The Board held its fifth Board meeting for calendar year 2019 on Tuesday 27 August.
Highlights from this meeting were:
The Board noted the passing of The Hon. Tim Fischer AC, expressed our condolences to his family and acknowledged his many contributions to the rail industry and his advocacy of heritage rail in Australia.
New Board Subcommittees
The Board and I would like to thank those members who expressed interest in participating in its two new subcommittees. The members’ representative members for each of these will be:
Collections & Curatorial Committee – Peter Dudgeon, Tony Eyre, Allan Leaver, Ray Love, Bruce Saunders and Evan Rees.
Rail Operations Support Committee – Phil Batty and Colin Pursehouse
Both will hold their first meetings during September.
Locomotive 3001 Restoration
The fundraising appeal is underway to support the restoration of locomotive 3001 to give us much needed Loop Line steam capacity as we look to grow our Loop Line operations for the future. During September, a short video update on this locomotive will be made available through eNews and our website. Updates will continue over the coming months and the Board encourages you to consider supporting this important restoration by making a donation.
AGM 2019 Planning
Reminder – our Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 30 November 2019 at the NSW Rail Museum, Thirlmere. A call for nominations to stand for election as an Elected Director will close at 5:00pm on Friday 20 September 2019. This year, three (3) Elected Director positions will be elected in accordance with the transitional provisions as adopted in the updated Constitution at last year’s AGM 2018.
Life Member Nominations
Life Membership is the highest honour THNSW can bestow on a member and is awarded at an AGM by a vote of our members. A call for nominations for Life Members will close at 5:00pm on Friday 20 September, and I encourage everyone to think about our most worthy nominees from all walks of our organisation.
The Board called for expressions of interest from existing Life Members to serve on this year’s Life Membership Nomination Review Group. This group will rank nominations for Life Membership in order of merit for the Board to then determine those who it will recommend to the membership at the AGM.
Locomotive 3801
The Board received an update on progress of this project. ONRSR undertook a safety assurance inspection during August and works are progressing to the next major milestone, being a static steam test during the first half of September. A full update on the locomotive 3801 project is available on our website.
Heritage Hub Chullora
Aurecon have provided their final report from their initial functional planning for the Heritage Hub development. THNSW will now work with Transport for NSW (TfNSW) to understand the costs and possibly staging options to develop the site, including fit-for-purpose remediation of hazardous materials and contamination and making it safe. TfNSW will prepare the business case to secure the necessary future funding to undertake the site remediation and the first stage of refurbishment/development works for us to ultimately start using the site.
Loop Line Funding Commitment
Discussions continue with the NSW Government and other stakeholders concerning the $5.5m grant commitment made during the recent NSW State government election campaign to upgrade the Loop Line. Further information will be provided as details are finalised.
Annual Membership
If you haven’t already renewed your membership for the new 2019-20 membership year, please do so now. Your membership must be renewed by 30 September 2019 to remain current.
Member Information Forum
Our next Member Information Forum is being held on Sunday 29 September and includes an opportunity to see locomotive 3801 and the Heritage Hub site. Bookings are essential and can be made here. I hope to see many of you there.
Rob Mason
Chair