OUTGOING president Tim Arnison delivered a report of the year in review at Oberon Tarana Heritage Railway's (OTHR) recent AGM.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Arnison said he often heard the statement: "What do the railway people do at the station? There's no action and nothing ever seems to happen."
He said the association had been very active in gaining a Heritage Operator’s Licence (HOL) and accreditation to operate section cars within the area covered at the Oberon precinct.
"This is an important step in getting a train running on the tracks provided OTHR proves to the accreditation to shunt the locos that they own within the yard,” he said.
"OTHR have also surrendered a small portion of its leased land to the Skoda and Tatra Museum to be built just off Scotia Avenue."
Mr Arnison said they have completed a safety interface agreement with John Holland for the area where the HOL meets the rest of the corridor to Tarana.
"All this endless paperwork takes time,” he said.
"Apart from administration work, we have built a new storage shed and office in the rolling stock shed and replaced the Oberon Station roof. Plans are now underway to renovate the station's interior to house a rail memorabilia display."
Mr Arnison said OTHR secured a grant from the Royal Australian Historical Society to re-roof one of the end platform cars located within the precinct.
"We have also applied for a grant to complete and paint the station interior and applied for a grant to produce a DVD comprising of the many historical photos and videos of original operations.”
Mr Arnison said they appreciate the in-kind donation from Oberon Council of $5000 and support from Borg Manufacturing.
Incoming president Greg Bourne said the committee's first aim is to get trains running past Albion Street on to Hazelgrove.
"We need to negotiate with Oberon Council, John Holland and the safety regulator,” he said.
"On Saturday we received a grant of $6900 from Transport Heritage NSW to upgrade some of our locos. There are a lot of grants out there; we just have to source these to get up and running."