Tomorrow, July 4, marks 150 years since the official opening of the Deniliquin to Moama railway line was completed.
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To celebrate, the Deniliquin & District Historical Society, Edward River Council and its Visit Deni campaign and the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre have partnered to host a special event.
Heritage locomotives will retrace the historic route, on Saturday and Sunday, echoing the journey that first linked Deniliquin to the Victorian network 150 years ago.
Departing from Seymour and Melbourne on Saturday, the locomotive will them make its way to Deniliquin on Sunday.
Passengers will arrive about 11.30am, and the train will depart again about 2.30pm.
While the events have been planned to accommodate the visitors, some are also open to locals with an interest.
Locals will also be welcome at some of the events.
The Deniliquin Historical Society will open and showcase a fascinating collection of memorabilia, including the original railway station awning, which features in an outdoor exhibition.
Society member Ian Lea said original railway shareholders books will also be on display.
The books are usually kept securely off site.
“We thought they were all burned in the 1924 fire, so they are usually put away for safe keeping.
“There were 14 books in total saved from the fire, and we’ll have some of them on display for the weekend.
“We’ll also host rail passengers and other interested people for a barbecue lunch.”
Also expected to be on display is a Ronaldson Tippett 8HP engine, which has been lovingly restored for exhibition at the Historical Society.
A project spanning many years, it will have a soft launch this weekend before being added to the collection permanently.
Another stop on the anniversary tour is the Deniliquin Town Hall, where there will be an historic slide show on the big screen with 150 years of related railway images.
Also on offer will be the Art of Three exhibition at the Peppin Heritage Centre, and a few local retail stories and eateries will be open on Sunday to accommodate the visit.
The Depot is another local recommended to the visitors.
Passengers have been given the opportunity to book a tour package which includes visits to all the stops.
At last count, about 150 people had booked to be included for the train trip. 50 of those had booked the tour package.
Expecting to be pulling the passenger cars to Deniliquin on Sunday is the diesel locomotive T375.
Only recently back on the tracks, provided it survives a test run to Barnes Junction and back, it will join the 150th anniversary of the Deniliquin to Moama Railway shuttle train.
T375 started its life on the Victorian Railways in June 1964, working all over the state until it was withdrawn from service by V/Line in July 1992.
At that time, surplus locomotives were made available for sale, and a Torrumbarry farmer, Glen ‘Trainman’ Boatwright, purchased T375 in 1993 for $25,000.
Mr Boatwright became something of a local celebrity over the years, regularly starting up T375 and moving the loco up and down the short section of track on his farm, with the horn blaring, much to the amusement of the campers on the Murray and local citizens.
Mr Boatwright said he was originally more interested in the engine than the train itself.
Seymour Railway Heritage Centre president John Crofts was the driving force behind getting the old T375 back into service.
“I told Glen a vision of what the T375 could be,” Mr Crofts said.
“We took him for a ride on one of its sister locomotives, T378, and he loved it.
“What’s interesting is that it was on his farm longer than it was in service with V/Line.
“He bought it for, as I understand it, around $25,000 in 1993, and in recent transactions only a couple of years ago, locomotives of this class were going for $350,000.”
The 70-tonne locomotive took some repairing, and a lot of organising and heavy machinery to get it from Mr Boatwright’s farm to the tracks in Echuca.
Go to srhc.org.au for more details about the rail journey.