History of Canberra Railway Museum

In 1984, the Canberra Railway Museum proposed to restore locomotive 1210, which had been plinthed for over 20 years, to working order in time for the Australian Bicentenary. The plan was approved and funded, and the locomotive emerged from the workshops in 1988. 1210 then travelled down to Melbourne in the company of locomotive 3112, and took part in the celebrations.

In 1989, 1210 took part in a special train to Cooma, commemorating the last passenger train over the line before its closure. It double-headed the train with locomotive 5910.

Following the closure of the Bombala line, Canberra Railway Museum leased the route from Queanbeyan to Michelago, and opened the Michelago Tourist Railway. Running its first trains in 1993, due to the deteriorating bridges the railway progressively cut back, until the last trains ran as far as Royalla in 2007. Storm damages to a bridge entailed costly repairs, and the museum chose to abandon the venture in 2011, instead focusing on heritage trains over the main line to Bungendore.

After decades of outside storage, being allowed to rust and decay, restoration efforts on 6029 began in 2008. The fortunate discovery of a spare 60-class boiler at a sawmill meant that the project would be feasible, and the mighty machine was returned to working order in 2014.

The restoration generated significant buzz. 6029 is the largest operational steam locomotive in the Southern Hemisphere, and proved to be a major drawcard for the museum - not just to customers, but to the media and politicians. The ICE radio, a vital piece of communications equipment, was paid for by government support, and in return the locomotive would be named the ‘City of Canberra’. It was relaunched into service by Shane Rattenbury MLA, and Bruce MacDonald, the man who had saved it all those years ago.

6029 became a major star in the Canberra region and beyond, making its first public run at the Thirlmere Festival of Steam in 2015. However, things were not to last…

In late 2016, the Canberra Railway Museum was caught up in the financial collapse of ESPEE Railroad Services. A commercial arm established to subsidise the expenses of running the heritage trains, it accumulated significant debts. The museum was forced into liquidation, and many of its assets were sold to pay off the debt. This included 3102, unrestored locomotive 3013, and Beyer-Garratt 6029.

A core group of members worked to save a collection of assets with the greatest significance to the ACT, mostly because they were known to have operated on lines to Canberra and the Monaro or were representative of carriage types that operated in this region. These were held back from the auction and, between 2016 and 2019, the museum and its assets were restructured into two new organisations: ACT Heritage Rail Holdings, and Capital Region Heritage Rail. Volunteers spent many months tirelessly renovating the museum site and exhibits, which had been left largely unattended since the liquidation and were suffering from corrosion and vandalism. Fortunately, 3016, 1210, the CPH railmotors and the museum’s operational carriage fleet had endured the liquidation, and were stored securely away from the museum site.

The museum reopened to the public in October 2019. Since reopening, work has concentrated on returning heritage trains to the ACT region, starting with the CPH railmotors, which we hope to have operational in the next 12 months. Our unique Pullman style sleeping car AL1040 has seen extensive work since 2019, bringing back a sense of overnight rail travel at the start of the twentieth century. Other railway vehicles have enjoyed some TLC, including the carriages in our operational fleet. Across the museum precinct, our volunteers are gradually improving facilities, including the laying of a second track into the Loco shed, and the purchase of scaffolding to fully surround a carriage to make work much safer and easier for our volunteers. Internally, the museum building had a small facelift and new interpretative signage, with more changes coming soon.