Seen At Cooma Station

This page contains some photos of life and activities at Cooma station.

Re-creation of the Signal Box Diagram

Graeme Henderson is a man with a wide interest in railways. He is an ex editor of the well known 'Railway Digest' magazine and was a member of CMR for some time. One area of his interest is signalling systems, and he has a hobby of re-creating the signal diagrams which adorn the walls of signal boxes. But let him tell the story of the Cooma diagram in his own words: 'After a period of approximately 20 years the diagram in the signal box at Cooma has returned to its rightful place - well sort of. The original diagram was stolen around 1992 and since that time the Cooma Monaro Railway has been running their CPH rail-motors to Bunyan and Chakola working the signal box off a photocopy of a picture of the diagram. Fortunately on my first visit to Cooma in 1987 (when the line was still open) I took a photo of the diagram in the box. About a year ago I decided to redraw the diagram from that picture. The diagram was redrawn, printed out and framed and on Saturday 7 May the signal box at Cooma was made whole again with the return of its diagram.'

A photo of the original diagram

Graeme looks justifiably pleased to see his work return to its home in the signal box

Our sincere thanks go to Graeme for donating this great piece of work to CMR.

Conservation Volunteers

January 2011 saw our second visit from a team from Conservation Volunteers Australia (under the auspices of the Office of Rail Heritage). This second CVA visit saw a larger contingent of volunteers than the first, and once again they achieved great results doing cleanup work that CMR finds almost impossible to get to these days. We will let the report in the local Monaro Post newspaper do most of the talking.

Following are three photos of the volunteers at work kindly provided by Eveline Dingly, the NSW Rail Heritage Project Coordinator of CVA Australia.

I think you will appreciate in the following photos, just what a comprehensive job of clearing that CVA did for us.

Roos

Kangaroos are part and parcel of life at the CMR. We often see them out between Bunyan and Chakola, sometimes bounding along the fences parallel with the train, to the delight of the passengers and the consternation of our drivers!

The other place where you rely on finding them is around the Barracks, before and after our daily operations.

Now on the day the volunteers left, we noticed that the horse that lives in the paddock behind the Barracks didn't have any water in the bathtub kept there for the purpose. It was a hot day, so Rob McCutcheon got a hose and proceeded to fill it up. The grateful horse took a drink and wandered off. Next minute four of the resident Kangaroos appeared, but rather than taking a drink, the first two jumped right in and lay down! Well, I guess that is one quick way to cool off.

Trolleys and Trailers

During the early days of CMR operations, a track vehicle would be dispatched to perform an early morning track inspection before the first scheduled revenue run. The photo depicts two of these early track vehicles (since replaced with larger ones, now used for trackwork and weed spraying duties).

It isn't often that CMR is required to utilise all three current operational units on the same run. Normally this configuration is only required for charter groups. CMR is looking forward to the day when Railmotor 8 completes its restoration and we can behold the sight of FOUR units together!

The view below is notable for the fact that driving trailer 55 is the lead unit. Nowdays, 55 is always positioned between the two motor cars.

And speaking of 55, here are two views of its unique interior. In the first (provided you can see past the brilliant reflection of the safety jacket), we are standing at the door of the kitchen, looking through the dining area to the lounge.

The second view is taken from the entrance to the lounge section. With this configuration, trailer 55 has been an asset on the periodic weddings, anniversaries, club outings and bus groups catered for by the CMR.