It has been a long journey for the dedicated volunteers of Zig Zag railway to get the popular attraction running again.
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Garth Schwartz has been volunteering with Zig Zag since he was just 11-years-old and the challenge to reopen has been one of the biggest.
Mr Schwartz said the journey has been a long one, with bushfires, floods, accreditation and the pandemic presenting obstacles.
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According to Mr Schwartz; regaining accreditation was just the beginning of decade long trials and tribulations, with mother nature a force to be reckoned with.
"We had to rewrite our network rules and procedures," Mr Schwartz said.
"How to get trains from point A to point B safely. And to, to validate that we set up 15 scenarios and we went out and tested that those scenarios."
Mr Schwartz said that prior to the Gospers Mountain Fire in 2019, Volunteers began working around the site.
" The 2013 fire removed a lot of our rollingstock unfortunately. But the 2019 fire did a lot more infrastructure damage," Mr Swhartz said.
According to Mr Schwartz, members of the Zig Zag team worked tirelessly to replace buildings and 3000 railway sleepers that were lost in the fire.
"It was a great amount of work that Volunteers and business partners were working to achieve," Mr Schwartz said.
"Replacing 3000 sleepers is a huge job."
Mr Schwartz said the volunteers are feeling "Quite relieved" now that the railway has reopened, but there is still plenty to be done.
"It's all coming together really nicely. We've got great feedback from people that traveled on the train last weekend," Mr Schwartz said.
"The team's really coming together. But it's not over, there's always something else to do down the track."
Reidun Berntsen
Reidun is a Journalist and writer who lives in a country town 3 hours from Sydney, Australia. From a young age, Reidun has been in love with words and the infinite possibilities they bring. Stories, features and poems have been a major part of her writing career.
Reidun is a Journalist and writer who lives in a country town 3 hours from Sydney, Australia. From a young age, Reidun has been in love with words and the infinite possibilities they bring. Stories, features and poems have been a major part of her writing career.
