Cullinan Station

[John Ashworth]

Photos by John Ashworth 18th June 2008

[Nathan Berelowitz]

I hope the "After" view will be better. At the moment it looks terrible. Thank heavens we dont have any trains running there in this period.

[John Ashworth]

Yes, it looks bad, but there is a lot of work going on there. This is the phase where plaster has been stripped, old fittings ripped out, etc. Close up you can see a lot of progress, especially inside the building. A new water pipe has been laid all the way from the road to the station. Both sets of toilets on the far side of the station building are now working. The new owners have big plans for the whole site, and are happy to include FOTR in those plans.

[Dylan Knott]

Are they leasing the station building? Duration of lease?

[John Ashworth]

I presume they're leasing it from the mine company who own it. I don't know the lease duration, but they're investing quite heavily in the station building, the old goods shed opposite, and the surrounding land, as well as other businesses which they own in Cullinan, mainly in the tourism sector. They're allowing FOTR to reinstate the water column, which was taken out of service by the previous lessee. This will be extremely useful for us as it will save us having to bring an auxiliary water tank with us.

[trevorstaats]

I didn't realise that the column was out of use. It was always a part of the Cullinan trips to watch the loco being wetered under the column! The station is looking rather derelict at present. How long since the steak house was operational there? It is such an ideal destination for FOTR - I hope the plans develop favourably.

Trev.

[John Ashworth]

Trevor, unfortunately the previous lessee decommissioned the column, maybe three or four years ago. There was a leak, which we offered to fix, but we never got anywhere with her. It means we've been having to bring the auxiliary water tank with us on every trip. That costs us money in TFR access charges and coal usage, adds over fifty tons to the weight of the train, and complicates our shunting moves.

The steak house closed down even longer ago - I think that was run by the lessee before the previous one.

Cullinan is indeed an ideal destination for FOTR, but we've really had problems there and the town hasn't been such a nice tourist destination for a few years. Instead of local businesspeople being grateful that we bring 300+ visitors with money in their pockets we've had complaints, for example, that our visitors use the public toilets, and that restaurants can't cope with the numbers. The previous lessee even objected to the steam loco standing in the station because it's noisy!

We're very excited that the new lessees seem to be serious about developing the station site (including the goods shed and the land on both sides of the goods shed) and that they seem to view the steam train as an asset for their business.

[Nathan Berelowitz]

At this moment, the water tank has been cleaned out of junk and seems to be in excellent shape internally, apart from a rung or two broken off the ladder. The pipe trench has been dug complete and we await the meter and associated pipework.