Anyone who’s been on the Yass Notice Board Facebook group recently would’ve seen Alf Atkin’s posts about the last trains to run on the old Yass Tramway.
Saturday the 29th of October 1988 was the last day the trains ran, a day Alf remembers vividly.
“It was well advertised that they were going to come into Yass and do the shuttles for the day and then close the line down basically.”
“I couldn’t even estimate how many people were there. There were a lot of people around, I know there were people who had come down from Sydney and across from Canberra.”
“Steam brings people out like that and especially the Yass Tramway. It was very well known in it’s day because it was such an unusual operation,” said Alf.
The last day the trains ran through Yass
Alf went on to explain what made the day so special.
“It was special for a steam [train] to come into town and that was the last day of operation (see photo) and no more trains ran on the tramway after that.”
“They were preserved locos both of those. The 3112 was privately owned by a bloke up in Sydney and the 1210 was part of the railway historical society over in Canberra and they just did it as a trip.”
Alf, originally from Sydney, has always had a love of trains, and it’s a love passed down by the generations of involvement with railways in his family. So when he moved to Yass, he became a close follower of what was happening with the trains in Yass.
“Both my grandfathers and a couple of my uncles worked on the railways up in Sydney so the passion was passed down.”
“I was always going to become a train driver, but then something happened and I joined the navy at 15 instead.”
“I grew up in Sydney but I married a Yass girl and then when I got out of the navy, we came back this way because I didn’t want to go back to Sydney.I liked Yass so we came back here and started settling in, and I started following what was happening locally with the trains,” he said.
According to Alf, the likelihood of the tramway remains relatively low despite the result of a railway museum feasibility study completed years ago.
“The railway museum years ago did a feasibility study to see if it was worth reopening and even though the report came back positive, at the time the railway committee was a sub-committee of Council and Council wouldn’t support it.”
“Everyone says ‘we’d like to see it reopened’ but you try to get people to volunteer to come and do anything and because of that I doubt we’ll ever see it reopened.”
“The problem also is that since it closed, all the rules and regulations regarding preserved lines have changed dramatically. Running a train down Dutton Street, you’d have to have flag people and things like that.”
Whilst it remains improbable that the tramway would ever be reopened for use, Alf had a fascinating fact about its current status in a legal sense.
“The tramway is not actually closed because that requires an Act of Parliament in New South Wales. Officially services have been suspended,” he said.
Until that Act is passed, many of Yass’ train enthusiasts will hold out hope that they could one day see a steam train return through town.
Have any fond memories of the trains running through town? Please send them in writing to the editor@yassvalleytimes.com.au.
Max O’Driscoll
