[neil_s_wood]

If your are in Melbourne and have nothing to do on the weekend it is well worth a visit to the Australian Railway Historical Society Railway Museum. They have an excellent collection of locomotives, wagons and coaches from all eras and you can climb on board most of them for a good look around. I was pleasantly surprised by how much they had their and was well impressed.

Here are some pictures of what was on offer.

X36 Mainline goods loco

D2604 Beyer Peacock Light passenger loco

N432 Light lines goods loco

R704 Mainline passenger loco

B83 Diesel Electric

S306 Diesel electric mainline loco

Australian Standard Garratt

H220 Heavy goods. Heaviest VR loco (260 tons)

They have website at ARHS Museum

Nearby there is also Science works where they have a collection of steam traction engines, lorries and the like which they occaisionally wheel out. These are pretty good too.

 

[neil_s_wood]

The ARHS museum is open every weekend and also public holidays. They are just left out in the open and some of them are corroding. There isn't nearly as much rain here so it's not as much of an issue as it is at home in the UK, however it would be good to see a roof over them. Unfortunately it would need someone to pay for it and I don't think the museum would generate that much revenue to pay. Shame as they have an excellent collection.

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 14 Apr 2008, 18:12) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>**Nice piccies Neil - its a good place and I visited several times while I lived on the east Coast.
We have a similar museum here in Perth... fortunately.... with a roof!

This happening as they cannot get enough engine drivers to work for them - they just announced a $20,000 per driver annual bonus just for staying on the job - per year for 5 years minimum - this is on top of a seriously BIG (I believe $100,000k+) salary.

Any list memebrs who are train drivers out there that need a job where it is always warm ......OK, hot (but the cabs are air conditioned, and between work sessions, you can live in Perth and be flown to work and back at the company cost too).

Richard
Do you think they would be prepared to train people to do it? For that kind of money I'd start tommorow!

Not sure about living in Perth though.

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (SRman @ 15 Apr 2008, 17:22) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>For those intending to visit Australia, I can also recommend the Port Adelaide Museum in South Australia, which has the advantage of being under cover as well. South Australia has an interesting railway heritage with all three gauges present - 5' 3" Victorian gauge, Standard gauge from NSW, WA and also now, Victoria, and 3' 6", shared with Western Australia and the Northern Territory (and Queensland and Tasmania but with no direct links to those systems). I had the privilege of visiting the Adelaide facility when the British Railway Modellers of Australia (BRMA) South Australian members hosted the Annual Convention last year.

Those who drop in to Melbourne, Victoria are welcome to drop me a PM and we can try to get together to host some railway related activities, given enough notice.
Shame I missed that, still one more reason to go back to Adelaide.