Australia: Forgotten Glory - Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum, “Non Steam” Exhibits 

Once again, the small town of Dorrigo is denied a genuine tourist attraction because of this grumpy old man with a hording problem. Instead of spending a government grant on a toilet block (required to open the museum), Keith goes off and blows the money on more trains. This place has been "nearly open" for 30 years. The truth is that It will never be open to the public.

I did volunteer work at this “museum” when I was 16-17 during my school holidays, hoping I would be contributing to a soon to be open working railway that I could show my kids. My Dad even made donations. Now I’m 52, and I recently took my kids through Dorrigo on a holiday. I was gutted to see that my contribution was for nothing. Egoism and selfishness will deprive current and future generations of a what could have been a wonderful museum. Shame on me for drinking the Jonestown Kool-Aid.

The Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum is really a scrapyard.

Its a cemetery, not a museum A hoarders indulgence and sadly this rolling stock needed a soundtrack to make it sound alive

A working railway was Dorrigo's pet project.....35 years ago, nothing has happened since and now everything is nothing but a scrapyard. This should have out Dorrigo on thr map, but one man's greed and incompetence has proved otherwise!

This act of neglect is no better than vandalism in slow motion.

That place is a shambles I worked trains with 42102 now a pile of rust most of the carriages are destroyed it's a shame to see this.

What a shame !. This Is not a museum , this Is a cemetery of great machines ! .

The government and locals are sick of excuses . Your time is up Keith .The track is being ripped up and a rail trail is going in.

I have talked to the man in charge of this collection (Keith) and he said that the local council does not want to have the museum open to the public and require a minimum of 400 car parking spots, over 40 acres of hangar like shelters for all the different rolling stock to protect it from the elements, and requires a (40m?) turning lane put onto the road. I know all this because I had the privilege of being showed around one side (The semi-restored side, not the side that everybody else sees from the road) and he has some pretty awesome stuff in there. A tank to go with the carriage that hauled it in the Vietnam war and much more.

At least the locos and rolling stock weren't cut up. It really needs to be under cover and just that alone would cost mega bucks. The place really has potential but it won't happen during my life time. It could be a great tourist attraction especially if they could runs trains on the line. Lack of volunteers and of course MONEY are the issues. Simply running a steam loco has went people broke due to the lack of infrastructure which has now long gone to either repair or manufacture parts. The NRM at York spent £4 million to restore Flying Scotsman, hey could have built a replica for probably less. The Richmond Vale Railway has an Robinson 280 that requires a new boiler at around $1million that is a lot of money they don't have..

The roof on a lot of the passenger stock is slowly being covered to stop more damage to the rolling stock. A lot of people see this place as a junk pile but many fail to understand that in the case of the freight stock a lot of it was saved from the scrapers torch like the wagons used for the power generators that were put into the power stations and even train works doesnt have this type of wagon.

to call this scrapyard a museum is offensive to every decent museum

This actually has me wondering if people are allowed to go and buy plus restore old steam trains from places like this. I personally would be rather interested to know.

I remember driving past in the 1990s - waiting to the grand opening of Dorrigo Rail Museum... never happened .. ;(

One of the saddest thing ive seen...So many trains left in disrepair, begging to be rescued. :(

i wonder if it will close down one day thanks to no funds and they will auction of the objects in the museum sorry if i offend anyone with the name

awesome video

where rescued exhibits come to die

I really hate this place, i hate seeing these poor things in this condition, I hate that the place is pretty much never going to open, but most of all I hate that this place dares to call itself a steam railway and museum, because it doesn't look like either, it just looks like a scrapyard and nothing more, and even then what pisses me off to is that they have so many items that could be used elsewhere, their bunch of coaches for example, but no, they are left to rot in the sidings, and don't get me started on the locos, they have 2 garratts, they have a 38 and for God's sake they probably have some lone survivors there, and what are they given? Nothing but a place in the sidings, it is bloody horrendous, and I just wish that whoever the hell runs this place will get off his ass and do something for once

Again, this is exactly the reason CME F P Heard in the 1960s did not want locomotives or rolling stock to be placed in psrks or sold to the public

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What a depressing sad video this is. It's a graveyard of decaying locomotives and rolling stock. Will any of these items be restored, and will this "museum" ever open to the public? I seriously doubt it!

DSR&M are currently doing Preservation Work on most of the Passenger Carriages in the Dorrigo Railway Station Yard. DSR&M has a Strong Board of Directors

It's a shame that place is in such a bad shape

i know this place but i have a qeustion... how come no one comes and asks to restore any of there stuff?

is it possible to get permission to visit as i would love to photograph this collect ????

Do you know where the turntable is located on site?

None of the locomotives at this so called “museum” will ever be overhauled by this mob to to steam. No overhaul facilities, no money and the required compliance regulations to operate heritage railways will prove insurmountable. Better to have a yard or clearance sale to auction off some of these items to someone or a museum who has the necessary funds for restoration. Somehow and sadly plus owing to the years of exposure to the elements, they may already be beyond restoration. And let’s be honest here, any rail museum without an operating exhibit is nothing more than a dead museum. If this museum is to ever run one of these locos, those in charge had better get their finger out before the tradespeople with the necessary skills are no longer with us. If they are serious, they have a massive task ahead.

I'm a member of Dorigo railway museum

Different to any hoarder, council should remove any heritage valued items

The biggest railway grave yard in Australia! I have to question why more and more items are bought when the money could've been used for the making of a proper museum. 70% of what you see here is beyond useful repair and will only rot into the ground! A huge shame when you consider the dreams of the 1980's 😞

The owner has simply bitten off more than he can chew! No money for any refurbishment.

Will never open, really huge waste to be honest

They say the biggist collection in the world yes the biggist collection of junk.

Tbh I think this museum has not long until it’s closer is on its last legs ps i think this museam will suffer the same fate as the arhs act division back in 2016

A perfect example of what male arrogance and ego can do. Big ideas little wallet and an inability to admit defeat and swallow your pride and maybe have given some of the stuff to people that may have saved it.

had the pleasure of meeting the owner/caretaker of this collection a few years ago. took the time out to show my wife and i the collection in the cutting below the house. a mighty engineering acheivement it self. a shame that dorrigo council isn't willing to give it a hand up, to the stage where it can make some money to help with it going forward.

To anyone getting bothered, if you're not happy with the situation at Dorrigo then come and help. If everyone who feels sad about this place helped to fix one item of rolling stock the thing would improve overnight. Also the end platforms seen at 1:58 are in much better shape now, its crazy to see how bad they were before being treated, but most of the stuff there can and will be fixed. Thanks for the video

this is the end result of greed and internal politics

When can people visit, pay a fee so they have money to restore things? They’ve been restoring for years and years and there has been so much fighting between museums it make me not want to go to any of them. It’s off putting

and everybody do not worry we have just made a 10 yer plan to re bild the museum exhibits and infrastructure so we can opan it a d put in a new car park and tolat block and a big shed to go overcthr museum site and exhibits on the left side of the museum we will opan it to the publice and than the rest of the museum

One man’s crap, is another man’s treasure, good on him 👍

GREAT VIDEO BUT WHAT A WESTES BUT

the demise of this historical museum was caused by political interference 😭😭😭 !

Send it to China for scrap metal

the government should take it like they do a house when. they build a new road.