Colin Rutledge

I have been employed in the rail industry for 45 years in Victoria Austraila. My involvement in preservation goes back to 1974 with the Puffing Billy Railway near Melbourne Victoria. A relocation to the country caused a shift to main line preservation joining the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre. For 30 of my 31 years with SRHC I have been in management with much of that time as President and more recently also as Engineering Manager. We have one steam locomotive in the final stages of a boiler overhaul. A few of our nine operational diesel locomotives are leased to commercial freight operators. They range from 850 hp to 3300 hp types and are all of General Motors parentage. The main line passenger carriage fleet is around 20 vehicles with numerous others available.

I was born in 1957 am married with four adult children. My wife sometimes joins in heritage activities where she specialises in catering such as running a 48 seat dining car and serving up to three sittings of evening meals totally prepared on board.