Don visited railway enthusiasts, Roslyn and Keith Reynolds. Roslyn and Keith first met in 1991 at a model railway club meeting. They got together and began creating what is one of Australia’s largest model railway layouts. Not content with scale models, they are also involved with real trains! In the mid 1990s Roslyn and Keith became members of the Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum, and took on the huge job of establishing gardens around the site.
Roslyn always had a love of trains. She grew up at St Marys in Sydney’s west, and used to sit on a neighbour’s porch and watch railway goods wagons being shunted by steam locomotives. Keith is also a long time admirer of trains.
Scale model
Housed in a huge shed (30′ x 59′) in the backyard, this HO-Scale train set is one of the largest in Australia. It features over 1 kilometre of track, about 90 engines and carriages, a coal loader and even a KFC!
Railway garden
In 1999, the garden Keith and Roslyn created at the Valley Heights Railway Depot won 4th prize in the NSW gardening competition. The area was a wasteland before they started work, with the remains of a burnt out coal loading facility and weeds everywhere. The main garden runs along an embankment parallel to the main line. It features three tiered sections and is 60 metres long. Keith and Roslyn have focussed on planting natives, but also carried on a railway tradition of using any donated plants and cuttings.
Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum
The roundhouse dates from 1913, and is the oldest surviving in New South Wales. It was built to house and maintain the extra engines that needed to be put on the front of trains to help them get across steep grades of the Blue Mountains. The roundhouse has a working turntable, and has been lovingly restored by volunteers over the past 15 years. Visitors to the museum can see a rare steam tram and a replica double deck steam tram trailer car, as well as ‘Stevo’, a Stephensen locomotive built in 1899.
Further information
Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum
Tusculum Road
Valley Heights 2777
Open: 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month, 10am-4pm
Admission: Adults $7, Children and seniors $5, Families $15
Phone: (02) 4751 4638
Web: http://infobluemountains.net.au/locodepot/Default.htm
If you have a model railway collection and setup (or any collection) bigger than Keith and Roslyn’s, we’d love to hear from you. Write to Burke’s Backyard, PO Box 929, Willoughy 2068.