The Seymour Railway Heritage Centre is a railway preservation group based in Seymour, Victoria, Australia. The volunteer non-profit incorporated association was established in 1983 as the Seymour Loco Steam Preservation Group to restore and preserve locomotives and rolling stock as used on the railways of Victoria. The group is an accredited railway operator under the Victorian Rail Safety Act 2006, permitting it to move trains within its own depot. The group is also accredited to maintain and provide rolling stock on the Victorian railway network, running charters, tourist and railfan specials across the state with their fleet of restored trains. It was also a provider of locomotives to freight operator, Qube Logistics.
Fleet
The Seymour Railway Heritage Centre is the custodian of a number of heritage pieces of rolling stock owned by the Victorian Government, which are on a permanent lease basis as well as other rolling stock owned outright. Locomotives in the custody of the group include steam locomotivesJ515, mainline diesels C501, S303, X31 and B74 and a number of smaller branchline T class locomotives,. Also 600 hp diesel railcar DRC43. Locomotives owned by the group are: GM36, T378, T382, K176 & J512. Carriages in the group's collection include 1906 'E' type wooden sitting and sleeping carriages as used on the Adelaide Express and The Overland, the majority of the original 1937 Spirit of Progress consist, and carriages used on Victorian Railways Royal Trains. In 2007 the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre was provided with funding from the VicTrack Heritage Program for the restoration of the Spirit of Progress consist and heritage diesel locomotives B74 and S303, and on 25 November 2007 a commemorative run was made for the 70th anniversary of the first Spirit of Progress service.
New additions
In late August 2009, locomotives S310 and T382 were transferred to Seymour and became part of the SRHC collection. Whilst neither unit is in operational condition, as time and finances permit both units will be restored to traffic. As of August 2019, T382 had undergone a full bodywork overhaul and repaint into the Victorian Railways blue and gold livery but hasn't been on the mainline since being restored. S310 has been put on hold and will be restored at a later date. In early January 2010, X31 was transferred to Seymour and became part of the SRHC collection. This event made X31 the first of its class to enter preservation. 31 underwent a full bodywork overhaul and repaint into Victorian Railways blue and gold livery, then entered traffic as a heritage unit on hire to El Zorro in March 2011. Until the transfer to Seymour, X31 was part of the Pacific National fleet and had spent many months in storage. In early 2012 the SRHC purchased diesel locomotive GM28 and three carriages located in Port Pirie, South Australia. Two of the carriages being sitting lounges and one a kitchen and dining area. The group paid $33,000 in total, the train is still sitting at Port Pirie station until it can be removed. Trashed former display locomotive GM28 masquerading as GM 22 departed Port Pirie bound for the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, 26 June 2012. The trashed carriages have been moved out onto railway land out near Coonamia. In August 2017, ex-Pacific National locomotive X37 was transferred over to Seymour and has become part of the SRHC collection. This event sees the second X class locomotive to enter preservation and X37 is the class leader of the subclass second series X class locomotive which had preserved. As of August 2019, X37 is still in Freight Australia livery and is not in an operational condition, as time and finances permit, X37 will be restored back into traffic within the near future.
