A combined number of 205 years of railway service is sitting at the table above. Barney Heywood, former Locomotive Driver. Trevor Malone, Bridge Gang and Track Maintenance. Warren Chesworth, Track Maintenance. Col Wood, Railway Carpenter. Tony Osborne, Track Maintenance. Barry Quinn and Michael Quinn former and current Signalmen respectively.
A diaspora of ex-railway workers will converge on the Harden Country Club this Saturday from 3:30pm. All ex-railway workers from the region and even beyond are welcome to attend.
For decades, the railway in Harden-Murrumburrah and surrounding regions was a mainstay, with up to forty train movements per day. Over the years, the introduction of diesel engines, the privatisation of the rail network, redundancies and the centralisation of signals operations have scattered the close-knit community of railway workers. “We hardly see each other now,” said Colin Wood, a railway Carpenter of 19 years. “The only time we see each other at the moment is at funerals.” “A few of us decided that we wanted to get together and start a group. Myself, Warren Chesworth, Bump Leitner, Trevor Malone and Trevor Menz have all said that they wanted to get together,” said Colin, who is organising the get-together with Warren Chesworth.
“We think we’ll have 30 to start,” said Colin. Colin said that any former railway workers from around the region are welcome. “We used to go up and down the line to Goulburn and down to Wagga, so we got to know a lot of people along the line.”
The gathering of ex-railway workers, signalmen, drivers, fettlers, bridge gangers, and tradesmen, at the Harden Country Club on Saturday will hopefully mark the start of a more regular social group.
