G`day Folks, Long time no shed...????? Well Gormo`s been away on hols in Queensland and far northern NSW. One little gem I found on my travels was DownsSteam Tourist Railway and Museum in Toowoomba in Queensland. Quite frankly, I had no idea it existed until we arrived there at the tourist information center. Unfortunately it was a rush visit due to the time constraints we were facing on the day. But there you are......a little bit of a good thing is better than none at all. The Museum closes at 3.00pm and we arrived at about 2.40pm. The director of the museum, Peter Eldridge took pity on us and gave us a VIP guided tour around the complex which extended way past the normal closing time. These people are all volunteers and the museum runs on donations, so Peter`s kindness to us blow ins was much appreciated. It seems that the volunteers involved in the restorations are a similar type of people to Platform 1 members, in that they are not rivet counters. Sometimes you can`t achieve the original perfection of a piece of machinery that`s 50 plus years old, so you have to adapt and accept that you can produce something very close to original specifications, but not absolutely perfect. The main thing is to get it running and enjoy it.... So that`s what they do......check out the restoration of the Gatsby Flyer Rail Car........this thing was literally brought back from the dead.....it should have been named Lazarus !!! Anyway folks......we had a splendid time chewing the fat with Peter and I came away with a deep respect and admiration for a bunch of volunteers who are definitely punching well above their weight and setting the bar very high with the standard of the restoration work. Here is a link to their web site if you wish to have a look. https://downssteam.com/ Gormo
Thanks for that. Good to finally hear that some good came out of the old DP railcar that got burnt out at Burnie a few years back. It was very sad and sorry when I last saw it. Cheers Tony
