THE FUTURE OF RAILWAY IN THE MONARO
Take a look at the roadmap for the future
The team at Cooma Monaro Railway are always on the move, and while much has been achieved already over the last few years, our journey has only just begun.
The goal of the Cooma Monaro Railway is to develop a nationally recognised, year-round, destination attraction for the Monaro region, providing visitors with a total heritage railway experience for all ages.
The station will house our museum collection, while the precinct itself will become a living, breathing museum where visitors will be able to experience a fully original, operating railway precinct, the last of it’s kind in NSW. Visitors will be able to learn about the important role that railways have played in the development of regional NSW and see the orignal railways infrastructure in full operation such as the Signal and Interlocking system, beautifully restored station facilities and replica industrial facilities.
Beyond the railway precinct, CMR are bringing trains back to the Monara with our multi-stage restoration plans for the Queenbeyan to Bombala branch line, initially pushing south to Rock Flat before moving on to Nimmitabel then down to Bombala.
The following paragraphs highlight some of the projects that are underway as part of our comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for the Cooma Precinct and its associated Concept Plan for capital works going forward.
Business Plan
This document outlines the vision and operational plan for the establishment of the Cooma Monaro Railway Museum at Cooma and the restoration of the railway corridor to operational condition between Snowy Junction and Bombala, allowing for the re-commencement of tourist heritage railway operations.
Cooma Concept Plan
The Concept Plan details the proposed works and layout of the Cooma Railway Precinct as a holistic visitor experience and provides the necessary infrastructure to both display our exhibits and maintain our rail operations. Examples of planned works include a locomotive display shed at the station, the refurbished railway barracks for the use of our volunteers, and new workshop facilities for the maintenance of our Permanent Way (the track and associated infrastructure) and a dedicated rollingstock workshop to keep our rail vehicles in top operating condition.
Beyond the Precinct
While preserving the history of the Cooma Railway Precinct is important, one of our primary goals is to allow visitors to experience to romance of the railways through the restoration of the branch line and the return of trains to the Monaro.
The first stage of our track restoration is the short northern section between Cooma and the CMR Platform at Snowy Junction, opposite the Cooma Monaro Race Club. This will provide visitors with the opportunity for a short train ride when visiting the museum as well as the very popular Cooma Cup race day train.
The second stage of our track restoration is the southern section between Cooma and Rock Flat Station. This journey will wind around the hills out of Cooma as you head south with the mountains in the background.
After reaching Rock Flat, our goal is to continue south to Nimmitabel before continuing on to Bombala which will allow us to offer a variety of railway experiences including day trips to neighbouring towns, full-day rail adventures and special event trains.
