Call goes out for community help to move Australind train carriage to museum

Rail Heritage WA is appealing to truckers or transport companies to help move a retired Australind train carriage from Picton to Boyanup after the group discovered the cost of moving it by road would be up to $25,000.

The carriage is unable to be moved on the tracks after ARC Infrastructure determined the train line between Picton and Boyanup was unsafe for transporting.

Rail Heritage WA received the 21m long and 48 tonne carriage from the Public Transport Authority to be displayed and preserved in its Boyanup museum.

However, Rail Heritage WA president Philippa Rogers said the cost of the move would put her organisation under strain.

“It’s something that we’ll have to pay for if we can’t get it any other way,” she said.

“We’re, looking for small amounts here and there but we won’t be able to cover the whole costs.

“Unfortunately, when you’re in the situation of preserving railway items everything is big, everything costs and this is as big as they get.”

Time is of the essence for Rail Heritage WA, which has until February to move the carriage of the retired Australind train from the Picton station.

Ms Rogers said she was looking local to get help and had already received a few offers, but they ended up not being suitable for the scale of the carriage.

“We’re hoping that maybe somebody locally has a truck big enough to move it so at least we’re not paying trucking costs, we’re only paying crane costs,” she said.

“We are trying to save money around whatever way we can because everything that we spend on that is something we can’t spend on looking out for the rolling stock in another way and enhancing museums.”

“We are trying to look at preserving representation of the various eras of rail travel and for the South West the introduction of this particular Australind rail car set was a massive change,” she said.

“It’s also built in Western Australia and so that gives it an extra layer of importance as far as preserving those things ... we don’t do a lot of that these days anymore.

“Boyanup will end up with a carriage from the original 1947 Australind that people can ride on and we’ll have this 1987 one and maybe in the future the next generation might be looking at preserving the next one.”

Ms Rogers appealed for anyone who could help get in contact with her via the organisation’s Facebook or at president@railheritagewa.org.au.