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This later became Allan Taylor's siding. Allan Taylor was a big company, and had a lot of mills, including in Coffs Harbour and Dorrigo.

Lance Moleton platform was 421 M 21.25 Ch which makes it 677.961km

I agree as well. The ROTA and Working Plan and Section contain a lot of information. Also 'F' sheets.

Photo 6 is a derailment of 19 class loco also. Photos 2 & 3 are interesting as to lack of vegetation. In the last 15 years or so the vegetation has just gone crazy.

A lot of people say that preservation groups don't succeed because it just costs too much money. That is actually incorrect. Preservation groups don't succeed because of internal shit-fights. Both DSRM and GMR are testimony to that. When I was working at GMR in the '90s and '00s we had sufficient funds to do the work we needed to do. What sunk the project was internal fighting.

Lance, I know you like to praise up GMR because you dislike DSRM so much, but actually GMR is as bad as Dorrigo. And yes, the Dorrigo line is finished. There will be no trikes, not even a walking track.

Reopening of the G-D line between 1982 and 1986 by volunteers was truly an amazing feat. Many said that it could not be done, and they were proved wrong. However, the naysayers actually proved to be sort of right, because not long after the line was reopened, it was closed again due to fire and flood damage. Since that time, and especially in the last few years, there has been very much more fire and flood damage. The line is now severely damaged in many places, and there is no doubt that it will never again operate as a railway.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear now that maintaining the line was always going to be a bigger task than reopening it, but those of us working on it didn't see that at the time.

As much as the maintenance of the line is a gargantuan task, that was not actually its downfall. It's downfall was due to people and their personalities. There was one main player of course, but the later failure of the GMR operations proved that he and is associated problems are not unique.

The G-D line did have a potential future in 1982, but now that has all been wiped away, by some of the very people who were involved in it. Irony at its most tragic.

That is very basic stuff. I (and others) have a huge amount of documentation pertaining to the G-D line. We know just about everything there is to know about the history of the line.

I stated some factual observations above, and then made some conjectures, based on what I observed.

I disagree.

Between 1983 and 1986 hundreds of DSRM volunteers contributed tens of thousands of hours labour and also considerable money to reopen the line from Glenreagh to Dorrigo, under the leadership of John Wilson, who had been appointed to the task by Keith Jones.

That was a mammoth undertaking and the fact that it succeeded is a tribute to all involved. During 1986 and 1987 many trains operated from Glenreagh to Dorrigo, transferring DSRM's collection to its destination in Dorrigo.

The trains were stored in Dorrigo Railway yard as they arrived, and most are still there now, some 34 years later.

The people who made this possible did so because they were passionate about steam, and particularly about seeing steam operate on the Dorrigo line. Sadly, many of the people who worked so hard to reopen the line have now passed on, without seeing their dreams of steam operating on the Dorrigo line come to fruition.

Not much going on now. The line is (again) visibly overgrown near McCarthy's mill. The track clearing which was meant to happen from the third Mole Creek bridge (~423 miles) down to the 1260 level crossing (418:21) fizzled out before much was done. I have not heard why; maybe GMR didn't have the money to pay the contractor?

GMR was operating trikes at both Glenreagh and Lowanna; there is nothing operating now at either location. Again I have not heard why, but maybe they lost their accreditation?

In the early days there was a block post, on the Down between Border Loop and Glenapp, which included a signal. I can't recall the name of the place now.

It was probably operated in conjunction with divisible miniature electric staff working, and it may have been a Qld idea. The signal would normally be set at clear. But if a train left the Border on the ticket half of a divisible staff, it would stop at the signal and set it to "stop". A following train on he staff half of the divisible staff would stop at the signal, ring Glenapp, and if the line was clear, they would clear the signal and proceed.

The now Glenreagh Mountain Railway (GMR) was originally named The Friends of the Glenreagh Dorrigo Line. It was started as a loose collective of disgruntled members of Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum. Its original purpose was try to reform DSRM into a democratic organisation. When it became clear that that was not going to happen, GMR decided to try to establish their own competing operation at Glenreagh West. It was a communal effort, but one of the main drivers was Geoff Bryceson (dec). After a protracted court battle GMR entered into an agreement with DSRM whereby they got ownership of loco 1919 and some freight rolling stock.

Unlike DSRM, GMR was always a democratic organisation, governed by a Committee (later Board) of management.

As of now (April 2021) it could be argued that neither DSRM or GMR has been successful.

The now Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum (DSRM) was originally the Hunter Valley Steam Railway and Museum (HVSRM), based at the old Rhondda colliery. In the beginning it was a one man show, that man being Keith Jones. Other people joined him and contributed money and labour, but there was no formal structure. In the early days that lack of structure worked well, but ultimately it resulted in a protracted court battle.

Mileage of the trolley shed is 406:25:00. That is 653.897 km.