The Board held its fifth Board Meeting for 2022 on Tuesday 27 September 2022.
Recent highlights
The Board congratulated and moved a vote of thanks to all involved from THNSW, Transport for NSW and Sydney Trains in Locomotive 3801’s crossing of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday 25 September 2022.
This was a very proud day for our organisation, attracting thousands of onlookers at station platforms and vantage points along the route to watch this first ever coming together of these two great NSW icons. The significant media attention went nationwide with stunning footage, including the trifecta image with the Sydney Opera House joining the celebration in the background, as the sun shone down on a beautiful and historic day.
This operation was deliberately timed to take place one week ahead of Transport Heritage Expo, providing extensive publicity and attention ahead of our biggest annual event over the October long weekend (1 - 3 October) at Central Station.
By the time you are reading this, Transport Heritage Expo will have been held. This will be our first Expo in over three years and so far, pre-event ticket sales are the strongest we have ever seen ahead of any THNSW event on record. So, we are expecting a big one indeed!
Annual General Meeting (AGM 2022) preparations
This year’s AGM will be held in the evening of Saturday 26 November 2022 at the Powerhouse Ultimo and will be an in-person AGM only.
The Board is keeping the commitment made in 2019 to alternate AGM venues between the NSW Rail Museum and a Sydney venue, hence this year’s AGM being held in Sydney.
Preparations for the AGM are well in hand and the Notice of AGM will be issued to voting members by 1 November 2022.
I look forward to meeting many of you at the AGM in November.
Election of Elected Directors
This year, the terms of the two Elected Director positions held by Dale Budd OBE and Brett Fitzpatrick expire at the AGM, hence we are holding an election for these two positions. At the close of nominations there were three nominations for the two positions, hence a ballot will be held to determine the two Elected Directors.
Details of the candidates and how vote will be included with the Notice of AGM that will be issued by 1 November 2022.
Major projects updates
The Board received an update from the CEO on the latest progress of our two major projects.
Chullora Heritage Hub – Transport for NSW (TfNSW) has now confirmed it has appointed the building works contractor for the refurbishment and upgrade of the Tank Annex which will be used for long-term storage of heritage rolling stock items, and works have started.
THNSW is represented on the Project Control Group (PCG) for these Tank Annex works and we will be working closely with all those involved from TfNSW, the contractor and Sydney Trains to see the successful delivery of the Tank Annex to meet our future collection storage needs.
Loop Line Upgrade Project – THNSW is currently waiting on further advice and approvals from TfNSW before we can commence the re-sleepering and other works. We expect to have more information and be able to get underway soon.
The architects are progressing the concept plans for the proposed works to the station precincts at Picton Avenue, Thirlmere, Buxton, Hill Top and Colo Vale.
THNSW Forum and 2022 Transport Heritage Grants Program
I hope many of you will join me on Saturday 22 October at our THNSW Forum – a combined event for our members and our sector colleagues, as we celebrate this year’s annual Transport Heritage Grants Program award recipients. You should have already received an invite via the members’ eNews.
The Transport Heritage Grants awards will be preceded by a Transport Heritage Sector Day and will provide an opportunity to mix and mingle with like-minded heritage transport enthusiasts from a number of the other groups from across our sector, as well as to meet me.
If you're a member and haven’t yet RSVP’d, please do so here.
In closing, I again want to congratulate and thank everyone involved in our recent events and for the work you do to bring our transport heritage to life.
Keep up the great work and I am sure I will see many of you at Transport Heritage Expo over the long weekend or at our THNSW Forum on the 22 October.
The Hon. Nathan Rees
Chair