It’s been 25 years since the miniature train arrived in Heritage Park. Since the day it opened, there’s only been one train driver – Brain Grey.

In fact, Brian has been there so long now, that people tell him they rode the train when they were kids and now, they bring their own children to the park for the experience.

If you’ve never been on the train in Lismore’s Heritage Park, it’s an experience you need to have at least once. You sit on the tiny train and go around the park twice and under the tunnel. It takes about six minutes usually brings a smile to your face.

So, who is the man behind the train, how did it all begin - and did he always dream of being a train driver?

Beginnings

Brian has lived in Lismore 46 years. He grew up in Tamworth and Yippoon as a country boy and now . has a wife and two kids. He lives in Wyrallah and his family lives in South Gundarimba

A day in the life

On a normal day, Brian arrives at the park, collects the rubbish and sets up the train for the day.

He gets out the train engine and carriages and rolls them onto the tracks, checking they are in working order. He also removes branches and any obstructions from the rail tracks, puts out his signs and he’s ready to go.

Train history

It was in 1995 that Brian brought the railway to the park.

Brian runs the train as his own business and pays rent to Council for the train site.

“We opened on Saturday, November 5 - 25 years ago,” Brian said.

“Council had called for Expressions of Interest to run a train in the park and at the time I already had a steam train – so I applied and got the job.”

Brian organised the equipment and bought the train tracks, signs, signals and two passenger carriages from Tweed Heads. Once it was laid on the ground, it became Council’s mini railway and they built the crossings and the station.

“The park was planned by parks and gardens,” Brian said. “We just advised on the room needed for trains on corners. There’s nearly 400 metres of tracks there.”

Above: The first steam train that Brian brought to the park, 25 years ago. Below: the beginnings of construction in the park.

Railway enthusiast

“There are people out there who are train nuts, who live, breathe and eat trains - but I’m not a train nut,” Brian said.

“I never grew up wanting to be a train driver – this just sort of came along.

Brian has only been on the XPT to Sydney once, but he’s been on other trains, including Puffing Billy (near Melbourne) and on his train hat, he wears a collection of train badges, including one of Puffing Billy.

At home however, he has a 10,000 gallon concrete water tank that doesn’t hold water – now it holds a train room.

“The train goes around the inside on the tracks,” he said. “There is a table with scenery and a model village on it - but there’s a lot more work to be done on it.”

Brian had model train sets as a kid, given as Christmas presents, but it wasn’t until 1990 when he went to Western Australia on a holiday with his family and saw a model railway that the love of trains was sparked.

“So, I came home and through the Trading Post, I found a guy in Brisbane and bought his steam train and started playing trains.

“I’d take it up on a trailer to train clubs in Brisbane on the weekends and run on their tracks.”

Track gauges

It’s a bit train geeky, but it’s interesting that the track gauges of trains vary so much. A bit like the vagaries of computer and phone connections and USB connections.

Brian said the Heritage Park train tracks are 7¼inch, but there is also have 5 inch and there’s 3.5 inch gauge too.

“Most passenger pulling ones are 7 and a quarter,” Brian said. “In America they are 7.5 inch just to be different. Across America, on the east coast they are 7¼ but another part of the country is 7.5 inch.”

Brian and the guard's caboose at the back of the train.

The wheels on the train go round and round

The front of the Heritage Park train is a replica of the XPT train – to a model scale of 1:6.

At the back of the park train is the old-style carriage “caboose”, where the guard would have travelled in the olden days. It has a section of roof that can come off and Brian can put a seat on there and can actually have a guard on the train.

There are also two passenger carriages, with padded seats.

Now, there’s also a new carriage, purpose built by Brian and his uncle especially for Covid social distancing requirements

“We needed to create distance between one passenger carriage and another,” Brian said. “At first we thought we’d just put a bar in, but people might have tripped over it - so we built another 1.5 metre model carriage that’s a replica of a gas tanker.”

Brian and his uncle built all the model carriages together, except for the passenger carriages. Brian is the wood worker and his uncle works with metal, and together they painstakingly replicate real life carriages.

The new carriage.

Heritage Park

With its recent upgrade, Heritage Park now boasts a water play area and trampolines as well as a train and the usual suspects of play equipment – like swings and roundabouts.

“It’s the most used park in Lismore,” Brian said. “In the original park discussions there was a mention of putting the train in Wade park, but we knew it had to be in the centre of town and it was next to the visitor centre. (which is now closed).

Covid changes

As a result of Covid restrictions, Brian has now installed a gate so people can’t just walk into the train area, and a piece of perspex on the station window. There’s also a QR code you need to use

to register as you enter the train.

“Now the train runs constantly, instead of every 15 minutes because I have less people on the train now,” he said. “I could normally get eight on each carriage, but now it’s six at a maximum, unless they are in a friend or family group.”

Covid and train business

Running a miniature train as a small business, it can be hard for Brian to know if he will make any money each week. The vagaries of the weather and relying on $3 per person per ride makes for an unstable income.

“If it rains up to 10am in the morning, people usually don’t bother coming down to the park,” he said.

“When we closed at the end of March for Covid, at the same time Council started to do the upgrade. The park was closed for six and a half months, until two weeks ago.”

Luckily, Brian had another job. But the closure period was not a holiday.

“I work at a school one day a week looking after gardens and lawns and painting things,” he said. “So, being self-employed and having the school job too meant I wasn’t eligible for Jobkeeper and Jobseeker.

“Luckily the school gave me another day work and my wife is a cleaner at the school, so she had some work too.

When Brian takes a holiday – there’s no replacement to drive the train. Luckily for the big and little kids of Lismore, he doesn’t take many holidays.

Laugh and cry

When you are a train driver, some days are better than others.

There have been days that Brian has been driving the train around the park and someone just hops off mid-journey. The train is only travelling at 10 kilometres an hour, but it still not something Brian likes to see happen.

“Sometimes kids just get off,” he said. “Usually with an adult, it’s because they are holding a kid who is getting upset and instead of asking me to stop - they just get off.

“I love that my job is an outdoors job, but sometimes It can be hard to keep up the enthusiasm.

“The best days are when you have nice clients, good kids and no hassles. Some days parents might have a go at me or whinge about the price I charge.”

His advice to train park visitors is to take responsibility for your kids – be considerate, patient and respect the equipment.

Future

Heritage Park has changed over the years and Brian hopes to see some cool additions as part of stage two of the park. Lismore Council is currently calling for the community’s idea about what else they would like to see at the park.

Read more about the upgraded park: Waterworks galore! Take a sneak peak at the new Heritage Park

It's open! Lismore's new water park makes a splash

The train at Heritage Park is open (weather permitting) on Thursdays and public holidays 10am to 2pm, Friday and Saturday 10.30am to 4pm. In school holidays. it’s open every day except Mondays (that’s when he does his other jobs.)

Tickets are $3 per person, or $12 for a group of 5 maximum.

You can find out more at http://www.heritagepark railway.com.au