FOUNDED by a group of friends in 1976, the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association (WALRPA) is celebrating five decades of driving, restoring and preserving locomotives, carriages and heritage railway infrastructure.

The association owns and operates the Bennett Brook Railway in Whiteman Park, providing a 6km scenic ride throughout the park seven days a week.

WALRPA treasurer Bob Baker said the community is excited to celebrate.

“From that small beginning in 1976, it’s come a long way. That’s one of our major achievements to grow the place over the years. When we started out, it was a virgin site. There was no railway there. It really started from nothing compared to what it is today,” he said.

On September 20 the association will celebrate its anniversary and also the commissioning of a historic signal cabin at Whiteman Village Junction.

The cabin’s origins trace back from 1923 when it was used to control trains from Subiaco to Fremantle.

In July 2000, it was acquired by the Bennett Brook Railway, which set out to restore it.

“The single cabin is a massive task that we’ve undertaken – I’ve been working on the project for 10 years, which gives you an idea of how big of a job it is. Mind you, it’s not five days a week. It’s only volunteer time, but it has been a challenge from start to finish,” Mr Baker said.

The association currently has 110 members with 60 active ones.

Mr Baker said they’ve struggled to engage a lot of young volunteers since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“A lot of our volunteers started way back in 1984 (when the railway started to operate), and now we’ve got to the stage where we can’t drive trains anymore because we can’t pass the medical due to our age. We’re relying on trying to get younger people so that we can renew our membership, which we’re doing, but it takes a lot for people to come in and start learning because you’ve got to learn from scratch,” he said.

Despite this, the young volunteers involved with the association are committed to their work.

“Our youngest driver is 21, who started volunteering when they were 13 with their mum,” Mr Baker said.

Mr Baker is looking forward to celebrating the anniversary with the community and seeing the signal cabin fully operational.

“I hope the association keeps going long past when I finish, and it will. It’ll keep going. Everybody likes to ride behind a steam train. You know, these days you’re travelling in an aluminium cocoon with air conditioning and you can’t hear a thing. Whereas these our old trains clickety-clack as they go around with open windows. The steam engines are a living beast. They talk to you. They really do,” he said.