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LRRSA accalades
BM
The Federation of Australian Museum Societies Inc. is the peak body representing the interests of historical societies throughout Australia. In its e-Bulletin to members of 18 December it reports as follows:
Timber sawmill historical archaeological survey manual The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage has circulated on its ListServ the timber sawmill manual of the Light Railways Research Society of Australian Inc (LRRSA) as it considers it a good model of how to do a targeted historical/industrial archaeological field survey. It can be accessed through the LRRSA website. Bob McKillop
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VR Walhalla line construction - photo book
Graeme Inglis
I found advertised on Ebay copies of "Steam on the Lens - Walhalla Railway Construction" (Vol 2). It is a magnificent 111 page book of wonderful photos by Wilf Henty, published in 2002 with Jihn Kiely and Russell Savage as authors. I already have a copy of this book, but I thought other LRRSA members might be interested.
It is listed at a price of $34-95 and postage (amount not listed) would be extra. The Ebay item number is: 380276109709 and the auction closes in 6 days 15 hours 15 mins (from 6.30pm 28/12) which I make to be 3rd January. Simply logging on to Ebay and typing in the item number will take you directly to it. Apparently there are 4 copies still available. I should also make it quite clear that I have no connection whatsoever with the on-line bookshop selling this. Regards and a Happy New Year 2011 to all. Graeme Inglis
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Re: Poverty Point bridge (Walhalla)
Marie and David Lowe
Three snaps been added to my Cooper's Creek file. A couple I took in 1967 after
plunging eastward into the Thomson Valley from Amors Mill Site with a few Rover Scout mates, and one scanned from Lou de Prada's book My Walhalla which shows the nature of the countryside just after construction and tramway easements visible on the western side of the river. Also, I have compiled a couple of articles for our local newspaper (the Thomson Times) regarding the bridge and the community that developed there, which I am happy to share. Do I just attach them or is there a far more tekalogical approach. I will add a couple more snaps taken prior to the bushfire soon. Cheers David ________________________________ From: Frank Stamford <frank.stamford@bigpond.com> To: LRRSA@yahoogroups.com.au Sent: Thu, 23 December, 2010 1:05:33 AM Subject: Re: [LRRSA] Re: Poverty Point bridge (Walhalla) It is good to see this bridge has been redecked. You can find some information about it in Light Railways No.28 page 20, No.29 page 7, and very good photographs of it (before it was redecked) in LR No.33 page 25. In a later issue of LR, which I cannot locate in a hurry (possibly around No.55), there is a phograph of a helicopter delivering redecking materials. In 1969 there were rumours the bridge was going to be blown up by the army as an exercise. I don't know whether the rumours were well founded, but the LRRSA took action to bring the bridge's historical significance to attention to prevent such a thing happening. Regards, Frank On 23/12/2010 10:58 AM, rnveditor wrote:
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Re: 50 years of LRRSA
I jumped sequence to put up four photos of the 1975 LRRSA tour which included Lune River & Ida Bay, as this may tempt more to join the coming February tour.
GT13: me GT16: I can't pick any. GT18: Arthur Straffen in the grey sports jacket, and probably Graeme Inglis (with beard) beside him. GT21: I can't pick any. Fri.13.6.75: We flew into Devonport in the evening, and stayed at Formby Hotel. Sat.14: Devonport, Don, Burnie, Tullah, Williamsford. I can't recall our accommodation, but it must have been Zeehan. Sun.15: Zeehan museum and alignments, Queenstown, North Mt Lyell, on to Hobart. We stayed in a nice art-deco hotel, the name of which escapes me. Mon.16: Lune River, Hobart roundhouse, TTM at Glenorchy. I am not sure if we flew home from Hobart, or if we had to return to Devonport. This project is now on hold for a week. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor
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Re: 50 years of LRRSA
I have added the last four of the Cheetham Geelong component of the Sat.1.3.69 tour.
* Photo 20: Lionel Rickard, Phil Rickard, ?, Barry Stewart? (the check jacket sleeve will be Frank Stamford) * 21: The only one whom I can identify is Steve Martin, in the far distance. He became a long-serving sales officer. * 24: on the left ?, ?, David Hennell (standing), probably Andrew Hennell (obscured), probably Ralph Cleary (with camera), ?, ?. on the right: Les Poole, ?, Steve Martin, ?, ?, possibly Phil Rickard, Frank Stamford ?, ?, ?, ?. * 25: ?, Cheetham driver, ?, ?, ?, ?. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor
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Re: Latest LRRSA mini-tour - the Dutton Bay Tramway
Frank Stamford
On 23/12/2010 9:19 PM, John Dennis wrote:
Yes I was a guest driver on the occasion, working under expert guidance. It is an amazingly well set up model railway worked to timetable with multiple operators and with a highly credible story and scenic background behind it. Frank.
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Re: 50 years of LRRSA
Frank Stamford
Excellent photograph of John Prideaux. he was the Hon. Treasurer in
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1967-68, 1968-69, and 1969-70. He was also on the Constitution Committee. John was a rock of common sense who played a key role in navigating the organisation through difficult times leading up to the election of the Constitution Committee. To clarify things for readers of this list, Roderick was a member of the Constitution Committee and its Secretary. He was the President in 1969-70 taking office immediately after the new Constution was adopted, and the Hon. Treasurer in 1970-71 and 1971-72. There is not much activity on this list at the moment, but hopefully it will get a little more lively later. People have other things on their mind - Father Christmas is making his deliveries tonight. I think I can hear him on my roof right now - or it/could/ be possums ... Regards, Frank
On 24/12/2010 7:36 PM, rnveditor wrote:
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Re: 50 years of LRRSA
Frank's proper coverage of the Les incident was appreciated: a half recollection is now converted to true history.
Les was surprisingly agile on that crutch. He hopped out at lineside photostops on mainline tours with the best; now nobody (let alone a movement-impaired person) is allowed to light mid section, even from carriages equipped with ground level stairwells. Only once that I can recall Les was unable to move clear of the main photo line in time. In photo 17, the man in the hat must have been our Cheetham driver. Today: * Photo 11: admire the setting and the train; the people are too remote. * Photo 14: I am not getting anyone. The man in the hat must be the driver. The closest to the camera may be Steve Martin. * Photo 18: Lionel Rickard, Phil Rickard, Frank Stamford; I can't get the fourth. * Photo 19: John Prideaux. IIRC he was the treasurer who preceded me. Clearly, now that council has decided on the format, I am inclining towards making the selection cover the people who made LRRSA: those who have faded from the scene, and those who are still with us, when they were young adventurers discovering a world of light railways. Not every member looks at this Yahoo group, but please ask as many as possible to start looking, so that there is some chance of identifying everybody in my photos. Another Jack McLean navigation story. The people being trained at Williamtown (Newcastle, NSW) always cheated, and navigated via the railway lines. One day an aeroplane became hopelessly lost. The signalman at Maitland had the points set for the other route. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor
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A comment on 50 years
Iain
Rod Smiths mention of Jack Mclean brought to my mind several occasions where
representatives of the Victorian Railways or V/line were sent off to delve into Jacks wonderful collection of railway plans and diagrams to extract information about their own railway which they had incautiously thrown out years before as being non-essential! As I recall Jack claimed his success as a navigator in the RAAF was because when the aircraft got lost and followed the directions to find a railway and follow it Jack usually knew which one it was, even in Canada. Regards Dr Iain Stuart Partner JCIS Consultants
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Re: 50 years of LRRSA
Frank Stamford
Hello Rod,
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Yes, it was an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), and happened around the same time as the trip the photographs you are currently uploading illustrate. It was the only time in the Society's history that I can remember when things became sufficiently heated to have an election. And that was an election for five members to form a Committee to write a new Constitution. They met weekly until they had done it, presented it to the AGM in June, and it was accepted! I know considerably more about the wartime lift incident because I subsequently benefited from the outcome. Les used to drive a motorbike until he was involved in an accident at Camberwell Junction around 1930. As a result of the accident he lost a leg. This seriously limited job opportunities, so he became a lift driver. I don't know that he ever drove lifts in VR Head Office, I think it was always in an insurance office in the city. One day during World War II two military intelligence people came into the lift and asked him whether there was somewhere they could speak to him in private. He took the lift down to the basement and switched it off and they told him they were involved in developing a strategy to drive the Japanese out of Java and Sumatra, and they needed to know everything they could find out on the railways there. They had been advised that he was a probably a good source of information. Les's interest in railways was very wide ranging, and had been a long term subscriber to a number of overseas magazines, and had corresponded with people overseas. I think he had inherited his interest from his father, and had also inherited a good railway library. As a result he was able to give them a lot of information. In return they gave him a copy of the report they prepared on the railways of Java and Sumatra. The reason I know all this is because Les told me, and lent me the report, which I found quite startling. It was very detailed in terms of routes, and locomotive types, which were interesting beyond belief. The reason Les had lent me the report was that I had told him that I intended to visit Indonesia on the way to Europe in June 1968, and that I could not find much reliable information on the railways there, apart from a "Railway Wonders of the World" article of 1935, and a few references to deliveries of steam and diesel locomotives in the 1960s. So the report was extremely useful in giving me a background of what I might find there. It was an admirable characteristic of Les to be very helpful to young railway enthusiasts if they demonstrated a serious interest. Regards, Frank
On 23/12/2010 11:03 PM, rnveditor wrote:
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Re: 50 years of LRRSA
I have placed four more Cheetham Geelong photos into my album.
Photo 4: Keith Kings. Photo 5: The teenager in the middle could well be Richard Dempster. Photo 6: John Withers. Photo 10: just admire the train. I had seen Les on many trips (mainly ARHS), but the only time we spoke was when he came up at the end of the agm (egm?) when we set up the constitution committee, and congratulated me for steering through nastiness to come up with an optimistic and practical solution. Jack McLean had an interesting story about Les, dating from WWII. Because of his leg impairment, Les was working as a lift operator in VR's head office. One day, federal police came in and whisked him off. Les's railway collection included maps which were seen to be of importance for Australia's war effort, and they wanted to get access to the information. I can't recall the country, but it could well have been Ireland. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor Frank Stamford <frank.stamford@...> wrote: ...this was to be Les's last rail enthusiast trip before he died on 21 March...
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Latest LRRSA mini-tour - the Dutton Bay Tramway
John Dennis <jdennis@...>
Sometimes we all get a bit too serious...
The LRRSA ran a highly successful mini-tour on Monday December 20, to the Dutton Bay Tramway. The tramway will be running its last train on December 28, and a special train was supplied to provide the members present with a tour of the line. The Dutton Bay is a prime candidate for LRRSA interest, being a private, industrial, narrow gauge railway, although the gauge of 9mm might be considered a little too narrow for some. :-) Members present were Frank Stamford, Mike McCarthy, Grant McAdam and John Dennis, with three guests along for the ride. There's a couple of photos of this day, plus another "farewell" tour run a month earlier, on this Railpage thread: http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11359668.htm Cheers, John ========================================================== John Dennis jdennis@optusnet.com.au Melbourne,Australia Home of the HOn30 Dutton Bay Tramway and the Australian Narrow Gauge Web-Exhibition Gallery Dutton Bay URL: http://members.optusnet.com.au/duttonbay WebX http://members.optusnet.com.au/jdennis/ng_webex.html
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Re: Fifty years of LRRSA - events and activities - Revision 2
Frank Stamford
Hello Rod,
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You are coming up with some very interesting pictures. The one showing Les Poole at Cheetham saltworks, Geelong, is significant, as this was to be Les's last rail enthusiast trip before he died on 21 March. From the time he became aware of the VLRRS's existence he was a great supporter of what it was attempting to do, and had membership number 10. Barry Stewart was a member, he had membership number 50. We were living in interesting times in the VLRRS at the time that trip was run... Regards, Frank
On 23/12/2010 12:10 PM, rnveditor wrote:
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Re: Poverty Point bridge (Walhalla)
Frank Stamford
It is good to see this bridge has been redecked.
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You can find some information about it in Light Railways No.28 page 20, No.29 page 7, and very good photographs of it (before it was redecked) in LR No.33 page 25. In a later issue of LR, which I cannot locate in a hurry (possibly around No.55), there is a phograph of a helicopter delivering redecking materials. In 1969 there were rumours the bridge was going to be blown up by the army as an exercise. I don't know whether the rumours were well founded, but the LRRSA took action to bring the bridge's historical significance to attention to prevent such a thing happening. Regards, Frank
On 23/12/2010 10:58 AM, rnveditor wrote:
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Re: Fifty years of LRRSA - events and activities - Revision 2
At Easter 1968 I was in the bush with a different group, and missed the Powelltown exploration hike.
The Whistlestop day was Sat.25.5.68; I was in NSW and missed it. That now jumps to Sat.1.3.69. My photos show this as four visits in one day: Bus to Geelong, and start with Cheetham (included a ride) Belmont Common: possibly for lunch Back to Laverton for Cheetham Finish the day at Altona explosives sidings There will be a lot of photographs to scan, and I have jumped to one out of sequence to get started, and kept it at full size. Far left: Keith Kings, ?, ? (possibly our host), Les Poole Front of trolley: David Hennel, Andrew Hennell, John Withers Rear of trolley: Possibly Barry Stewart bending over, but I can't recall him being a VLLRS person, usually ARE. Behind the trolley: Steve Martin beside Frank Stamford Far right: Ralph Cleary with a camera Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor
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Re: Poverty Point bridge (Walhalla)
Thanks Rod,
I won't need them personally, but they could be placed in an album in the group's photos section (you have to get there via the Yahoo website). When I was fairly new to VLRRS, people talked of the bridge in hushed tones: nobody was sure that it existed. It was erected in the factory yard (South Melbourne?), then each part was numbered and the whole lot was taken in by packhorse from Toongabbie: the bridge predated VR's Walhalla line. One senior rembered seeing the painted numbers on the pieces in his early exploration (1930s or 40s). I found it in 1971, by bushbashing down from the road and landing at just the right spot. A second attempt a few years later was less successful: I landed to far downstream. My group waded up the river and reached the bridge. When it became part of the alpine trail, the approach trails were cleared on each side. On a weekend of exploration based on staying at Rawson, LRRSA walked in from the VR and road Thomson bridges: up Mormontown Track, then along the former tramline to the bridge. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor Rod Hutchinson <r.hutchinson@...> wrote: ...I may have some photos if you would like...
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Re: Poverty Point bridge (Walhalla) [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Rod Hutchinson <r.hutchinson@...>
I have crossed the poverty point bridge during the late 90'a or early 00's, I may have some photos if you would like.
Very interesting piece of history. Regards Rod Hutchinson AFAIK, the bridge had lost some/all of the timber decking. On my 1970 and 74 hikes, before it was part of the hiking trail, I located the bridge, but didn't cross on the girders. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor From Wed.22.12.10 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Bridge to a golden era reopens The Walhalla tramway bridge has reopened after the repair of damage caused by the Black Saturday bushfires. Also known as the Old Steel or Poverty Point Bridge, the 50m span, 15m above the Thomson River, was built 110 years ago for the tramway supplying timber to Walhalla during the gold mining era These days it is surrounded by Baw Baw National Park, and serves to remind bushwalkers hiking the 650km Australian Alps Walking track from Walhalla to Canberra, of Gippsland's rich goldmining history.
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Re: Fifty years of LRRSA - events and activities - Revision 2
I have added the last four of the Ballarat tram tour.
photo 37 shows two of the ARE quartet. photos 38, 39 & 40 included John Withers (rear view at the cab; two views leaning out of the door). He not only attended VLRRS/LRRSA tours, he used his Landrover in the early days of Ballarat Tramway Preservation Society (now Ballarat Tramway Museum) to retrieve components, including dragging rails. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor
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Poverty Point bridge (Walhalla)
AFAIK, the bridge had lost some/all of the timber decking.
On my 1970 and 74 hikes, before it was part of the hiking trail, I located the bridge, but didn't cross on the girders. Regards, Roderick B Smith Rail News Victoria Editor From Wed.22.12.10 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Bridge to a golden era reopens The Walhalla tramway bridge has reopened after the repair of damage caused by the Black Saturday bushfires. Also known as the Old Steel or Poverty Point Bridge, the 50m span, 15m above the Thomson River, was built 110 years ago for the tramway supplying timber to Walhalla during the gold mining era These days it is surrounded by Baw Baw National Park, and serves to remind bushwalkers hiking the 650km Australian Alps Walking track from Walhalla to Canberra, of Gippsland's rich goldmining history.
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Theft of Railway Safe-working Instruments from Railway Museum
Frank Stamford
Hello all,
The Australian Railway Historical Society Victorian Division has asked that the message below be given the widest possible publicity. I hope they are successful in retrieving these instruments and the other items. Frank. -------------------------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY VICTORIAN DIVISON INC. A0033223H ABN 65 533 143 834 IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL WITH AN INTEREST IN RAILWAY HISTORY At some time in the latter part of the week ending 18 December the was a burglary at the ARHS Vic Div Inc Railway Museum in North Williamstown Entry was forced into the signal box and the following items were stolen Two Block Instruments Two Lamps Two Staff Exchange Boxes One Staff Instrument Bell From the manner in which these objects were selected and removed, it is evident that the thieves were aware of the significance and value of the objects. As they are both bulky and heavy, it is unlikely that they can be transmitted to buyers by post The Police were notified on Saturday 18th The Council of ARHS Vic Div Inc is determined to take all steps possible to recover the missing items and to assist the police in dealing with those responsible. To make this possible, we are seeking your assistance to discover any information related to the theft and/or the stolen objects. It is probable that the objects may be offered for sale we would encourage you to: Circulate this message to all members of your organisation/business and associates, as soon as possible. Circulate this message on any electronic net works you belong to. Be alert to any one offering the objects for sale Be alert for any one who has suddenly added such items to their collection Maintain a watch on EBay and any other means of electronic sale. Whilst we do not want your to expose yourselves to any risk, or to alert the thieves that we are on the lookout, we would certainly encourage you to discretely try to discover the identity of the people responsible and pass it advise us. A telephone number, email address may be all we need for the police to identify the culprits. Please advise us and/or the police if you have any suspicions or specific information. Over the next few days this message will be sent to VicTrack, ARHS Divisions in other states, Signal Record Society, ARE, All Stall holders at the Great Railway Swap Meet, ATR, ATHRA, Railway Museums, Tourist Railways, Model and Miniature Railway groups, Auction Houses dealing in Railway ephemera, Mainline steam operators, Australia Customs. Contact Us Direct Phone: Ian Jenkin 03 98224940, or mobile 0420 554 288. Email jenkin4@aardvark.net.au Ian Jenkin, Vice President ARHS Vic Div Inc On behalf of ARHS Vic Div Council
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