As well as being a special day for Mawhoods it also turned out to be a special day for the Oberon Tarana Heritage Railway (OTHR) group.

As part of the festivities, Warwick Mawhood presented a cheque for $6,421.74 raised in the IGA Community Chest to OTHR secretary, Margaret Conners.

What a generous gift it is and what wonderful community support Mawhood Bros. continue to provide for the railway group who thank them for their generosity.

Mawhood Bros also provided all food items for the sausage sizzle in the main street.

Donated funds will help to continue the railway’s restoration works.

Such superb support from business houses in Oberon and Oberon Council has enabled OTHR to almost complete the railway line from Oberon to Hazelgrove and be in a position to run a tourist train in 2010.

Donations of accommodation, food, drink, machinery, tools, trailers, a caravan, transport, service of machinery, heritage items for the station, rolling stock, fuel and money have kept OTHR’s hard working volunteers going and more determined than ever to complete this huge project. Rolling stock continues to arrive at the railway station with three S trucks being the latest acquisitions.

These trucks will be used to transport sleepers and equipment down the line as we progress past Hazelgrove. Very soon a tender and a CPH railmotor will arrive.

The last working bee for 2009 is scheduled from Thursday December 10 to Sunday, December 13 when the restoration of the line behind the trucking yards will be finalised.

There will be no monthly meeting in January and the dates for the working bees in 2010 will be publicised very shortly.