Track

During early November the track team worked between Finniss and Gilberts (north of Goolwa) replacing a total of 200 sleepers and then moved on to Goolwa to install a further 72. Altogether this hard working group have this year replaced over 1200 sleepers, nearly 5000 rail spikes, 2500 sleeper plates and 960 feet of rail.

Environmental Management

And here's an end-of-year photo of Robert Haebich's Mount Barker based team - our Xmas photo of Malcolm Merritt, Peter Keynes, Doug MacKenzie & Greg Mill with "Big Ted" their Xmas mascot - Robert the photographer obviously misssing!. Big Ted comes out with them once a year to celebrate Xmas; he spends the rest of the year locked away in a shed at Mt. Barker. We found him discarded along the track years a go and rescued him as our Xmas mascot.

Sadly, Monday the 19th November was the last day for the team's long serving volunteer Greg Mill, who has decided to pack in SHR volunteering and go walkabout Australia in his caravan. His humour and weekly efforts will be sorely missed out on the track. This means we are down to 4 regular volunteers for our Monday Gang so if you know someone who doesn't mind a bit of hard work, is prepared to get up early once a week and would enjoy a good day out on the track, let Robert Haebich know. We're told the team's lunchtime BBQ's are very enjoyable as well - Greg used to say he only came for the BBQ!

75th Birthday train of "621" from Mt Barker to Victor Harbor
                    - Saturday 17th September

Steam loco 621 was introduced to SAR service in 1936, having been designed and built in Adelaide at a cost of $28,282. It was named "The Duke of Edinburgh" by the Governor in April 1971. To commemorate the event 621 headed a mainly "first class" train from Mt Barker to Victor Harbor on Saturday September 17th, with sleeping car "Finniss", first class car 503, Tavern Car "Bowmans" and a 700 class country economy car.

At Goolwa passengers were offered a wine tasting, took a river cruise on the paddlesteamer "Oscar W" and were provided with lunch lunch and then a celebratory piece of birthday cake as part of the travel package. Then a spirited run to Victor and home to Mt Barker arriving there at 6.00pm. All first class seats were fully booked with only a sprinkling of empty economy seats.

The event received good publicity in the press, radio and TV. Long serving Mechanical Services volunteer Ian Johnston was interviewed by ABC host Ashley Walsh (right) , the extended interview being played during radio 891's breakfast program. By coincidence, Ashley's father was a railwayman 50 years or so ago, and he toyed briefly with following him into the railways before choosing the media.

The trip was followed by a enthusiast "tribe" of railway photographers who have submitted some of their shots for inclusion here. The following are just some samples; more can be seen on our "photoalbum" page

   

   

   

Brenton, Craig, Kevin (loco crew) Cliff (guard)	Peter & Margaret
Gill and Trevor	Bill and Anne

 

More photos of both these services and the earlier 621 Birthday Train can be seen on our photoalbum page

CLICK HERE.

  Farewell Alan Raphael

Older ARHS members will note with some sorrow the recent passing of highly valued committeeman Alan Raphael who passed away in mid September. Alan joined the ARHS in 1971 and was appointed Senior Vice President in 1977 and filled the role of Secretary from 1983 to 1990 - some 7 years.

An ARHS colleague through those years, Dean Harvey, wrote a "Farewell to Alan" in the October issue of the ARHS Newsletter distributed to members. Dean outlined Alan's professional career as a Chartered Accountant, Certified Tax Agent and Fellow of the Institute of Accountants. He commented that Alan was "as smart as a tack" with a "phenominal memory". Surprisingly Alan never owned or personally used a computer. He married his wife Carlien in 1958 and was never far from SteamRanger operations, he and his family travelling on well over 100 ARHS excursions across the State and with a holiday house at Chiton Rocks overlooking our line was always ready to wave encouragingly at passing trains.

Dean's final words in his "Farewell" were - "Alan Raphael, a staunch friend, nature's gentleman and a kind and generous man."

  Last long distance train from Mt Barker as fire season kicks in

Well patronised steamhauled Southern Encounter and HighLander services in November marked the last services from Mt Barker until the Adelaide Hills fireban restrictions relax in late May.

This doesn't however mean a long layoff for locos 621 and Rx207. Both locos will be used during the December / January Cockle Train season - 621 working most trains from December 26th to January 8th and Rx207 taking over for the next two weeks, provided, as we always say "crew and loco availability permitting".

Ace railway photographer Roger Currie (and quite a few other SHR volunteers) travelled on the last Southern Encounter and has sent us some photos of the movement, a couple of which are included here.

   
621 shunts past the heritage railway goodshed             Peter Brown, Craig Dunstan & Kevin Marzahn

  Busy Holiday Cockle Train program for Rx207

Rx207 provided the main "Cockle Train" motive power during the first three weeks of October when we ran three return trains every day between Goolwa and Victor Harbor on 19 consecutive days - quite a rostering task to provide loco crews and on-train and station based operations volunteers. Our three qualified steam enginemen, Ian Johnston, Brenton Job and Peter Brown were able to juggle their work and other outside commitments to operate the Rx on most days, includng early morning loco preparation, and lets not forget the firemen too! This left only two or three days when we had to fall back on diesel drivers to schedule trains using DE507 and Brill 60 - a great commitment guys!.

In amongst the Cockle Train services "Southern Encounter" and "Highlander" trains were also run from Mt Barker to Victor using loco 621 on Sundays 2nd and 16th, and from Mt Barker to Strathalbyn on the 9th. The "Strathlink" from Goolwa to Strathalbyn ran on Monday 3rd (with a service on the 10th unfortunately cancelled due to poor patronage)

The massive task of rostering on-train and station staff required much bribery and cajoling from Roster Officer, Bev Sawyer - around 10 volunteers required each day, not to mention staffing the trains from Mount Barker!

And in the end it was all well worthwhile - averaging around 125 return passenger journeys a day over the 19 days, not counting all the little tackers that we allow to ride for free! Income up about 45% up on last October holidays; helped no doubt by the return of steam in September and all the press and TV coverage which resulted.

  Steam loco 621 now back in regular service from Mt Barker!

Mechanical Services Manager, Craig Dunstan, wishes to pass on his most sincere appreciation and thanks to all SteamRanger staff and volunteers that put many long hours to make this project a success. Without our dedicated and passionate workforce reality like this could be no more than a pipe dream. Thank you also goes out to the partners, wives and families who permit our volunteers time away from family duties to enjoy their interest and help make SteamRanger the successful organisation it is today.

621 subsequently hauled a special 75th Anniversary train (see below) on the 17th September and then regularly scheduled Southern Encounter and Highlander services which will run until the fireban season kicks in at the end of November, fire restrictions permitting.

• The Southern Encounter was completely booked out on its next scheduled running day on Sunday 18th September with a consist leaving Mt Barker of four centenary passenger cars (56, 69, 61, 62), two steel cars (704, 706) and centenary buffet 83. This required double heading with DE958 between Mt Barker and Philcox Hill on the southbound movement.
  
  
• Steam loco Rx 207 and three centenaries (70, 71, 82) were added at Goolwa for the 12.15 Cockle Train movement across to Victor.
  
  
• The 13.30 Cockle Train back to Goolwa and return was operated with 621 and centenaries whilst Rx207 worked to Goolwa Depot light engine.
  
  
• The full consist subsequently departed Victor at 15.45 behind 621, the added Cockle Train cars were detached at Goolwa Depot and the return Southern Encounter double headed back to Mt Barker.

 

      2011 Awards of Appreciation Announced

Another traditional activity took place at the 2011 Annual General Meeting in late April, when retiring President Ben Greeneklee announced awarding of Appreciation Certificates to sixteen longserving volunteers. Awards are made in three categories reflecting lenth of service.

Gold Awards were made to John Dawson, Andrew Dale and Denis Richardson.

Silver Awards went to David Carter, Steven Davey, Amanda Hickman, Simon Job, Peter Keynes, Shirley Keynes, John Kuchel, Peter Num, Cliff Olds, Mark Pointon, Don Snow, Rudi and Lawrence Huizinga.

More information on our awards scheme, includeing a full list of recients is found on our "Whos who" page HERE .

  Centenary of Port Elliot Station

Another commemoration occured on the following day when the Port Elliot branch of the National Trust organised an event at the station to mark its centenary.It's the fourth station to service the Fleurieu Peninsula town since the line was extended through to Victor Harbor in 1864.

Chair of the PE Branch of the National Trust, Lorraine Pomery, says the horse drawn railway was built to haul cargo from the river port at Goolwa to the sea port at Port Elliot. She says the first station at Pt Elliot was a small wooden structure similar to a 'sentry box' which opened in 1866. This was blown away during a big gale and finished up on the rocks. A galvanised iron structure was built on the north side of the line in the 1870s.

The present station was completed in 1911 - the timber building comprising a Station Master's Office, Open Waiting Room and Ladies Waiting Room. It's now home to numerous historical displays and also serves as the ticket office for the SteamRanger tourist railway, with the former station subsequently being used as a Goods Shed and now an interpretive centre. The station has recently undergone a $35,000 facelift in the lead up to its centenary. The above photo in 2011 includes the interpretive centre in the old iron shed closer to the camera and the 1911 building beyond.

      Operations and Marketing

• Well Done!
  Without any prompting from SteamRanger, journalist Michael Maguire from the "Escape" section in the Saturday "Advertiser" travelled anonymously on a recent Southern Encounter and rated his family's experience
  as earning 4 stars!

  You can read the whole of his article by clicking HERE

  
  
  
       
  
  
  
  

• TV Exposure on Channel 10!

  And more exposure this time on Channel 10's Totally Wild show on Wednesday 9th November
  
  Craig Dunstan, Brenton Job, John Gordon and Roger Currie featured in filming carried out a month or so ago on the Cockle Train
  
  You can download the programme from the Ch 10 website
  
  
  

• Southern Hills Special
  
  Due to continuing good patronage of our Southern Hills Special railcar from Victor to Mt Barker using Brill 60 an additional train ran on Saturday 26th November with a different assortment of motive power.
  
  

  
  Brill 60 departed Victor at 10.00am, picking up passengers at Goolwa at around 10.30am
  
  The Brill was then left at Mt Barker and a RedHen railcar used to return south later in the day,
  
  Quite a different day out!
  
  The next SHS will run on the 31st March 2012. Prebooking is ESSENTIAL
  
  
  

      New faces in our leadership group 2011-2012

Election of members of the ARHS (SA Division) Executive Committee occur every two years and nominations closed
on 31st March for the positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary.

Current president Ben Greeneklee, left, decided not to renominate after six years in the position, due in part to family priorities, with a new child on the way, and will be replaced in April by existing Vice President Barrie Hawes, right. In announcing his standing down, Ben indicated that he would offer to continue with a number on projects that he has been involved with, (particularly acquisitions such as DE527, Goolwa wharf development and sourcing materials from the government rail redevelopment projects) as well as GB 4420 restoration and loco driving.

In turn, Barrie will be replaced by the indefatigable Bev Sawyer , left.

Bev has been assisting Barrie for many years with many of his responsibilities as well as cajoling (often reluctant) volunteers to fill all the spaces on the operations roster and being part of a team running the 1800 phone enquiry line and internet booking system. We wish her all the best in her new role!

John Lambert will remain as Treasurer and the position of Secretary / Public Officer has yet to be filled.

Branch Managers (Mechanical Services, Operations, Marketing, Rail Safety, Infrastructure and Human Resources) for the incoming period will be appointed or re-appointed by the incoming Executive in due course. In this regard, members may be aware that the responsibilities of Infrastructure Manager, Troy Barker, have been restructured and that part of his duties involving track were taken over in February by Ray Green.

Infrastructure

Mt Barker Creek Bridge

As readers would know, this bridge has been subject to a number of restrictions for some time. The work programme devised to rectify this incorporated three parts. Stage 1 involved the hire of scaffolding and the purchase of many 50mm angle cleats to be welded to the bridge. Peter Charlson managed to do the chasing around for a decent scaffolding company and then arranged the dates with them. With the scaffolding in place, these cleats were then welded into place underneath the bridge to provide new load bearing points, as a number of the bridge deck toughs were cracked or corroded. Old paint had to be removed at the welding locations and the steel work cleaned and made ready. Kym Goodsen, a retired structural welder based in Goolwa, had volunteered for the arduous task of welding, using Phil Neville's antiquated but effective welding plant. It was not easy due to the confined spaces to within but he labored on for a week with the assistance of our employees Daryl Simon and Steve Stratford (who did all the prep work in similar conditions), and completed the task. We thank him for this commitment because without it, this job would have been very expensive.

Once the welding repairs were complete, time was taken to treat the underside of the bridge with an anti-corrosion paint system as specified by DTEI. The whole section over the creek was treated with the remaining area over an adjacent walkway to be done as part of Stage 2. The work above has made the bridge structurally sound.

Stage 2 is currently underway. This has involved removing the track and ballast from the structure and cleaning all of the troughs. The work of clearing the troughs has been particularly difficult, as there was not much assistance and it was found that a large amount of dirt had been put into these areas. Unbelieveably it seems to have rained almost constantly during Stage 2 and this has caused considerable delay to work. So far we have lost nine days but Operations & Marketing have be very accommodating in moving their train service around this problem. Once this was clear, the troughs were cleaned by manually removing all flaky rust and then the whole deck washed with a high pressure water cleaner. At this point the corrosion protection paint is being applied and once complete, geotextile fabric will be laid and then the ballast and track re-instated. An opportunity is also been taken to rectify structural problems with the adjacent culvert including a full resleepering. We aim for track to be re-instated around mid April.

   

Phase 2 Cockle Train Route Upgrade

Goolwa infrastructure group has worked very efficiently on renewing 820 sleepers between 115km near Goolwa across to the 119km pointy then dropping 800 tonnes of ballast. Once the ballasting was complete, our tamper was put to good use at various locations. The results so far have been good given that the line hasn't seen a tamping cycle for 25 years, with the line being in fairly poor geometric condition. This is nothing short of a significant achievement for SteamRanger., as the bringing together of all the required plant and expertise has unfortunately taken much longer to realise than would have been envisaged back in 1986. However we can now go forward on a structured basis and progressively bring the railway back to the standard it should be at. Special thanks go to all involved.

Late last year, timeframes were tight but the works plan called for the completion of tamping in Phase 2 of the Cockle Train route upgrade. After assisting with corrective works in the Mt Barker to Strathalbyn section during August & September, the Goolwa group worked very efficiently on renewing 820 sleepers between 115km near Goolwa across to the 119km again working around the interruption of the popular Wednesday services. Once this work was complete there was a big effort put in to drop out 800 tonnes of ballast. This section of railway had suffered from significant ballast deficiency many due to the years of ploughing alongside the line. In many spots we were able to recover fair amounts using the ballast regulator, which pulled in the shoulders wherever possible to make the most efficient use of available ballast. The work saw the use of the now refurbished Bedford truck, running out many 5t loads.

Once the ballasting was complete, our tamper was put to good use in the week just before Christmas. It started by correcting the curve and alignment near Fosters Place in Goolwa and then slowly worked its way across to Petersen Rd. An opportunity was also found the tamp and correct the curve at Rosetta St in Port Elliot, plus also tamp the main line from Currency Creek out to just past the Canoe Tree level crossing. The results so far have been good given that the line hasn't seen a tamping cycle for 25 years, with the line being in fairly poor geometric condition. However with many trains running during January, this has been a good opportunity to settle the track in. The line from 115km to 122km will now need a second pass of the tamper, sometime during this year, to fully consolidate the track structure and the line will revert to normal speed.

For the above work to have occurred, is nothing short of a significant achievement for SteamRanger, as the bringing together of all the required plant and expertise has unfortunately taken much longer to realise than would have been envisaged back in 1986. However we can now go forward on a structured basis and progressively bring the railway back to the standard it should be at. Special thanks go to Ray Green, Phil Neville and Chris Jones for assisting with the extra effort required in the very tight timeframes, along with Daryl Simon for his effort in working the very long days whenever the tamper is in action. This unit when working requires daily servicing and greasing to maintain good operating condition. Given the stresses on the machine when in use, the fact it rarely fails is a credit to the work that Daryl has put in towards its upgrade and ongoing maintenance.

   

Current Work

Work has been performed on the curve at 125km involving renewal of 80 sleepers plus fully re-gauging to specification throughout. The ballast was then tidied up with the regulator. The Goolwa group is now busy working on re-railing of corroded rails in the 126.2km to the 126.4km section. Rail has had to be recovered from the siding at Middleton because all other supplies of rail have been fully exhausted.

Level Crossings

Late last year a joint project with Alexandrina Council was undertaken at Skewes Rd near Goolwa. This involved fully relaying the level crossing with concrete sleepers and welded rail throughout to make ready for a new road surface. SteamRanger undertook the track works with Council providing the new base under the track structure. The road has now been sealed and changed to stop sign protection. Wharf Rd at Goolwa station was also tamped and welded, with Council removing their road surface to allow for the repair of these defects which arose from the original wharf upgrading conducted some years ago.

S and T

October saw the completion of the Hurling Drive project, with the commissioning team inspecting and testing the installation. My thanks go to Peter Charlson on this, as with many tasks underway, as seen above, he was somewhat left with minimal assistance to complete the work. Well done.

Routine maintenance continues on our level crossings, shared between Transfield Services and SHR's signal group via an interface agreement. Extra maintenance and upgrades are usually performed internally 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.

Mt Barker Creek Bridge

As readers would know, this bridge has been subject to a number of restrictions for some time.

The work programme devised to rectify this incorporated three parts. Stage 1 involved the hire of scaffolding and the purchase of many 50mm angle cleats to be welded to the bridge. With the scaffolding in place, these cleats were then welded into place underneath the bridge to provide new load bearing points, as a number of the bridge deck toughs were cracked or corroded. Old paint had to be removed at the welding locations and the steel work cleaned and made ready. Once the welding repairs were complete, time was taken to treat the underside of the bridge with an anti-corrosion paint system as specified by DTEI. This work has made the bridge structurally sound.

Stage 2 is currently underway. This has involved removing the track and ballast from the structure and cleaning all of the troughs. The troughs were then cleaned by manually removing all flaky rust and then the whole deck washed with a high pressure water cleaner. Corrosion protection paint is being applied and once complete, geotextile fabric will be laid and then the ballast and track re-instated. An opportunity is also been taken to rectify structural problems with the adjacent culvert including a full resleepering. We aim for track to be re-instated around mid April.

   

      Steam loco Rx207 restoration complete
                                - busy Cockle Train service in the April School Holidays!

With congratulations all round to our mechanical services team we can finally announce that our 1913 vintage loco Rx207 "Dean Harvey" has now returned to service between Goolwa and Victor Harbor. It operated its first Cockle Train service on Sunday 13th March.

Rx207 operated scheduled services on Sunday Cockle Trains
in March and then daily on trains through the April school holidays
(17th April to 1st May).

After a fairly slow start from April 13th to the 17th when Cockle Trains were run especially for interstate visitors, whose school holidays commenced a week earlier than in SA, business picked up to reach a crescendo over the Easter weekend (23rd to the 26th) when more than 400 round trip journeys were sold each day.

Family groups were evident on most trains and our photographer caught an obviously appreciative Strath resident Ann Johnston at Goolwa station with her grandchildren in tow after a trip across to Victor and return.

Subsequently, the loco has also been used on various other Sundays, especially on days when the Southern Encounter operates, when it takes over from or double heads with DE958 at Goolwa. This photo was taken by Peter Michalak on the 21st August when Rx207 and DE958 double headed through Middleton.

It was not possible to use the loco on a regular basis during the July holidays due to lack of qualified crews and Brill Railcar 60, RedHen railcars and DE507 were used on most days over that period.


More detail on final stages of the loco's restoration and return to service can be found on our mechanical services page HERE

      Recent Special Services

On Saturday 7th May we commenced running of a new initiative for this year - the "Southern Hills Special" from Victor and Goolwa up the ranges to Mt Barker using Brill car 60 and a trailer. The run had to be postponed twice from its originally scheduled date of late March due to work on the rail bridge on the outskirts of Mt Barker meaning the passengers travelled on the first revenue train over the structure. The trip attracted a good number of south coast volunteers and the general public who had the option of a lunch at "Auchendorroch" tavern at Mt Barker. The service will be repeated in October this year and March 2012.

With autumn colours now throughout the Adelaide Hills, the town of Mt Barker was alive with the sounds of Jazz on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th May. As in previous years SteamRanger ran special three car RedHen railcar trips from Mt Barker up over the crest of the surrounding hills to Bugle Ranges siding - 40 minutes or so round trip. Around 400 passengers enjoyed music from the "Peter Hooper Jazz Trio" on a total of six trains

And on Saturday 28th May members marked the return of steam loco Rx207 to service after 4 years with a well patronised "volunteers only" trip behind the "steamer" from Goolwa to Strathalbyn and return with a celebratory lunch at Strathalbyn. SteamRanger values the contributions of our volunteers, particularly a good number of recent recruits from the Goolwa / Victor area who were also acknowledged with a "Volunteers Week" BBQ at Victor a week or so earlier. Thanks go to the local committee who secured local Council funding for the event.

      Margaret Blake turns in her chef's hat after two decades!

After over 20 years of service to SHR as Chair of our Catering Committee, Margaret Blake has decided to "call it a day" as Chair and very active front line volunteer in our Catering Committee. Margaret became Chair of the committee in 1991 when it was first formed to coincide with a major build up in on and off train refreshment services following SteamRanger commencing regular longer distance services to Victor Harbor in 1986. Prior to taking up that role she and husband Peter had been active volunteers for many years. Prior to 1991 an ad-hoc team of volunteers had provided both refreshment and souvenir sales on train, at Mt Barker, at south coast stations and at various off train events, but the time had obviously come for a more formal arrangement.

From 1991 souvenir and station shop sales were separated from the catering responsibility, which allowed Margaret's team to take on providing catering at SHR's annual "Steam Up" at Mt Barker, to service an increasing number of charters, and to provide catering on longer country and interstate excursions, including a milestone "all-inclusive" service on the final 621 hauled broad gauge movement to Victoria in 1994. All while continuing to run the buffet car on regular"Highlander" and "Southern Encounter" trains to the south coast. Not to mention the "Starlighter" weekend sleeper train using our ex-Overland sleepers - 60 guests at a time.

Our photographer caught Margaret (L) and Gill Blight outside Mt Barker station as part of the catering team on one of our "Steam Up" days. Margaret (and Gill and Bev Sawyer) will continue to provide an important role in staffing our 1300 number phone contact point and coordinating bookings via our real time internet booking system. We wish Margaret a quieter life in the future and thank Anne Simpson who will take over catering coordination in addition to looking after our south coast shops. Anyone like to join the catering team? - give us a ring on 1300 655 991!

And a footnote: We have included an article on SHR catering over the last 40 years on our archives webpages

      John Maxwell Ramsey OAM - Long Serving ARHS volunteer awarded Medal of the Order of Australia in Queens Birthday Awards

John's award was made in recognition of his considerable contributions to basketball in South Australia as an administrator, official and mentor from 1990 onwards and for his support of the ARHS(SA Division) over four decades.

Many ARHS members, SHR volunteers and those involved with the National Railway Museum Port Adelaide would be aware of John's contributions to our activities over some 39 years - as a committee member, editor of the “The Recorder”, fund raiser, photographer, and author and co-author of many train publications. In 2004 John was awarded a Gold Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of a significant period of dedicated service to ARHS.

Particular contributions have been;

• 14 years as editor of the S.A division newsletter "The Recorder"
• 22 years authoring articles for the ARHS newsletter
• Extended periods as ARHS assistant secretary
• 28 years fund raising through authoring four significant railway books
  for sale in support of NRM, SteamRanger and ARHS projects.
  Full details CLICK HERE

John continues to write articles for local ARHS publications and has, of recent times provided material for kindred organisations, both local and national.

The Model Railway Convention published his "History of the National Railways Commission" in the Notes issued at the September 2008 and 2009 Conventions. Another article was published in the Australian Railway History magazine in its February 2011 issue. He frequently gives talks on historical aspects of trains in Australia at local meetings.

The ARHS Executive, Board and Management and members congratulate John on his award.

      Graham Bowes - valued ARHS President 1978-1988 passes away

Longserving ARHS identity Dean Harvey contributed the lead article in the June members' "Newsletter" to acknowledge the passing away of Graham and record some of his contributions from 1968 until well into this century, including serving as President for some 10 years.

From his legendary records, Dean recalls that Graham and his family, after joining ARHS in the late 60s, travelled on 100 or so trips over just eight years in the late 60s / early 70s, and in 1972 personally designed and marketed souvenirs for the refurbishment of loco 520, raising critically needed funding.

After initially working on the Yorke Peninsula, Graham built up a very successful Australia-wide construction and earthmoving equipment leasing and manufacturing company, Broons Hire. He was extremely generous in donating money and goods to SteamRanger and in providing often expensive construction equipment from his company at minimal or no cost.

Many thanks Graham.

      Summer Cockle Train running a success

Our busy December / January services between Goolwa and Victor Harbor commenced on the 19th of December with to five return services on each day with a mix of rolling stock. As a special attraction for children, Santa travelled on trains from Victor on December 19th, 20th and 21st, promoted by Don Snow's poster, and proved very popular

Between Christmas and New Year five return services were run each day - main line diesel 958 heading three return services and Brill railcar offering a different form of travel on two interlaced services. From 3rd of January onwards only one Brill service continued and then it was back to our regular three train a day schedule until the end of January with 958 returning home to Mt Barker on the 11th January. Services from then were scheduled with a mix of wooden centenary cars hauled by DE507 and a three car RedHen consist.

Passenger loads were encouraging, slightly better than in 2009/10, averaging around 300 ticketed round trip passengers a day all up on busy days, plus a healthy load of young children who were entitled to free travel. Passenger numbers tailed off a little in the latter January weeks. On busy days around 10 volunteers were needed at stations and on trains and we thank those who offered their time. On the 6th January, Kevin Marzahn (who was rostered as an observer on loco 958) had his camera at the ready and sent us snaps of his engineman Mark Pointon, guard Ted Mason (L) and Victor SM Cliff Olds (R).

   

A number of special movements were run outside the regular Cockle Train service.

• On New Years Eve a late night RedHen service ran between Goolwa and Victor Harbor to allow around 70 Goolwa visitors and residents to join in with end of year fireworks at Victor. RedHen cars were used with the train returning from Victor at 12.30am
  
  
• Our traditional StrathLink train operated from Victor to Strathalbyn on Monday 3rd January with Brill car 60. Passengers were provided with an extended stopover in Strathalbyn to allow for a long lunchbreak and time to wander around the popular antique shops. The car returned to Victor at around 6.00pm
  
  
• And a special StrathLink ran on Friday 21st January to link in with the Tour Down Under bike races. This allowed nearly 60 south coast residents and visitors to travel in style to the finish of the day's racing without battling the closed roads and crowds.

      Goolwa Wharf Redevelopment Complete

As we reported previously the local Alexandrina Council at Goolwa has been jointly managing a $850,000 funding grant for the construction a new boating facility just downstream from SHR's Goolwa station. They have been working in collaboration with the Department of Water, who have in parallel refurbished the adjacent Vessel Waste Disposal Station to incorporate floating pontoons to allow for fluctuating river levels. Funding has come from the Council, the SA Government Boating Fund and the "Save the Murray" fund.

The project includes the construction of a recreational boat mooring facility, in the historic location known as "Hectors Jetty", adjacent to the main wharf area. The facility will consist of floating pontoons linked by walkways and will cater for up to fifteen boats at any time. Access will be free to the general public and will provide short term mooring for boat owners.

It is expected that the project will revitalise the Goolwa Wharf precinct which has been significantly affected by the low water level in the Goolwa channel over recent years. The facility will ber officially opened by the SA Governor on the Saturday of the forthcoming Wooden Boat Festival. Hopefully the increased visitor numbers to the enhanced wharf precinct facilities will be reflected in bigger passenger loads on SHR's services.

A full description of the project is available HERE

      Friends of "Oscar W" establishing display on Goolwa Wharf

The historic paddleboat Oscar W is a major tourist attraction operating from Goolwa Wharf only metres from our Goolwa station. Part of the historic wharf shed, where the Oscar is moored, has, with Council support, been transformed by the Friends of the PS Oscar W into the

Entry is free with plenty of things to see for the visitors. It also contains a booking office for the Oscar and hopefully will be open in the near future 7 days per week from 10am to 3pm, so remember to visit on your future visits to Goolwa. HINT: It is just near the popular Steam Exchange Brewery!.

      Cockle Train a feature of the Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival

Late February traditionally marks one of the biggest "on water" events for the boating fraternity at Goolwa. The complete wharf area is crowded with hundreds of sailing vessels of all shapes and sizes, there is a multitude of on-shore stalls and displays and various vessels offer on-river excursions for visitors. The 2011 Festival was opened by the SA Governor and featured a significant participation by RAN personnel, including visits by naval helicopters.

SteamRanger operated a four train a day Cockle Train service to Victor Harbor on both Saturday 26th and the Sunday 27th using DE507 and heritage wooden "Centenary" cars on three trains each day and "Brill" railcar 60 on a late afternoon movement. In addition a "RedHen" railacr operated three return trips each day in the opposite direction from Goolwa over the Currency Creek bridge and return. The SHR shop team had a stand on the platform selling a range of souvenirs and the Goolwa Arts and Crafts group opened their shop at the other end of the platform.

   

Passenger loads were a little disappointing with around 150 return journeys spread over the eight Cockle Train movements and 60 or so passengers venturing to Currency Creek. It had been hoped to have Rx207 in steam for the Festival (see below) but this had not been possible and may have increased patronage if available.