Carriages, community, collaboration and companionship

The Mornington Railway has an urgent need for additional storage space for it's historic wooden-bodied rollingstock fleet, which is presently stored outside in the weather. This creates a significant maintenance overhead for our volunteers and makes public viewing difficult. There is also a strong requirement for (a) an indoor workshop with public viewing space and dedicated tooling for both carriage and locomotive teams, and (b) a flexible space for (i) the railway's volunteers to meet (ii) to hold public functions and (iii) to share with other community groups as needed. All these objectives can be met within the one facility.

The Mornington Railway contributes significantly to tourism on the Peninsula. It also provides a much-needed creative and productive outlet for many older volunteers, and teaches new skills to younger members. Most railway volunteers are locals. The carriage shed extension and workshop will allow hundreds of hours of volunteer time to be redeployed from repairing weather damage to carriages to other more important tasks. The carriage shed and workshop will be open to the public as part of our educational site tour. The meeting space will benefit both the railway and other community based organisations as well as the general public.