A steam engine brought to Australia more than 100 years ago, that was awaiting restoration at the Lachlan Valley Railway for 30 years, has been given just that by the Cowra Men’s Shed.
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Members of the men’s shed gathered at the Lachlan Valley Railway on Thursday morning to reveal their masterpiece which they have been working on for the past six months.
Peter Boler said it was a great reward to see the restored engine out on show.
“This was taken up to the Men’s Shed on the 18th of October.
“We’ve been working on it in rain and hot weather, very hot weather,” Peter Boler said.
“We couldn’t paint when it was hot in summer but we put everything back on it and now we’ve painted it up.”
The opportunity to restore the steam engine came about when Lawrence Ryan of the Lachlan Valley Railway approached Mr Boler last year.
The Men’s Shed jumped at the opportunity and quickly got to work.
“We discussed it at the shed and decided it would be a good project,” Mr Boler said.
“One community group helping another community group is what the Men’s Shed is all about.
“We’ve done the labor for love and they have paid for the paint and bolts and all that sort of stuff we needed.
“We worked very well together.”
The Men’s Shed suspect the steam engine is more than 100 years old.
Matt Sullivan of the Lachlan Valley Railway said the engine would have been manufactured out of England by an engineering company called Clayton and Shuttleworth.
Mr Boler said he imagines the engine would have been pulled from place to place by draft horses and used to drive machinery such as chaff cutters, shearing machines and possibly used for pumping water.
“They were brought out here from England and used mainly for chaff cutting,” Mr Sullivan said.
The finishing touch was attached late Wednesday afternoon when the chimney was put in place.
The top of the chimney stands about six metres from the ground.
