleepers under the crossing with concrete to ensure longevity and minimise maintenance. The level crossings at Native Ave and Bonython Rd in the Mt Barker to Bugle Ranges section have been asphalted under funding obtained by the District Council of Mt Barker Black Spot programme.
  
  
• Signals     Work is continuing to install crossing signals at Hurling Drive, Mt Barker. The required electrical equipment cabinmet has been received from the supplier and cabling is about to be installed. All site conduits and concrete bases have been installed. Routine maintenance continues on all our level crossings, shared between Transfield Services and SHR's signal group via an interface agreement. Extra maintenance and upgrades are usually performed by SHR with a major focus of recent times being the refurbishment of gongs. The first four of these have now been installed at crossings in Strathalbyn.
  
  

National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide

In 1988 the museum was fortunate enough, with the involvement of the History Trust of SA, to obtain a $2m Australian Bicentennial Commemorative Grant to relocate to its current site at Port Adelaide. Later Centenary of Federation funding allowed construction of the Commonwealth Railway Museum within the museum's precinct

The Museum features train rides, exhibits and displays. Its activities include a sales centre, tours and the publication of a national magazine as well as the operation of a tourist steam railway along the beachfront at Semaphore. The Museum is open from 10 am until 5 pm every day of the year except Christmas Day.          Click to visit the NRM website.

Preserved and Tourist Rail in New Zealand

The New Zealand equivalent of ATHRA (see panel to the left) is FRONZ, the Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand has an interesting website which gives a good overview of heritage rail operations in NZ.

Unfortunately it does not include downloadable copies of their excellent newsletter "Federation Journal".

Railway Technical Society of Australasia SA Chapter

Association of Tourist Railways (Victoria)