New South Wales Rail Transport Museum

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Official logo
Official logo

The New South Wales Rail Transport Museum located in Thirlmere, New South Wales south-west of Sydney, is a museum dedicated to displaying former locomotives, carriages and goods wagons from the New South Wales Government Railways as well as private operations in NSW. The collection features steam, diesel and electric locomotives and other rolling stock. A large proportion of the collection is owned by RailCorp NSW.

The Blue Mountains division of the museum is located at the Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum.

The museum operates steam heritage trains on the Picton Loop railway line between Thirlmere, Picton and Buxton. It also hosts the Thirlmere Festival of Steam, in March each year. In addition to this, the museum operates mainline tours under the name Heritage Express. These can consist of day or extended tours, usually over a weekend. NSWRTM/Heritage Express has an office on the Main Concourse at Sydney Central Station.

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[edit] History

3801
3801
3820 as a static exibit circa 1991
3820 as a static exibit circa 1991
Preserved Silver City Comet
Preserved Silver City Comet

Established at the Sydney suburb of Enfield in 1962, the museum was forced to move in the mid 1970s due to a proposed redevelopment of the Enfield site by the railways, who selected Thirlmere as an alternative due to the disused "loop line" which could be used for train rides. The new museum opened in 1975.

In 1984 the Museum became a foundation, management member of 3801 Limited - an organisation created to oversee the operation of the locomotive 3801.

The famous British railway locomotive 4472 "Flying Scotsman" visited Thirlmere in the mid 1980s as part of its tour around Australia.

The museum played a major role in the 2005 celebrations marking 150 years of the NSW railways, restoring locomotive 3526 in 2004, for the occasion. They provided much of the rolling stock for a 150 years display at Sydney's Central Station in September 2005. 3526 joined other non-museum locomotives in shuttles to the suburb of Hurstville during the weekend.

The RTM left 3801 Limited & the loco subsequently returned to the RTM in November 2006 after 3801 Limited's 20 year operating contract expired. In 2008 their most recent locomotive restored to operation was 3642 after it's twelve year overall.

[edit] Organisation

The Museum has over 2000 members, including an active volunteer workforce of over 300 and a small number of full time staff. It is administered by a voluntary Board and a Management Committee.

The Museum is accredited as a rail operator under the NSW Rail Safety Act 2002 meaning it has network access rights on the NSW main line rail network.

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