Don River Railway carriage restoration | September 2025 - video Dailymotion

Don River Railway volunteers have brought a 1931 Tasmanian Railways carriage back to life.

Transcript

00:00Well, it was built originally here in Launceston in 1931.

00:07Then it was used on the Tasmanian mainline as a passenger carriage,

00:13mainly on the morning service between Hobart and Launceston.

00:17You would have had to see it in its original state

00:20to understand the amount of work that was actually done on it.

00:25In 1975, when the Tasmanian Government Railways were closing down passenger rails everywhere,

00:32we acquired it at Devonport.

00:35It was sent up for a repaint or whatever, instead of a major overhaul.

00:43And when it got here, I mean, the roof had to be redone.

00:49Part of that roof was all rotted out and that had to be redone and things like that.

00:58The work that occurs at our workshop, it's done by a very small group of volunteers,

01:03which is, it's a trade that's been lost to Tasmania and has really dwindled down.

01:10And over the last 50 years, this is what we've got left.

01:12And it's done by an amazing group of volunteers.

01:15As you know, you don't get any, you don't get any younger.

01:19David's 90 and I'm 83, so it gets to the stage where you're just about...

01:28It was nice to see the end of it.

01:30The sheer amount of effort put into the woodwork and painting and restoration,

01:35it's second to none.

01:37You know, I'm 85, and now it's just a few more people who are left.

01:39So, for the point of this, it starts to break around.

01:40At the end of this, you don't get any new ideas on it.

01:41You have to do this as a nice thing.

01:42I don't know who you are the one.

01:43You are the one.

01:45You're the one.

01:46I'm so excited.

01:47You do all the two things and I'm so excited.

01:48You're the one.

01:49You're the one, you're the one.

01:50You're the one.

01:51You're the one.

01:52It'sамен, you're the one.

01:54I'm the one.

01:55You're the one, you're the one and I'm the one.

01:56You're the one.

01:57You're the one.

01:58You're the two, you're the one.

01:59You're the two of these guys.