History

[gim]

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.

[gim]

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.

[gim]

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.