An unusual Australian funeral train

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

Yes, I know that funeral trains aren't every body's cup of tea, but this one is of particular interest.

It was put on for the late Tim Fischer, a member of the Australian Parliament, who died a couple of days ago.

Mr. Fischer was a very well liked politician, and for the rail fan, he was almost the only politician, Federal or State, who had any knowledge or understanding of railways.

He said that he would like a funeral train, and this request was carried out a day ago.

Funeral trains are usually rather impressive affairs, locomotive hauled, often steam, several carriages, etc.

Mr. Fischer's train was possibly the least pretentious one of recent years.

He was born in Boree Creek in NSW, which no longer has a railway station, the nearest station is now at the town of The Rock, which is about 100 km from Albury, where the funeral services were  to take place.

The train was made up of two ex New South Wales Govt. Railways PCH rail motors.

These vehicles date back to the mid twenties, short wooden bodies, bogie, originally petrol engined, now diesel, mechanical transmission, and were used for many years on the far country lines of NSW.

A distinctive feature of these vehicles are their engine radiators, which are mounted on the roof, standing vertically, crosswise, thus giving them an unmistakable appearance from any angle

Mr. Fischer served in Vietnam as a Second Lieutenant in the Australian Army, and was wounded there

This service entitled him to a military funeral, and at Albury there was a band and Guard of Honour to accompany the coffin to the place where the service took place.

I don't have the numbers of the two rail motors, no doubt others on this forum will have them.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

 

[marknewton]

Bill, the railmotors on Tim’s funeral train are CPHs, owned and crewed by volunteers from the Lachlan Valley Railway. They have Twin Disc torque converter transmissions. A friend of mine was among those rostered to work this train, talking to him this afternoon he said there was a huge turnout at Albury when they arrived.

 

All the bes,

 

Mark.

[Socimi]

I'm sad to see Tim Fischer passed away, as it has been a key figure also in the preservation of Italian historical railway material.

He travelled up and down Italy during it's period as the abassador to the Vatican (between 2009 and 2012), visiting museums and railway lines.

In an interwiew in TuttoTreno (Italy's most popular railfan magazine, i have somewhere that particular number) he praised the variety of rolling stock and the spectacularity of many railway lines in a time where most of our historical and valuable trains were sitting rusting away on forgotten sidings or sealed in out-of-order museum sections and the most spectacular lines were treated as dying branchlines.

He also suggested ways to improve the conservation and popularize the italian historical railway assets, wich not only included lines and rolling stock, but also buildings and documents (wich more often than not, tend to be archived or thrown away).

 

Someone high-up in the FS must've read the article, as two/three years later, the Fondazione FS  was created, and by following his suggestions (sometimes to the letter) many lines were saved from closing and important rolling stock (such as the first "pendolino" train") was put back in operation.

Fondazione FS quickly became one of the most efficient and well-managed railway preservation society in europe, and this is largely thanks to Him.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2019 by Socimi

[cteno4]

Wow that’s a great story, glad to see one person can make a big difference like that.

 

jeff

[ben_issacs]

Mark and Socimi,

Mark, thanks for the correction to the rail motor class, , one's mind sometimes slips a cog or two.

What now are their engines and their horsepowers?

Socimi.,that information about Mr. Fischer's involvement with the Italian rail fan scene is absolutely new to me, and probably to most other Australian rail fans, certainly not mentioned in any of the local articles about him, many thanks for that!

Would it be o.k. for me to mention this in a letter to the local railway enthusiasts magazine?

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

[Socimi]

On 8/30/2019 at 4:34 PM, Socimi said:

[...] i have somewhere that particular number [...]

 

 

To those interested, here's the translated interwiew.

 

https://i.ibb.co/5Rny73F/interwiew.png

 

On 8/31/2019 at 3:02 AM, ben_issacs said:

 

Socimi.,that information about Mr. Fischer's involvement with the Italian rail fan scene is absolutely new to me, and probably to most other Australian rail fans, certainly not mentioned in any of the local articles about him, many thanks for that!

Would it be o.k. for me to mention this in a letter to the local railway enthusiasts magazine?

 

 

 

Of course, please do.

[ben_issacs]

Socimi,

Many thanks for the scan of the article on Mr Fischer, much appreciated!

However, would it be possible to scan and send the two pages separately, as the printing on the double page is very small and hard to read.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

[cteno4]

Bill 

 

I changed it to a straight link and it will open in a new browser window at full resolution for you. it’s a pretty image so readable at full resolution.

 

jeff

[Keith]

Thank you for that, I had no idea about his ventures.