Railway station once again welcomes train passengers

An historic rail car packed with train buffs pulled into the Cobar Railway Station on Sunday morning as part of an Australian Railway Historical Society western area tour.

The group of 19 passengers and four staff on board the HPC402, a rail car built in 1934 and which used to run on NSW country branch lines, left Paterson near Maitland on Friday.

Their five day tour took in Dubbo, Nyngan, Cobar, Parkes and Cootamundra.

Tour director Spencer Ross said the train, which is an operating rail motor museum vehicle, is still running well.

“With this particular train, we’ve been do- ing an annual tour somewhere around the state for years, with the exception of the last couple of years of course,” Mr Ross said.

“We have been out to Cobar and been out to the mine before on previous heritage trains but this is the first time the 402’s been out here.

“Basically it’s for members only but we do have three overseas visitors, two from England and one from the United States, travelling with us on this trip.

“They travel with us quite regularly when we do these trips,” he said.

Mr Ross said the train, which has one First Class and one Second Class carriage, has a 19 passenger capacity and a buffet in the car to cater for their passengers.

“It can travel at 115km per hour but we don’t travel at that speed, we travel at track speed, whatever the regulated track speed is.”

The train travelled out for a look at the CSA Mine junction and then back to the Cobar Railway Station on Sunday where the passengers disembarked for a town tour.

Break and enter

Cobar Police are appealing to the public for assistance with a break, enter and steal offence at a home in Kurrajong Circle.

Sergeant Warwick Laing said they attended the home last week after receiving a report from the occupiers.

“The premises had been vacant for a number of months and the offence occurred sometime between December 2022 and March 2023.

“A number of items were stolen,” he said.